Nature's Kennel Sled Dog Racing & Adventures

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Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Nature's Kennel

PO Box 5
McMillan, MI 49853
Tel: 1-906-748-0513
Email: info@natureskennel.com

Journals

Adventure Journals

Welcome to our life of adventure! Check out the latest kennel news, stories of your favorite sled dogs, and more!!
For more journal photos, click on the racing photo gallery.

Monday, March 30th, 2009

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y plus Z, where X is work, Y is play, Z is keep your mouth shut.” --Albert Einstein
My Iditarod was a fascinating journey this year. My goal was top 20 but at the beginning of the season I was really shooting for top 10. I failed in my goal because I did not do enough of X, Y, or Z. That being said, I look at this year’s race as one of my greatest successes.
I was ill prepared for the starting line this year. The dogs were not ready to do what I wanted to do, my equipment and planning was not organized to do what I wanted to do, and most importantly I was mentally not ready to do what I wanted to do. This is in contrast to 2008 when it all seemed so easy. That year I was relaxed, rested, running a jazzed dog team, and confident in accomplishing my goals.
Don’t get me wrong, I had some neat experiences in the race. Like flip-flopping positions with Lance Mackey and Jeff King the first leg of the race up to Skwentna. But pretty much from the get-go, the first half of my race was frustrating. In that first leg for example, Onyx, one of the dogs I slated as “bomb proof-will always finish every race” just days before, injured his shoulder. It was a mild injury, but not one that a dog could work through for 900 miles. By the second checkpoint, I had multiple dogs with diarrhea and some with vomiting. The “bug” turned out to also be mild, lasting only 24 hours on most of the dogs, but plagued my team heavily until Anvik and was a presence in at least one dog every day until the finish line.
Running from Iditarod to Anvik was the first noteworthy leg of my race. The temps had dropped, the dog’s bowels had settled down some, my frown became a smile, and the scenery was awesome! I had a beautiful campout in the hills. Just my dogs, myself, and a new attitude. This new outlook would last all of the way until Nome.
The Yukon River adventure started in Grayling. Jim Lanier, a 17 year Iditarod veteran, and Ryan Redington, a seasoned Alaskan whose Grandfather created the Iditarod, tried to leave the checkpoint in the dark and got turned around by the winds after losing the trail. They quickly spread the word to the 19 of us at the checkpoint that it was recommended to leave in the daylight and to buddy up as needed in the trailbreaking effort. We left as a mass in the morning and I quickly found, much to my pleasure, that the team of Jake Berkowitz was equally paired with mine. Jake and I ended up running together the rest of the Yukon, taking turns breaking trail (Jake did more than I did), and laughing and smiling as much as we dared when we were not worried about the wind taking our breath away or our teeth freezing. Jake had worked for us for the past three years, and we joked that him and I ran dogs more together during this years Iditarod than the total time he was in Michigan. I can not say enough in this journal how proud I am of Jake! If I am ever in a crazy situation again, I would hope that I could be with Jake. His positive attitude, focus on dog care, and calm demeanor were awesome to be around when Mother Nature was spanking us like two little misbehaving children. Jake has sworn that he will never run the Southern route again, and I don’t blame him, but I hope that when I run again he will reconsider because I would welcome him as a traveling companion.
The weather on the Yukon River was a life changing experience this year. It is the first time in which I was in a situation that could have resulted in the loss of fingers, toes, or worse if I errored the slightest bit. In fact, as I type this weeks after the event, my finger tips are still numb. I had to rebootie some of the dogs on the river and as I did so my gloves iced up. My fingers did not feel cold at the time but they must have gotten nipped by Jack Frost a tiny bit. The temp was a comfortable 5 below zero but the winds were sustained 30 mph with gusts of a lot more. There was fresh snow on the river that was limiting visibility and forming drifts every 10-20 feet. Some of the drifts were over knee deep.

The reason I am so optimistic even though I failed miserably on my goal is that I still finished in 32nd place. I was not prepared, sick dogs, bad attitude, etc and still did OK. I am very thankful that I have really good dogs!
Well, enough about the Iditarod, at least for now.I am still in Alaska with the dogs, Mike, and now Pat Moon has joined us as well. Pat has a goal of running the 2010 Iditarod and has finished the UP 200. He still needs a 300 mile qualifying race so starting April 1st he will be running the Taiga 300 out of Paxson, Alaska. Since I have all of the dogs Trent Herbst was running in the Iditarod too, I am going to run the race to taunt Pat. We have spent the past three days doing training runs out of Cantwell, just South of Denali National Park. The weather has been warm, a little snowy, a little ashy thanks to Mount Redoubt, but all in all…..awesome!
My Taiga 300 team:
Starman (6 year old male)
Gimli (5 year old male)
Luke (6 year old male)
Onyx (3 year old male)
Jade (3 year old male)
Coach (3 year old male)
Kar (3 year old male)
Jester (5 year old male)
Clark (5 year old male)
Erie (3 year old male)
Ero (2 year old male)
Ayn (our little 1 year old Iditarod finishing female superstar)

