About the half way point

The actual mileage half way point of this year's Iditarod trail is a few miles out of Huslia, the checkpoint where the leader pack--at present --is mostly tied up for their twenty-four hour layover. Nobody is quite there yet. Quite a few mushers are also doing the layover rest at Galena, the checkpoint just before Huslia also.

Aliy has just hit the trail after her long stop at Galena and is leading Mitch Seavey, who took his 24 at Ruby, still farther back, by a few miles. I expect she will zip right along with her sixteen rested dogs, maybe snack them and rest a time or two before reaching Huslia, and then breeze right on through toward Kaltag. That's where this trail will meet and permanently rejoin the traditional one. Several others will be leaving Galena this morning as well including Jessie Royer and Michelle Phillips. At bib number 3, Jessie has a lot of time added to her rest as part of the 'even out the playing field' adjustments. Aliy had just under two hours since she is carrying number 32 of the 78 starters.

There was a very interesting interview from yesterday with Martin Buser that I just watched. Some of the crew following the race caught up with him resting along the Yukon between Galena and Huslia. What he said was amazing! This is his thirty-second Iditarod and he indicated he was not going to rush madly to try to get to Nome first. It's time to enjoy the race and not worry about speed whether he finishes first or twenty seventh. Take time to smell the pee-mail (for the dogs) and check out the cabins and ghost towns and such (for him.)

From the driven competitor that he has always been, that's quite a switch! It is possible he is just messing with the heads of the other mushers but I am inclined to think he meant it. If he won for a fifth time, then he'd have to try for the sixth since he'd just be one of two people with five wins and so on. He's not 'old' as mushers go but far from a kid now and he's certainly got laurels to rest on. Maybe let his son Rhon start forging ahead to get the glory. I wonder if Jeff King will come to that too? He scratched from the Yukon Quest this past run and for now is in the lead pack, having left Galena a bit before Aliy and some others.

Top on the leader board for now, Aaron Burmeister has done well but admitted to some delays and issues recently. He has two females in season and has put them in the lead since it is too distracting to  his mostly-male team to have them in the middle. I think I would perhaps put them at wheel--right before the sled--but it's his call. That slowed his run from Galena to Huslia quite a bit. Whether the problem will be over by the time his twenty four is up remains to be seen. It's coming on spring even in Alaska--but 40 below like the old song said! Bitter cold in the area with -27 at Fairbanks and -7 at Nome for now, the two ends of the trail.

Anyway, this issue is not an uncommon problem since most sled dogs are not neutered. You want to get litters from the really good ones and they have to run some races before you can fully assess their quality. Keeping down unwelcome breeding and managing the natural upset among a group of dogs can be a challenge. Sometimes fights or accidental matings do occur. At checkpoints and stops, dogs can get loose and visit other teams and so on. Now and then it even works out well! In an interview musher Matt Failor praised his lead dog Rebel who was the result of an accidental King/Buser lines cross that happened in such a way.