March 14, 2005 Deteriorating Trails

What a difference a day makes.  Record breaking temperatures, rain and deteriorating trails have taking their toll on our team.  Since I posted last, Karen has dropped 5 dogs, Grover, Skor, Kara, Dasher & Surge.  All were dropped for muscle or shoulder injuries caused by the soft punchy trail.  The dream of a 12 day race has evaporated and Karen’s Iditarod has quickly turned into a salvage mission.  Every checkpoint that Karen makes from now on will be a bonus, she will take as much rest as she can while she watches the trails disappear and the back of the pack pass her by.  I’m very confident in Karen’s dog driving abilities, and I’m positive that she will do whatever is best for her dogs.

Gus and Snickers are recovering nicely and the babies are doing fine. I’m off to the prison today to pick up two more dogs, I think that it’s Grover and Skor.

Well that’s all for now, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what today brings.

Later,

Mark

(Editor's Note: Although it is disappointing that warm weather and poor trail conditions have lead to the dropping of key dogs from previous Iditarods. The remaining nine dogs, although a smaller team, are still very good team:)

 

The dogs still running towards Nome with Karen are -
	Dog	Status	DOB/ Age	Sex	Finished
	Draco Son of Iditarod Finisher Butch	4 Time Iditarod Veteran	11/5/97 7 yrs	M	2 Time Finisher
	Loki Son of Iditarod Finisher Striker	3 Time Iditarod Veteran	7/27/99 5 yrs	M	Iditarod 2004 Finisher
	Sprite Daughter of Butch	Rookie	7/1/01 3 yrs	F
	Crunchie Son of 2 Time Iditarod Finisher Grover	Iditarod 2004 Veteran	6/6/01 3 yrs	M	Iditarod 2004 Finisher
	Moses	Iditarod 2004 Veteran	1/4/00 5 yrs	M	Iditarod 2004 Finisher
	Herman	Iditarod 2004 Veteran	8/28/01 3 yrs	M	Iditarod 2004 Finisher
	Hector Herman's brother	Iditarod 2004 Veteran	8/28/01 3 yrs	M	Iditarod 2004 Finisher
	Denali	Iditarod 2003 Veteran	5/27/00 4 yrs	M
	Odie Son of Striker, Loki's brother	2 Time Iditarod Veteran	7/27/99 5 yrs	M	Iditarod 2004 Finisher