Okay, so it is Wednesday, and the
race starts on Saturday, what else is there to do in Anchorage in the winter? Plenty!
Today we got oriented to what was
happening this week. We went over the
Wassalia (about one hour north of Anchorage) to the Iditarod headquarters to
get a peek at the official “Vet Check”, where mushers bring their dog teams in
for a final check on their health and fitness to undertake a 1000-mile race.
It was a literal “zoo” with dogs,
mushers, dog trucks, volunteers and fans milling around. But it was so much fun! The dogs are so happy, and well taken care
of. What total fun to be here. And the mushers are so generous with posing
for photos and signing autographs like any really gracious sports figures. We met and talk with about a dozen of the
over 60 mushers who will be racing beginning on Saturday.
Highlights included being able to
watch the volunteer veterinarians in action, with stethoscopes in hand,
checking out the dogs. 
They looked at
their feet, their limbs, and their teeth.
All of these dogs have had blood tests and EKG’s this week. The vets (who also have flown in form around
the world) work to ensure that every dog athlete is prepared and healthy enough
to make the long run. The dogs will them
be checked out again at each checkpoint along the way. If either the musher or a vet feels that the
dog is sick, injured or just too tired, the dog can then be “dropped” out of
the team. There it will be cared for and
pampered, then flown back to Anchorage where it will be reunited with its
kennel. These dogs are VERY well cared
for.
The mushers were so happy to talk
with us as fan, and often asked, “Where are from? Have you been here before?” We met Cindy Gallea who now lives just outside of Rochester where
Patti grew up, and Matthew Failor, who is originally from Ohio where Dick lived
for 40 years. Mathew’s mom and sister
were also there for the race, and we had a lovely talk with them about what it
is like to have a loved one out on a 1000 mile wilderness trek (his mom said,
the first race he went on, SHE didn’t sleep the whole weekend with worry.) And Travis Beals, age 22, who is running in
his second race was so nice and pleased to have us meet his dogs and explain
what he was doing. He and his partner
Sara Stokey run Turning Heads Kennel together, and you could see they were
quite a team.
It was great to see the dog trucks
up close. This is the way that mushers
get 12-20 dogs form their home kennel to wherever they are racing or
training. The dogs, which are so well
trained, go in and out of the truck with minimal fuss. There actually was surprisingly little
barking for so many dogs all gathered together.
After we had spent several hours at Iditarod
Headquarters, we drove back to Anchorage (about an hour’s drive) through some
fantastic scenery. Mountains all
around! We took the time to stop at a
small park Mirror Lake where we had had a picnic lunch on a summer day. Today, the lake was frozen with snow all
around. As we soaked in the view, a
small plane with skis on it landed not far from where we stood. We are NOT in
San Diego any more!
We then went over to do a volunteer
shift at the Millennium Hotel, the in town Race Headquarters. There we assisted other volunteers in checking
in, getting their name badges, signing releases, and hooking them up with where
they needed to go. This races uses literally thousands of volunteers. Dick worked to get names typed into the database,
while Patti helped with some of the other paperwork. It was organized, but still pretty busy. We talked with folks from all over. We heard that several people had flown in
from South Africa. There are mushers from
Norway and Jamaica. And from every
state. This is an amazing gathering.
At the hotel, we had the chance to
meet a musher, Hugh Neff. He is one of
our favorites, because he uses his sled dog racing to support literacy. He told us that he does 50 school talks every
year. He was so nice, and we got to have
our photo taken with him and his dog.
The final even of a very long day
was a reception for an Alaskan native championship musher, John Baker. There we
got to see the kind of support that these men and women need in order to do
this event. Some estimate that it costs
the musher between $40,000 and $100,000 a year to train and take care of these
dogs and to run these races. Wow! It takes a village to run a dog team.
Finally, back to the hotel to
download the 500 photos that we took jut today.
It will have to wait until morning to post this. We are in Alaska. Wow!
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