I got back from the trail last night. 49 teams finished out of the original 69. Most who scratched did so in that stretch going down the Alaska Range mentioned above. But one -- who should have finished first and had done so 4 times before -- scratched less than 4 miles from my Safety Roadhouse checkpoint. They were less than 25 miles from the finish line, eight days into the race, with over an hour lead over the closest competitor. But a hellacious wind storm on the Bering Sea coast kept pushing them around, and ultimately the musher decided his dogs could not continue so he secured them together in a huddle on his sleeping bag, and began walking to my checkpoint for help. Sometime around then, the team that was in second passed him and his dogs without seeing them - probably because one or both teams had lost the trail due to low visibility, and were parallel to it. But luckily, the musher on foot got picked up by some snow machiners who were also trying desperately to make it to Safety Roadhouse. So both of the mushers and 8 stunned snow machiners were in my checkpoint all at the same time, trying to warm up while comparing tales of the unforgiving trail. It was cold and dark inside the Roadhouse, as power and heat had been lost with the storm, and frigid drafts easily invaded the scanty shelter. But soon the Iditarod media crew, who were present before either of the mushers showed up, snow machined the 4 time champ Jeff King back down the trail to load up his team, and all of his dogs were at the checkpoint in less than a couple hours. Their race was over but at least they were safe.
But it just kept getting more bizarre. While the new leader (Aliy Zirkle) waited out the storm inside the checkpoint, a third musher (Dallas Seavey) came through. He was young and determined to make it out of the storm, so he didn't stop other than for the mandatory vet check that accompanies every checkpoint. The winds were still ferocious even if they may have relented a little; however, his team was handling it well and of his dogs all looked good. When Dallas pressed through, Aliy donned all of her outer gear again, re-bootied her dogs, and got back on the trail 20 minutes behind him. But Dallas managed to stay ahead of her, and 22 miles down the trail, his team finished two minutes faster. He didn't even know it, as he thought both King and Zirkle were still in front of him. Though he may have deserved it, it was a little heartbreaking since this was Aliy's third consecutive second place finish. So many people, including myself, wanted her to win!
It was all so surreal, but I swear, I made none of this up! It was all over the news:
http://www.adn.com/2014/03/11/3368344/blasting-wind-forces-king-from.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/alaska-racers-king-zirkle-fight-iditarod-lead-22852472
It was one of the most exciting -- and weird -- nights of my life. After the two racers left us, the scratched musher Jeff King stayed with us for another 12 hours. Though he had been to that checkpoint at least 19 times before (one for each race he'd finished), he had never been inside the roadhouse until that night. That's because Safety checkpoint -- at 22 miles -- is so close to the finish line, everyone wants to just finish their long race. Lucky for me, I got to spend a time there with a four time Iditarod champion. I was one of his consolation prizes, better than staying out in 60 mph winds if you ask me.
There was a lot of drama that first night, but by the next evening power was back on and the wind had quieted substantially. Most of the other dog teams passed without event. Five teams at the back of the pack stopped for a few hours because they needed a rest after the 10" of new snow we had gotten by them. I got some good pictures of these teams but none at all of the front runners. So I cap this thread with a few feel good moments when I was close to those amazing athletes known as sled dogs.