Pat’s Taiga 300 team:
Rhu (3 year old female)
Gus (3 year old male)
Lumber (2 year old female)
Timber (2 year old female)
Prancer (2 year old female)
Laney (5 year old female)
Superior (3 year old male)
Cupid (2 year old male)
Arlo (5 year old male)
Alaska (2 year old female)
Juneau (2 year old female)
Jasper (3 year old male)

It feels wonderful being so well prepared. The dogs have been running strong (and slow) thanks to the Iditarod. Our dry dog food, fat, booties, etc are all bagged for the race. So today we spent doing some last minute shopping and getting a tour of the 24 hour emergency Vet Clinic that helped save Sebastion’s life last year when he got Pneumonia. Our tour guide was Dr. Melissa , her husband Matt, and their dog Sammy. The team of Vets that volunteer their professional time to help take care of our dogs during the race amaze me. A huge Thank You to all of you!

Posted by Ed

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Yeah...I finally made it home! After a late night flight from Nome, a midnight connection in Seattle, and a long drive home from Chicago, I pulled into the driveway on Thursday morning. I'm still suffering from a bit of jet lag and time zone issues, but otherwise I'm gettting back to business. Julie did a fabulous job with the puppies, house, and kennel. We have our last overnight tour arriving on Saturday, so I'm off to check the trails and run some pups. Ed, Mike and Pat are in Alaska doing some training for the Taiga 300. The race starts on April 1st, so they were headed up toward Denali National Park today for a training run and to get the dogs back on the trail! I think Ed is ready to be on the runners again, we'll see how excited the dogs are!

Posted by Tasha

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Thanks to the ash falling from Mt. Redoubt in Anchorage, we are still here in Nome enjoying the sunshine and snow. Trent had a great finish yesterday and all the dogs look great! Ayn, Lumber, Choco, Dent, Laney, Caullie, Hoover, Cupid, Ero, and Alaska all made it to the finish line. Bonfire, Clair and Pracer got dropped toward the end of the race so just about made it here. Little Ayn (the youngest on the team) was a superstar fast leader, Lumber was a surprise leader along the coast, Prancer may be the next NK superstar, Alaska is still wagging her tail, Bonfire was the old man who led along the Yukon River, and we are all in awe that Choco made it to Nome. Dr. Tim arrived about 3 am this morning, so we all crawled out of bed to cheer him into Nome to recevie the red lantern. There is word from Alaska Airlines that planes are fliying into and out of Anchorage. The morning flight was cancelled this morning but the afternoon and evening flights are still on at this time. We are hoping that the dogs get out around 3 pm on a cargo flight and Ed and I are scheduled to leave at 9:30 pm. I'll head on to Chicago via Seattle, and then drive home. Ed will stay in the Anchorage area and then find a place to do some training runs before starting the Taiga 300 on April 1st. It's been pretty interesting haning out for an extra day with many of the mushers here. Lance and Harry's teams are still parked next to ours, we had dinner with Bill Cotter last night and got to listen to twenty years' worth of Iditarod stories, had lunch with Cindy Gallea, and can hardly make it down the street without Ed stopping to share some story from the trail. We will head to the Red Lantern banquet tonight (a special banquet for all finishers who did not make it to the first banquet) and then onto the plane for home!

Posted by Tasha

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Nome, sweet Nome...looks like we'll be here for a while. Redoubt erupted last night, spewing ash into the air in Anchorage, and cancelling all flights into and out of Nome (and Anchorage). Just lovely. Looks like we are stranded here in Nome until futher notice. Just how long can a volcano erupt? Good news is that we will be here to see Trent finish, and most likely Dr. Tim. We survived the banquet last night. I volunteered in sales, Ed chatted with Jake and Sheldon, and Trent (who is still on the trail) won the Most Inspirational Musher Award. I'll have a bit of time to do some updates later this afternoon, as Alaksa Airlines has already canceled all flights today, so stay tuned!

