IDITAROD: Special Coverage from APRN

on March 12, 2008

in Iditarod 2008

. 8 Comments

Join us on Twitter for live coverage right up to the end of the race!

Lance Mackey has already passed the Safety checkpoint. So far, Jeff King has not poured on enough speed to make up the 1-hour difference in their starts from White Mountain. So it looks like Mackey’s race to lose at this point.

You can see a spreadsheet we’re updating as we countdown to someone’s victory.

If Mackey does indeed win this race, he will set yet another dog sledding record, with this unprecedented winning streak:

Iditarod 2008
Yukon Quest 2008
Iditarod 2007
Yukon Quest 2007

Will Elim checkpoint trick put Mackey into Nome first?

Published

on March 11, 2008

. 3 Comments

The race is literally on in the Iditarod as the two front-runners begin the final 77-mile run to Nome. A winner is expected early tomorrow morning. Lance Mackey left the White Mountain checkpoint at 4:53 p.m. this afternoon, and Jeff King will follow him out nearly an hour later at 5:50 p.m. The next group of mushers vying for third are more than 4 hours behind, giving the two leaders a wide berth. Ramey Smith, Ken Anderson, Hans Gatt and Martin Buser are all taking their mandatory 8-hour rests in White Mountain in a tightly packed group. They’ll leave the checkpoint within 30 minutes of each other starting at 11:44 p.m. tonight.

Be sure to listen to the attached audio report from the trail — it includes the tale of a practical joke (very practical) from the Elim checkpoint that might make Mackey the winner yet again. He played “the oldest trick in the book” for Iditarod mushers and caught Jeff King at least partially off-guard. Given the tight nature of the remainder of the race, this little trick might make the difference between winning and losing.

Libby Casey, KUAC - White Mountain

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Follow the race conclusion on Twitter

Published

on March 11, 2008

in Iditarod 2008

. Closed

Just a note for fans following the end of the race. We’re doing live online coverage of the last legs of the race online via Twitter.

You can find our Iditarod tweets online here:

http://twitter.com/iditarod

Given such a close race with only 70-odd miles to go, this should be fun! Be sure to send us your thoughts via Twitter as well.

Race reporter Libby Casey, who reported from White Mountain earlier today, is on her way to Nome to greet this year’s champion.

BONUS: If you follow us on Twitter, you’ll also be updated when a new post appears on this site.

DOUBLE-BONUS: We’re also re-posting tweets from other Twitter users worldwide (so long as they use the word “iditarod” in their tweet).

Crow Village Iditarod Blog

Mackey looking over his shoulder again

Published

on March 11, 2008

in Crow Village Iditarod Blog and Iditarod 2008

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Lance Mackey doesn’t have a sit down sled, but if he ever gets one, he might consider putting a swivel seat on it. After all he has been looking over his shoulder a lot lately. It happened last month he won the Yukon Quest 1000 mile sled dog race. “I think my heads on backwards. I’ve been looking over my shoulder for the last 100 miles.” Mackey stated referring to his slim lead over Ken Anderson in the latter stages of that race. With 77 miles left to the Iditarod finish, Mackey has to worry about 4 time Iditarod winner Jeff King catching up to him as he waits out his mandatory 8 hour layover at the White Mountain checkpoint.

King has been hounding Mackey since the race entered the Yukon River a bit past the half way point. He has admitted passing Mackey’s team on a few occasions while Mackey had pulled off to rest, but he has only entered one checkpoint in front of him at Unalakleet. King has been letting Mackey rest a bit longer at the checkpoints and then catching up to him with a faster paced team on the trail. That strategy failed him at the Elim checkpoint however as it was reported that Mackey successfully snuck out of that checkpoint without King knowing about it. Mackey was on the trail for 70 minutes before King woke up and was able to depart, and he was not able to make up much of that difference as the trail worked its way over the 1,000-foot Kwiktalik Mountain summit that mushers call “Little McKinley.” King arrived at the White mountain checkpoint 57 minutes after Mackey.

