Saturday, July 18, 2009

Wasilla, Alaska - Home of the Iditarod Trail Headquarters

Well, today we learned more about the famous Alaskan Iditarod at its Headquarters here in Wasilla. The Iditarod Trail sled dog race takes place every March and represents the ultimate challenge in outdoor adventure. For the 70 or more brave souls (ranging in age from 18-69 this year) who start the trip, it is a human and animal trial of unimaginable weather and terrain conditions from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, a journey of over 1,049 miles. Each person, in their own way, bonds with their dogs and with nature. It certainly takes courage, stamina, endurance, skill and a little luck. One woman has done it 30 times and has come in the top 10 for the last 20 years. This year was the 37th running of the Iditarod.

At the Headquarters, we saw the puppies that will later become sledding dogs. We also had a chance to experience a ride pulled by actual musher dogs. Picture on the right is Jerry taking a ride and video-taping it. See Jerry's video and pictures below and on the side. (If you double-click on any of the pictures in the written blog, they will enlarge on your screen.)



The weather forecast has called for rain for the last three days and into the coming days. However, it hasn't rained during the day, just at night. The temperature is about 68-70 degrees. Perfect for biking, which we did to get to the Iditarod Headquarters, and yesterday, to bike into town for our usual Subway sandwich. Jerry brought back wood for burning at night and we have eaten all of our meals outside -- cooked on the grill by Jerry. (For those of you out there that do not know this by now, I don't cook. Jerry makes all of the meals. Can't beat that! And he loves to cook!!!)

Tomorrow we move on to somewhere else. We will figure out where that is tomorrow. After dry camping for four or five days, we like to go to a place that has full hook-ups.

Until next time, take the time to enjoy your life.

Jerry and Mary
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2 comments:

ceejay said...

Enjoying following your blog. It all looks pleasantly familiar and brings back good memories. I loved the dogs - did you know something like 6 of them died in this years Iditarod?. I was so impressed with them that I followed the whole race online this year. It was brutal. They had to go out and rescue several mushers too. Hope you get to see Denali - smoke ...or clouds, the statistic they gave us is that it is actually only visible 20% of the time. The other 80% its shrouded in clouds. You got a good chance tho, you can set your pace and hang around and wait!!!! Keep up the great blog. cj

July 19, 2009 at 8:32 AM
Jerry and Mary said...

Thanks, CJ, for your information and for following out blog. The video we saw at the Iditarod HQ of the 2008 race looked bitter enough.

July 19, 2009 at 12:27 PM

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