Posted by Tasha

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Yeah, Ed is here! Sorry it has taken me longer than usual to do my daily update, but I actually have chores and responsibilities now! Ed arrived around 8 pm yesterday in the gorgeous sunshine. It’s so strange to have sunlight late into the evening. I thanked him for arriving at such a reasonable hour and in the daylight so my photos turned out! Jake arrived about a half hour ahead of Ed with an impressive 16 dog team. Jasper (our dog) was also on that team, immediately recognized me, and let me know that he beat Ed! Ed had loaned Jasper to Jake for the race, choosing Jasper because he was one of the slowest on the team, and I guess that slow and steady wins the race! Ed’s finishing team consisted of Luke (the all-star leader who crossed the finish line in single lead), Erie, Starman, Big Ben, Clark, Rhu (the “girl”), Jade, Arlo, and Chong. The dogs are now resting comfortable in the “Dodge Lodge” with Gimli. The dog lot was overflowing with teams, so Kathleen, the awesome dog lot guru, asked if we would mind putting our dogs in the lodge. Mind??!! It’s an awesome, quiet, resort for the dogs. They are all resting and eating happily. Ed slept well last night but awoke several times wondering which checkpoint he was in and who he was putting his arm around. Oh my. There are amazing trail stories coming out as Ed remembers tidbits and events of the race. He and Jake were traveling together on the Yukon at night during one of the raging storms and both were extremely scared as they realized they could risk survival should things go wrong. It’s the first time I’ve ever head Ed talk about the reality of death. I also found out that Ed (a 20-year vegetarian) ate a steak and hamburger along the way. Hunger brings out strange behaviors in people! I’ve also found out that Ed, Jake, Allen Moore, Chad Linder, and Ryan Reddington were quite the giddy gabby group as they took over checkpoint table conversations. There are some great dog tidbits as well, like Big Ben motoring the team up the mountains and Luke taking over in single lead at the end of the race. Rhu, the girl, made it to Nome even though she really wanted to check out that straw at Safety, and Jade is chubbier now than when he started the race.
Keep checking the standings, as we are now anxiously awaiting Trent and the rest of our dogs. I talked to Mike from drop dog duty in Anchorage and he has Timber and Payette from Trent. Payette is Trent’s dog that he owns, but Timber is one of our sweeties. Looks like that’s your dog now Aunt Lynne! I’m expecting that Trent is still about two days out, and Dr. Tim is about 12 hours behind him. Go dogs go!
Ed is busy today with a post-race musher meeting, musher autograph signing, and the fish and seafood dinner that Sheldon and I have been planning. The dogs will stay here with us until Monday, and we’ll all fly out in the evening. I’m off to buy lunch at the local school concession stand. There is a different group serving concessions every day, and today’s group has muskox and reindeer hot dogs. Where else can I get one of those?!

Posted by Tasha

Friday, March 20th, 2009

We are in the homestretch! Ed called from White Mountain this morning and warned me that I'll need to take good care of him. I was expecting to hear a gory frostbite story as there seems to be a lot of those this year. Luckily, it wasn't that bad. He said he woke up and had to ask which checkpoint he was at, how long he had been there, how long he had to stay, and was even a bit confused about which race he was running. Oh my, he's completely lost his mind! He is also "racing" with Jake and Chad Linder. Charlie Stark will love this one, a true MSU vs. U of M rivalry along the trail! Chad recently graduated from U of M Law School and is running dogs that belong to his dad, Sonny Linder, and Iditarod vetern. Ed is an MSU grad and Jake, well he's beating both is "bosses", both Ed and Robert Buntzen! I'm expecting them to be here around 8 pm Alaska Time, so for all of those of you at home, you'll have to hold a midnight part and watch Ed come across the finish line. I do have a responsibility here now. Gimli came in on the drop dog plane last night so I've been spending some time with him. He was pretty lethargic last night, but this morning has been out to walk around, eat breakfast, and then headed back into the "Dodge Lodge" where he can wait for the rest of Ed's team to arrive. Usually the lodge is reserved for dogs that the vets are treating, but the dog lot is pretty full right now and all the dropped dogs get to sleep in the lodge. I'm sure Gimli did not mind at all!! I am making final arrangements this morning to get Ed and Trent's crates brought down from the airport, get their areas staked out and kennels assembled for the dogs, and shopping for underwear for Ed. I packed a bag of clean clothes for him to bring up, but realized today that I forgot that small detail. Luckily there's a grocery store/video store/clothing store/Hallmark store/gift shop here for all my shopping needs! I am also going to get live king crab for dinner tomorrow night. Crabbing is done in the winter here, so there's great fresh crab at only $4.99/lb! My mouth has been watering for crab since I left Nome last year.

Posted by Tasha

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

I missed Ed's call from Koyuk this morning. I must have been in deep sleep and did not hear the phone ring. Oops. He said he would call from Elim later this afternoon. The message was that Jake "smoked" him on the coastal run yesterday as Ed's dogs weren't too fond of running over the sea ice. It sounds and feels a lot different than a trail on "land". He had carried Gimili in the bag for a while (which is not a small feat considerting that Gimili is a large dog) but he didn't think Gimili was injured, he just didn't like the ice. Gimili left in the team this morning so hopefully he figures it out soon! I'm expecting Ed to finish sometime tomorrow morning. I'm thinking that Trent and Dr. Tim will be about a day behind Ed. I saw Laura Daugerau (a musher from Washington who scratched from the race this year but still felt she needed to come to Nome for some closure) this morning and she said the last time she saw Trent he was having a great run and the dogs were a bit skinny but doing well. She said it's a very hard year for the dogs to keep weight on becuase it's been so windy and cold. It was a treat to see Sebasion Schnuelle finish in 2nd place yesterday. Sebastion is such an great advocate for dog care and treatment that I'm thrilled he finished so high this year.

