March 13, 2011
Iditarod race FAQ: How fast do Iditarod dog sled teams run?
One thing I've been curious about regarding the Iditarod is the speed of the dog teams. Certainly dog sled team speed will vary by the terrain, but with all the Iditarod checkpoints we should be able to find some good dog sled team speed information.
March 13, 2011
From the adn.com community website, Iditarod musher John Baker left the Unalakleet checkpoint a little after nine o'clock this morning.
According to the adn.com writer in Unalakleet, "Both Hans Gatt and Sebastian Schnuelle said this morning that they don't think they can catch him." As Mr. Schnuelle also said, "I have tons of horsepower, but I don’t have speed. I don’t have a team which has a second gear."
March 13, 2011
2011 Iditarod News, March 13 - I'm so glad to hear that Mitch Seavey has had successful surgery on his hand/finger. I read several references to Mr. Seavey in a story on the Anchorage Daily News website, including this comment:
Seavey, his finger saved by a surgeon after severely cutting it earlier in the race ...
March 12, 2011
2011 Iditarod Current Standings, March 12, 8am - As I wake up this morning and check the current standings, we have a new leader in the 2011 Iditarod race to Nome, Alaska. John Baker of Kotzebue, Alaska is now in the lead.
John Baker is forty-eight years old, a self-employed pilot, raced his first Iditarod race in 1996, and has been in every race since then. Mr. Baker has eleven Top-10 Iditarod finishes.
March 12, 2011
2011 Iditarod race, current standings: It's the evening of March 11, 2011, about 7pm, and the Iditarod mushers continue to blaze their trails across the Alaskan wilderness.
As mentioned this morning, musher Hugh Neff appears to be in the lead, having come through the Grayling checkpoint just five minutes before John Baker, and 47 minutes before four-time defending champion Lance Mackey.
Here are the current standings of the top fifteen 2011 Iditarod mushers at this time:
March 11, 2011
While checking out the Palmer, Alaska weather forecast for tonight, I followed a link to this web page which shows our average high temperatures are now entering the thirty degree range.
March 11, 2011
2011 Iditarod Standings, March 11, 9am - Sorry for the late post this morning. If you saw my previous post, you know I saw my first Alaskan Northern Lights show last night, and I was out a little late last night. (Wow, can you imagine being an Iditarod musher, out in the middle of nowhere, freezing cold, having a team of dogs pulling you through the wilderness, and having Northern Lights dancing over your head? Double wow.)
March 11, 2011
Wow, the northern lights in Alaska last night were spectacular! I've never seen them before, so I paid close attention to the aurora forecast yesterday afternoon and evening after missing the lights show the night before. When it looked like the lights would be at their peak in about one hour, I bundled up, got in the car, and drove to an area in town I knew would be dark.
March 11, 2011
Iditarod facts and history: This page is a continual work of progress, but I thought I'd try to put together a nice Iditarod facts and history page. When I first created this page I was getting ready to go to the 2011 Iditarod, so I wanted to learn about the Iditarod race history.
Iditarod history
Here are some bullet points that summarize the Iditard history I've been able to learn so far:
March 11, 2011
Alaska moose news: A Fairbanks, Alaska woman was injured a few days ago in Anchorage, Alaska while attempting to pet a moose, a wild moose. As expected, the moose kicked her.
The moose was reported to be in the Town Square Park area in Anchorage, and had been seen there all day feeding on the trees. The woman, reported to be in her 20s, was kicked in the chest and shoulder by the moose after attempting to pet it. After she was checked by medics, she amazingly didn't have to go to the hospital.
March 11, 2011
2011 Iditarod News, March 10, 2011 - One thing I forgot to mention earlier today when writing about the 2011 Iditarod mushers reaching the halfway point of the race is that Iditarod musher Trent Herbst has won the $3,000 prize for being the first musher to reach the Iditarod checkpoint, considered to be the halfway point of the race.
The funny thing about the Iditarod halfway prize is that the $3,000 prize is awarded in gold nuggets.
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod News, March 10, 2011 - I just checked the Iditarod checkpoints and distances, and the 2011 Iditarod race leaders are currently at the rough half-way point of the race.
The overall race is 1,131 miles to Nome, Alaska, and the town of Iditarod is 534 miles from Anchorage, and the next checkpoint at Shageluk is 599 miles from Anchorage. A distance of 565 miles would be the halfway point of the race.
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod News, March 10, 2011 - As I reported earlier today, Mitch Seavey was badly injured when cutting open a bail of hay this morning.
I just read in a story on the Alaska Dispatch website that he is headed for surgery in Anchorage, Alaska in an attempt to save the finger that he cut this morning.
I wish Mr. Seavey the best of luck. I know he doesn't know me, but I've met him a couple of times, and everyone in his family and kennel has been very nice to me.
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod News, March 10, 2011, Noon - The Alaska Dispatch reports that Martin Buser is the clear leader of the 2011 Iditarod race here in Alaska.
Mr. Buser, from a town named Big Lake -- which is just north of Wasilla and south of Willow -- is a four-time Iditarod race champion, and already holds the record for the fastest Iditarod race time in 2002 (eight days, 22 hours, 46 minutes, 2 seconds; a little more than an hour faster than 2010 Iditarod winner Lance Mackey).
March 10, 2011
Sigh, I woke up this morning to read that the Northern Lights -- the Aurora Borealis -- were very clearly visible from Fairbanks in the north to Juneau in the south, including all points in between, including Palmer, Alaska, where I was sleeping.
I've signed up twice to receive Northern Lights alerts (using two different email addresses), but for some reason I'm not receiving them. But this one is also my fault, as I left the earphones in my phone last night, and while a friend and former neighbor tried to call me from Wasilla, I never heard it ring.
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod News - March 10, 2011 - I now understand what happened to the 2011 Iditarod standings while I was out yesterday. It turns out that mushers are required to take a mandatory 24-hour rest (break) somewhere on the route between Anchorage and Nome, Alaska.
Some of the first mushers out the gate yesterday -- and therefore new atop the current standings -- are the ones who have yet to take their mandatory 24-hours rest. This includes Kelley Griffin, Trent Herbst, and Cim Smyth, who were the first to leave the checkpoint at Ophir, Alaska.
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod News, March 10, 2011 - 2004 Iditarod Champion Mitch Seavey was forced to withdraw from the 2011 Iditarod this morning at 4:11am after badly injuring his hand while cutting open a bale of hay for his dogs. Here's a quote from the Official Iditarod website:
Earlier this morning Seavey was cutting open a bale of straw at Ophir Checkpoint and severely injured fingers on his hand. Nordman determined that the injury was severe enough to warrant the decision.
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod Standings, March 9, 6:40pm - I'm not sure what happened while I was out today, but the current Iditarod standings have changed quite a bit since the last time I posted the standings. Here's the current leaderboard:
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod News - In other Iditarod news I haven't had a chance to write about, five-time Iditarod champion Rick Swenson suffered a broken collarbone in the race on either March 7 or 8, 2011. At the time of this writing on March 9, 2011 at 6:35pm Alaska time, Mr. Swenson is still in the race, currently in 23rd place.
Here are some quotes from the story I found on the adn.com website, including something I've read about before -- veterinarians having to tend to human patients:
March 10, 2011
2011 Iditarod News: So imagine, here you are, an Iditarod musher, just cruising along, minding your own business, when a fellow musher starts catching up to you. Being a nice guy, you pull over to the side of the road to let the other musher pass. So far, so good.
