Iditarod 2013 - The Official Start is Here! - March 3, 2013

The day after the Ceremonial Start is the Official Start of the race. Game faces are on both the dogs and the humans, but it's still a big party for the spectators. Before we get to the dogs, here's an idea of the rest of the event.

The official start takes place in Willow, AK... about an hour and a half's drive north of Anchorage. It's on a lake, and then the teams mush into the woods where they see very few people over the following 1000 miles.

Looking "up" the chute...

Looking "down" the chute toward the woods.

There was a lot going on out on the ice, with ice fishing huts, snow machines, other snow vehicles (you could get rides on those and they'd take you all over the lake. Looked like fun but I didn't partake), and even semi trailers and food trucks that you can't see in this photo. A small village set up on the lake for the day... I love that it's just so normal to spend a day hanging out on a lake in the winter around here!

A beautiful spring day... and people are acting like they're not walking on water. ;)

Capturing the view from above... they were flying around part of the time.

It's an Alaskan beach!! So fun to see kids playing as if they were at a beach in the summertime. Snow is probably easier to work with than sand when making sculptures and things, too!

So, they set up a long chute for the teams to run through as they cross the ice and go into the woods. Lots of people lined either side of this chute, and they continued along the trail into the woods and beyond. It was quite bright out there with all the snow around, and I didn't compensate very well for that when taking photos, but they could be much worse, too.

We set up our chairs down a ways from the starting line so we didn't see all of the hubbub that occurs as the teams are waiting for their chance to start down the trail (they are released from the starting line every 2 minutes sharp), but I did get a video of Scott Janssen's team waiting for their turn. I know I say it a lot, but these dogs are just so excited to do what they were born to do! Tails are wagging, they're barking, pulling on the harnesses... it's torture having to be patient! :)

Iditarod 2013 Official Start from Mary-Beth Schreck on Vimeo.

Alright, let's get to the photos of the teams running past our spot along the fence.

This is Newton Marshall, who is from Jamaica. He finished the Yukon Quest, and then wanted to run the Iditarod. He finished the Iditarod in 2010.

Jeff King... He ended up finishing this Iditarod in 3rd place after scratching last year.

I think this is a neat photo... It must be this dog's version of a "high five"! :)

Here comes Aliy! And there's Quito at front right (from Aliy's view) looking happy as can be! She and Aliy are competing for biggest smile as they start on their 1000 mile trek.

Happy doggies! The mushers have to ride the brake through the crowd because these dogs are so excited to be running... their adrenaline is pumping!!

Mitch Seavey. He ended up winning this year's Iditarod... his second Iditarod win. Last year it was his son, Dallas, who won the race and became the youngest musher to win.

Jake Berkowitz... he finished this year's race in 8th place. Even more impressive is that he finished with 15 of the 16 dogs he started the race with and won an award for excellent dog care throughout the race.

There they go down the trail... there's ALWAYS an adventure ahead!

Ok, I suppose that's enough happy dogs for now. 'Til next time...

Fur Rondy 2013 - World Championship Sled Dog Race and Snowshoe Softball 2-23-13

An Alaska tradition that precedes the start of the Iditarod each year is a festival called "Fur Rondezvous" or Fur Rondy for short. There are several activities going on throughout the festival, from ice sculpture contest to a blanket toss to a hunter's and trapper's ball to snowshoe softball and a world championship sled dog race. The highlight for me of course is the sled dog race. :) This year I was able to watch  the race from a different location than 2 years ago, and it was neat to see it from a different perspective.

First we must start with the snow machiners leading the way. Not to mention that this is one of those things that may not be "Only in Alaska", but is still a strange enough sight on downtown streets.

Here they come! This race is a sprint race, so much faster paced than a long-distance race like the Iditarod. This spot we picked this year is at the bottom of a hill, so the dogs are sprinting down the hill and the mushers are working to keep the dogs under control.

Happy dogs!! This team is all Siberian Huskies, and it was a pretty warm day (I believe around freezing) so you'll see later on when they are coming back up the hill that the heat is taking its toll on these dogs. Most of the sled dogs in Alaska are Alaskan Huskies (what you see in most of the other photos here), but there are actually several different breeds of dogs that enjoy pulling and running.

They love this! So happy to be running.

I especially love the brown dog here... he/she is focused and on a mission!

After all the teams went down the hill, they continued on the trail through the city and then come back up the hill on the way to the finish. While we were waiting for the teams to come back, we walked around a little and found this snowshoe softball game. We just watched from afar, but it looks like a lot of fun!

If you look closely (you might want to click on it to make it bigger), you can see a woman running to first base. Snow is flying!

And... down she goes (see the snow flying behind her?). I bet it's a lot of fun to play and try to run in snowshoes! Maybe one day I'll give this a try.

These are the type of snowshoes the players wear.

And back to the dogs... we're now at the top of the hill watching them as they climb the hill. It's not a long hill, but it's pretty steep and is near the end of the race (did I mention it's a sprint??) when the dogs are getting tired. You can see they're not bounding up the hill quite like they were bounding DOWN the hill earlier! Many of the mushers were running behind the sled, too.

The teams are sometimes pretty close together here and even overtake another team along this stretch. Pretty fun to watch.

Here's a video of teams running up the hill... one team is overtaking the other, too!

2013 Fur Rondy World Championship Sled Dog Races from Mary-Beth Schreck on Vimeo.

And here's the team of Siberian Huskies... they ended up coming in last this day, and looked quite warm! They did it though... and I didn't even hear any complaining. :)

'Til next time...