The top 10 is in flux, as always, with Aaron still in first place followed by Seavey the Younger, rookie Thomas Waerner, Ken Anderson, Hugh Neff, Martin Buser, New Zealander Curt Perano, DeeDee Jonrow, Jodi Bailey and Jeff King. Seavey the Elder and Aliy Zirkle are not far behind. Aaron has not yet taken any of his mandatory layovers. Aliy is taking her 24 in Glena and will soon be out on the trail again. Those layovers make it difficult to judge where everyone really is in the race, but that's part of the fun, right?
Aaron Burmeister made it to Huslia first last night, capturing the Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award and $3,000 in gold nuggets. You might remember he won this award in the 2014 race also.
Video of Aaron coming in to Huslia showed an enthusiastic crowd and a chipper Aaron pleased to be there and his dogs looking perky but tired. They were happy to settle in to the dog yard for a meal and a snooze. The City of Huslia presented him with some gorgeous sealskin gloves and a beautiful hat. He'll stay toasty on the trail if he uses those!
More bad news for Team Lance Mackey. During the run between Tanana and Ruby one of Lance's dogs died. Not many details are available at this time. Race officials announced that a necropsy will be performed to find out the cause of death.I imagine Lance is devastated. I know he is very close to all of his dogs. Wyatt's bio is on Lance's webpage. Run free, Wyatt. I know you'll be missed.
If you would like to send words of encouragement to Mackey or other mushers, you can now leave a “musher gram,” race officials say. Just give the name of the musher and leave a brief message, which will be typed out and given to that musher at his or her next checkpoint. The phone number is 907-248-MUSH.
I also just read that one of Lachlan Clarke's dogs died at the ceremonial start this year when he got loose from the team and was struck by a car in Anchorage. There have been no dog deaths on the trail since 2009 until this year. So sad. It breaks my heart to think of it.
The youngest musher on the trail this year is 18-year-old Ben Harper. Ben is currently ranked in 37th place, which is very respectable for a rookie. Despite poor clothing choices (he's wearing jeans under his snow gear and they aren't keeping him very warm), Ben is enjoying his first Iditarod and is learning fast what it takes to earn that belt buckle!
Other tidbits from the trail include Yuka Honda's dog tangle that resulted in Jeff King running over her sled and rendering it unusable. Watch Yuka talk about the incident. Luckily, she was able to get another sled and keep going in the race. She's currently in the final 10 at this point and resting in Ruby. Yuka is certainly going to have an unique story to tell from her rookie race!
Can you guess who this musher is? Hint: check out the color of...everything!
I expect things will be moving around a lot over the weekend. I'll be keeping up the blog over the weekend, so check back in and find out where your favorite musher is!
No comments:
Post a Comment