March 8 unk 4:39PM Aliy first to the Bering Sea Coast!

Aliy Zirkle into Unalakleet and the first musher to the Bering Sea Coast.  A crowd from the village claps and hollers as eleven in harness and Aliy travel at a very fast trot on the glare ice of the Unalakleet River to arrive on the ice by the community center and checkpoint.  Her arrival time is 4:39PM, establishing another record breaking milestone in Iditarod 2014.

Wearing white wind jackets, pulling off the shoulders with relatively short backlines, the dogs run without the traditional necklines.  While cameras blink, Aliy confers with race marshal Mark Nordman.  Within seconds, feed bags  marked Zirkle are available, and within a minute Aliy is ladling clear water into bowls for her dogs.  They are still wearing booties as a crew of veterinarians moves into examine the team.

The dogs have been handled since pups, and not one vet appears apprehensive about prodding and palpating from front to rear.  While the dogs lap clear water, Aliy quickly appears before cameras to accept 2oz of gold and a trophy from Wells Fargo Bank as the first musher to the Yukon. Then she is directly back to the dogs and the task at hand—-managing a probable winning team for the next 300 miles of trail.  At the front of the team, Waylon and Quito (Aliy’s little super leader) wait patiently for straw.

Aliy comments that she watched helicopters circling above, wondering why they weren’t moving ahead to circle Martin Buser.  At 8 miles from the coast, a snowmachiner told her that Buser was actually behind her— a surprise as she had been pushing hard to get his team in sight.

Obviously pleased with the team, she said hello to friends from Unalakleet.  Normally villagers are dressed in parkas, fur ruffs curled around faces, but this year they are wearing baseball hats, sun glasses, and light jackets.  The slip from the checkpoint to the beach is mud, a very unusual sight.  Everyone asks, “Have you ever seen Unalakleet so warm in March?”  Even as the wind starts to pick up, people are barehanded taking photos, and I take notes without gloves.  Unusual for Unalakleet.

In other years, I have always taken time for photos in the annual parkie style show in Unalakleet. But, this year, the women have left their beautiful parkies in the house.  One fan catches my eye.  It is Annette, from Shaktoolik.  She is growing up among her peers in Shaktoolik as Inupak, but her mother is actually from Elim, which is Upik.  So while Annette learns Inupak in school, she hears Upik from her mother and her mother’s side of the family at home.                                                ANNETTE IS A BIG IDITAROD FAN—WAITING FOR ALIY

Meanwhile, an invigorated press goes into shutter overload,  cameras clicking from every quarter.  The local Alaska media is well represented, but I just met a crew from Al Jazeera.  When I ask about their coverage, a rep tells me they are getting  significant interest.

A brief note on the trail ahead to Shaktoolik.  The trail, while  barren, is useable.  A descent from a mountain portage onto the ice leading to Shaktoolik is brushy, but trail breakers are at the moment cutting brush which would normally be buried under snow.  Further, the trail to Shaktoolik to Koyuk has been modified.  Normally, the trail would cut directly across the sea ice on Norton Sound, but this year it has been directed in a huge curve to follow the shore on bare ground.  I just talked to a local and he said it was going to be rough going overland to Shaktoolik and on the shore trail to Koyuk.

We wait for the following teams of Buser and Petit to arrive

Aliy now controls the race—-must protect from attack.  A breeze has picked up.