Hello my lovelies! This Mad Blogger is terribly sorry for ghosting on you for a couple days. And don’t worry, I didn’t get on the wrong plane on my way back to Wisconsin or anything! My suitcase even made it all the way home on schedule. But it was a crazy few days in Alaska followed by a long journey home, and I’ve had a lot to catch up on. This should be a novella of a blog update, though, so hopefully that will make up for it.
Teams have been out on the trail for over 1 day and 21 hours as I post this. A couple of mushers are already in and out of Nikolai while the entire field is already at least into Rohn. No mushers have scratched and we have the full field of 38 mushing along the trail.
Everything leading up to the present was a whirlwind of fun, excitement, and plenty of hard work. The Ceremonial Start on Saturday kicked everything off. We were up before dawn at the kennel and had the dogs and gear all loaded up and on the road to Anchorage while it was still dark and a gorgeous orange half moon graced the sky.
We arrived in Anchorage and got settled into our assigned parking and staging area. Vet techs came around to check microchips on Anna’s dogs, and we had some time to catch up with friends, fans, and get Anna’s Iditarider Bob ready for his ride in the sled. We connected with the great crew from NTI Boilers - Seeing Double fans and longtime sponsors. And of course there were a couple interviews by the media. Kristy accidentally grabbed and donned Anna’s nearly identical jacket when she hopped out of the truck, sparking a little confusion for both herself and one reporter...
“So Anna, how are you feeling about the race this year?”
“I’m Kristy, Anna’s over there.”
“Are you sure? The name on your jacket says Anna…?”
“Oh shoot…!”
They get mistaken for one another often enough as it is without Kristy wearing a jacked embroidered with Anna’s name!!
But I think that may have been the only real hiccup of the c-start, and a minor one at that. Yeah, I commented in an Instagram post that things felt like a “hot mess”, but I think I was still too amped up from the festivities when I wrote that. Things did go really smoothly, even if the 30 seconds of crazy rush to get all the dogs onto the gangline and leave the dog truck for the start line on time was the same level of hectic it always seems to be.
Anna was the main musher on her sled, of course, and Iditarider Bob was all smiles tucked into the sled bag. Kristy rode in the tandem spot on this particular sled as a control musher and on-the-trail handler, something required by the Iditarod for the c-start to help make sure everyone stays safe during this parade-of-sorts run. The sun was blazing and the trail was lined with enthusiastic fans, so it was reportedly a really fun run. They did see a moose in the woods along side the trail, but this is another example of how going out in bib #2 was a real plus. Eventually that moose got annoyed by all the dog teams going by and moved from the woods and stood in the middle of the trail. And allegedly it was not particularly happy. But I haven’t heard of this moose causing any further problems beyond a temporary hold up for teams farther back in the pack. And as you might already know, this will not be the last moose encounter reported during this year’s Iditarod. More on that in a bit.
After the team came racing into Campbell, we gave the dogs a snack, packed everything up, and headed back to the kennel in Knik. Saturday afternoon had a long list of tasks to accomplish. Anna’s race sled was given some final tweaks and packed up for her to hit the trail. Fresh batteries were loaded into headlamps, dog collar lights, and her handheld GPS. Her personal trail bag was packed and her Nome bag was organized so Kristy can have it ready for Anna at the finish. The dogs’ traveling dishes were washed, vet bag packed, harness sizes double checked and dog coats sorted. Baggies of booties were tucked away. And this Mad Blogger got fresh glamor shots of the dogs traveling with Anna this year for their biography. We finally sat down for a hearty meal after dark (pizza and big salads) and managed to get to bed at an unprecedented early hour (before midnight! Amazing!).
