Iditarod 2008

Mark went for a ride toward Vance's cabin on Sunday. This is Jeff King on the Iditarod Trail. He was the first musher to come into Unalakleet.

Here are Jeff King's dogs being checked by the vet at the Unalakleet checkpoint. Jeff and one other musher out of a field of 96 are the only mushers still running all 16 dogs.

Here is Jeff King holding Carter Woodhead. Carter is the son of our AD.

Jeff checking his dogs.

Mel and Summer watching the action from the pits. The mushers use HEET to start their fires on the trail.

Here is Lance Mackey coming into the Unalakleet checkpoint. He came in about an hour after Jeff King.

Lance arriving at Unalakleet.

The vet is checking Lance's dogs. Lance had to drop one dog here in Unalakleet. He left with 11 dogs.

All kinds of media broadcasting the Iditarod.

Lance is putting booties on his dogs before he takes off.

Lance Mackey leaving Unalakleet. Sunday, 6:17 pm, 2/9/08.

Lance stops for a quick inspection.

Shortly after Lance left Jeff appeared and began readying his dogs for departure. Mark is standing to the left of Jeff's sled.

Jeff departs Unalakleet at 7:09pm, Sunday, February 9, 2008. This was day 9 of the Iditarod.

On the trail, one of Jeff's dogs needs to relieve itself.

Jeff applies the break and stops right next to me.

He does a quick inspection of the line.

He talks to his lead dog and others on his way back to his sled.

Bye to Unalakleet and onto Shaktoolik.

My kids!

Tiqa (tee-ka)

Paco

My guy!

Lori came over from St. Michael for the weekend. We took some time to take pics. Brock is growing soooo fast. He is such a good baby. Oh, look, number 50.... what a good number.

Just when the season is winding down.......

Look at that grin!

What a beautiful boy!

You went to Nome and got CRABs?

Oh, craaaabs! Yeah, Mark went to Nome for a conference and he brought home fresh king crab. Here is Rita and Bobbi shelling the yummy, sweet crab. Mark said that they flash boiled the crab and had put pickling spice in the water. I could taste the spice and was not so sure I cared for it. It was not overpowering..... just a hint of the spice..... but I think it took away from the sweetness..... that being said.... it was still the freshest and sweetest crab I have ever tasted.

I had more pics of the crab but....... some little girls stayed with us last night.... and somehow.... some of my pics got erased.

New Sled

Mark, posing with his new tow sleigh. Mark's new sleigh was made by his friend, LA.

Some of LA's handy work.

Today we went to First Hill. April, one of my aides, is in Nome where she is awaiting the arrival of her baby. Our neighbor, Jamie, is watching April's girls until she comes home. The three youngest stayed with Mark and me last night. Soooo, today we took them sledding. I think it was about 8˚ when headed out. The wind started blowing but everyone was dressed warm.

This pic is taken from the middle of First Hill. Mark is heading to the bottom to pick up the sledders.

Here he is with a load of kids.

This is Hayden, all bundled up and wearing his seal skin hat.

We met Ben and Hannah and their two boys, Ben and Hayden at the hill. Hayden didn't want to go down the hill until he saw the inner tube. Then he never missed a trip down the hill.