finishing teams resting in the dog yard—-waiting for the next flight to Anchorage. some mushers like John Baker, who ships to Kotzebue, make other arrangements.

Nome in the dog Yard

Teams continue to finish in Nome, so I take a tour around the dog yard.   Here we see the finishing teams resting in neat rows.  The dog yard is laid out logically with long chains stretched end to end in the yard.  All the mushers have tie out cables and can picket their dogs and arrange a good straw bed, as you can see in the photoNom

Over the years an organized system has been developed to ship the dogs out by air to Anchorage, where in turn handlers pick up the dogs.   All this is set up months ago as mushers must identify contacts, handlers, phone numbers, and a personal veterinarian with authority to care for the dogs as part of the application process.

I never thought of it, but a volunteer in the dog yard asked me to explain what happens to the “dropped dogs.”  She pointed out that some people in the non-mushing public think the dogs are abandoned or left in a village when they hear that a musher “drops” a dog. 

These are dropped dogs that were shipped by airplane to Nome, now being received at the dog yard in Nome

Over a thousand  miles of trail and a sixteen dog, most mushers just  understand that some of their dogs are going to sprain an ankle or pull a shoulder muscles or pick up a canine virus.  That means they plan on leaving  or, in the parlance of the musher, “drop” a dog.   All this is well orchestrated in checkpoints.

Some mushers put their teams in dog blankets in the Nome dog yard

Mushers must fill out a form identifying the dog (in addition the dog has a microchip and tags on the collar that identify the dog and musher cross referenced with lists at the checkpoint) and then leave the dog in the custody of the trail veterinarians.   A “dropped” dog yard is organized in each checkpoints.  The vets monitor the dogs and of course keep track of any medical requirements and volunteers help in feeding and providing bedding.   The next step is to load the dogs in airplanes and transport them back to Anchorage where designated representatives of the mushers pick up the dogs.  If a dog requires a vet follow up, then the designated veterinarian takes custody of the dog from the Iditarod.

just arrived Paul Gebhardt team in the dog yard. the air kennel double as beds.

Dogs that somehow escape from the team—what happens

Most mushers have their dogs trained to come when called, but every once in a while a shy or very adventurous sled dog decides to go fugitive.  This is the musher nightmare and it happened this year to Newton Marshal, the Jamaican musher and Jerry Willomitzer. 

Every once in a while a dog slips a harness.  It happens all the time when a musher is trying to untangle the towline after getting balled up in the brush or when two teams jump the towline of the other.  It doesn’t happen often, but it happens.  Normally, you can unclip dogs and just call them back, but occasionally one decides to take off.  

In the case of Newton, he lost a little female leader, about nine years old, that he had borrowed from Jim Lanier, on the trail to Nikolai.  I saw Anna , Jim Lanier’s wife just this morning, and she told me that the dog was finally picked up in Willow after working her way back on 250 miles of trail.  Anna was actually in Nikolai for four days, utilizing airplanes and snowmachines to track the dog. 

Receiving information that their dog was in the very remote checkpoint Rohn, she flew back on the trail, walked the trail, and then went back to Nikolai, only to discover that she had been spotted again near Nikolai.  Eventually, the dog decided it was time to head home.  She was seen in  Rainy Pass and ultimately was picked up by three  young snowmachiners in Willow—the start of the race.  In all, she probably logged four hundred miles just looking for a familiar face. Unfortunately, Newton had to scratch because he wasn’t able to check in with his entire team—as per the Iditarod rules.

Dog Lot—big follow up

I was just kind of wandering around the dog yard in Nome and I kind of noticed two volunteers wearing matching jackets and thought I knew them.  “Yeah, we’re Tim and Kathleen Janczak.  Remember, we met as volunteers and got married here last year.”  Then I recalled that I did know them and their romance on the Iditarod trail.  Really cool people, and they are providing an unbelievable service for mushers and their dogs in Nome.

Tim and Kathleen met as volunteers, were married in dog lot in Nome, and are still 100%

“How’s the marriage going, are you still together?” was the follow up question.  They assured me that the marriage was still 100%, so that’s one more happy story for the Iditarod legacy.