Sunday didn’t start quite as early as the previous day, which certainly helped. Along with Kristy’s husband Andy and good friend of the kennel Aaron, the twins and I got the dogs and gear loaded once again and hit the road to the restart in Willow. We ended up parked between Mats Pettersson and Ryan Redington, which certainly left us surrounded by good people and lots of eager fans. Once again, the crew from NTI was out in full force and did a great job as a big part of Anna’s handler crew getting her to the restart line. Despite all 16 dogs being on the gangline (vs the 12 dogs she ran for the c-start), their off the charts excitement, and a very icy parking lot to navigate, Anna and her team were led to the start under amazing control. Our handler crew was so good this year, they got recruited to help guide a couple more teams to the line! Great to see all the teamwork behind the scenes that helps make this dream work. And not just for Seeing Double… but for everyone.
And as the seconds ticked down to 2pm Alaska time Sunday afternoon, Anna made one final trip up and down her dog team, gave her twin and not-a-twin sis big hugs, pulled the snow hook and launched off the Iditarod restart line for the 13th time in her career.
After hitting the trail, Anna and her team ran about 35 miles, stopping for only 4 minutes in Yentna to check in and out with officials. Between Yentna and Skwentna, Anna stopped for roughly 90 minutes to give the dogs a snack and quick rest along the trail, arriving in Skwentna (race mile 83) around 10:30pm Sunday evening. She rested the dogs for 3 hours 9 minutes in SKW before hitting the trail with all 16 dogs at 1:40am Monday morning. She spent the early hours Monday traveling the 40 miles to Finger Lake (race mile 123), arriving there just after 7am. She fed the dogs and gave them a good 3 hour 15 minute rest in checkpoint before hitting the trail again before 10:30am. I have a copy of her race plan for this year, and to this point, she was sticking with the plan to within minutes.
She spent the next 3 hours and about 45 minutes mushing the roughly 34 miles from Finger Lake to Rainy Pass. This stretch got her to and through the infamous Happy River Steps. Kristy spoke with Anna early early Tuesday morning and passed along some details… The trail to this point has been good, although “fair” is probably a more accurate rating for the stretch right into Finger Lake as it was a bit drifted with snow. Dallas Seavey had encountered a moose earlier and had to dispatch the moose to protect his dog team, so while Anna didn’t deal with the live moose, she and the dogs ran through (and over!) the aftermath not too long after. The dogs handled that fine, although Anna reported it as a very eerie experience. It sounds like the Steps went ok, although Anna was one of a few mushers that had half their dog team get part way down the extreme final step before she could get them stopped and anchored. Once the team was secure, she clambered down herself and hauled everyone back up to the proper trail so they could continue on a less extreme path.
Anna made it up the eastern side of the Alaska Range to arrive in Rainy Pass, the highest point on the Iditarod trail (and race mile 153) just after 2pm Alaska time Monday afternoon. Which means she travelled 153 miles during her first 24 hours on the trail (almost to the minute). She had planned to rest within checkpoint for about 3 hours but ended up staying a little over 4 hours. She used the extra time to assess the dogs and ultimately decided to return two dogs home. Kristy reported the two dogs were Rocky and Zwickel. Both dogs had been showing signs of a little shoulder soreness, and although they were responding great to massage, heat, and rest and could have continued on the trail, Anna knew there’s some really hard and fast terrain ahead. She didn’t want to risk these minor soreness issues turning into a full blown injury. So with an abundance of caution she handed them over to vets in the checkpoint. The Iditarod Air Force will get these pups back to Anchorage soon where Kristy will pick them up and return them home to the kennel.
After getting that sorted, Anna pulled out of Rainy Pass at 6:13pm early Monday evening with 14 dogs in front of her sled. The next 35 mile stretch of trail goes down the western slope of the Alaska Range and takes teams plunging down into the Dalzell Gorge. Neither of the twins “like” the Gorge. The way they describe it, it seems like the equivalent of a rickety old wooden roller coaster that you get on with a great deal of trepidation and get off with relief as quickly as possible when the ride comes to an end. But Anna said the Gorge this year was actually pretty good and not much worse than they saw last year, which was the best they had ever seen it.
