Iditarod Winner - Mackey

Well Lance Mackey did it again! He was the first to arrive in Nome. He crossed the finish line with a strong string of 11 dogs at 2:46 a.m. March 12, winning the Iditarod in 9 days, 11 hours, 46 minutes and 48 seconds. This the second year in a row that Mackey won the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod.
Mackey with his lead dog Hansom. Can you tell this man loves his dogs?
Mackey and King were pretty close for a good portion of the race. Mackey set a trap for King in the village of Elim. Here's a short news clip of what happened:

The old Mackey magic was back. They trotted smoothly up to Elim. There, he set a trap for King. Mackey had his cooker going and was feeding his dogs when King pulled in, just three minutes behind him. King, who’d been exhausted since Kaltag, fed his team and lay down for a quick nap. Mackey sprung up when he heard the first snore and snuck out. King jolted awake 30 minutes later, figured out Mackey was gone, and got his own team up and out of the checkpoint. But he’d lost an hour on his rival by then.

On the ice out of Elim, hoping his ruse worked, Mackey wondered. “If this actually works, it would be one of the coolest things I’ve done in the race,” he said. “I don’t know how else to out-run him.”

I guess it is pretty common in the racing world to do things like that. At one checkpoint King fell asleep with his feet on Mackey's boots. That was the way he knew when Mackey was getting ready to leave the checkpoint. I believe it was Mackey's brother that in one race left a cooler behind in a ruse that he would be back in the bunkhouse to get it a few minutes later... by the time the other mushers realized they had been had. There are some pretty interesting articles on the race... and after reading the majority of them, I'd say these guys are pretty great people as well as excellant mushers.
(Photos were taken from Alaska Daily News.)
More updates:
Yooper Ed is currently in 30th and Jake is in 63rd. Rick Holt is in 58th.

Iditarod Update -

These pictures were taken by Mark and/or Patty Vink, Unalakleet, AK:Jeff King coming into Unalakleet. He arrived at 2:02 pm, stayed almost 5 hours and hit the trails again.

The above picture is Jeff King as he checks over his dogs. Jeff is one of two mushers that still has all 16 dogs. He is currently in White Mountain doing his 8 hour mandatory lay over. Patty noted that the Heet is used by the mushers to start fires along the trail.
Here is Lance Mackey coming into Unalakleet. He arrived at 3:32 pm and took off at 6:17. He is also now in White Mountain with 11 of his 16 dogs. He was about an hour ahead of Jeff King
coming into the lay-over. They have 55 miles to Safety, just a checkpoint, and then 22 miles to Nome... so here it is folks... the race is on!!! (Oh yea by the way, the Yoopers are currently in 31st and 62nd place. Rick Holt is in 56th place.)

From the Iditarod trail...

Ok, so I haven't taken any of Mark's pictures yet... but this picture appeared in Alaska News so I did "steal" it. The guy on the yellow machine is Mark. He is taking a picture of Jeff King as he comes into the Unalakleet area. Mark says he got lots of photos that I can "steal". So if I have permission... is it still stealing???? Hmmmm....
More later....

It's Friday!!!

Good day - of course most Fridays are good days! I really do love Fridays. I don't know what it is about them but they are all good! It's a busy time here in Alaska!
The Greatest Race Ever is taking place. I've been following that pretty faithfully. It seems that everyone has their favorite musher but this year most of the BSSD family is pulling for a rookie musher by the name of Rick Holt. Rick taught in Unalakleet for quite a few years. He is a pretty great guy and we'd all like to see him do well. (Check out the interview with Rick on our school webpage.) Of course we are still hoping for our favorites to win... I'm holding out for the Michigan mushers. There are two of them still in it, both from McMillan. Ed Stielstra is in 37th and Jake Berkowitz is back in 63rd. The thing about this race... it takes next to nothing for positions to change. One bad leg and you can lose many positions. Get lost on the trail... if the dogs get sick... so many variables.... The leaders should be in Unalakleet sometime this weekend. Mark is planning to take some pictures out on the trail so if he does... I'll "steal" some to post!
I said it was busy... we are also having our regional basketball games right now. St. Michael's boys lost their first game last night but there is still a chance.... Unalakleet is playing well - they have won their first two games and just lost their first game last night. It is double elimination so they still have a good shot! Top 2 teams go into ANC for state championships. Best of luck to Coach Patty and Coach Steve from UNK!
I'll keep everyone posted as to how things go...


Nancy and Jack... you better be cheering my musher on!!!