In about an hour, the All Alaska Sweepstakes Sled Dog Race will end, and either Mitch Seavey or Jeff King will have set a new record.
The record was last set in 1910 when "Iron Man" John Johnson finished the race from Nome to Candle and back in 72 hours 14 minutes. This year, the winning time will be about 60 hours -- quite a difference...
This is the commemorative centennial running of the Sweepstakes. The last time it happened was in 1983.
I have posted two stories about the race on the Alaska Public Radio Network Web site, to keep the state up-to-date on the mushers' progress. 16 mushers started the race on Wednesday morning. The roster is basically a who's-who of champion dog sled racers...
The Sweepstakes is a winner-take-all, $100,000 race. The Web site is www.allalaskasweepstakes.org
Here are the links to my stories on APRN:
Thursday's story
Friday's story
I will post photos later.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Iditarod 2008
Howdy,
I haven't posted in more than a month.
Quite a bit has happened, I guess. I've been out hunting for ptarmigan a few times, but still unsuccessful. The best hunting is in the early Fall and Spring, and it takes a couple hours to walk out to the spots with decent hunting.
We are currently in "Iditarod mode" at KNOM. I work 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Kristina works from 10 to 10 during the day, and Laura and Dave work 10 to 10 overnight. Lance Mackey won the Iditarod this year, for the second time in a row. Last year he was the first musher to ever win the Yukon Quest and and Iditarod in the same year. He did it again this year, so it was pretty exciting. Here is a video of the finish. It was at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday:
I do my regular duties for the news department in the morning, then I'm on duty to interview mushers as they come into town. It has been pretty exciting, but exhausting too.
I have been starting work at 6 a.m. instead of 9:30 since the race started on March 1st. Paul and Amy were on the trail following the mushers, so I had to make sure we had enough news for our casts every day.
At the house, a couple of different people loaned us snowmachines for a while last month. So I got to actually leave the city limits without being in an airplane. It had been a while. We went a few miles out onto the sea ice, and we saw a fox that was caught in a snare. It hadn't died yet and was bleeding and stumbling around, so that was kind of sad to see.
And my parents came up to visit in February. It was nice to have them around. They ended up cooking and cleaning for us, but they also got to see Nome and experience the "thrift store fashion show on Saturday night."
I will keep the posts more regular from now on. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to. Earlier this week when I was out hunting, I saw the back of what I think was a moose moving through the brush away from me. I got some pictures of the tracks and droppings, but I never got a better look. The tracks led up the frozen river:
I'm such a bad hunter that I'm just going to start saying I'm "hiking with my shotgun." At least the scenery isn't half bad (minus the rusted-out machinery near the airport).
I still haven't killed anything with my Mossberg, but there's a big difference in power between #4 birdshot in a 3-inch Remington Nitro Magnum, and #7 1/2 birdshot in a 2 3/4-inch Federal shell.
I haven't posted in more than a month.
Quite a bit has happened, I guess. I've been out hunting for ptarmigan a few times, but still unsuccessful. The best hunting is in the early Fall and Spring, and it takes a couple hours to walk out to the spots with decent hunting.
We are currently in "Iditarod mode" at KNOM. I work 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Kristina works from 10 to 10 during the day, and Laura and Dave work 10 to 10 overnight. Lance Mackey won the Iditarod this year, for the second time in a row. Last year he was the first musher to ever win the Yukon Quest and and Iditarod in the same year. He did it again this year, so it was pretty exciting. Here is a video of the finish. It was at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday:
I do my regular duties for the news department in the morning, then I'm on duty to interview mushers as they come into town. It has been pretty exciting, but exhausting too.
I have been starting work at 6 a.m. instead of 9:30 since the race started on March 1st. Paul and Amy were on the trail following the mushers, so I had to make sure we had enough news for our casts every day.
At the house, a couple of different people loaned us snowmachines for a while last month. So I got to actually leave the city limits without being in an airplane. It had been a while. We went a few miles out onto the sea ice, and we saw a fox that was caught in a snare. It hadn't died yet and was bleeding and stumbling around, so that was kind of sad to see.
And my parents came up to visit in February. It was nice to have them around. They ended up cooking and cleaning for us, but they also got to see Nome and experience the "thrift store fashion show on Saturday night."
I will keep the posts more regular from now on. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to. Earlier this week when I was out hunting, I saw the back of what I think was a moose moving through the brush away from me. I got some pictures of the tracks and droppings, but I never got a better look. The tracks led up the frozen river:
I'm such a bad hunter that I'm just going to start saying I'm "hiking with my shotgun." At least the scenery isn't half bad (minus the rusted-out machinery near the airport).
I still haven't killed anything with my Mossberg, but there's a big difference in power between #4 birdshot in a 3-inch Remington Nitro Magnum, and #7 1/2 birdshot in a 2 3/4-inch Federal shell.
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