Anna pulled into Rohn (race mile 188) at 10:30pm Monday night. She had initially planned on making only a brief stop to resupply in Rohn, but she ended up staying just shy of an hour. She used that time to give the pups an extra snack and hand Anvik over to race officials to head home. Anvik was fine, no soreness or injuries or anything. But Anvik is barely 3 years old and a rookie on the Iditarod trail. They encountered some glare ice out on the trail to this point, and Anvik really didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one little bit. Anna knew they would be hitting miles of glare ice leaving Rohn and she didn’t want to give this young pup a bad experience or have her get injured on ice she isn’t as used to as the veteran dogs. So she made a solid decision and sent Anvik on home.
Anna and her now 13-dog team hit the trail out of Rohn around 11:30pm Monday night. And she was reported out in 13th place! I try not to give too much credence to the race standings until after the majority of mushers have completed their mandatory 24 hour rest, but I love seeing Anna holding a position in the top 20 so far this year. That should set up for really good positioning when she comes fresh off her 24 in the miles ahead.
Phew! I think that gets us fully caught up to where Anna is currently. And when she called Kristy in the wee hours Tuesday morning, she was making good progress through the Farewell Burn beyond Rohn. The Burn didn’t sound quite as bad as early reports led us to expect, and there was actually a little snow mixed in with softer loose dirt churned up by the recent Iron Dog race. That was excellent news for this Mad Blogger, as Anna had a decent amount of anxiety tied to this section of trail. I know when she gets to Nikolai, she’ll be very relieved to have the most technical portion of this trail solidly behind her.
On her way to Nikolai (race mile 263), we’ll see Anna’s GPS tracker stop for about 4 hours for a trailside camp, and then I expect her to rest for at least 5 hours within Nikolai itself. From NIK, she’ll mush to McGrath, take a planned rest within checkpoint of at least 4 hours, and then mush through Takotna to Ophir (race mile 352), where she plans to declare and take her 24 hour rest. At least, that’s Plan A. But you know what they say about “plans”… If we see her stay in TKT for much more than an hour, I’ll begin to suspect she’s shifted to Plan B and may be taking her 24 there. We’ll see what happens and I’ll pass along anything I learn from Kristy.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from so far this year.
And a couple of additions to the playlist...
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 3: Centerfield by John Fogarty.
Song 4: Keep On by Portugal. The Man.
Teams have been out on the trail for over 1 day and 21 hours as I post this. A couple of mushers are already in and out of Nikolai while the entire field is already at least into Rohn. No mushers have scratched and we have the full field of 38 mushing along the trail.
Everything leading up to the present was a whirlwind of fun, excitement, and plenty of hard work. The Ceremonial Start on Saturday kicked everything off. We were up before dawn at the kennel and had the dogs and gear all loaded up and on the road to Anchorage while it was still dark and a gorgeous orange half moon graced the sky.
We arrived in Anchorage and got settled into our assigned parking and staging area. Vet techs came around to check microchips on Anna’s dogs, and we had some time to catch up with friends, fans, and get Anna’s Iditarider Bob ready for his ride in the sled. We connected with the great crew from NTI Boilers - Seeing Double fans and longtime sponsors. And of course there were a couple interviews by the media. Kristy accidentally grabbed and donned Anna’s nearly identical jacket when she hopped out of the truck, sparking a little confusion for both herself and one reporter...
“So Anna, how are you feeling about the race this year?”
“I’m Kristy, Anna’s over there.”
“Are you sure? The name on your jacket says Anna…?”
“Oh shoot…!”
They get mistaken for one another often enough as it is without Kristy wearing a jacked embroidered with Anna’s name!!
But I think that may have been the only real hiccup of the c-start, and a minor one at that. Yeah, I commented in an Instagram post that things felt like a “hot mess”, but I think I was still too amped up from the festivities when I wrote that. Things did go really smoothly, even if the 30 seconds of crazy rush to get all the dogs onto the gangline and leave the dog truck for the start line on time was the same level of hectic it always seems to be.
