iditarod 2013...not quite to white mountain, but close

 not sure the leggings have caught on yet, but they have begun to turn up on sled dogs these past few years.  i  think they look kinda cute. still a fan of the muscle shirts and cute jackets and booties.  sled dog couture! can't go wrong there.

 this is the back end of the ellis husky team.

 cym smiths' crew.

 mackey and martin continue the slide downwards.  i think that run on the yukon took whatever they and their dogs had left in them.  now it's just a slow run with a lot of stops to get the team successfully to nome.  it's how it goes out there.  there is no predicting how a long distance race like this will turn out.  there just are so many factors involved.  you can plan it out and still come out in a different place.  buser probably would have done great had he not had to deal with that awful night on the yukon river...but coulda, shoulda, woulda doesn't count here.  sadly, it's been the deal breaker for him.

 jeff king rode on through koyuk this morning in hopes of securing the lead...and he did temporarily.  his team looked good and he figured if he could get a wee bit ahead he could stay ahead of the pack.  perhaps his team felt differently.  mitch seavey had taken back the lead last i checked with aliy zirkle about an hour behind him.  they were both out of elim and headed for golovin.  it will just come down to who can hold out, who'd team can run faster.

 it's been pretty exciting with the teams being pretty bunched up.  the hot weather has been the big factor.  it has cooled down though along the coast finally.

 warm here as well.  should cool.  this morning it was cloudy and the forecast was for clear skies...i took the dogs for the monday walk, just us today, and while we walked around the various paths the sun came shining through.

 took the gasline trail to the powerline trail.  anchorage was socked in but there was a strip of clear across anchorage that allowed me to get a peek a boo glimpse of denali ( a 5 hour drive north).

 by the time i got down into the meadows off of the tank trail the skies had totally cleared.

 blossom was coated in huge snowballs, always so funny.  the snowballs coating her fur are so huge that you can hear them clump together as she walks.  i was tossing her yellow frisbee...a favorite of hers and mine.  at one point i decided to make a video of her.  at the time i didn't notice that after she set down her frisbee it disappeared.  there is one hole in the ice that drops down to the creek about 3 feet under.  by some twist of toy fate, that was the exact place she dropped the dang thing.  never to be seen again. it drives me nuts to lose good money this way.  blossom could care less, several hundred feet down the trail by the stumphenge area, a tennis ball was found.  it looks awful similar to one i lost out there a few weeks back.  i'd rather lose a tennis ball and save the frisbee though.

 stopped at petsmart, but they didn't have another frisbee of the sort i like..thank you amazon.com for having anything one could need or just want very badly.  also bought a rad dog collar to test out with blossom.  it's a collar with a retractable lead right in it.  so great for trails where she's off leash, i can just catch her collar and she is now on leash. sounds fabulous!!

 that california musher is still in.  her pictures should be in tomorrows post.  i'm running out of pictures as they run out of trail.  it's not over til the last musher comes in though.  i'll still give updates even though i'll be catching up on the pictures from my walks and such these past weeks.

 the last of them are on the yukon river.  not sure if conditions have improved there at all.  the twins were headed out of kaltag and i don't remember hearing any horror stories from them like those that seemed to come from the mushers towards the front.  #60 abbot is from irvine, california.  she summitted everest in 2010 and wanted to try her hand and the big race next so here she is.  she's the one we thought would scratch as she was having a hell of a time getting her brake out of the snow on long lake.  it was pretty pathetic looking.  that back pack are all out of grayling.  she was 2 hours behind the rest.

 joined my friend gail for dinner tonight.  mostly we just chatted for a few hours and caught up, always fun.  i'd eaten a late lunch so i could barely get down 1/2 a burger tonight.  the dogs happily got the other half.

 my snowman from last night had turned a bit frightful as the food colouring i used to make the eyes and nose and stuff had soaked in.  i changed the hats and scarves and made it a scary clown snowman this morning.

 still waiting for word of may getting captured again.  sounds like she's been chilling around rohn still. hoping to hear good news on her soon, hate to see her night after night out there.  guess one dog got loose as they were trying to put it on a plane years ago, it was loose for 3 weeks, but was finally rounded up.

 my black and white picture of "ugly" was in the paper today. i've lost track of how many reader photo's of mine they've  put in there.  i think blossom has been in 2-3 x now.  her front and her back.  i should toss in this one i took of her today. it's pretty funny.  she has loads of snowballs.

 josh cadzow.  he's only 24.  i think he fell asleep on the sled and woke up with his sled sideways and the dogs running down the steps in the dark. he'd lost his head lamp.  personally, i think they should get docked for falling asleep.  i believe if they are too tired to drive their teams of dogs they should be required to stop.  the dogs will just run, that could be the wrong direction or into some sort of dangerous situation or animals, it's up to the human to be alert enough to monitor the trail for obstacles.  just my little soapbox.  he's in the 18th spot right now.lance is in 14th, buser in 16th and baker, who won a few years ago is in 17th.  so the kid is doing pretty good for his rookie year.

 katie made her tasty bean soup.  i haven't been able to make it yet. it's tasty and i like to use it as a chip dip as well!

 56 has scratched already.  he's out of healy.

 another young musher, beals, apparently slept in his boots with sweaty feet, never a good idea.  his boots were frozen on and he was going to have to go warm up.  that is basic cold weather.  change to dry clothes before sleeping.  carry lots of socks and change them frequently.  he hasn't dropped out so hopefully that means all is well.

 the trail is said to be punchy on the run to golovin.  we shall see...

 kinda a crazy race this year.  lots of teams bunched up, who will win is still unknown. often even by this time in the race it will be clear who is ahead. can't say that this year.  seavey will have to rest his team at some point before nome and even before the 8 hour required rest in white mountain.  all mushers must stop there for 8 hours.

 white mountain is 77 miles from nome.  one checkpoint between, safety.

 wade marrs...like that pink sled, nice.

 this is aaron peck of canada.  36th place when i just looked.

 several ski planes out there on long lake that day.  they started to take off soon after these mushers went by.  probably wanting to beat the iditarod plane traffic out there.

 these guys always impress me in harness. i must say i was impressed with my blind mastiff today.  rio catalina managed to walk carefully across a log bridge over a creek.  it's only 3 logs with gaps between.  she's tired after her long walk, but she is always surprising me with how well she adapts to things.

 this is jim laniers team of dogs below.  he's the owner of the missing dog.  he'd lent it out to marshall.  he's in the 29th spot.

 they always look great. i think there is actually one non-white dog that is closer to the sled.

 there you can see the one unique dog in the pack.  several planes have disappeared in the back ground.

 these are probably mackey's dogs as abbot was training with him on her quest to mush dogs in the iditarod.

it's one and i'm starting to get hungry.  my feed clock is all off kilter.  i've got to meet with the emergency room educator tomorrow.  should help me get their computer system down better before i return to orient there for a few more nights. i think after that i'm on my own.

guess i'll wrap it up and head to bed...last look at the gps, are the mushers checking it too?  one has to wonder.  anyway.  those top three, seavey, aliy and jeff king are within 10 miles of each other and the speeds are 4.5mph, 5.5mph and 6.4mph respectively...hmm...how can i sleep knowing this is going on tonight!!!!