************************************************************
As a former resident of Anchorage, AK, one of my obsessions this time of year is the running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
This year, the big news is that there is so little snow, they had to restart the race in Fairbanks this year. That's a good thing, since it freshens up the race format a little bit and forces contestants to follow a trail that is closer to the one used during the historic diptheria-serum trek to Nome from Nenana that inspired the race. It also makes the more accessible to sprint mushers who usually crash and burn going in and out of the Alaska Range, within which stands Mount McKinley. (No, they don't mush anywhere near Mount McKinley. Yes, you can see it from parts of the trail.)
Still, trailbreakers riding on snowmachines are having trouble because the warm weather is causing the frozen rivers to unthaw around the edges a bit.
A little more than 220 miles into the 1,100-mile race, the leader is Norwegian musher and full-time firefighter Robert Sorlie.
It's hard to believe that until 2001, mushers didn't use GPS systems to track their positions. Until someone pulled in or pulled out of a checkpoint, there was no formal way of knowing where the mushers were in between..
I did a story in 1991 when I covered the race for The Anchorage Times about a French musher named Pascal Nicoud, who decided halfway into the race to mush back east toward Anchorage because his dogs came down with diarrhea. None of the Iditarod officials knew where he was until I called a restaurant in a small town in McGrath (population 423) and asked if they had seen Pascal. They had. He was sitting there at Rosa's Cafe, eating a bowl of soup.
The next year, the Iditarod adopted a rule banning mushers from going backward on the trail.
If you're interested in knowing more, The Anchorage Daily News has a great site with up-to-date details, photos and even an interactive map.The guide to mushers' gear also is pretty cool. Hard to believe those guys go out in that wilderness with so little stuff to get them between checkpoints.
In lieu of that, I'll post updates as the race goes on. Should be a good one.