Anna was the main musher on her sled, of course, and Iditarider Bob was all smiles tucked into the sled bag. Kristy rode in the tandem spot on this particular sled as a control musher and on-the-trail handler, something required by the Iditarod for the c-start to help make sure everyone stays safe during this parade-of-sorts run. The sun was blazing and the trail was lined with enthusiastic fans, so it was reportedly a really fun run. They did see a moose in the woods along side the trail, but this is another example of how going out in bib #2 was a real plus. Eventually that moose got annoyed by all the dog teams going by and moved from the woods and stood in the middle of the trail. And allegedly it was not particularly happy. But I haven’t heard of this moose causing any further problems beyond a temporary hold up for teams farther back in the pack. And as you might already know, this will not be the last moose encounter reported during this year’s Iditarod. More on that in a bit.
After the team came racing into Campbell, we gave the dogs a snack, packed everything up, and headed back to the kennel in Knik. Saturday afternoon had a long list of tasks to accomplish. Anna’s race sled was given some final tweaks and packed up for her to hit the trail. Fresh batteries were loaded into headlamps, dog collar lights, and her handheld GPS. Her personal trail bag was packed and her Nome bag was organized so Kristy can have it ready for Anna at the finish. The dogs’ traveling dishes were washed, vet bag packed, harness sizes double checked and dog coats sorted. Baggies of booties were tucked away. And this Mad Blogger got fresh glamor shots of the dogs traveling with Anna this year for their biography. We finally sat down for a hearty meal after dark (pizza and big salads) and managed to get to bed at an unprecedented early hour (before midnight! Amazing!).
Sunday didn’t start quite as early as the previous day, which certainly helped. Along with Kristy’s husband Andy and good friend of the kennel Aaron, the twins and I got the dogs and gear loaded once again and hit the road to the restart in Willow. We ended up parked between Mats Pettersson and Ryan Redington, which certainly left us surrounded by good people and lots of eager fans. Once again, the crew from NTI was out in full force and did a great job as a big part of Anna’s handler crew getting her to the restart line. Despite all 16 dogs being on the gangline (vs the 12 dogs she ran for the c-start), their off the charts excitement, and a very icy parking lot to navigate, Anna and her team were led to the start under amazing control. Our handler crew was so good this year, they got recruited to help guide a couple more teams to the line! Great to see all the teamwork behind the scenes that helps make this dream work. And not just for Seeing Double… but for everyone.
And as the seconds ticked down to 2pm Alaska time Sunday afternoon, Anna made one final trip up and down her dog team, gave her twin and not-a-twin sis big hugs, pulled the snow hook and launched off the Iditarod restart line for the 13th time in her career.
After hitting the trail, Anna and her team ran about 35 miles, stopping for only 4 minutes in Yentna to check in and out with officials. Between Yentna and Skwentna, Anna stopped for roughly 90 minutes to give the dogs a snack and quick rest along the trail, arriving in Skwentna (race mile 83) around 10:30pm Sunday evening. She rested the dogs for 3 hours 9 minutes in SKW before hitting the trail with all 16 dogs at 1:40am Monday morning. She spent the early hours Monday traveling the 40 miles to Finger Lake (race mile 123), arriving there just after 7am. She fed the dogs and gave them a good 3 hour 15 minute rest in checkpoint before hitting the trail again before 10:30am. I have a copy of her race plan for this year, and to this point, she was sticking with the plan to within minutes.
She spent the next 3 hours and about 45 minutes mushing the roughly 34 miles from Finger Lake to Rainy Pass. This stretch got her to and through the infamous Happy River Steps. Kristy spoke with Anna early early Tuesday morning and passed along some details… The trail to this point has been good, although “fair” is probably a more accurate rating for the stretch right into Finger Lake as it was a bit drifted with snow. Dallas Seavey had encountered a moose earlier and had to dispatch the moose to protect his dog team, so while Anna didn’t deal with the live moose, she and the dogs ran through (and over!) the aftermath not too long after. The dogs handled that fine, although Anna reported it as a very eerie experience. It sounds like the Steps went ok, although Anna was one of a few mushers that had half their dog team get part way down the extreme final step before she could get them stopped and anchored. Once the team was secure, she clambered down herself and hauled everyone back up to the proper trail so they could continue on a less extreme path.
