The Last Teams at the Unalakleet checkpoint for 2018 Iditarod

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:

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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We are at this time, reporting 2 withdrawn mushers. Steve Watkins, Tara Cicatello withdrawn from 2018 Iditarod - Anchorage, Alaska –– Veteran Iditarod musher Steve Watkins (bib #59), of Topeka, Kansas, and rookie Iditarod musher Tara Cicatello (bib #44), of Buffalo, New York, were withdrawn from the 2018 Iditarod race at 7:05 p.m. today at the Unalakleet checkpoint.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.

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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.

Steve Watkins

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.

Iditarod From Unalakleet 2018

The Iditarod rolled or should I say mushed into the village yesterday with all its traditional fan fair: extra sleds, food bags, vets, Insider crew, journalist, photographers, drones, Iditarod Air Force, small planes, fun, and then THE DOGS and Mushers.  This time of the year is just fun!  Longer hours of daylight, improved weather usually, more people out and about and then the Iditarod!  Below are photos from March 11th enjoy!

Three of our skiers on the "Welcoming Committee"

Nic heading downthe slough to the check point.  A friend posted a clip of him and he sings to his dogs as he is heading down the trail!

Nic giving directions to his team

Under all that clothing is a rather slender athlete

Vet check and I meet this vet latter as I walked my dogs.  She said these dogs are doing great!

Vet Check

One of Nic's team watching his every move.

Two of the 4 Skiku coaches here this week.  They work with our skiers, plus get to enjoy the village, and the Iditarod.

Nic wasted no time tending to his team.

Nic

Dinner!

Skiku in action 

Fun ski drills

Stellar ski weather: sunshine and NO wind!

Nic and team leaving Unalakleet

Nic heading north early evening 3/11

Joar's team

As we call this the last Viking or lost Viking . . . a long time community member who's family has roots from Norway.

Great friend Peggy who helps us with skiing as we check the sleds waiting for their team.

Nic's team and bedding them down for a nice rest.

Several people commented about Nic's dogs having long legs!

Mixing up feed for the team.

Dee Dee bing honored by the community last night.  There was a great turn out!  She was very moved and so humbe----a stellar lady!

Wood carved Ulu with a plaque stating Unalakleet loves Dee Dee.

Neck Opening!

This is what happens when you have knitted several (exact number hmmm not sure) Lopi/yoke sweaters!  You just knit around and around and around, tossing in wonderful motifs that fit into the mental picture I have of my new Nordic traditional sweater.  This sweater called Solstice (my name, my creation) is about snow, mountains, and cross-country skiing. Each motif has a connection to one of those three aspects of my world.  

HOWEVER! One will need a NECK no matter what!  I totally forgot about the NECK opening and how or what method would I use to design the neck opening!  YIKES!  The knitting trolls have been rather quiet but sure enough, they were scheming up their next plan of attack and the little nasty trolls once again arrived and tossed me yet another troll attack!  

I may have to frog back two rounds to start my neck work.  Luckily, I was not too far along before the troll attack!

I will use EZ's Kangaroo Pouch for the neck opening.  I now need to think about this, organize my assault, watch the DVD I have from Schoolhouse Press, and set up the Kangaroo Pouch which will be steeked.

A GOLDEN DREAM COMES TRUE!

I woke this morning like all workday mornings.  I come downstairs, get the dog food ready, take the girls out for their morning duties, feed the girls, pour my organic coffee, sit down at my computer, check email and then occasionally I go to FB or Twitter for updates.

THERE IT WAS DIGGINS AND RANDALL: The GOLDEN LADIES OF NORDIC SKIING!

Tears of joy ran down my face!  Sappy maybe but these ladies deserve every tear they have dedicated their lives to this goal, with focused consistent determination. Kikkan and Jessi are both positive role models to young girls.  

Their faces say it all a dream come through for the US ladies!  Photo from: Nordic Nation Foundation

USA on top of the scoreboard!  Photo from: Nordic Nation Foundation

A few great articles on the Women's Golden Moment:

Bill Koch's thoughts on US GOLD!

John Caldwell's look at US women's Nordic ski history

Iron Dog Snow Machine Race

The #IronDog is a snowmachine race runs through the village of Unalakleet twice.  Racers start outside of Anchorage and come north along the Iditarod Dog Sled Race Trail mostly. There are two race classes "Trail" and "Pro."  Trail rides to Nome and is finished they are not really racing.  The Pro class riders are the racers! They will race to Nome then come back south and head to the finish in Fairbanks.

To be honest, I am not a huge fan of snowmachines but I am impressed by these racers.  Snow machines are for grooming cross-country ski trails right?  Mostly, I think about the racers poor backs!  The land they cover is rough, not always snow covered, not smooth, and remote. Then racers deal with our current overflow issues here on the Unalakleet River, the howling winds of the coast and usually low temperatures . . . yikes, one tough race!

