Yesterday I was out for a ski with my wonderful husband, who had just groomed the ski trails, and our dogs. As we were walking home from skiing we saw a few of our teaching friends heading to the checkpoint to welcome
Steve Watkins and
Tara Cicatello to Unalakleet. I came in the house got out of my ski boots for the 2nd time for the day. My husband said, "You had better get to the checkpoint for the knitters and get some photos!" Boots went back on as I know I could get down there faster on skis than if I walked the whole way.
I am glad I did put in the effort.
Steve Watkins was so nice to chat with about his dogs, running the Iditarod, and he is a friend of one of my favorite mushers
Lizbet Norris. I didn't talk with Tara much but just a few words as she was working with the vets and feeding her dogs. Steve chatted a lot and I took more photos as he asked, "Would you post them on facebook so my mom can see me?" How can anyone say no to that request!
Once home later I saw on facebook from the
Insider this news release:
*******************************************
Iditarod Trail Committee
50 mins ·
We are at this time, reporting 2 withdrawn mushers. Steve Watkins, Tara Cicatello withdrawn from 2018 Iditarod - Anchorage, Alaska –– Veteran Iditarod musher Steve Watkins (bib #59), of Topeka, Kansas, and rookie Iditarod musher Tara Cicatello (bib #44), of Buffalo, New York, were withdrawn from the 2018 Iditarod race at 7:05 p.m. today at the Unalakleet checkpoint. While both Watkins and Cicatello wished to continue the race, race marshal Mark Nordman made the decision based on rule 36 of the official Iditarod race rules regarding competitiveness. Both mushers and their race teams are in good health. Watkins had 12 dogs in his team and Cicatello had 13 dogs in her team at the time of the withdraw.
“Both Tara and Steve faced very tough conditions along the Yukon River, which led to them falling behind in the race field,” said Iditarod race marshal Mark Nordman. “Due to this distance behind the rest of the field, it unfortunately was not feasible to keep the infrastructure in place to support their race efforts going forward.”
Watkins and Cicatello are spending the night at the Unalakleet checkpoint and being well taken care of by the local Unalakleet community.
*******************************************
Withdrawing teams may be hard for some people who don't live on the trail to understand, but it is honestly a good thing. The logistics out here are hard to fathom at times. Plus, the volunteers/locals have given up so much and asking them to all keep checkpoints open is a challenge at best. Plus these two teams are at a hub airport and this is the best time to pull them from the trail.
Below are photos from the last two teams to arrive in Unalakleet March 15th.
 |
| Getting a high fat snack ready for his team. |
 |
| Tara tending her dogs. |
 |
| Eyes on Tara as her team waited for food. |
 |
| One of Tara's cute dogs. |
 |
| Loved these two dogs from Steve's team all snuggled up and one is being used as the kitchen table. |
 |
| Enjoying a nice rest as they await dinner. |
 |
| The never-ending job of a musher . . . dogs first. |
 |
| Early evening light and long shadows starting to form. Just before these two teams were called off the trail. The community had brought down food and welcomed them to Unalakleet. |
