Daniel Vetsch for Ultimate Iditarod

Cali talking to her mother, Donna, out on the trail

A MEETING OF KINGS
TYRELL AND JIM’S TROUBLES
A FEAST FOR SORLIE

A MEETING OF KING

In this year’s Iditarod many things have happened that have never previously been seen before. One of those occurrences happened just today on the Yukon River about 20 miles down river from Eagle Island. Jeff King was on his way back from Anvik while at the same time his daughter Cali was on her way down to Anvik. Never before have teams in
Iditarod passed one another head on while still traveling the correct direction on the trail. However, because of this year's many trail changes this very thing is happening to the entire field of mushers.

When Jeff and Cali met on the trail they were able to stop and talk to one another for several minutes. One can only speculate what was said between the two but I am sure that they encouraged one another in there journeys. The two of them have very different goals in this year’s Iditarod. Repeat champion Jeff King is currently running in third place and is trying to be as competitive as possible while Cali is at the other end of the spectrum. She is a rookie in this year's Iditarod
and is in the race just to finish. There are many people in the race with goals very similar to Cali’s and they most often find that the race is just as demanding for them as it is for any of the competitive mushers. These people are competing in their own race and to win means they make it to Nome. With all it takes just to finish, this is just as noble and grueling a pursuit.

Tyrell on his way to Eagle Island after recovering his wayward dog

TYRELL AND JIM’S TROUBLES

While riding the snowmobiles today from Eagle Island to Kaltag we were able to see Tyrell as he traveled into Eagle Island and talk to Jim as he was camped out on the trail. As we talked to Jim he told us about a wayward dog of Tyrell’s.

While Tyrell was camped out on the trail one of his dogs somehow got off of his neckline so that he was loose. The dog then decided that it liked Kaltag so much that it turned around and started running back to Kaltag by itself. At this point all Tyrell could do was hook up his team and chase his uncooperative dog. He went for several miles in the wrong direction and finally only caught up to his dog because fellow musher Palmer Sagoonick was able to stop the dog and hold it until he was able to catch up. Unfortunately this cost Tyrell a couple of hours and forced him to go about 20 miles farther then he was supposed to.

Jim standing by his sled as his dogs rest on their way to Eagle Island

Sorlie, on the left is enjoying his seven course meal

Also while in conversation with Jim he talked about a few of the things he is dealing with. Throughout the race Jim has been having health problems with his dogs which means he is down to eleven dogs in his team. On top of this, several of his leaders decided they didn’t want to run in lead anymore because they were bored with running on the Yukon River. Unfortunately Jim has a couple hundred more miles to go before he gets off the river. He is trying to keep his team together and is doing a good job but he has many more miles of race to go and this will make it a very arduous task. He is trying to maintain a positive upbeat attitude because the dogs feed off of the mushers attitude so if he is able to stay happy the dogs are more likely to stay happy. This is important to do especially while running on the Yukon because it is very easy for the dogs to get bored and bummed out. Through all this Jim has remained determined to finish and it will take a catastrophe to stop him.

A FEAST FOR SORLIE

Currently as I sit in the community center in Kaltag and write this update, Robert Sorlie is feasting on a seven-course meal prepared by the chef of the Millennium Hotel. He receives this honor for being the first musher back to Kaltag and the first one off of the Yukon River. I would say that all of the mushers wish they were in Sorlie’s shoes not necessarily because of the seven-course meal but because he is done with the Yukon River and they still have the tedium and boredom of it to deal with.

The formal dinner and table setting seems completely out of place on the Iditarod trail. Usually the mushers are eating vacuum packed meals that have been heated with a dog food cooker instead of Baby Spinach with Balsamic Chicken and Lemon Blueberry Sorbert. After his gourmetextravaganza Sorlie is going to take a short rest and then head for Unalakleet and the Bering Sea Coast. Right now, Sorlie is still the one in control in this race, as to whether it stays that way is unknown.