iditarod 2010, first installment

i always love the little dog houses on the backs of the trucks. some are pretty cool looking. each dog has it's own little box filled with hay.

hanging out waiting for the race to start.

everyone was busy packing thier sleds. they have many required items they must carry. they do get drops of food for thier dogs and hay along the way. the trip takes from 9-15 days generally. the dogs get whatever help they need, but the mushers themselves are pretty much on thier own.

here is the official start shoot. it was fenced along this first part and pretty packed with people. i was happy we moved on to the other lake.

sandra and i ham it up for the camera.

had a great day out at the iditarod restart. it was just a beautiful day out there. took tons of pictures and it will take me days to load them on...so if you want to see more just come back and i'll keep posting them. i woke early to the get my pups walked and settled in. i'm sure they felt very abondoned all day without me. the iditarod is no place for dogs...well scratch that...the iditarod is no place for non-sled dogs. it apparently is a grand place for snowmachines and i've never seen so many in my life.

our friend joy had a place scoped out for us all to meet at. it was a great place as it turns out...joy you rock (for many more reasons than that you can find a good place to watch dog teams). the iditarod starts on one lake then moves through the street to another lake. we were on the second lake, called sunday lake. it was just less crowded and better photo ops. i took full advantage of that. i just weeded through the reams of pictures and cut it down to a more do-able number. still tons though.

there are 71 teams this year and we watched every one pass by. sandra and i drove out together and met joy and arn and thier friends and melissa,troy and tiffany. all nice people and fun. the girls got pretty goofy. if joys back didn't hurt so badly i'm sure she would have been right in there making shadow letters and such.