And we are not talking about Basketball!

But if your a friend of Dew Claw you already knew that. With some generosity from 2 women who I count as my very first supporters, and some new friends I was able to put down my $3000 at the 2012 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race first day sign ups.  Big thanks to my Mom, and Aunt Virginia, I Love You. Dan and I are lucky to have the encouragement of our families as we take on the challenge of the 1000 milers, Yukon Quest & Iditarod. (although I would  bet the entire entry fee that more then once each of them has questioned our sanity)

Also Thank you to Marlys Sauer, Lou & Fran Varndell, Kirstie McGuinness, and Sally Dunkley, so glad you are joining Team Dew Claw this season. There is a joke “It takes a village to raise a musher” and its true! We hope to be adding more members to the team as the season progresses, and welcome inquiries from companies about sponsorship opportunities. Anyone need any gear cold weather tested? I mean really cold weather tested?

The annual Iditarod picnic was held in Wasilla, which necessitated a very very early morning start to the 6ish hour drive down, allowing me to  arrive early enough to actually enjoy the picnic for awhile. There were a number of people I was looking forward to seeing there. The plan then included spending the night at fellow musher, distance diva, and one of my favorite people Kelley Griffen’s house.

It got off to a rough start, which is usually the case when the crack of dawn is involved. It all started the night before actually, when inspired by the recent addition of hundreds of songs to my iTunes library I started in making a “roadtrip” playlist. The project mushroomed as I waded through songs, and then was faced with the need to do some updates for the laptop to ‘find’ the nano, and that somehow blossomed into another computer snag. Final result, the playlist sat on the laptop, the un-synched nano came but seemed somehow lighter without the desired addition of the ultimate roadtrip playlist, and I went to bed way too late for what I had planned in the morning.  But thanks to the automatic coffee maker with the handy pre-set brew time button I was able to quickly caffeinate and hit the road shortly after the alarm rudely awakened me. *oh that reminds me, note to self – go set up coffee for tomorrow as I am obviously going to be up too late again tonight working on this blog…

A mostly rainy day and a long drive to get there. There were of course moments of absolute beauty: the way the light hit the edge of a mountain range, clouds opening up to let a ray of sunshine through, wildflowers in profusion on the side of the road. You can not drive that far in Alaska and not have moments of extreme beauty.  Today’s beauty came with complicated gray light that most likely would cause things to appear washed out, and dulled out of context on my simple digital camera. So instead of stopping for photos I limited my stops to lattes, gas, and bathroom breaks (Fairbanks, Trapper Creek, and Willow). Made good time, and was at the picnic with plenty of time to be social.

Visited with lots of people, signed some autographs, and met some of the teachers who were here learning about Iditarod so that they have first hand and accurate info about the mushers, dogs, and race when doing Iditarod themed/inspired classroom activities. To get an idea about what kinds of things are being done you can look at the Teacher on the Trail blog. Lots of sign ups today, 47 in all. Many were on hand in person, including current champ John Baker, Lance Mackey, Ramey Smyth, Mitch Seavey, and although I was not totally floored (cause I kinda figured he couldn’t totally break the addiction) Jeff King. Also glad to see Aaron Burneister will be making the run to Nome again this year. You can see the full listing of Mushers at the Iditarod website. The list of first day sign-up is also in this article: Five Champions among 47 signing up for Iditarod 2012.

Had a blast hanging out with Kelley. She is great, and I always enjoy spending time with her.  It is just that we rarely get to see each other in situations where we are not competing. And even under those circumstances we remain great friends. In some ways that shared experience of competing helps; nobody understands the insanity that is your life  better then someone doing the same thing. Case in point: we were laughing as I struggled with what to say on my application bio & info section, I never know what to write for those things. “What should I put for my goals?” I lamented “I have something about learning from my mistakes, but it sounds stupid”

“tell them your going to learn from your mistake, and not make the same ones” she says grinning, “cause you will be too busy making all new ones” We both laugh. Cause it’s funny, it’s true, and I know excatly what she means.

For more photos see Backstage Iditarod: The blog and the book by June Price, who was kind enough to let me use the photo above.