Iditarod Update - We have a winner!

We have a winner!!!!!

Dallas Seavey has won the 2015 Iditarod in 8 days, 18 hours, 13 minutes and 6 seconds. It is his 2^nd win in a row, and his third in four years – only interrupted by his father, Mitch, who won in 2013. Mitch finished this year in 2^nd place, almost 4 hours behind his son. Aaron Burmeister is in Nome, for a 3^rd place finish, his best yet.

Jessie Royer has a sizable lead over Aliy Zirkle, for 4^th and 5^th places respectively.

Joar Leifseth Ulsom, Jeff King, Wade Marrs and Ken Anderson are on their way to Nome, with Nicolas Petit set to leave in 10^th position.

Jason Campeau is out of Elim with an hour and a half lead over Thomas Waerner in the Rookie of the Year race.

The back of the pack are all heading to the coast, with the exception of Cindy Abbott, who is on her way to Kaltag.

Nine teams are out of the race.

At 2:00 ET, here are the updated standings, based upon the Official Standings and my own analysis of the GPS trackers, so some mileage may vary.

Finished in Nome

1.     Dallas Seavey (46)

2.     Mitch Seavey (18)

3.     Aaron Burmeister (63)

On the Trail to Nome

4.     Jessie Royer (3)

5.     Aliy Zirkle (32)

6.     Joar Leifseth Ulsom (16)

7.     Jeff King (59)

8.     Wade Marrs (65)

9.     Ken Anderson (36)

In White Mountain

10. Nicolas Petit (12)

11. Travis Beals (56)

12. Paul Gebhardt (28)

13. Peter Kaiser (54)

14. Kelly Maixner (9)

15. Christian Turner (73)

16. Ray Redington Jr (34)

On the Trail to White Mountain

17. Michelle Phillips (6)

18. Hugh Neff (24)

19. Jason Campeau (70) {R}

20. Thomas Waerner (8) {R}

21. Nathan Schroeder (26)

22. John Baker (78)

23. Martin Buser (4)

24. Richie Diehl (42)

25. Mats Pettersson (55)

On the Trail to Elim

26. Paige Drobny (58)

27. Scott Smith (69)

28. Anna Berington (39)

29. Kristy Berington (11)

30. DeeDee Jonrowe (29)

In Koyuk

31. Jodi Bailey (22)

32. Justin Savidis (19)

33. Charley Bejna (38)

34. Curt Perano (21)

On the Trail to Koyuk

35. Seth Barnes (23) {R}

In Shaktoolik

36. Linwood Fiedler (27)

37. Mike Santos (61)

38. Bryan Bearss (48)

39. Benjamin Harper (37) {R}

40. Scott Janssen (20)

41. Jason Mackey (72)

42. Lance Mackey (30)

43. Allen Moore (57)

44. Rick Casillo (52)

45. Matt Failor (15)

46. Chuck Schaeffer (67) {R}

47. Yvonne Dabakk (33)

On the Trail to Shaktoolik

48. Timothy Hunt (68)

49. Lev Shvarts (40) {R}

50. Rob Cooke (2) {R}

51. Rohn Buser (31)

52. Laura Allaway (49) {R}

53. Brian Wilmshurst (50) {R}

54. Heidi Sutter (76) {R}

In Unalakleet

55. Jim Lanier (13)

56. Alan Eischens (7) {R}

57. Monica Zappa (53)

58. Lisbet Norris (41)

59. Becca Moore (47) {R}

60. Marcelle Fressineau (25)

61. Alan Stevens (77) {R}

62. Yuka Honda (60) {R}

63. Mark Selland (17) {R}

64. Steve Watkins (66) {R}

On the Trail to Unalakleet

65. Isabelle Travadon (43) {R}

66. Lachlan Clarke (5)

67. Cindy Gallea (64)

68. Trent Herbst (75)

On the Trail to Kaltag

69. Cindy Abbott (10) {R}

Scratched

Zoya DeNure (79)

Gwenn Bogart (14) {R}

Christine Roalofs (62)

Philip Walters (51) {R}

Ellen Halverson (35)

Gerald Sousa (44)

Jan Steves (45)

Katherine Keith (74)

Withdrawn

Brent Sass (71)

Freeze Warning!

Cold morning = good run



Cool sunrise

With temperatures in the upper 20's, it was a good morning to run the dogs.


Ellen: "Please, sir, may I have a run?"

Hooked up with Maggie in lead with Ellen, followed by Browning, then Nick, then Logan and Nucky. Down the field, across the waterway and into the woods. Maggie did pretty good, although she wanted to check out a couple of things off the trail.


"Take that hill!"

The woods were pretty and the trail is the exact opposite or the smooth, straight and flat rail bed - this one has plenty of twists and turns, with enough elevation changes to give quite the workout.


"Bring it on home!"

After just under 3 miles, we took the nice long, steady grade up the field and back home. A nice little jaunt, but I think we're ALL looking forward to really putting some miles on. Kind of depressing to spend twice as much time hooking up as actually running!

The Dog Yard

The Mushing Loon Kennels dog yard is behind our house, 100 or so feet to the north. We can see it from our kitchen window above the sink, from the kitchen table, out of the basement sliding door and directly from our deck.



To the north is our windbreak, behind that is a cornfield and across that is the woods that we'll run in the winter. I chose this location to be close to the house and easily viewed from inside. Each dog has a tree to the SW to provide shade, plus they can dig at the base. There is room for four more dogs, one more in this row and then three could be in a row across from them.



I used some old water pipes we had on hand, and bought the rebar swivel from Cold Spot Feeds for their stake outs.

I made the single-sheet plywood dog houses with the plans from Jon Little.

Alice and Nicky can reach each other and have a nice big hole between them. I gave them a nice log to play with and they take turns pulling it across the hole to their individual circles.

Alice loves to run around her entire circle, while Nicky runs along this side of his, then hops around to jog back.

They can see the driveway when cars pull up and they can see to the farm dogs in their run out by the barn. With bird feeders nearby they can watch them, as well as stalk the chickens who come to feed beneath.

I have a fifty-foot zip line behind them between two trees that they can run around on for exercise. Alice does great free-running but Nicky won't return reliably, so he is limited to the zip line for now. I hope to build a larger fenced in area for them to run, time and money allowing.

It sure is heartwarming to look out and see sled dogs in the yard!

Sled Dog Accident

Kasilof Musher Jon Little with injured dog Wolf

Photo By Joseph Robertia


Three sled dogs were killed in a training accident Sunday, and two others were injured, according to the Peninsula Clarion. One of the injured was euthanized Tuesday.

Long-time writer and musher Jon Little of Kasilof was returning from a training run with two teams pulling four-wheelers. His former handler Mike Barnett was running the second team, waiting for his turn to cross the Sterling Highway, when the team got out of control and darted in front of a moving SUV.

According to Little, the location near the highway's intersection with Kalifornsky Beach Road, has been dangerous for many years due to high traffic volume.

"It's a tragedy, but the dogs' deaths won't be in vain if this increases awareness about that intersection," he said.

Those wishing to contribute to the medical costs can log on to his website at http://kasilofkennel.bravehost.com/.