04 March 2014

Iditarod Update: Jonrowe Out

It's been a bumpy 24 hours on the Iditarod Trail. Here's what you  need to know this morning: Fan favorite DeeDee Jonrowe is out of the race after a rough ride into Rohn. Limping race leader Martin Buser is taking his mandatory daylong break in Nikolai as other mushers, battered by the snowless trail, arrive dented and bruised. "It's a minefield out there," says former Yukon Quest champion Hugh Neff.
 UPDATE 9:40 a.m. Tuesday:
From Casey Grove in NIKOLAI
More sled dog teams arrived here as dawn broke after the arrivals of Martin Buser and Nicolas Petit. Those included Hugh Neff, Aliy Zirkle, Jeff King and Aaron Burmeister. They told stories of a rough, bare trail through the Farewell Burn that banged up their sleds and their bodies.

"It's the roughest I've ever seen," said King, a 22-time race finisher and four-time winner.
King said he came upon a group of snowmachiners on the trail between Rohn and Nikolai trying to decide how they would get around a deep, wide hole. But the way the snowmachines were parked, they steered his team right into the hole, King said.

The dogs jumped over the hole, but the sled went in and slammed hard, King said.
"I thought I was screwed. I had a misshaped sled," King said.

Tossing snacks to her dogs, Zirkle described 30 miles of no snow going through the Burn. "No snow. Zip. Zero. None."

With rocks and stumps to catch on, Zirkle's brake and drag mat broke twice, she said, but she was able to fix them both times.

2 comments:

threecollie said...

Thanks again for sharing updates. We were just wondering about Dee Dee yesterday....

Rev. Paul said...

You're welcome, ma'am.