Hi friends,
It is over and what a race it was. Only a few mushers lived where there was good snow and good training conditions. I tried as hard as I could, but at last my team came up a little short on the long training runs, 65 to 100 miles, needed to be a real top competitor. However, I still had a wonderful time and the dogs were great! My family has built a large trailer for me to take the kennel away next year, to snow country, if we have the bad conditions again.
The names of my dog in my team this year are.
Sandman 8 yr. old male leader, his 4th race, Wacco 7 yr. old male leader, his 6th race, Termite 6 yr. old female leader, 5th race, Kiwi 3 yr. old female leader, 2nd race, Scout 5 yr. old male leader 4th race, Apache 3 yr. old male leader his first race, Ojibwa 3 yr. old female leader her first race, Tomahawk 5 yr. old male team dog and sometimes lead dog his 4th race, Sacagawea 5 yr. old female team and sometimes lead dog her 4th race, Dottie 7 yr. old female team dog 6th race, Patches 3 yr. old male team dog hid first race, Buddha 3 yr. old male team dog his first race, Wasabi 3 yr old male team dog, Iroquois 3 yr. old female team dog, Snow man 3 yr. old male team dog his first race, Carlos 6 yr. old team dog his 4th race. I finished with Wacco, Scout, Kiwi, Sacagawea, Buddha, Carlos,Termite & Dottie.
Sandman had to be left 23 miles from the finish line, at Safety as he stepped in a crack in the ice and really heart his foot. Ojibwa went home from Koyuk, Wasabi went home from Unalakleet with Apache, Patches went home from Kaltag, Snowman went home from Ruby with Iroquois, Tomahawk went home from Tanana. All are fine now.
I have 98 dogs in my kennel and now I have 3 new puppies. My daughter has been helping me for the winter. She would like to run the Iditarod some day.
The dogs used 1,500 booties on the race. Some of them were made by voluntiers called the bootie brigade. My dogs run for 6 hours or so and than rest for 6 hours. They eat a lot of food. We feed them a real top quality dry food called Pro Pac. you can feed it to your dog www.propacpetfood.com/
The kennel also take care of a lot of old dogs. We have started a No-profit foundation to care for them. Thank you for taking an interest in my kennel. I hope to run the Iditarod next year too!
Lynda Plettner
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