I got news from my mom and dad this morning that my grandma Tchozeski passed away. It was not a huge surprise as she has been getting pretty bad the last couple weeks, and was able to be "home" in her apartment when she died. She loved where she lived, and really wanted to be there rather than a hospital. Mom said that one of the last things she asked about when she was alert was, "How is Ed doing along the trail?" She loved following us and our adventures, and still had Ed's Iditarod poster haning on the wall. Its a beautiful day here again in Nome with a georgous sunrise. I'm at the visitor's center doing my computer work, and got talking to the girl who works here. Her and I are about the same age, and she was born in Nome. Her grandfather came here as a miner, and her father was born here. Her mom came up from Ohio on a summer vacation, met her dad, and stayed here. They lived a bit out of town and in the late 70's there were few roads and fewer cars. They were quite poor so people gave them a few sled dogs for transportation and eventually they had 20-30 dogs to use for hauling water and traveling into town. She remembers riding in the sled holding the buckets of water. Eventually her mom wanted something to do and they needed income, so she started selling Mary Kay cosmetics by dog team. She made enough money doing that to help her dad buy their first dump truck and now her family owns a very successful construction business here in Nome. She loves living here, said the summers are amazing, and there is still quite a bit of summer tourism. Don't worry mom, I won't stay!

Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Well, I hate to break the news to everyone, but Ed did not win the Iditarod this year. I watched Lance Mackey cross the finish line a couple hours ago. It’s pretty exciting to see the winner come in, but he’s not exactly the musher I’ve been waiting for. Ed called about a half an hour ago from Shaktoolik and said things are still going well. He and Jake were going to feed dogs, nap, and then leave around 4 pm. He dropped Jester due to an aggravating shoulder injury that was not getting better. The weather sounds litk it’s staying pretty nice. Everyone else looks and feels great, is eating well, and moving pretty quick down the trail. Since I’m not expecting him until Friday, I’ve decided to delay my flight until Monday night instead of Sunday night. I’ve come all this way and it’d be nice to see Ed for a while! Julie has been doing a great job holding down the fort at home, despite the fact that she found out that her grandfather passed away last Friday. She’ll be heading to Midland to spend some time with her grandma as soon as I return. Thanks Julie!
If anyone out there is a postcard or stamp collector (or if you just like Iditarod mail) let me know. The post office here in Nome has a special Iditarod cancellation stamp and I’ll be happy to send some mail out. Please email me your mailing address and let me know if you’d prefer a postcard or legal sized envelope.
Also, Jeff Schultz has some great photos of Ed on http://www.iditarodphotos.net/. Wait for the page to load and then do a search for “stielstra”.

Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

First things first...Ed called from Unakleet this morning around 5:30 am to let me know he was leaving Unakleet, the dogs were awesome, the wind was calm and it was ten below. He was very excited about how things were going and couldn't talk long because he had to go booite dogs. I think he's as excited to be here as I am to see him! I've found plenty to keep busy with while wandering Nome, It was a beautiful calm and sunny day yesterday. I wandered town and took some photos, They are all listed in the "Photo Gallery" section of this site so I could add some captions. I was treated to dinner with a group of Iditarod Air Force pilots and their wives. It was so great to hear stories from the "other" side of the race, and we swapped trail and dog stories. They don't have too much contact with mushers, and I've always been in awe of the work they do with the dogs. The Air Force is comprised of all volunteer pilots who use their own planes to shuttle dogs, drop bags, checkpoint gear, sleds, etc. to and from all the checkpoints. They said the Iditarod is very hard on their planes as they use skiis and don't land on the runways, but rather in the areas where all the mushers are parked. Often, the "runway" is just packed by snowmobiles and is quite soft and bumpy. One piolt's wife had sewn a large ripstop "sheet" to cover the inside of the plane's floor and walls, as often the dogs get sick or go to the bathroom. He had a cable the length of the plane with clips for the dog's drop chains so that they remained in place during the flight. They told of one pilot who allowed the dogs to reamain free, and had one jump on his lap during a flight; he cabled them off after that! If the dogs do get a bit rowdy, the pilots "drop a few g's" and the dogs quickly behave and settle down. Most dropped dogs are quiet, tired, and well behaved, but if they can't get into a checkpoint for a few days, the dogs get well rested and can be a bit more rowdy on the trip! It was such a treat to share stories, these guys (and gals) truely make it happen and the Iditarod could not exist with out them. I'm off today to play tour guide for Sheldon Berkowitz, Jake's dad who arrived last night. We are off to the craft fair (I don't need to spend more money!) and will visit the Nome National Forest out on the sea ice...stay tuned for photos!

Posted by Tasha

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Good morning from Nome! It's about 8:30 am here, and there's just a handful of us wandering around the convention center. Jennifer Ambrose and I had breakfast this morning at Airport Pizza and were the only ones up in town I think! Since it doesn't get light until around 9:30 am, things move a bit slow in the morning. It says light untili around 9:30 pm, so it's much easier to stay up later. Ed called this morning from Kaltag. He said that he and Jake had a wonderful run together on the river yesterday. I had commented that the flight was beautiful with sunny skies adn great visibility, and he said that on the ground there were ground blizzards and near zero visibility. He could see up to clear skies, but along the trail there was blowing and drifting snow. If he or Jake got more than 1/4 mile ahead of each other, the trail was completely blown in and there were no tracks. They stopped and rested about two hours together, and he was still very pleased with his run time and the dogs. The pups are all still doing great. I kick myself for not making sure they all had new dog jackets for this year as the ones they are using I made out of fleece sevearl years ago and they could have used some improvements and a second windblock layer. We'll have to get on that, Louise! Anyway, he said everyone is eating well, running strong, and only Gimili may be one the "drop possibility" list. I'm guessing that Gimli is getting a bit skinny (as expected). Ed mentioned that he's really excited to finally be off the river and hopefully out of the wind. Well, Babe, I have news for you...there is more wind ahead (that he has no idea about). Jessie Royer's dad and I were just sharing trail reports, and the report is that mushers are held up in Shaktoolik with major blizzards and treacherous trail. According to the GPS trackers, the crew with Mitch Seavey has been sitting on the trail for quite some time waiting out the storm. Jessie's report to her mom was that everyone is going to try to wait until things calm down before moving again. Ed mentioned that he may be camping at Old Woman Cabin between Kaltag and Unakleet today, so his run may take quite a while. Patience everyone!!

