Willow Restart
After more than a year of planning, saving, training and everything else, Cole officially started her first Iditarod yesterday and is now on her way to Nome. Penny and Oaky led her out of the chute and the start went great. There is also a FANTASTIC story about Penny on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News today. Here is the link hopefully: http://www.adn.com/2010/03/07/1172821/29-pound-lead-dog-has-right-stuff.html
If the link didn’t work just search the Anchorage Daily News site, the title is “29-pound lead dog has right stuff.” It’s a very well written story that mentions several of the people who helped get us to the starting line, including Kassik’s Kenai Brew Stop and the Nikiski Extened-Life Animal Sanctuary.
Also, for anyone following the race, the Iditarod’s “race updates” page appears to be very behind in actual updates. Cole is NOT in 70th place. IN a race this large with so much emphasis on keeping track of everyone, sometimes it take time for the checker with the clip board to go inside, tell the radio operaters the standings, then get the standing back to the computer people who then put it on the site. It is FAR BETTER to track Cole using the LIve GPS tracking under the Iditarod Insider tab of the website. It’s free and has been very accurate. Last time I check, Cole was in around 50th place and almost two checkpoints ahead of where she was listed on the “curent standings” site. So so far, she is perfectly executing her race plan and she’s exactely where she wanted to be at this time.
O.K. all for now, have to make the drive back to Kasilof to check on all the dogs that didn’t go who have been staying with our friend Laurie. Look for more infromation as soon as I know more, and enjoy these photos from the Restart.
Here is the GPS tracker getting attached to Cole’s sled. This thing was way larger and heavier than we hoped, but it is nice to know where she is at all times.
Cyder with his “pee bag” attached. All the dogs got their mandatory drug test before leaving the chute. Cyder hated it the most, as evident by his face.
The motley crew that helped us the last few days. From left to right: Uncle Jeff Morrow, Ross Morrow (Cole’s Bro), Joseph, Russet Morrow-Breslau (Cole’s sis kneeling), Cole, Kevin Hayes, Deb Hayes, Lynn Robertia, Joe Robertia Sr and Will Morrow( Cole’s bro kneeling).
Cole headed to NOme.