Both teams will be off their layover at White mountain later tonight with Mackey enjoying a 57 minute lead on the departure. While that lead is significant, King has not given up yet. He will likely drop 2 dogs leaving him with 14 compared to Mackey’s 11. King hopes that will translate into a faster pace as they still need to negotiate the pass over the Topkok Hills. Either way, Mackey will still be looking over his shoulder.

Mackey first to White Mountain

Published

Libby Casey

on March 11, 2008

in Iditarod 2008 and Reporter's Notebook

. Closed

Mackey was first into White Mountain, beating King by 57 minutes. That’s a substantial lead for the last 77 miles. Incredible. Many of us race watchers thought King would eat away at Mackey’s lead prior to reaching this vital checkpoint. But King may not be holding the cards after all.
Mackey only had a three minute lead on King in Elim, 46 miles back from here. But Mackey left the checkpoint 50 minutes ahead. Mackey says he snuck out of the checkpoint–his dogs were bedded down on straw, it looked like they would stick around… but Mackey took off:

“Grabbed my stuff, slowly made it outside, trying to sneak out, the next thing I know there’s 10 different people, cameras, snowmachines, nothing sneaky about it. But it was so cool, grabbed front dogs, took off down road, nobody knew nothing. People running down road after me, ‘ya leavin?’”

King says he found out soon that the rabbit had sprung head, but he rested a while longer.

People are recalling the crazy race of Dick Mackey, Lance’s dad, and his race down Front Street in Nome against Rick Swenson. Dick won by a dog’s nose — literally.

More to come later — I’m at White Mountain checkpoint and watched both teams come in this morning. Few reporters here.

Mackey arrived at 8:53 this morning with a fast-moving team. We all counted the minutes until King arrived. Lance said every minute without Jeff there gave him an advantage, since they have to take a mandatory 8 hour rest here. The time distance between them coming in will be the same going out for the last power stretch of 77 miles through Safety to Nome.

Mackey works on his dogs’ paws. He ran them without booties into White Mountain.

Jeff King says Mackey’s able to call up his dogs and put them into a reserve power-gear when he needs to.

King’s dogs arrive in White Mountain.

Less than 24 hours to go in Iditarod 2008

Published

on March 11, 2008

in Iditarod 2008

. 1 Comment

Lance Mackey blasted through Golovin this morning with Jeff King apparently deliberately hanging behind him. When the two of them come into White Mountain for their mandatory 8-hour layovers this morning, there will be 77 miles left to Nome. Both teams will be rested for that final race. Jeff King has remained just minutes behind Mackey, with more dogs.

Behind those two, the race is tight. Every team is turning out to be a strong competitor. At this point, Martin Buser leads Hans Gatt, Ken Anderson, Ramey Smyth, Paul Gebhardt, Mitch Seavey, Kjetil Backen and Rick Swenson.

The champion of this year’s race is expected to arrive in Nome sometime overnight tonight (Tues 3/11 - Wed 3/12).

Crow Village Iditarod Blog

Owens on Iditarod home stretch

Published

on March 11, 2008

in Crow Village Iditarod Blog and Iditarod 2008

. 3 Comments

The dog team of 18 year old Melissa Owens naturally picked up speed as they crested the Kaltag portage looking down into Unalakleet. “The lights looked like Nome and I think they knew were getting closer,” she said. The Bering Sea coast should look familiar to Owen’s team. She lives and trains in Nome within earshot of the Iditarod finish line. Perhaps this familiarity will help spur her team to the finish line quickly enough to earn her rookie of the year honors.

Owens turned 18 just 3 weeks ago making her the youngest female to ever to compete in the Iditarod - a race that requires its human competitors to be at least 18 years old. She has literally been involved in dogsledding her entire life. Her father first raced the Iditarod in 1987 and he brought the infant Melissa up to the stage with him when he drew his number. Melissa and her brother Michael raise and train their own dogs including some that can trace their lineage to her fathers teams in the ‘87 and ‘90 Iditarods.

Owens left the Shaktoolik checkpoint with 200 miles till her hometown finish line as the highest placed rookie in 24th place overall. She gained that spot during a run of more then 100 miles from Nulato to Unalakleet. Perhaps sensing the home stretch her dogs picked up speed the whole way so she decided to just keep going through Kaltag, then past Tripod Flats, and Old Woman Cabin on into Unalakleet. Her closest competitor for Rookie of the Year honors is 48 year old William Kleedehn who left Shaktoolik more then 3 and 1/2 hours after Owens.