Posted by Tasha

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Someone should really tell Ed that Nome IS accessible by plane and it's actually quite a comfortable ride here! Thanks Michele for the frequent flyer miles, it's much faster than a trip by dog team. It's a georgous sunny day here, and the view from the plane amazing. I had packed my camera in the overhead compartment, and didn't want to disturb all the passengers around me to get it out, but I kick myself for not gettting some photos of the Yukon River and Unakleet. I've already caught up with many musher friends and it's great to see everyone so relaxed and waiting. We all have nothing to do but talk with each other until the teams start arriving. The excitement is definatley starting to brew as the sound checks are being done under the arch, the drop bags are unloaded from the cargo planes, and tons of spectator are wandering the streets. I'm sure we are all much warmer and cozier than the mushers heading toward the coast.

Posted by Tasha

Monday, March 16th, 2009

I'm waiting in the Anchorage airport (with great free wireless!) for the trip to Nome. The flight is overbook and they are asking for volunteers, but if I did that, I could not fly until tomorrow. I think I'll just stick with the plan and get there today. Ed's dad and uncle picked up up last night so I slept in a great bed and made a stop at Fred Meyer's today to get some snacks for the week. I learned last year that food is VERY expensive in Nome. Ed made it to Eagle Island in I'm sure what was some VERY nasty weather last night. The Alaska Daily News reported wind chills of -55 on the Yukon river yesterday. Brr...oops gotta go!!

Posted by Tasha

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

I'm on my way to O'Hare airport to head to Alaksa. Ed called from Grayling and said there was quite a stom brewing on the river with winds expceted to reach 45 mph today. Jim Lanier and Ryan Reddington tried to leave Grayling early this morning, made it about two miles out, and had to return to the checkpoint due to whiteouts and lack of trail. When I talked to Ed, he was getting ready to leave with about 12 other teams to try to break to a trail to Eagle Island. Jake Berkowitz is part of the group as well. Ed said Jake walked into the checkpoint and expressed to Ed, "You really stink." Guess Ed has spent too much time sleeping with the dogs. For those of you who know the history of Jake's feet, that is quite an expression coming from him, I had no idea he had olfactory senses. Ed did drop Gus in Grayling due to his continued sickness and being tired. He said he would have taken him but he's not sure if they would have to camp on the way to Eagle Island and didn't want to risk a sick dog on a tough trail. Things are definately gettting exciting...

Posted by Tasha

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

Ed made a surprise call from Shageluk earlier this evening. Sorry I didn't post anything earlier but we were on our way out the door to the Curtis Arts Council's "Yooper Home Companion" variety show. It was spectacular! What a fun showcase of yooper entertainment from tossing toilet paper tubes into the audience making fun of outhouses to listening to local musicians sing about mosquitoes and abundant snowfall. Meanwhile, Ed was somehere between Shageluk and Anvik. He dropped Superior in Iditarod. Superior was having a hard time getting over a flu bug, and was starting to get stiff, sore and not having too much fun. Ed said he's an incredibly tough dog and I'm sure he's happy to be headed back to see Mike! He did have a great run from Iditarod to Shageluk with every dog pulling, the team looking good, and the tempertature had dropped so the dogs were much happier. He had not spent much tim in Shageluk before and said it was a great checkpiont. Ed has only done the Southern Route one other time, and he must have gone through there at night the last time. He did spend time in Ophir instead of along the trail because Erie had a high fever so the vets helped him get that under control and Erie is back on track. Everyone is eating great, and little Rhu girl had led the last two legs in lead! We may get news from Anvik tomorrow, and I'll have news from Nome soon.

Posted by Tasha

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

There's not a lot of Iditarod news to report...when I talked to Ed from Takotna, he mentioned that he may have to break his run Shageluk into three runs. I'm thinking (or maybe hoping) that the dogs are doing well enough that he's only going to have to do two runs. He jumped up in the standings because he did not rest in Iditarod. I'm suspecting he rested somewhat close to Iditarod, picked up his supplies and dropped a dog in Iditarod, and then is going to rest on the trail between Iditarod and Shageluk. Many of the teams Ed "passed" were resting or finishing a rest in Iditarod. There is a short video of Ed in Takonta on the Alaska Daily News Website, http://www.adn.com/ You'll have to click on "video" in the center of the main page where there are options for photos, video, features, etc. I leave for Nome tomorrow night, so I told him I'd see him on Monday. He laughed and said probably not. I am doing a mini-drive this morning, my first "real" tour since my broken leg. Julie will be here holding down the fort next week and it looks like she'll have warm weather and sunshine for her puppy walks!

