Posted on 03/15/2009 9:09:20 PM PDT by skeptoid
UNALAKLEET -- In a display of dominance not seen since the dynasties of Doug Swingley and the late Susan Butcher ruled the Iditarod Trail, the dog team of Lance Mackey powered down off the frozen Kaltag Portage into a warm welcome in this coastal Bering Sea village Sunday afternoon.
- SNIP -
He is in control here the way another cancer survivor named Lance -- the one named Armstrong -- used to always be in control as the final days of the Tour de France moved toward Paris.
Mackey alluded to as much in a chat with a reporter in the checkpoint.
"I've been thinking a lot about what's going on,'' he said.
"What is it you're thinking?''
"What color truck I want,'' Mackey said.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Despite tough trail conditions early in the race, Mackey's team has showed no hint of tiring. The dogs were faster Sunday coming over the portage in wind and minus-30 temperatures than they were Saturday marching up the Yukon.
Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News
Lance Mackey waves to Iditarod fans as he arrives in Unalakleet on Sunday, March 15, 2009.
Mmmm-kay.
From what I understand, the race is not a very pleasant experience for the dogs.
Have you ever seen dogs running this race? The main problem mushers have is holding these dogs back. Everyone mourns the loss of a dog including me. These guys live to run and if they die they die doing what they love. It’s not up to bunny kissing, tree hugging, earth worshiping and misguided do gooders to decide what Alaskans and their dogs do.
The dogs are born and bred to do this.. NOT doing it bothers them.. They can hardly wait to get mushing.. They love it.. Its Mackay that suffers most.. not the dogs.. Grizzly Adams and Jerimiah Johnson were punks next to Mackay...
Check out the miles a wolf has been tracked in a day and you will appreciate the sleddog’s love of running. Being chained or penned or being indoors, is what is hard for them.
“I’m relying on what the Humane Society of the United States says. This organization does not oppose other mushing events, but it does oppose this race:”
Rely on the dog experts not a political group. The Humane Society expends so much effort on so few dogs (this race)because it gets them publicity, it is the same tactic that PETA uses.
Here is an article challenging that view of the HS.
http://www.helpsleddogs.com/RSF_editorial.html
“Oh, and how many dogs in my local humane society were destroyed? Of the 683 dogs that took residence between March 2nd and March 16th, 174 were destroyed. This is more than 10 a day. 1024 dogs took to the starting line in Anchorage with their owners on the 2nd of March, and when it was over 1023 of them were still alive and with their owners. How many are still around? I guess I don’t really know, but I suspect that at least 90% of them are. How many of those 683 do you think are still alive? The Sleddog Action Coalition’s website has a notice by the Humane Society of the US claiming that 119 dogs have died running the Iditarod in the 30 years it has been running. That is 119 dogs out of close to 30,000! Yet in the 2 weeks of just one race, the same Humane society destroyed more dogs in a significanly smaller sampling. I think I like the Iditarod odds much better.”
If not, view the pics an gimme anudder report.
.
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(you hosin me, aintcha)
Then I went to the post and saw that other FReepers had already explained it to you. .
.
(RSVP, KRANKOR)
(other than the possibility you just might be an illiterate possum eater. . .
. . . Am I right or wrong?)
I take it you’ve never seen “South Park” ?
Look to tv network/channel “Versus” for shows next 2 Sundays, 3/22 & 3/29. First part aired 3/15, may air again this week for all I know.
...Yep, looks like lots of airings listed at link (scroll down below the embedded video):
http://www.versus.com/nw/article/view/677/?UserDef=true&catID=76
Nice scenery, neat stories, generally fascinating stuff.
If Norman read your comment, he'd chuckle [not so you could hear it though, he was too much of a gentleman.] Norman participated in 13 Iditarods, running his first one at age 72. Completed 6 with his last finish being in 1990 at the age of 84.
He talked his way onto the Byrd expedition, gathered hundreds of sled dogs and sailed to Antarctica. This was a primitive jaunt into where no man had gone before. 'For Vaughan, it was always been about the dogs rather than the poles. When asked why Shackleton and Scott both failed to reach the pole, he replied: "Because they didn't have anyone who was really good with dogs."'
'Vaughan admired Roald Amundsen, he says, "because he knew dogs". "And of course, Amundsen understood the part nobody else talks about: you have to eat the dogs. Matter of survival. It's 25 pounds less food to carry."'
Vaughan said he "hated that part ... but it had to be done, and I had to do it. Of course they know. I tied them to a stake with a very short leash and gave them a second bullet if they needed it."' Norman was rarely without his .45.
In the spirit of the Iditarod, gold, supplies and serum, I think of Norman, a man among men, with his dogs ...pitting themselves against nature. It's what the Last Frontier is all about. It's what these dogs are are all about.
It’s Mr. Mackey, of course.
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