Funding for Owens journey to the famous burled arches of her home town was made easier when she became the recipient of the 2008 Seppala Heritage Grant. The grant founded by the Seppala Family comes with a $10,000 donation and a four-year commitment of $10,000 per year per recipient. Earlier this year, Owens picked up the Humanitarian Award at the Kuskokwim 300 race. The Humanitarian Award, which is chosen by the veterinary staff and presented to the musher who, in their opinion, takes the most outstanding care of their dog team based on their level of experience.

Owens is the only musher in this year’s race that lives and trains in Nome. Understandably, she greatly anticipates crossing under the finish line in front of her friends and family. “I’m curious to see how the crowd in Nome reacts to me coming in versus the winner, being the hometown musher—and a young one at that,” she said.

Unalakleet hosts Iditarod rush hour

Published

on March 10, 2008

. Closed

The Iditarod trail sled dog race is entering the final push as Lance Mackey checked into Koyuk at 1:19 p.m. this afternoon and Jeff King chased right in behind him 8 minutes later. Checked out of Shaktoolik and heading toward Koyuk now are Ken Anderson, Martin Buser, Ramey Smyth and Hans Gatt. Checked into Shaktoolik are Paul Gebhardt, Mitch Seavey, Kjetil Backen and Rick Swenson. The Iditarod’s Unalakleet checkpoint saw heavy traffic this morning, as the second tier of mushers pulled in off the trail for a few hours rest. There’s plenty of action and a few surprises for race watchers that ought to keep this year’s race just that — a race — all the way to the finish.

Ellen Lockyer, APRN - Unalakleet

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Families that mush together, stay together

Published

on March 10, 2008

. 1 Comment

Mushing the Iditarod is usually a solo journey between the team of musher and dogs. But some racers have family members out on the trail. KUAC’s Libby Casey has more about the unique relationships in this year’s race.

Blake and Jen Freking work with their dogs in Takotna. The husband-wife team has a kennel of Siberian Huskies in Minnesota.

Libby Casey, KUAC - Unalakleet

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Iditarod sled dog killed in snowmachine collision

Published

on March 10, 2008

. Closed

A dog in the team of Minnesotan Jen Freking was killed Sunday night by a snowmachine. Freking was on the trail between Galena and Nulato, near Koyukuk. Iditarod officials say her dog Lorne was killed and another was hurt when they were hit around 10:00 p.m. last night. They said Freking is devastated, but has decided to continue on the trail. This is the second dog death in this year’s Iditarod.

You can read a notice about this event on Freking’s web site here

Libby Casey, KUAC - Unalakleet

NOTICE POSTED ON JEN & BLAKE FREKING’S WEB SITE:

At 10 PM Sunday night, March 9th, Jen’s team was struck by a snowmachine on the Yukon River between Galena and Nulato. 3 year old Lorne was killed and Aries was injured. They emailed the message below from Nulato at 2 pm March 10th. -Cindy

After a good rest and reflection, we decided as long as the rest of the dogs were healthy and ready to go, we would continue to Nome. Aries spent the night here at the school getting IV fluids and pain meds. He was flown out this morning for further care. He has been a really good boy through all this. He has a lot of soft tissue damage beneath his left shoulder, but he has been stable and calm the whole time. Hopefully, he will be able to recover fully. Lorn had been an incredible member of the team the whole race. She had eaten well and performed 100% the whole way… I was so very proud of her. The accident was the worst nightmare imaginable. We are so lucky neither Blake or I was struck and more dogs were not injured. I thought we had just witnessed half my team killed at the time.

After 3 hours of sleep, we went out to feed and the dogs were all quite perky and ate great. At the time of the accident, we were both sure our race was over. However, on the long run to the checkpoint we realized we would be working through this tragedy wether we were on the trail or scratching. If we were not traveling together as we are, it would be harder to go on. But we have eachother for support and company. We just want to travel the rest of the trail with no thoughts of competition at all.

Thank you for all your support.

Jen and Blake

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