Posted by Tasha

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Ed called again from Takotna, at about 8:30 tonight, as he was gettiing up and ready to leave. I guess I was a bit off with my depature estimation (math has never been my strong point). He'll leave Takotna at the end of his 24-hour rest, around 10:30 pm EST. He said it's about 16 hours to Iditarod, and he was contemplating doing that in two or three runs. He has a few "question mark" dogs. Big Ben and Superior are a bit stiff but should work out of it. The disadvantage about them being potentially sore is that if he does have to bag one of them, they are each 70 lbs. Rhu is another question with her same shoulder injury, and I don't remember who the other question was (maybe he doesn't either!). He was going out to walk the dogs around and get them warmed up to see how they looked. He may break the runs into Iditarod into short segments to avoid having to drop the 4 "questions" as he'd like to keep a larger team as long as possible. He said he and Rhu shared a sleeping bag in Nikolai when she was nursing her sore shoulder. He and Rhu hadn't bonded much until that moment, and now she thinks that she should be in the bag all the time! Pat's a little concerned that he may have to purchase a larger bag for him, Hera and Rhu to sleep in next year on the Iditarod trail! It's hard to believe that Ed has been running so long, and still has so long to go! Oh, and thanks to Ms. Witte's class from Macomb Township, MI for the decorative red lanterns that are still in Takotna from last year. Ed was sitting next to "Johnathan's" lantern for dinner tonight.

Posted by Tasha

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

I just got off the phone with Ed. He is taking is 24-hour mandatory layover in Takotna. All mushers have to take a 24 hour break, and they can choose to do that at any checkpoint in the race. Ed arrived in Takotna at approximately 2 pm Alaska Time yesterday (6 pm EST) so can leave around 6 pm EST today. (Yes, we all have to busy oursevles today instead of being glued to the computer!) He said that all is well. He did a 10 hour run from Nikolai to Takotna and the dogs seemed to fare pretty well. Superior and Clark had some minor diarrhea, Rhu still has a slight sore shoulder, and everyone is eating like crazy and resting well. There’s more snow on the trail than he’s ever seen, but the trail is packed and manageable. He reminded me that we (and the mushers) hear all kinds of “trail gossip” and it all seems to get embellished as the race goes on and everyone gets tired! He said that’s the benefit of being where he is…so many teams are there ahead to keep it packed for him. Maybe this is part of his “strategy”…letting the leaders break trail for him! He has not had to drop any more dogs, and doesn’t expect to leave anyone in Takotna. He said he was going to write down a bunch of things to share with everyone, but the mogules along the trail were too rough. Now when he called, he had a hard time remembering everything he had to tell us. Ahh, the beauty of sleep deprivation. Just when you think you have the world's problems sloved as you are chugging along the dog trail, you forget everything you thought of! Ed won’t call now for a couple days as the next checkpoints are quite remote, and if I remember correctly, we’ll hear from him again once he gets to the coast. I hope he remembers a few things to tell us!

Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Ok, my guess may have been wrong. Ed has already made it through McGrath and is on his way to Takotna. It looks like someone forgot to record his "out" time from Nikolai. This is a pretty common occurance and with the weather and communication issues, I've learned to not worry about those long lapses in information. It does appear that one of our favorites, Martin Buser, has apparently taken a risk and headed out of Takotna...breaking his own trail perhaps?? Ed is apparently planning to take his 24 hour rest in Takotna as planned. It's a bit deceiving that he's so far up in the standings right now, as I'm guessing (again) that all the teams he passed in McGrath are already taking their 24-hour rests. We'll get the inside scoop when Ed calls in the morning from Takotna.
Thanks June Price, for letting me steal some great photos from you from the Ceremonial Start!

Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Ok, maybe Ed has not overslept. It appears the race may be delayed, halted, or something to that effect. The trailbreakers (snowmobile trail crew) is currenlty unable to leave Takotna. My guess is that Ed may be staying in Nikolai longer in order to take his 24 hour rest there instead of pushing onto McGrath or Takotna where there are a LOT of musher and possibly a conjested area for the dogs. All the villages are very small, and resources could be limited for mushers and teams. Ed did not plan on spending any time in McGrath so I know he does not have a lot of his supplies there, and he did plan on taking a 24-hour layover in Takonta, so he has lots of things there. He does have quite bit of stuff in Nikolai and said it was a geat spot when he called this morning. Here is the latest news from the Iditarod website,

http://iditarodblogs.com/news/2009/03/11/theres-a-different-storm-brewing-in-takotna/

In the meantime...you can make friends with Ed and all his Iditarod supporters on Facebook. Look for the group "Iditarod Fans for Ed Stielstra" and join the group (thanks Paula Jury-Jarvis for setting this up).

