The Big Finish

Looks like Lance Mackey's going to take it! As a matter of fact, I think he must already be in Nome. He left the last checkpoint before Nome at 4:44pm this afternoon and there's only 22 miles between Safety and Nome.

Lance's dad won the Iditarod and his brother also won. Both were wearing bib #13. I had heard at the start in Willow that Lance had camped out for 3 days to assure that he got bib #13. Now here he is, on the 13th of March, winning the Last Great Race! What a story! And he's setting records to boot.

The team he's running just won the Yukon Quest sled dog race a few weeks back. Some kennels have enough dogs to field 2 teams. But Lance's dogs are the same ones that ran in the Yukon Quest. At the end of this race, he's down to 9 dogs. He started out with around 14. The teams drop dogs along the trail and a herd of volunteer veterinarians care for the dogs as they are flown back to their homes.

I drove by this musher's truck on my evening commute today. This dog truck is apparently from the Salty Dog kennel (note the license plate). I don't know where that is, but they appear to be on their way either to or from a mushing event.

Dogsledding is a popular sport in this state, whether it's for the fun of it, or to strive to overcome one of today's greatest challenges... The Iditarod.