Some people are early birds and some people are night owls. Iditarod mushers, despite any other natural inclinations, seem to have this uncanny ability to be both.
Since the race started Sunday afternoon, these 38 individuals have basically been going non-stop. Yes, they stop along the trail - in checkpoints or between them - to feed and rest their dogs. And yes, nearly every musher by this point has taken a 24-hour mandatory rest and will have two more mandatory 8-hour rests before they reach Nome. Most teams will spend about as much time resting as they do moving, in addition to the stops mandated by the race.
But don’t think for a moment running a dog team is like riding a snow machine. You don’t just park and turn it off. When a musher stops in a checkpoint or for a trailside camp, there’s plenty of work to be done. Straw beds are laid out for the dogs. If no hot water is available, cold water is heated or snow is melted to make a warm stew meal for the dogs. Booties are removed, paws checked and ointments applied as needed. Shoulder muscles are rubbed and wrists are checked for any signs of soreness. The dogs might get fleece blankets for colder or longer campouts. If the musher is carrying a vacuum sealed bag of food for themselves, that might get tossed into any remaining hot water after feeding the dogs to warm it up a bit. Otherwise? Trail mix and frozen jerky.
A four hour campout might allow a musher to get an hour of sleep themselves. Likely less. And trailside rests are on the ground, maybe with a sleeping mat, in arctic sleeping bags. Mushers do catch up on a fair amount of rest during their 24s, but it’s nothing like the solid 8 hours most of us are told to strive for at night. Mushers eat, nap, and then check on their dogs. Feed them, massage, maybe take them for a short leash walk to keep everyone limbered up. Rinse, repeat. Time’s up? Hit the trail.
Some folks have an aversion, or even a downright fear, of the dark. Let alone the kind of dark you experience when you’re thousands of miles from street lights, in the middle of the Alaska wilderness, in the beginning phase of a New Moon. These mushers are out on the trail around the clock and frequently traveling overnight. In fact, I suspect they don’t even think of it as “night”, but more like the headlamp half of the day.
As you, dear reader, head into your weekend, I hope that helps give you a better sense of what Anna is doing out there.
We last left Anna as she hit the trail out of Ophir (race mile 352) early Thursday afternoon. She mushed part way to Cripple, stopped for a campout overnight, and finally arrived in CPL fourteen and a half hours later at 7:15am in 24th place. She remained in checkpoint for 4 hours 16 minutes before hitting the trail again with 10 dogs at 11:31am Friday. She mushed about 30 miles and then stopped for a trailside camp.
It’s a little after 8:15pm in Alaska as I write this, and she has wrapped up her camp and is on the move again. She will arrive in the next checkpoint Ruby (race mile 495) overnight. And it is full dark thirty out on the trail. There’s one team about 6 miles behind her and another about 4 miles ahead. But if you’ve ever walked a mile (in your shoes or someone else’s), you know how far that is. You won’t hear anyone or see anyone. It’s just Anna. And her dogs. And an immense wilderness.
We’re over 5 days into this year’s race and all 38 mushers are still traveling through that wilderness. Travis Beals and Matt Hall are at the front of the pack, having arrived in Galena (race mile 545) early Friday afternoon. GPS shows Dallas will be joining them in GAL shortly. The rest of the top 10 are all out of Ruby pushing towards Galena. Groups of mushers traveling in closer proximity dot the trail all the way back to Cripple, where our current red lantern (or last place musher) Bryce Mumford is nearly arriving. This gives our overall field a total spread of about 123 miles.
I don’t think Anna or any of the front runners have hit the “special weather” that is forecast, but they will soon. As it is, temps are still around 0F and there’s at least a modest breeze. All I can hope is they’re all well prepared and well acclimated by this point. Trail conditions sound decent in and around Galena, with a solid base of snow but some loose stuff churned up by snow machines.
Mushers begin traveling the mighty Yukon River after Ruby, mostly long, flat stretches along or over the frozen river. That might seem like a welcome reprieve from the challenges earlier in the race, but in reality it is not. Boredom is a poor friend to sleep deprivation. I hope everyone on the trail has some good music or an enthralling audio book to listen to as they mush along.
