Rogues Gallery Kennel Blog

After several hundred miles, Cole and the team pulled into Mcgrath today and they all looked great. Cole was in good spirits and the 16 dogs she had in harness continusouly pulled her hooks while she tried to check in and park. They had plenty of energy to keep on trucking, but Cole was sticking to her plan to rest for 24 hours in this very friendly village.

The temperatures was hovering at around minus 27 when she came in with a frosty face, and she quickly got the dogs bedded down on straw and fed. Stu Nelson, the head veterinarian for the race, was working this checkpoint and he personally and thoroughly examined every one of Cole’s dogs (See below of Waylon getting the once over). He said they looked great, which really made her proud.

With the clean bill of health, she will be leaving with all 16 dogs after her rest (see em all below), and she is currently one of only 10 people in the race who still have 16, butt will be interesting to see who leaves their 24-hour rest destination with 16. Hopefully, she can get all dogs to Nome beucase that would be a dream come true for her better even than winning I think.

After Cole’s chores, she finally filled me in on the last few days while she comsumed a gigantic free meal provided to the mushers by the residents of this village. She’s been using different dogs in lead, for different terrain and elements, based on the dog’s individual strengths. Out of Rainy Pass she said she got stuck in a huge blizzard that the front runners just missed. Traveling alone, since the next closest musher was 15 miles ahead, she said the team had to break trail in deep, deep snow for hours and Cyder was her go to dog for pulling through the powder.

Goliath (above- still looking perky and alert) has been leading the cold stretches, since he has such a thick coat and really seems to do his best work in the deep minuses. Penny of course has been a rock, but she said she has been trying to preserve her leadership skills for later in the race. Zoom, Arctic and Keno have also been making tremendous contributions. Kawlijah and Crumb have been consistently her two strongest dogs, but she said neither has wanted to lead in this race, which it a bit unsual for Crumb for sure. Several others dogs are also in heat, which is complicating their ability to lead, including Seeker, who seemed content to sleep under her “lucky cat” blanket this morning (see below).

As to the terrain, Cole said she was very surpised the the Happy River Steps and Dalzell Gorge weren’t any worse than some of the obstacles we routinely see in training, but she said the Farewell Burn was every bit as bad as it’s reputation. She said she pinballed off stumps and trees for hours, even snapping her bridle at one point, but thankfully she runs a back-up bridle. She also frostbit the tips of several fingers during the cold night on the river last night, but several mushers coming in seemed to also have this ailment. It was tough exposing hands to change the dogs booties without getting a little burned I guess.

Well, I gave up on trying to get home. After this morning’s early avalanche, there was another midday, so the road home was closed until 5 p.m. With everything still being iffy on if there could be more slides, I made the decision to stay in Anchorage another night because at this point I wouldn’t want to risk getting home and not begin able to get back tomorrow for the 8 a.m. flight to McGrath. (see photos above and below of my day starring at the dog truck from my hotel window. Can you spot it?).
I know Cole is really counting on seeing some familiar faces for her 24 hour layover at McGrath, and I don’t want to let her down. To get the dogs home, Cole’s brother Will is flying up tonight on a puddle hopper to drive the dogs home early tomorrow. Thanks for saving the day Will, it is becoming far too often that you save our butts, but we always appreciate it.
Speaking of Cole and the dogs, as I type this, her GPS tracker is currently reading a temperature of minus 431 degrees, so I hope she cracked a few handwarmers before she left the last checkpoint! Her thermometer must be malfunctioning, its read way too cold for the whole race, but thankfully it is still giving off her location. From following her on the internet, obsessively, it seems she has gotten through three of the major challenges of the race: the Happy River Steps, Dalzell Gorge and the snowless tussucks of the Farewell Burn. She now has cleared the Alaskan Range, and should be heading into the heart of Alaska where the terrain will mellow and open up and the bulk of the mountains will now be behind her.
As stated, tomorrow we fly out to McGrath where she will take her mandatory 24 rest. Hopefully when I get back I’ll have more stories and photos of the trail up to this point. I am very happy to see she is still in the race, and with all 16 dogs, just getting this far is a real accomplishment. Five other mushers were not so lucky today. I feel for these folks, some of which got sick, broke sleds or injured themselves.
Committing to Iditarod means SO many sacrifices. There were too many nights that we ran teams after work when it would have been so nice to sit down to a meal rather than wolfing down fastfood like a wild animal, or to sit down to a movie with a glass of wine, to relax rather than trucking dogs to the hills. It would have been nice to use vacation time and money saved to travel or go see family. However, none of these things are options to anyone who signs up for a 1,000 mile race. Committing to a race like Iditarod is a year-long commitment and a year-round life-style, so simply, it would suck to see all your hopes, dreams, goals and money go down the drain.
There’s still 750 miles of race left and I don’t know how this race will play out or if Cole and the dogs will make it all the way, but I sure hope she does. I would hate for us to have given up so much for her to not succeed at this long, long-term goal.