Update on Race Preparations

I finally have some time to bring you up-to-date on what Liz, the team, and I have been doing since our arrival in Willow, AK on January 15th. We arrived the evening of the 15th in a snow storm and the next day immediately started preparing for the Klondike 300 race. We had two days to prepare drop bags which had to be ready on Jan 17th for drop off at the mushers meeting in Big Lake. We proceeded to unload the dog trailer and the truck, move into the one room cabin, and get the dogs situated in the dog yard. We took the dogs to the vet check the morning of the 17th, went back to the cabin to finish the drop bags, and then back to Big Lake by 7pm to deliver the drop bags and attend the mushers meeting. We did it, with time to spare!!



The race began at noon on January 19th at the Tug Bar located on KnikGoose Bay Road, about an hour's drive from Willow. We arrived there at 9:30am and met Scott Brown, a fellow musher Liz met through Mushing Boot Camp. He agreed to help us at the start of the race. Scott and his wife Janet live in Washington state, but he recently accepted a job in Anchorage and had just moved up the week prior while Janet stayed back in Washington to sell their house and stay with their dog team. He was ready for a sled dog fix and it was great to have his assistance. Liz and the team got off to a thrilling start, taking a sharp left turn onto the trail and off they went! The only race updates were on the race website. Not having internet access at the cabin, I had to rely on help from the "Outside" from Jan in Montana who would check the website and call with any updates. We didn't find out until Monday that a snow mobile, or snow machine as they call them here in Alaska, had hit the team on Sunday. Everyone was fine, but Crimp seemed to develop some soreness and Liz thought it best to drop him at the Yentna checkpoint. Liz got the Red Lantern, finishing the race Tueday night. She and the team enjoyed the new experience of traveling on the Yentna River which she thoroughly enjoyed.



Then, the next 2 weeks were spent putting together all of the supplies for the drop bags for the Iditarod checkpoints. 19 checkpoints, 3 bags per checkpoint. We spent a week cooking, freezing, and vacuum packing her trail meals, stuffing chore gloves, liner gloves, socks, clothing, snacks, protein drinks and juices, and toiletries into zip loc bags. Every day was spent putting together some part of the supplies needed. Then Liz, Scott and I traveled to Fairbanks the first weekend of February to package all of the dog meat into zip loc bags. We also had to cut 300 lbs. of beef fat and package that as well as package 17 50 lb bags of kibble into zip loc bags. Charlie Champaign, who operates a dog meat business , cut 2100 pounds of beef, race diet,lamb, tripe, and chicken skins into 1/2 lb. chunks and froze them. We worked at his yard packaging the meat in below zero temperatues, i.e., -19 on Saturday and -34 on Sunday. We packaged meat on Saturday and Sunday and Liz put together her supplies for the bags. We accomplished alot, but by 6:30pm Sunday, we realized we would not finish the bags that weekend. So, we returned the following weekend and finished packing the bags in -30 degree weather and placing them on 2 pallets for Charlie to shrink wrap and deliver to the airfield on Monday morning for subsequent delivery to the checkpoints. Charlie's wife took several triumphant pictures of us standing between the 2 pallets, although you couldn't see the wide smiles on our faces hidden by our face masks. Many, many thanks to Scott who helped us both weekends!!!



Since then Liz has been taking the dogs out for training runs on the trails in Willow. This past weekend she ran the GooseBay 120, which started at the Tug Bar. Liz ran a team of 10 dogs and Kim, a fellow musher staying at the Willow "training facility" with us, ran Liz's remaining 9 dogs, so all of Liz's Iditarod candidates were able to get in a nice training race. Based on the training runs, Liz has narrowed the potential team down to 18 dogs. She will select 16 of them to run the big race. The dogs will have their pre-race vet check this Wednesday, and we will take her new Gatt sled to Anchorage later this week for shipment to the checkpoint where she intends to switch to the new sled during the race. She will start the race with a heavier Gatt sled which is better suited to negotiating the tough trail encountered during the first part to the race. Her new Gatt sled is lighter and also has a seat.



So, here we are less than 2 weeks before the race. It has been a month and a half of alot of hard work, continous planning, rethinking details, not much sleep, and trying to get in sufficient training runs. The dogs are in great shape and seem to look healther and happier each day. The other night it snowed and when we went out to the dog yard the following morning, the dogs looked beautiful in the new snow. Alaska snow becomes them!!!





Elaine