A friend stopped by our hu-dad’s office Thursday and asked him what he was going to do now that the Iditarod was over. Over, our dad asked. Our dad pointed out that the friend ran marathons on a regular basis. Is the marathon over just because the first person crosses the finish line? Nope. So the Iditarod is not over yet either.
Congratulations to Blake Freking who completed the race yesterday in 11 days, 20 hours, 39 minutes and 11 seconds. While Blake came in 42nd overall, he posted the fastest time in the history of the race for a team of pure bred Siberian Huskies. What an awesome accomplishment.
Don't I look super sleek with my ears pinned back?
As of the time of this writing, a number of mushers were still on the trail. One of the great honors of the race is the Red Lantern – the award given to the team that is the last to finish the race. In our hyper-competitive world, many sports would label this the loser (or even everyone other than #1 the losers). But the Red Lantern is an honor given to the last WINNER of the race. Yes, an award in perseverance and we will celebrate the winner this year. We look forward to finding out who that person is.
See, if I squint my eyes then everyone will think I am a super-cool mushing machine.
Yes, it is Saturday and The Herd is ready for a weekend of the outdoors. The weather here is a little iffy with rain, but much warmer temperatures, so we will be outside virtually the whole time. We can smell spring approaching!
For those of you who are not on The Thundering Herd Fan Page on Facebook (because, amazingly, you apparently do not need to have up to the minute news on The Herd), you may have missed a great news article about the Iditarod that we linked to. We will quote a section:
Karen Ramstead’s . . . Siberian Huskies are some of the most beautiful dogs at McGrath and anywhere along the Iditarod Trail. As villagers stopped by the checkpoint, they all gravitated toward her team to admire her handsome team. Handsome is as handsome does is a proverb meaning character and behavior are more important than appearance. It seems though with Karen’s dogs, they have it all – good looks, strong character and stellar behavior.
What a spectacular tribute to a very special lady. Karen and and the Siberian Huskies of North Wapiti, we are very sorry that you had to make the decision to drop out of the Iditarod. But, as always, we salute the tremendous effort and look forward to seeing you and the Pretty Sled Dogs again. You are one heck of an inspiration!
Hu-Dad - What about the most famous Iditarod song?
The Herd is absolutely right. How could I possibly do a series of post about my favorite Iditarod songs and leave out the most famous song of all? What more can we say? Hope you enjoy a little Hobo Jim -
Today is the real start for the Iditarod race (yesterday was the ceremonial start, but it does not really count). But as we are preparing for the start of the race, we thought we would share a fun video with you. This song – and video – makes me laugh. Hope you enjoy it.
Ok, pups, you will have to forgive us this week. Certain pups (oh, like say Remington) may have sports that they follow and talk about all of the time on their blogs. But we quietly follow our favorite sport right up until the first Saturday in March – TODAY! Yep, today is the ceremonial start of the 38th Iditarod Race. Today is about fun – not race times – but is quite an adventure.
And who will we be paying attention to? We like lots of the mushers, but our favorite has always been Karen Ramstead of North Wapiti Kennels and you can follow her blog and read her official bio. Why is she our favorite? Well, we have met her more than any other musher, for one. She even has visited us in the S-RV. And she has a video of her Pretty Sled Dogs (and, yes, we own it and have seen it many, many times). So when the 29th racer leaves the starting line today, know that the loud Woo you hear from Maggie Valley is the Herd rooting on our favorite musher.
As our way of saluting Karen as she starts the race this year, we received permission from Donna Quante (www.huskyproductions.net) to share the music video from the movie Pretty Sled Dogs with the music of Kyf Brewer. Best of luck Karen!
Please share with us your favorite video, musher, or Iditarod story. It is that week!
We have saved the best for last. The video embedded below shows the ending of the run from Abingdon to Damascus, VA, as well as a couple of pictures of the sled dogs after the run. Watching the dogs come across the finish line is the highlight of the event.
As always, a very special thank you to Siberian Husky Assist, the Siberian Husky rescue organization that sponsors this event. We always think of them fondly because they brought Kodiak to us.
P.S. – Laughing at ourselves here. As we were preparing this entry, we discovered this was our 501st post. Forgot to celebrate number 500 yesterday. So much for milestones.
We showed you the other day that the ski resort next to us has been making snow, but they will not share with us. Bummer. But the cold weather does allow us to do the next best thing – dry land mushing! We rarely get pictures or videos because our humans are a little busy, but we did let Natasha and Qannik pose for a few pictures this time around and even a short video. We all ran at some point, but they were our models. So this is our own unique version of Walking Wednesday – Fur Wheel Drive style.
Qannik expresses his opinion of the working life
Rusty, Qannik and Natasha resting on the drop line while others run
Yesterday, we went to the Tennessee Working Dog Symposium sponsored by Siberian Husky Assist and met some celebrities:
Dr. Al Townshend, DVM, presented two courses – one on dog nutrition and one on Orthopedic care for Working Dogs. He has years of experience as a veterinarian at the Iditarod, and has received the coveted “Golden Stethescope Award” from the Iditarod for contributions above and beyond the call of duty in bringing veterinary care to the dogs of the Iditarod. He also shared some great stories from the trail.
Karen Ramstead of North Wapiti Siberian Husky Kennels who shared some great stories from her years of running the Iditarod, some funny and some as touching as her recounting the special nature – and loss – of Snickers.
Note – Picture is from Karen’s website.
If there was a dry eye in the house, I sure could not see it from my own blurred vision. Click here to read more.
But all of this was upstaged by one very special guest star. Someone of striking beauty in her sparkling eyes, athleticism, and amazing ability to handle the crush of puparazzi. The one, the only – Holly. Here she is addressing her adoring fans and the crush of cameras:
This is a large video file (sorry to non-broadband users) of about 3 minutes, but it is a video of the finishers in the Serum Run Re-enactment – a demonstration run.
P.S., the whining dog you hear in the background of the video is Cheoah, who has her own “special” way of letting you know that she is bored and wants to do something different. It is one of her “endearing” qualities.
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