The Ceremonial Start
March 7th, 2009
She is officially started Iditarod 2009! She called Friday after the Starters Banquet to tell me she drew #45 leaving towards the end of the pack. Rick Larson, her mentor and kennel partner drew #5 leaving at the front. At first Laura was disappointed with her draw but as she spoke with the natives and Iditarod officials she began to be thankful for not being out front. This year’s snowfall has been incredible. There is 10-12 feet in the Eagle Island area and it is still coming down. The quality of the snow is wet and sloppy, similar to Washington snow. It tends to bog the sled down and makes it difficult to run with the sled. The blessing about being behind the front of the pack is the trail will be slightly better packed as Laura gets there. There will be a snow machine in front of the very first musher to break trail but none after that. This means falling too far behind may mean breaking trail through fresh snow that covers the tracks of the front runners. Another down fall of the back of the pack is the trail could be really “churned up” and rough from the passage of many other sleds. The best spot for her will be in the middle of the mushers. Also, as we follow her progress we may see her avoiding day runs as much as possible preferring the cooler temperatures and “faster” iced down trails of the night. Laura has always preferred night running anyway, thus the name of her kennel “Night Runner Kennel”. Only this time, it will be more strategy than preference.
As I talked with Laura she explained that the storms moving through Alaska right now would add yet another element to the race. In her terms, “It will make it more old school racing.” The mushers will have to use strategy and common sense as to when to leave a checkpoint for the next leg. They will have to watch the fronts moving through and decide when to run and when to hunker down. Once they leave a checkpoint it will have to be with the full commitment of pushing through to the next one. As a precaution Laura will be carrying more than the standard amount emergency food and supplies in her sled. Last year there was a lot of camping on the trail but as the snow is extremely deep off the trail and the weather is being unpredictable the mushers will be resting more in the checkpoints and less on the trail in between. Also because of storms we may see groups of racers stuck in villages for hours to days on end waiting out a storm. Laura is actually excited about this twist on the race because it won’t be a 1,150 mile sprint for Nome, it will have to be played strategically. This also may mean slower finishing times for the teams but higher placements will accompany those times because all the teams will be slower.
Not only will the amount of snow make the going slow but it has also resulted in an unprecedented amount of moose showing up on the trail. The moose have a hard time wading through the deep snow and where the trails are packed hard by months of use by snow machine the moose can walk easier. Even the locals have never seen the amount of moose they’re seeing now. Moose can be a dangerous animal for a dog team to come upon suddenly. The moose will see the dog team as a pack of wolves and will charge a team in self defense. Laura has come upon moose before on the trail and because her leaders sat and stayed quiet the moose didn’t see them as a threat and moved on but if a team starts jumping and barking in excitement the outcome could be much different. Laura, taking her lead from Park Rangers, will be carrying a flare gun this year as a non-lethal, humane deterrent for the moose population.
As for how she was feeling before the race she had these comments. “I feel more relaxed this year, I know what to expect. The snow dump has me concerned but that has every musher concerned.” I asked her what her goals were this year and got a classic Laura answer. “Of course, I’d like to beat last year’s time but it’s more about the dogs and how I run this race”. Laura said that because of the difficult trail and conditions this year it will give her an opportunity to practice what she preaches. Does she have a good attitude when things get tough? Do her dogs always come first? Can she help others along the way? These are the things that mean more to Laura than winning and if you ask me these things sound more like winning than getting prize money!