The kids in the village love snow machines!  Yesterday off we went to see the machines which were parked at "The Garage" our local Native Store.  The racers are at various peoples homes sleeping and being fed.

Field Trip which we can do here at a drop of the hat---off we went to see these amazing machines!

One word---FAST!

#Team8 current leaders!

Future racers dreaming of a fast machine!

#Team8 #IronDog  Tyler Aklestad and Tyson Johnson

Knit & Ski or Ski & Knit

A traditional Norwegian drop shoulder sweater using Bartlett sport weight yarn, EZ's percentage system, and motifs from a variety of sources.

2/16/18 Time for a blog post.  Our ski race for this weekend was postponed until next weekend due to our charming weather out here on the edge of the Bering Sea.  It never fails . . . when I felt the most organized for a ski race ever!  Bering Air said, "We haven't flown into Koyuk since last Friday, we are not flying in now due to weather: snow, blowing snow, and the death of airlines: Freezing Rain!  Now I will be honest, the last place I want to be stuck with 16 middle school kids is Koyuk!

2/17/18 Staying home and weathering out the storm in my HOUSE sounds like a grand idea.  Only the storm hasn't been bad other than a lot of wind today which is Saturday.  Our first ski practice of the day was with the elementary ski crew grades 1st through 4th. A competent group of young skiers had the great joy of tackling winds over 20 mph.  UGH!  No matter what this is one of the hardest places to try to be skiers.  Between, winds, overflow, storms, cold, and lack of new snow for long stretches . . . we keep the village kids skiing.

Groomed and skiers skiing up Picnic Hill a long climb that is really fun to blast down!

The girls sitting and listening to the kids who are way down at the bottom that came out to ski on their own.  As you can see we groom and ski the drifts as the tundra doesn't hold much snow in winds over 30mph.

My husband who grooms for us.  We use an Arctic Cat BearCat and a YTS groomer.

This is Round About that we ski out to most days. I have started to call this "Candy Land." It looks like the game board when we get all the colorful cones and hoops set up for the skiers to use for games which build skills.

This would be "overflow" usually we ski across this area but on Wednesday we had a water obstacle to add more fun or is that challenges to our skiing.

Our older skiers which we call race Team.  This is part of the crew we travel to ski races with.

Knitting . . . I am loving my sweater which I named Winter Solstice.  The motifs are coming together nicely and I enjoy planning as I knit.  The overall theme of this piece is winter, snow, mountains, and cross-country skiing.  Each motif has a meaning that relates to the theme.  I have tried it on a few times and I can not say enough why this is so important!  I place the body on two long circular needles and slip it on.  I have been able to correct most sizing errors using this method. Trying on your knitting and measuring it all the time is really important I think to have a successful and wearable knitted item.

Village Happenings:  We have clean running water again.  Some major leaks have been found and work will be done on those in the spring or summer.  There is still a huge hole out by our place and that will be there for some time I know!  We have the Iron Dog Race about to arrive early this week.  The largest event the Iditarod Dog Sled Race will be arriving in March.

Our daylight is lengthening to over 9 hours of daylight and increasing daily.  Our daylight even seems longer as sunrise and sunset are rather exaggerated this far north.  The daily colors that greet us in the sky are just stunning!  We are lucky to have these stunning northern colors close our days, too.

Return to My Beginnings

"Don't take life too seriously because you can't come out of it alive." A quote from Warren Miller which helps to keep life in perspective.  This year marks 23rd year in the classroom for me. This is my last year in the traditional American classroom.  Last week, I handed in my contract saying I am resigning.  It was a well thought out decision and one I don't have an ounce of regret over at all!  I feel so fantastic to be wrapping up my professional career.

The saying "Full Circle" is what I am laughing about!  Long ago I was a bit of a ski bum.  Coaching Nordic skiing, teaching beginner Alpine ski lessons, and waiting tables.  I wanted to travel and work with kids.  I got married and my husband and I became teachers.  We worked overseas for 11 years before returning to teach in rural Alaska.  Our lives overseas were pretty darn great.  We were able to travel and really did some wonderful trips in Oman, Sweden, Norway, Morocco, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Canada.  While teaching in Peru we could return to Montana and ski every North American winter.  We kept getting jobs in the tropical region of the world but we missed winter.  We came home and landed jobs in Alaska.  School/job has been good.  The added plus of being here was we are able to ski.  I could coach cross-country skiing.  A bonus would be coaching the sport of ski biathlon!

Time has come to say goodbye to the classroom and return to my roots.  Spending more time outside, being fit, and just coaching!  Now as I say, "I am retiring from school but not from work!"  I will sub this coming year and coach the ski team. I will figure out how to make a living and just see what new opportunities present themselves or I can create.

I love returning to where I left off . . . no matter what returning to my beginnings feels magical!

Ms. Sadie and I on the night of the Super Moon.

First-grade skiers on a nice foggy frosty day!

My girl!

A tea break a must on our ski tours.

A chilly ski tour but under a huge blue tundra sky!