Not this year's picture, but ....

 

Today is an exciting day for the Iditariders.  They are people who have paid anywhere from $600 to $7500 to ride in the basket of the sled with a musher for the 11 miles of the Ceremonial Start through downtown Anchorage and out to Campbell Airstrip Airport on the BLM on the outskirts of town.  The mushers do not use their full team of 16 dogs but take only 8-12.  They also have a second sled with another musher, usually their dog handler, attached to the first sled.  All of this extra weight makes the speed along this trail more acceptable for intown travel and the 'parade' this day really is.  These dogs want to run!

The picture above shows you several things: the harnesses, the pull lines that go from the harness to the gang line that comes in 6-8 foot sections with a place to attack 2 pull lines (so there are 4 sections in the above picture) and the front of a sled.  This picture was taken out at Karin's when the dogs were doing just a short run and did not need to have booties on.  Today and during the actual race they will wear booties that are changed about every 50 miles and cost nearly a dollar each.  Booties are made of a strong cloth and have a velcro top; they protect the dogs paw pads and keep the snow from getting packed into the paw.

The first musher today will be the winner of the Jr. Iditarod, Noah Pereira of New York, who will wear the honorary bib #1 and will leave the start line at 9:56 a.m. followed by the Iditarod mushers starting at 10 a.m. and every 2 minutes thereafter x 66 mushers.  And, if I have done my math right, the last musher - bib # 67 - will leave the start line at 12:10 p.m.  It should take about two hours to do the 11 miles.  Gwen and I are stationed close to the end of the trail so I guess we will be there until after 2.  At least we don't have to be there until nearly 10 to help make sure the people park in the right areas and don't mess up the trail.  Karin should be through about 1 o'clock and will then head home to start packing her sled in earnest.

It is 23 degrees right now and should be up to 31 by the time we are through.  No need for a gazillion layers but I will wear my good boots and take my tennis (?) shoes with me in case I get too warm.  Here is a link to a cute video Karin did on how to dress for minus 50 degrees, done in the office/spare bedroom of her home in Willow/Talkeetna.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRPiEsYOYuc