Vote for Lance

For the second year in a row dog musher Lance Mackey has been nominated for an ESPY award in the category of Best Outdoors Athlete. The ESPY Awards is an annual sports awards event created by ESPN for individual and team athletic achievement.



Last year Lance lost out to somebody, can't remember who. For two years in a row Lance has won both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year. If you would like to vote for Lance go to ESPN's ESPY Awards site. You have to sign in to vote but it only takes a few minutes and it is FREE.

See the vote for Lance Video

Thanks to Ish at Kodiak Konfidential for the heads up on the voting.

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A Day at Ed's

Last Friday, while we were out at camp, Uyaana and I decided to go over to Ed Iten's camp. The whole family had already left for Anchorage for the start of the Iditarod, but Ed's dog handler's were there keeping things going. They are busy taking care of the 70 remaining sled dogs, 5 horses, 11 chickens, 1 black lab, and one very spoiled, fat beagle.



Uyaana was very happy to go visit the girls. He had been there before and they had let him help feed the dogs and the horses so he couldn't wait to go do that again. First he helped them give the dogs fresh bedding. All the dogs in Ed's kennel are nice so I don't have to worry about them trying to bite Uyaana. They like him and he like to pat them.



Next we watched at they used a table saw to cut frozen sheefish into pieces to feed to the Dogs. Feeding programs are carefully researched and closely guarded by each musher so I won't disclose the specifics of the dogs diet, but it is well known that mushers in this area utilize sheefish so I don't mind talking about that.



One cut while the other loaded the pieces of frozen fish into 5 gallon buckets.



Then we each took a bucket and made sure that all the dogs had their share. Uyaana helped with her bucket.



We also got to feed the horses. These are Icelandic Horses. It seems that Icelandic Horses will eat just about anything. Believe it or not they really like fish...



......but like regular horses they also enjoy hay.


The girls are from Norway. They came to Alaska last August and will be headed back home at the end of April. After all the hard work they have put in at Ed's kennel they are certainly hoping that he wins the Iditarod....but I know deep down they must secretly be rooting for Team Norway. That's OK...we forgive them.

Dog Days

Today was day 2 (of 2) of the Doc Harris Memorial Sled Dog Races. It was balmy at around 9F with light wind and light snow.


Most people haul their dogs to the start with snowmachines and dog boxes.



These are Buddu's dogs.



This one is keeping a close eye on everything.


That's Eric Seih and John Baker. John is an Iditarod musher. Eric has been running one of his teams this winter. Look for Eric this year in the Kobuk 440.



This is Darin Nelson's team entering the chute. Darin will also be racing in this year's Iditarod as a rookie. I should mention that the Doc Harris Memorial is a 16 mile sprint race. Eric and Darin run distance dogs but entered this race to give their dogs some racing experience and exercise. They came in a good half hour behind the sprint dogs...which is to be expected.



The dogs get real excited when they are waiting to take off.



They like to jump around.....



...a lot.



This is Eric's team comin in at the finish.



Here is Cyrus at the finish.

Next weekend is the women's race.

Rookie

I was out driving around yesterday looking for pictures to take when I happend to drive by Darin Nelson's dog yard.






He was out with the dogs and I decided to stop and take some photos.






For those of you who don't follow the Iditarod, Darin is training for his rookie run this March.



It will be a family affair. His father Louis Nelson Sr. is a veteran Iditarod musher at the age of 65. Darin's brother, Robert, will also be racing as a rookie this year.



Darin is one of 6 mushers from Kotzebue that have signed up for this year's Iditarod

Iditarod 2008