Posted by Tasha

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

Ed called from Nikolai this morning around 7:00. It was great to hear his voice from the trail! He seems pleased with the dogs, although his wife is a bit anxious that he's been at about 49th place for the day. He said the competition is simply getting stronger and stronger. He didn't seem too concerned about his placement, and things will start to change quickly as mushers take their 24 hour layovers and the "real" positions start to emerge. He has dropped 3 dogs, Onyx was first with a sever shoulder injury, then Coach (with a shoulder injury as well) and Sebastion. I'm quite surprised that Onyx was dropped as he is generally such a sound dog and finished with Ed last year. He and Coach are 1/2 brothers (Starman is their father) and are 3 years old. Sebastion is 6 years old, and has finished two Iditarods. He did not finish last year as he got pneunomia late in the race and had to be flown out for emergency vet care in Anchorage. He has been a bit off this season, so his drop was somewhat expected. Ed said the trail is snowcovered, but similair to the depths we have here in Michigan. He spent a bit longer than expected in Rainy Pass, telling me he set his watch for his nap, woke up and decided he was still tired so slept another hour. He claimed that the dogs needed the "extra rest". I'm thinking Ed wanted the extra rest! He has seen Jake Berkowitz a bit on the trail, and said that Jake is having a fabulous time and is a bundle of energy at each checkpoint. If he stays in Nikolai much longer, he'll get to visit with Trent and Tim Hunt as well!!

Posted by Tasha

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Mike called with a drop dog report this afternoon. Onyx was the first dog dropped from Ed's team and is now back in Anchorage. The vet report is that hehas a shoulder injury. Mike said he looks great now. I'm guessing that he looked worse at the checkpoint where dropped, and Ed may have had a long and technical run ahead and did not want to risk bagging him. The other two dogs Ed dropped are in transit and are delayed by bad weather. We do not know who they are yet. Trent dropped Juneau, also due to a shoulder injury so now Mike has that lovely little bundle of love to play with. I did make an error earlier in the dogs that Jake has from us, and he only has Jasper, not Kar and Art, they were left behind with Mike.
I noticed that Ed made quite a leap in the standings, but I believe that is due to the fact that he did not rest in Rohn like many of the teams around him did. It is often quite trecherous leaving Rohn, so he may have wanted to do that either with a tired dog team or during daylight hours. Remember folks, Rohn is only 272 miles into the race, Ed has just completed the UP 200! There's a lot of race to go! I talked to friends in Nome yesterday and they set a 30-year record for snowfall this winter. Sounds like the UP!

Posted by Tasha

Monday, March 9th, 2009

The Idiarod Chess Game has begun. I remember Frank Teasley was talking about dog sled racing one time, and compared a race to a chess game. However, the big difference with a dog race is that all the pieces are moving (or in this case, restiing). I've found the Iditarod tracker to be a bit frustrating with slow download speed, so I'm prefering instead to watch the good old "musher standings" section. There are a few things to watch: 1) Rest Time This willl greatly affect their placement from checkpoint to checkpoint. For example, Jeff King is currently in 9th place, but rested only 4 hours, 26 minutes in Rainy Pass. Lance Mackey is 10th, but just rested 6 hours in the same place. At some point, the lack of rest may catch up with Jeff. 2)Time Enroute This is a great way to see how Ed is doing compared to other mushers. Is it taking him about the same time to get from checkpoint to checkpoint. He ran from Skwenta to Finger Lake in 5 hours 22 minutes, Jake ran it in 5 hours 55 minutes, and Mitch Seavey in 5 hours 4 minutes. His speed is about the same as others around him. If you see the time enroute drastically increase from other mushers, then most likely a musher has chosen to rest along the way, not necessarily a bad thing. Rest does NOT have to be taken in a checkpoint. 3)Standings Am I concerned about Ed's position right now? I guess I'm a bit surprised he's not somewhat higher, but this is about the pace he has run in the past and he generally runs a pretty smart race. He is pretty close to some very competitive mushers: Ken Anderson, Ryan and Ray Reddington, and Mitch Seavey. There is a LONG way to go yet, so I am NOT losing sleep!
Julie, Pat and I took a kennel field trip today to Oswald's Bear Ranch. We had about 1000 lbs. of turkey fat left from the winter and since it's gettting pretty warm outside and the fat just does not keep too well, so we donated it to the bears. Dean and Jewel have about 30 adult bears. They just picked up two new rescue bears from Kentucky and we got to hold the 5 week old cubs!

Posted by Tasha

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

March 7, 2009 (7:00 p.m.)

Today we all had a blast at the Iditarod ceremonial start. The weather was perfect for spectators with beautiful sunny skies and temps in the high 20's. In my short Iditarod career, it was by far the most people I have seen out for the start of the race. Claudia Nowak was again my Iditarider and we enjoyed the perfect run, courtesy of fresh snow and a well behaved dog team. I didn't even take Claudia "off roading" like I did last year. I hope you enjoy the pictures because each one is definetley worth 1,000 words.

We followed the run with the traditional stop at Taco Bell and then back to the hotel to pack up for tomorrow.

My 2009 Iditarod team:
Big Ben
Starman
Luke
Sebastion
Arlo
Clark
Gimli
Jester
Chong
Onyx
Jade
Erie
Superior
Coach
Gus
Rhu

Trent's 2009 Iditarod team:
Bonfire
Hoover
Ayn
Dent
Prancer
Cupid
Ero
Timber
Lumber
Alaska
Juneau
Caullie
Payette
Clair
Laney
Choco

Jake is going to borrow Kar, Art and Jasper.

