Race day!

At 10am saturday morning the first dog team left from 4th ave in downtown Anchorage. Saturdays event is pretty much just a parade for the race fans and no official time is kept. You will see in the pictures that teams were only running 12 dogs and towing an extra sled. This is meant to keep the speed down so everyone can get pictures and a good look at their favorite musher. The route through Anchorage began a few blocks from the hotel i was staying at on 4th ave. then made a turn on Cordova right in front of my hotel window! The streets were clear of snow until about 8pm friday night, when the city began hauling in dump truck after dump truck of snow that was then grated for a nice sled trail through the heart of downtown Anchorage. After a few miles on city streets they then took nicely groomed bike trails to Eagle River, a town to the east of Anchorage then loaded up the dogs in their trucks and hauled them to Willow for the official start of the race at 2pm sunday. I had a lot of fun seeing all of the teams i have come to recognize from t.v. coverage every year. If you would like to follow the race as i am going to do check out http://www.iditarod.com/ lots of info there.

Well i'm up in Fairbanks now, took a nice 45min. flight from Anchorage this morning. Finally got to see the Alaska Range and Denali!! It sounds like i'll have a good opportunity to see the Northern Lights here in Fairbanks, can't wait! I'm staying in a hotel really close to the Chena river that runs the center of Fairbanks for a few days. And in that time i'm hoping to secure a more permanent residence.