2009 Iditarod Restart

This year we decided to join some of my friends from work for the re-start. The best part was that it wasn't with all the crowds down in Willow, it was just a bit further up the trail off one of the many lakes up there. (It's off the Deshka Landing road) Though there were quite a few more people up there this year as compared to last year (according to my friends) we had a nice open spot right on the trail. The dogs and sleds were literally right in front of us and we could have touched them if we wanted to. This year's race ended up with 67 teams, though the bibs read team 2 - 68 because the number 1 bib is symbolic of the "ghost racer," the original Iditarod Trail runner. The first racer starts coming out of the restart in Willow at about 2 pm and each team goes after in 2 minute increments. By the time they got to us, probably under 5 miles away, some of the teams were right together. The most teams we saw bunched up were three, but I'm sure that will change further on down the trail. If you're looking for more information on this amazing event, you can check it out on the Official Iditarod Homepage and keep up with the racers here I took over 200 photos of them, and a few videos that I plan to post on the Anchorage Daily News site for photos and video, where you can see the posts that lots of other people have posted, as well. Right now we're rooting for Lance Mackey to win his third consecutive Iditarod. And of course, we're rooting for our "home town" girl, Cindy Gallea, to make a good showing in this year's race. Mostly we're hoping everyone comes through the race without any major injuries to racers or the dogs. It really is one of the most grueling sporting events there is. They don't call it the Last Great Race for nothing!!