Thanks for following me this far and I will get you updates from the trail when possible.

Posted by Ed

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

The Iditarod Ceremonial start was today. While Julie, Tara and I were waiting for our tour guests at Boyne (Tim reminds me that he would have seen Ed start too but he was "working" and was the trail with a group) we saw Ed leave the starting chute in real time on the Iditarod Insider website. Wow, technology is amazing! Ed will have more on that...but in the meantime, here's a note from Pat Moon who was left alone at the kennel this weekend to care for the dogs. I'll have to rethink my babysitting choices next time since this sitter got detained by the Canadian Mounties.
"After an early morning vote, it was decided that Hera, Einstein, and Pat would venture off to introduce the rest of the world to Einstein. I thought Hera would be a greater asset to the operation, but it turns out that she, surprise-surprise, would just rather lay in the back seat of the truck and snooze.

We headed off to Canada to introduce Squeaky Stein to the Canadians. On the advice of Tasha, who said passing into and out of Canada was easy, we headed off. Here are a few things we learned:

Passing into and out of Canada probably was easy at one point. Although you do not need a passport yet, a birth certificate is required. Unless you choose to be detained for a few moments while they run a complete background check on you,

Answering, "To get my dog's picture taken at the Welcome To Canada Sign" is not an acceptable reason for entering a foreign country. Day visit applies if needed.

Einstein gets car sick. I was warned about this. I in turn warned the US Border Patrol Agent of this, just before he was vomited on.

Hera will sleep through anything. Including a vehicle search prior to re-entry into my beloved country.

A quick note of interest. Our goal for this outing was to get Einstein's picture in Canada. When I was being questioned, I said I was here to take the puppy's picture. The Canadian Border Agent then questioned why only one dog was getting their picture taken. I gave him my answer, but he seemed to be annoyed that I drove all this way, but was only interested in one dog being photographed.

We were successful in our quest. Attached are the best pictures of what I took."

Pat

For those of you who have been around the houe this winter, Einstein is the puppy who had a very weird skin disorder and the pads of his paws were falling off. After weeks of antibiotic treatment, he is all better. However, he is now aclimated to a warm house and his siblings don't accept him to well as part of their pack. So, he's still housebound and luckily pretty well house trained now thanks to TC and Momo. Hopefully he'll be able to rejoin the kennel dogs in the spring and for now he has to play with his siblings under supervision in the yard.

Posted by Tasha

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

March 6, 2009 (3 p.m.)
Last night was the pre-race banquet at the all new Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center. It was awesome! The only down side to the evening was that I ended up with bib #46. I was hoping to start a lot sooner as I think the front 15-20 teams have much better trail conditions. The more dog feet and sled brakes that travel the surface the more chewed up it becomes. This is especially true on downhills like descending the Happy River Steps and the Dalzell Gorge. Oh well, at least I am not bib #92 like last year.
Some of the highlights of the evening for me were:
-hanging out at the “Stielstra” table. My Dad, Uncle Darc, Uncle Chuck, Aunt Sally, Uncle Bob, and Aunt Lynne all made the trip to Anchorage to cheer me on. Also, Jim and Sally from Lake Tahoe came all the way to Alaska to join team NK. Tasha and I met them this summer while working in Juneau and they have the love of the outdoors, adventure, and animals that we have.
-being out of the banquet by 9 p.m. so I could feed my dogs at a reasonable hour.
-meeting table #22 from Ann Arbor, MI and all of the other Michiganders who stopped by to say “good luck”.
-having Cliff and Mike to drive and co-pilot me back to Sheep Mountain Lodge through a crazy, snow/freezing rain/people driving too fast, stretch of road.up the mountains.
-being comforted with the fact that Claudia Nowak from Traverse City, MI is once again my Iditarider (aka “the smile on my sled”) for Saturday’s ceremonial start.
We are currently driving back down the mountain. I was able to squeeze in a couple of dog runs this morning before we left which always puts me in a great mood. We were going to stay tonight at Sheep Mountain but we thought it might be a good idea to get down to the valley just in case the road becomes worse. We have to be in Anchorage pretty early in the morning and I would like to get some sleep tonight. Hopefully we can find a hotel in Palmer or Wasilla were we can relax later tonight. For right now though we are off to a meet the musher party that is sponsored by the Foster’s. I was able to attend last year and it was a wonderfully relaxed event. With the roads we may not make it in time but we are giving it a shot. After the Foster’s we are off to Anchorage to my Uncle Chuck’s for a delicious Alaskan feast hosted by my Dad and his brothers. This has become an annual tradition of fun, bad jokes, and even worse ping pong.
Cliff is once again driving and it is WINDY! He has been such a lifesaver. We have had by far the most treacherous roads of any of our 5 trips to Alaska and he has volunteered to drive through most of it. I don’t mind driving but it definitely wears on me and I would rather relax in the backseat and write to all of you.

Photo guide: Cliff driving (again!), Cliff doing a final sled check at Sheep Mountain, the view fromt the Sheep Mountain cabin.

Posted by Ed

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