That’s the amount of gear and food I dropped off yesterday for Iditarod. Still well over the average of 1800 – 1900 lb. that most mushers send, but heck, I like to be well prepared! Last year that over-packing came in very handy when I had to unexpectedly take my 24-hour layover in Rainy Pass! I hope nothing like that happens again this year, but if it does, you can bet I will have something to feed us all!
To give you all an idea of what went into that ton (literally) of bags – for the dogs I packed their Firstmate kibble, horsemeat, beaver, healthy meatballs (these are meatballs made up with all their extra vitamins and such for the trail! Made up by our friends, Jackie and Rick.), herring, salmon, turkey skins, pork fat, and beef guts (the stinkiest thing in the bags – but well loved by the critters!). My food is definitely more appetizing – at least to me – it consisted of a huge variety of meals in vacuum bags (prepared by friends Lynda and Dwayne! Things like dilled sole and rice, roast beef and mashed potatoes, chili…), frozen orange sections, pepperoni, beef jerky, dried fruit, Pop Tarts, chocolate bars, Boost drinks, Capri Sun juice packs, Tang, and some Gatorade. Lots of things to look forward too!
Now that food drops are out of the way, I can focus on the running once again – although thanks to Lloyd and Vivian, I was able to get some good runs in even as we were working on the drop bags.
We brought 20 dogs up to Alaska with us. They are: Mork, Raptor, Butch, Jake, Camilla, Keesa, Cassie, Kaylinn, Oreo, Sissy, Chester, Gus, Orion, Draco, Grover, Mannie, Surge, Striker, Smiley, and Nik. Eleven of those are veterans off of last years team – a nice combination of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’.
Everyone is spunky and looking really good. I have a couple indications about which two of the four that may not go on to Iditarod, but the last two are going to be tough to cut! Two more weeks to decide!!
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