MARCH 7th. DAY #6 GALENA - NULATO - KALTAG - EAGLE ISLAND
It is 36 miles from NULATO to KALTAG.Many of the teams are taking their 24 rest in GALENA. Looks like PAIGE is behind (4th place) BUT she has already taken her 24 hour mandatory rest. A few of the others ahead of her are now taking theirs.
Few sad events today--DANIEL KLEIN, a rookie, from Eagle, Wisconsin had to scratch at GALENA and one of his dogs died. We don't have any further info until a necropsy is performed. SO SAD.
Then JEFF DEETER scratched in GALENA. He had difficulty in the "sand storm" area. He encountered intense winds with blowing sand, glare ice and driftwood!!! As you can tell, he was off the trail, he couldn't find the trail markers, as ANNA encountered. At that time he noticed soreness in some of the dogs. He watched them carefully and it wasn't getting any better. Then they encountered "punchy" snow. They described that as the dogs taking three steps and then stepping into instant box mashed potato snow that was "punchy". Like running down the stairs and missing the last step. That went on for miles and miles. The dogs then couldn't anticipate having stable footing and it took a toll on them. He wouldn't put his dogs through any more so he scratched. A brave choice but a humane and intelligent one. Always thinking of the dogs!
One of the people on my chat said he was an Iditarider at the Ceremonial start for two years. I explained Iditarider at the beginning of my blog. I asked what he paid for that as it is thru a lottery. He said the first year he rode with a well known musher and his wife with another. I didn't think they could choose who they rode with but perhaps if you pay more you can? He paid $5,200 for the two of them. The next year he did a VIP Anchorage package which consisted of he and his wife as Iditariders, lodging, meals, VIP access(don't know what that entails), area transportation and some tours. He paid $16,000!!!!! All the money is used for the Iditarod race. Some hefty funds being spent here.
Due to not much snow and a rough trail 22 dogs were dropped in TANANA for various reasons. As they usually train all year on mountainess areas and less rough dirt trails, they were not training for these dirt, rough, long flat runs much of the time on glare ice. This was because of the change of the route due to lack of snow.
As of midnight EST these are the top 5 teams: JESSIE HOLMES NIC PETIT ALL IN KALTAG EMILY FORD PAIGE DROBNY
MICHELLE PHILLLIPS BOTH IN NULATO MITCH SEAVEY
MIKE PARKER RUNNING LAST AND IS IN RUBY
As it is almost 1:00AM EST I will put pictures on the next page and call it an IDITAROD DAY!!!
Great post Mom! Looks like Paige is in good position.
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