Sunday, March 4, 2018

Game Day!

Saturdays Ceremonial Start is over and done.....everything went without a hitch....complete with a few spills on the Cordova Street turn, which Jeff King for the second year in a row wiped out along with a few others!  Its a tough corner to make, even for a Veteran like Jeff! Now all the Teams are treking north to Willow for the re-start...which will begin at 6 PM eastern standard time.  I will fill out my "top ten" while I watch and ponder about the next 8 or 9 days.  The weather is a bit warm....actually its a lot like our Adirondack weather in March.....upper 20's/lower 30's during the day, with upper teens to lower 20's during the evening hours. That is somewhat warm considering its Alaska....but then its predicted to become much colder starting Thursday.

There is plenty of snow in the interior....making for perhaps a slower, softer trail.  Teams who have only been training on hard fast trails may have a bit of a hiccup on this race as they adjust to the conditions.  I am curious of what Mitch's sled is going to look like, as for several years now he has been hauling dogs behind him in a special trailer, which is no longer allowed.  I also learned this am that Joar Ulsom has never won a race in Alaska.....wow, I guess I never thought of that being a factor....but some think he doesnt feel comfortable in the lead.  Then there is Ray Redington who has combined kennels with Paul Gebhardt since Paul is sitting this race out as he battles bone cancer.  Gebhardt had a great run last year (10th) and Im sure some of his best dogs will be on Ray's Team.  Aliy will be my favorite to watch (and will be my #1 pick) as she is running with 13 Yukon Quest Champions from Allens First Place Team last month. Jessie Royer is in the mix along with young Wade Marrs and "4Pete" Kaiser.  Nic Petit, who has won every race he has entered all year atually had to borrow a few dogs from Jesse Holmes to fill out his Team, which I find odd.  Nic has a small kennel, so if some of his prime dogs tweaked a muscle or something he would have had to borrow dogs to fill out an Iditarod Team.  Nic is very bonded to his dogs, so having a few "stranger" dogs in there might disrupt his Zen out on the trail.....just speculation but something to consider as I make my wild guesses for my picks.

Here at the Adirondack Homestead we just wrapped up our 10th annual IditaParty. What a blast!  We watched the Ceremonial Start and toasted all of our favorite Mushers.....needless to say there was a lot of toasting going on!  It was Chemo's first IditaParty so the theme was celebrating his awesome career as an SP Kennel Sled Dog!  He was pretty pumped up for the event, as seen in this picture!


Check back daily for race updates....I'll be posting all the highlights as I find them....now lets get this party started! 

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