Ultimate Iditarod Update

Since my last article there were two exciting developments. Dolphin had her puppies on the eleventh, and we got our first snow of the year. Dolphin is now the proud mother of five tiny females. It is rare to have an entire litter of either males or females; in fact, the only other litter we have had that was all females was Dolphin’s last litter when she had six females.

A very common question at our summer tour company is whether males or females make better sled dogs. The males tend to be a few pounds larger than the females which is an advantage. Also they seem to be tougher and more stubborn which makes them harder to work with and train, but they are less affected by the rigors of the races. The females on the other hand are easier to train, listen better and seem to bond better with their drivers. As you can see they both have their pros and cons and throughout the years we have found that a slightly higher percentage of males have made the team than females.

Sometimes snow is scarce in Alaska--even on the Iditarod Trail!!! This picture, taken during the 1998 Iditarod by musher Cindy Gallea, shows the extremes that are possible on the trail. 1998 was a warm year, and some mushers reportedly paid local villagers very large amounts of money in exchange for much-needed rain gear.

Unlike my partner in Montana, we declare “first snow” here in Alaska to be the day we have to spend an hour shoveling just to get out of the door. Our first snow came the same day as the puppies. Although I didn’t have to get the shovel out, there was enough to stick for a while.

Our four-wheeler training runs have increased to ten miles a day, four days a week. With my dad gone to a mushing symposium in Fairbanks over the weekend, I have been running his dogs the past few days. Some of our trails around here are a little treacherous at best, and this snow doesn’t help. There is one corner in particular that is a real “white knuckler” if you know what I mean. Just calling it a 90º would be giving it the benefit of the doubt for sure. To successfully negotiate this hair-pin corner you have to approach it from way to the outside, and when you get close you have to gun the engine to slacken the towline and thus not pull any dogs into the trees on the inside of the corner. After the dogs clear the trees the musher has to turn hard and dynamite the brakes putting the ATV into a sideways slide the rest of the way around the turn. Once on the other side the musher has just long enough to catch his breath before he is shot into another hair-raising corner. This kind of corner is good way to stay awake on long runs!

Yesterday and today we have been busy cutting firewood for the winter. The air is crisp and smells of fresh cut spruce and wood smoke. This is definitely one of my favorite times of year. See you next time.