Anna made it up the eastern side of the Alaska Range to arrive in Rainy Pass, the highest point on the Iditarod trail (and race mile 153) just after 2pm Alaska time Monday afternoon. Which means she travelled 153 miles during her first 24 hours on the trail (almost to the minute). She had planned to rest within checkpoint for about 3 hours but ended up staying a little over 4 hours. She used the extra time to assess the dogs and ultimately decided to return two dogs home. Kristy reported the two dogs were Rocky and Zwickel. Both dogs had been showing signs of a little shoulder soreness, and although they were responding great to massage, heat, and rest and could have continued on the trail, Anna knew there’s some really hard and fast terrain ahead. She didn’t want to risk these minor soreness issues turning into a full blown injury. So with an abundance of caution she handed them over to vets in the checkpoint. The Iditarod Air Force will get these pups back to Anchorage soon where Kristy will pick them up and return them home to the kennel.
After getting that sorted, Anna pulled out of Rainy Pass at 6:13pm early Monday evening with 14 dogs in front of her sled. The next 35 mile stretch of trail goes down the western slope of the Alaska Range and takes teams plunging down into the Dalzell Gorge. Neither of the twins “like” the Gorge. The way they describe it, it seems like the equivalent of a rickety old wooden roller coaster that you get on with a great deal of trepidation and get off with relief as quickly as possible when the ride comes to an end. But Anna said the Gorge this year was actually pretty good and not much worse than they saw last year, which was the best they had ever seen it.
Anna pulled into Rohn (race mile 188) at 10:30pm Monday night. She had initially planned on making only a brief stop to resupply in Rohn, but she ended up staying just shy of an hour. She used that time to give the pups an extra snack and hand Anvik over to race officials to head home. Anvik was fine, no soreness or injuries or anything. But Anvik is barely 3 years old and a rookie on the Iditarod trail. They encountered some glare ice out on the trail to this point, and Anvik really didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one little bit. Anna knew they would be hitting miles of glare ice leaving Rohn and she didn’t want to give this young pup a bad experience or have her get injured on ice she isn’t as used to as the veteran dogs. So she made a solid decision and sent Anvik on home.
Anna and her now 13-dog team hit the trail out of Rohn around 11:30pm Monday night. And she was reported out in 13th place! I try not to give too much credence to the race standings until after the majority of mushers have completed their mandatory 24 hour rest, but I love seeing Anna holding a position in the top 20 so far this year. That should set up for really good positioning when she comes fresh off her 24 in the miles ahead.
Phew! I think that gets us fully caught up to where Anna is currently. And when she called Kristy in the wee hours Tuesday morning, she was making good progress through the Farewell Burn beyond Rohn. The Burn didn’t sound quite as bad as early reports led us to expect, and there was actually a little snow mixed in with softer loose dirt churned up by the recent Iron Dog race. That was excellent news for this Mad Blogger, as Anna had a decent amount of anxiety tied to this section of trail. I know when she gets to Nikolai, she’ll be very relieved to have the most technical portion of this trail solidly behind her.
On her way to Nikolai (race mile 263), we’ll see Anna’s GPS tracker stop for about 4 hours for a trailside camp, and then I expect her to rest for at least 5 hours within Nikolai itself. From NIK, she’ll mush to McGrath, take a planned rest within checkpoint of at least 4 hours, and then mush through Takotna to Ophir (race mile 352), where she plans to declare and take her 24 hour rest. At least, that’s Plan A. But you know what they say about “plans”… If we see her stay in TKT for much more than an hour, I’ll begin to suspect she’s shifted to Plan B and may be taking her 24 there. We’ll see what happens and I’ll pass along anything I learn from Kristy.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from so far this year.
And a couple of additions to the playlist...
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 3: Centerfield by John Fogarty.
Song 4: Keep On by Portugal. The Man.
The following pictures featuring Anna are fantastic shots from Tracy Try and passed on to me by our friends at musherdog.com.