The Iditarod Returns to Galena
Normally the Iditarod runs through Galena on even numbered years. This year the snow conditions further south made it impossible to safely run dog teams over some long stretches of the trail so they shifted the start to Fairbanks.
The route this year runs on rivers for a substantial portion of the race so the mushers and dogs haven’t had to negotiate the Alaska range before they arrived in Galena. The teams have arrived quickly and seem to be more bunched up than normal. The first teams arrived yesterday and the majority of them have either reached Galena or are already through.
I took a few photographs yesterday but I wanted to post this video I shot with my phone today.
Bear in mind these dogs have just completed a run of at least 50 miles. That’s the distance from the Ruby checkpoint and I don’t know if they rested there or not. The checkpoint before that was Tanana which is 117 miles upriver from Ruby. We should all have that kind of energy.
I have another short video which I’ll upload later and I’ll work on the still images this weekend. In the mean time enjoy the noisy sled dogs.