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 8: When the Night Feels My Song by Bedouin Soundclash.
Since the race started Sunday afternoon, these 38 individuals have basically been going non-stop. Yes, they stop along the trail - in checkpoints or between them - to feed and rest their dogs. And yes, nearly every musher by this point has taken a 24-hour mandatory rest and will have two more mandatory 8-hour rests before they reach Nome. Most teams will spend about as much time resting as they do moving, in addition to the stops mandated by the race.
But don’t think for a moment running a dog team is like riding a snow machine. You don’t just park and turn it off. When a musher stops in a checkpoint or for a trailside camp, there’s plenty of work to be done. Straw beds are laid out for the dogs. If no hot water is available, cold water is heated or snow is melted to make a warm stew meal for the dogs. Booties are removed, paws checked and ointments applied as needed. Shoulder muscles are rubbed and wrists are checked for any signs of soreness. The dogs might get fleece blankets for colder or longer campouts. If the musher is carrying a vacuum sealed bag of food for themselves, that might get tossed into any remaining hot water after feeding the dogs to warm it up a bit. Otherwise? Trail mix and frozen jerky.
A four hour campout might allow a musher to get an hour of sleep themselves. Likely less. And trailside rests are on the ground, maybe with a sleeping mat, in arctic sleeping bags. Mushers do catch up on a fair amount of rest during their 24s, but it’s nothing like the solid 8 hours most of us are told to strive for at night. Mushers eat, nap, and then check on their dogs. Feed them, massage, maybe take them for a short leash walk to keep everyone limbered up. Rinse, repeat. Time’s up? Hit the trail.
Some folks have an aversion, or even a downright fear, of the dark. Let alone the kind of dark you experience when you’re thousands of miles from street lights, in the middle of the Alaska wilderness, in the beginning phase of a New Moon. These mushers are out on the trail around the clock and frequently traveling overnight. In fact, I suspect they don’t even think of it as “night”, but more like the headlamp half of the day.
As you, dear reader, head into your weekend, I hope that helps give you a better sense of what Anna is doing out there.
We last left Anna as she hit the trail out of Ophir (race mile 352) early Thursday afternoon. She mushed part way to Cripple, stopped for a campout overnight, and finally arrived in CPL fourteen and a half hours later at 7:15am in 24th place. She remained in checkpoint for 4 hours 16 minutes before hitting the trail again with 10 dogs at 11:31am Friday. She mushed about 30 miles and then stopped for a trailside camp.
It’s a little after 8:15pm in Alaska as I write this, and she has wrapped up her camp and is on the move again. She will arrive in the next checkpoint Ruby (race mile 495) overnight. And it is full dark thirty out on the trail. There’s one team about 6 miles behind her and another about 4 miles ahead. But if you’ve ever walked a mile (in your shoes or someone else’s), you know how far that is. You won’t hear anyone or see anyone. It’s just Anna. And her dogs. And an immense wilderness.
We’re over 5 days into this year’s race and all 38 mushers are still traveling through that wilderness. Travis Beals and Matt Hall are at the front of the pack, having arrived in Galena (race mile 545) early Friday afternoon. GPS shows Dallas will be joining them in GAL shortly. The rest of the top 10 are all out of Ruby pushing towards Galena. Groups of mushers traveling in closer proximity dot the trail all the way back to Cripple, where our current red lantern (or last place musher) Bryce Mumford is nearly arriving. This gives our overall field a total spread of about 123 miles.
I don’t think Anna or any of the front runners have hit the “special weather” that is forecast, but they will soon. As it is, temps are still around 0F and there’s at least a modest breeze. All I can hope is they’re all well prepared and well acclimated by this point. Trail conditions sound decent in and around Galena, with a solid base of snow but some loose stuff churned up by snow machines.
Mushers begin traveling the mighty Yukon River after Ruby, mostly long, flat stretches along or over the frozen river. That might seem like a welcome reprieve from the challenges earlier in the race, but in reality it is not. Boredom is a poor friend to sleep deprivation. I hope everyone on the trail has some good music or an enthralling audio book to listen to as they mush along.
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 8: When the Night Feels My Song by Bedouin Soundclash.
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