I just got back from a sojourn out through the Northern Tier of Tioga County, PA. I was looking for birds--apparently in all the wrong places. I'll post more about that later. Right now I want to focus on the final hours of the Iditarod.
There was one more scratch today. Scotsman John Stewart had to pull out after nursing his team all the way to White Mountain, just 77 miles or so from Nome. He had been having bad luck with injuries to his dogs and illness amongst the team--including himself. When he arrived at White Mountain he was down to just 7 dogs. Rules say you have to have 6 in the traces so perhaps attrition finally did him in. A story in the Alaska Dispatch from a few days ago chronicled some of his difficulties: Scotsman struggles to keep dogs happy.
That leaves just 55 mushers likely to finish the race with just five remaining on the trail. The good news is that all five have left White Mountain and look to be on schedule to finish their trek well before tomorrow night's awards banquet. (One is likely to reach Nome before I get to post this. Rookie Dave Decaro is just a few miles short of the finish line as I type.)
Rookie Scott White is at Safety, the final checkpoint 22 miles from Nome. He's been there for quite some time with just 7 dogs listed as being on his team. Hopefully for him, they will be able to continue after sufficient rest.
Heading to Safety is Ross Adam, and rookies Jane Faulkner and Celeste Davis. Davis has been running with 9 dogs and has been consistently slower than her girlfriend Faulkner who now has 10 dogs in harness. Of course, Celeste is also recovering from a broken nose she suffered back in the Alaska Range in the Dazel Gorge when she got tossed face first into a tree. She was sporting a lovely pair of black eyes in a photo from one of the checkpoints.
To qualify to run the Iditarod is no easy thing. That's why there are only 70 or so mushers who manage to do so each year. To make it all the way to Nome is quite a feat. To do so without having to drop one dog out of the team of 16 that you start with is as rare as pitching a no-hitter. Yet that is what Scotsman Wattie McDonald did this year. Although he officially finished in 45th place, he managed to bring every one of his dogs to the finish line in Nome. Way to go Wattie!
And in 47th place was Newton Marshall of Jamaica. In some of the checkpoint photos from the interior where it got to minus 30 degrees F, he did not look happy. Still, he was proudly waving the Jamaican flag as he crossed the finish line.
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