The team made it to Nome with one near miss but all ended well. Rosanne's birthday is today and the past few years we have been here. This makes for a stronger marriage - HA HA. 

Back to the race - Mackey is in Elim at mm 825 and is the only Musher that has moved in hours. Mackey reported his run to Koyuk was the toughest of this race and maybe ever. Baker and Schnuelle are moving now and are out of Koyuk at mm 787.    

M. Seavey and Burmeister are out of Shaktoolik but have not moved in 18 hours. Dallas Seavey and 14 others are in Shaktoolik and have not moved in 14 hours. If the tracker is right a few Mushers returned and lost mileage. 

The weather must be unbearable, with reported 35mph winds and -60. Neff suffered frostbite on his face and received medical attention. 3 rookie mushers, Darst, Matray and Packer have all scratched. Packer was rescued during an airplane search. A Musher fell asleep, woke up when he hit the ice, and was helped by the Musher in front who caught the team and by the Musher who was following that picked him up. This race could go down in the history books for many reasons.

Microchipping is used on each dog. This is like the collar tags used for identification. Each dog is scanned, the record comes up, and all the information is available at all the checkpoints. This along with the collar tag allows each dog to be returned to their owners. With 1,200 dogs in the race imagine what would happen without a system.   

I hope the ground blizzards cease and the race heats up. As of now there are only 3 Mushers moving.

Stay tuned and thanks for visiting the site. The next blog will be very interesting !! 

Rosanne and I just arrived in Anchorage. The clear view coming in was awesome with snow covered mountains everywhere. It's a beautiful sunny day, with light winds and 23 degrees. We leave tomorrow morning for Nome and today it was minus 20 burrrrrrrr.

Lance is resting in Unalakeet at mm 700. King, M.Seavey, and Neff are all racing and at mm 664. Burmeister is racing and at mm 655. Dallas Seavey is in 10th place, racing and at mm 633. Dallas said he is in full race mode now until it's over in Nome. Jen is in 57th and keeping her position.

Rookie Musher Rob Loveman (Bib #50) was withdrawn yesterday at Ophir. Rule 36 states a team may be withdrawn that is out of the competition and is no longer making a valid effort to compete. There are 63 Musher's left on the trail.

Sled dogs continue to amaze the Mushers and the Vets. They get stronger on longer runs and burn their food (metabolism) so efficient they seem to "flip a switch". They burn 12,000 calories a day from a fat laden diet without depleting their muscles' fat and sugar stores or growing tired. It's not clear just how they do it! Tests will be done to see if the hidden secret can be found.

I will discuss dog collar tags tomorrow. Thanks for using this site. Please share with a friend and stay tuned for a great race finish!!