Teams Into Sourdough
9:30 PM, Saturday, February 22, 2003

By Ultimate Iditarod's Jim Gallea

Max Kornmuller signs into Sourdough Checkpoint.  Max said he lost 36 minutes earlier today when he got off the trail just after the start.  The remainder of his run was clean, and he made up much of that time.

    The general consensus among the mushers of the 2003 Junior Iditarod is that the trail is great.  The first teams into the halfway point at Sourdough Checkpoint arrived just before 7:30 tonight, meaning the set an extremely fast pace over the first 77 miles of the race.  As of this update, 13 of the 19 teams are into the halfway point.  All the teams are required to rest for eight hours plus their start time differential. 

    While resting these eight hours, the mushers must feed and care for their dogs and get them bedded down on straw for a well-deserved rest.  All of this work must be done without any assistance.  Once the dogs are resting, tradition has it that a large bonfire be built, and all the mushers sit around it until they fall asleep or begin their preparations for the final leg of the race.  Normally the boys make the girls start the fire, but former Junior Iditarod mushers Tyrell Seavey, Jordan Lolley, Megan Mackey, and myself have decided that we will start the fire for the mushers if they don't hurry up and do it themselves.  Below are more pictures from the Sourdough Checkpoint.

Kathleen Blevins places straw on the snow for her dogs.  The dogs know that straw means it's time to rest..

Nikolai Buser feeds his dogs a mixture of meat, water, and dry dog food.  Nikolai reports a very good first run.  He thinks his dogs still have a lot in the "tank" for the trip back to Wolverine.

Dallas Seavey puts alcohol fuel into his cooker.  He will use the cooker to melt snow and heat water to feed his dogs.

© 2003 Ultimate Iditarod, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team
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Ultimate Iditarod http://www.ultimateiditarod.com  email: dogboy@ultimateiditarod.com