Nenana to Manley

Tuesday, March 4, 3:00 p.m.

TEAM POSITIONS
TRAIL CONDITIONS
RACE STRATEGY

The entrance to the Manley Checkpoint. Teams come in from the left, sign in, pick up their drop bags in the foreground, and go to bedding area

TEAM POSITIONS

It is apparent from the teams that have been pouring into the checkpoint at Manley that the race is on. Teams started arriving around midnight last night with the first one in being Lynda Plettner. Robert Sorlie and John Baker then followed her in and all three of them stopped here for an extended break. Steadily throughout the night teams made their way into Manley with the majority of them opting to stop for a rest. There were however, a few mushers that decided to push on through the checkpoint and continue down the trail: Martin Buser and Charlie Boulding being two of these mushers.

This morning Manley Checkpoint is a beehive of activity with teams coming and going and many of them still in the checkpoint resting. Cindy Gallea arrived early this morning and took care of her dogs so that they could get a good rest and then lay down to get a couple hours of shuteye herself. Tyrell Seavey pulled into the checkpoint between nine and ten this morning being right where he wanted to be at this point in the race. Running a young team of dog’s means he plans on resting them longer then many other teams and hanging towards the back of the pack at least for the first half of the race.

TRAIL CONDITIONS

A race vet examines a dog in Lance Barve’s teams, while the musher removes the booties

We rode over on the snowmobiles last night while many of the dog teams were doing the same thing. After hearing all kinds of stories about how bad the trail was supposed to be and about the lack of snow I was impressed by the actual conditions of the trail. It was a hard fast trail and relatively smooth enabling the mushers to let their fresh teams open up and travel at a quick pace. There were only a few, short, rough sections that would have caused the teams to slow down.

The trail over from Nenana had a variety of terrain ranging from short choppy hills to flat river running. There were even some short sections of trail that were quite windy and narrow being only wide enough for the snowmobiles. These sections of trail compounded with the fact that the dog teams are still large and energized from just starting the race would have made it difficult for the mushers to keep their sleds on the trail and out of the trees. It is these situations that become dangerous for mushers because they stop being the driver and quickly become a passenger. This greatly increases the possibility of the sled or musher crashing into a tree, which can cause considerable damage to either.

RACE STRATEGY

Peter Bartlett feeds himself while his dog food is soaking up boiling water

While traveling to Manley last night the thing that kept coming to the forefront of my mind was strategy. In any long-distance sled dog race having a detailed strategy is imperative in being competitive. After the first 120 miles of the race it is already clear that not everyone is on the same strategy. The fact that there are varying strategies is no new phenomenon to dog mushing for it is said that there are as many strategies out there as there are dog mushers. I suppose that could be attributed to the individualistic nature of most mushers.

So far in this Iditarod there are a couple of strategies that are standing out. One of those is to start racing right from the start line and try to get out front and stay out front. Many of the teams rested only for a couple hours during the first two sections of the race and let their teams go fast in order to try and get a jump on the competition. While other mushers are being more reserved, riding their brakes to keep their teams slowed down and resting longer to try and conserve their teams for later in the race. At this point in the race it is impossible to know which strategy will pay off.

DeeDee Jonrowe fixes her headlamp for tonight’s run after she and her dogs are fed

Whether the teams that are out front are able to stay there will depend on the weather, trail conditions, and the mushers ability to judge the strength of their dogs correctly. Also because the first 300 miles of this race are completely new to Iditarod that leaves many uncertainties in all the musher’s minds as to what the right strategy is for the race. At this point only time can show what that strategy is.