Boondocks at the Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Name: Boondocks
Age: 2
Gender: Female
Weight: 34 pounds
Musher: Aliy Zirkle, Two Rivers

“Boondocks is the anomaly of a sled dog. She weighs 34 pounds, she is 2 years old and she has already finished one 1,000-mile race this year,” Zirkle said.

“She was officially the smallest dog on the Yukon Quest and she might be the smallest dog on Iditarod,” she said.

Boondocks ran the Quest this year with Zirkle’s husband, musher Allen Moore. She’s also the daughter of Moore’s leader, a dog named ChaCha.

The couple run the Skunk’s Place Kennel in Two Rivers, near Fairbanks. Boondocks was part of the “Honky Tonk" litter, along with her brothers Willie, Waylon, Scruggs and Lester, Zirkle said.

Read more about Zirkle & Moore on their kennel blog.

See the rest of the "Meet the sled dogs." We're going to try to do one a day through the race.

Casey Grove grabbed a shot of Lance Mackey as he launched from 4th Avenue for the ceremonial start this morning:

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Name: Sebe
Age: Almost 7
Gender: Female
Weight: 35 pounds
Position: Lead
Musher: Zoya DeNure, Paxson

When people see the calm, short-legged husky around town with DeNure, they assume Sebe is a house dog rather than a go-to leader for the 34-year-old musher.

“Like people, we have friends, some of our closer friends we’re in tune with, and some our acquaintances or friends that weren’t not so in tune with. It’s the same with the dogs," DeNure said.

“Every dog has a different personality and some of just maybe match up with ours a little bit better. And Sebe, I feel like she knows what I’m thinking a lot of the time.”

Sebe is a veteran of the Yukon Quest, Iditarod and Copper Basin 300, DeNure said.

“If I’m kind of falling down the ledge there, she actually will … get the team up higher on the ledge so the sled isn’t falling down. She’s always looking behind. If there’s a problem on the team, she knows it."

Read more about DeNure on her blog.

Sebe

Lance Mackey tends to Rev in Takotna during the 2010 Iditarod. Mackey says Rev and Maple, two of the leaders of last year's winning team, will likely join him on the trail again this year. "This year, for the first time, 13 out of the 16 dogs I’m racing with run lead and not just run lead, they’re command leaders," he said. (Kyle Hopkins/Anchorage Daily News)

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

They're not so bad, says Hugh Neff, who suffered frostbite on the Quest.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Name: Thelma
Age: 7
Gender: Female
Weight: 46 pounds
Position: Lead
Musher: Lachlan Clarke, Colorado

“She’s small, but she’s got a lot of leg on her,” Clarke said.

The Buena Vista horse trainer traded three harnesses for Thelma, who proved herself a lead dog in her first Iditarod. Clarke and his wife Linda nicknamed her “The General.”

If other dogs are goofing around behind her, Thelma “turns around and barks at them,” Linda said. “She takes her job very seriously."

Thelma’s sister, Louise, didn’t make the team this year.

In today's countdown-to-the-race roundup: Rookies, "Whiskey," & frostbite:

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Look for the sled with a New Zealand flag Saturday at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

That’s Auckland native Bob Storey.

Mushers who plan to race in this weekend's Iditarod brought their dog teams to Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla today for mandatory veterinarian check-ups.

Check out the scene:

Video by Marc Lester, Anchorage Daily News.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Check the blog every day for a new "Meet the Sled Dogs" profile. Want me to ask a musher about a specific dog along the trail? E-mail khopkins@adn.com.

Name: Skunk
Age: 7
Gender: Female
Weight: 48 pounds
Position: Lead
Musher: Sebastian Schnuelle of Paxson/Whitehorse

"She's got the stripe. She looks like a skunk. She certainly smells like a skunk. ... She's a real ham," Schnuelle said. "She knows that she's kind of cute and gets away with a lot. She more or less is a house dog if she's not on the trail."

Skunk is a veteran of seven or eight 1,000 mile races, including one Iditarod with Lance Mackey, who sold Skunk to Schnuelle in 2006, the musher said.

Schnuelle put Skunk in the lead this year to take him through American Summit -- a particularly punishing stretch of the Yukon Quest.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The first musher to Nome will take home $50,400 this year – the same amount Lance Mackey won in 2010, according to organizers.

The payout for finishing 2nd through 30th has been slightly reduced. The 10th place finisher, for example, will receive $22,700. That’s $1,700 less than last year.

All told, the top 30 finishers will split $528,000. (In 2008, the top 30 battled for about $875,000, according to news reports at the time.)

The rest of the finishers take home $1,049 each.

Here's the full 2011 list:

1st $50,400
2 $46,300

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The Transportation Security Administration is no longer listed as an official Iditarod sponsor following PETA complaints, but the race organization is keeping $75,000 of the federal agency’s money.

“We had a contractual commitment with TSA, so they didn’t pull anything,” Iditarod director Stan Hooley said today.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Drug tests are back this year for Iditarod mushers under updated drug rules that could disqualify mushers who smoke pot before – not just during – the race.

The Iditarod began testing for illegal drugs for the first time last year. Anchorage-based WorkSafe set up a makeshift drug-testing headquarters in a city supply room in White Mountain, the second-to-last checkpoint on the trail, where officials pulled mushers aside during their mandatory eight-hour stay in the village.

The top finishers all tested clean, the Iditarod reported.

Want to "friend" four-time Iditarod champ Lance Mackey? Better hurry. As I write this, he's four shy of the 5,000-friend limit.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Frostbitten or not, Hans Gatt said this week he plans to compete in the Iditarod before retiring from sled dog racing.

His team could have won last year and may be even stronger now, Gatt told Whitehorse radio station CKRW. “I will definitely try to win.”

Still, he has only two weeks to heal from second-degree frostbite that ended a Yukon Quest full of brutal surprises for the champion musher. Gatt, who scratched from the race after a dunk into three-feet of water on Birch Creek, called this his most difficult race yet.

Need proof? Here’s a scene from Hans Gatt’s Yukon Quest:

In the clip, musher Brent Sass is helping Gatt’s team out of American Summit, where he had hit a wall of wind and soft snow in the middle of the night, he said.

“I was very well aware that I was getting very hypothermic and there’s only so much time you have,” Gatt said of an hours-long stretch he spent wrapped in a sleeping bag and soaking-wet clothes.

The interviewer had asked if Gatt had feared for his life during the race.

Gatt, who talked about leaving competitive mushing after the Iditarod, said he had. “I was conscious enough and I just knew up there that I was approaching the point where I probably would just pass out.”

The interview, posted Tuesday on the radio station’s blog, is a must-listen for Iditarod and Quest fans. It’s a raw, 26-minute exchange between Gatt and interviewer Steve MacArthur that answers many of the questions that followed Gatt home from Fairbanks as the mushing world recovered from a dramatic Quest and began preparing for the fast-approaching Iditarod.

Hans Gatt Interview by ckrw

Gatt, who finished just more than an hour behind Lance Mackey last year, is looking for his first win. I’d hoped to reach him early this week after hearing conflicting and vastly different reports about the condition of his hands. No luck so far. I’ll update if I hear anything about changes to his condition or Iditarod plans.

The race’s ceremonial start is March 5 in Anchorage.
Along with Gatt, several of last year’s Iditarod top 10 – Ken Anderson, Sebastian Schnuelle, Hugh Neff – are coming off a Yukon Quest that race marshal Hans Oettli called the toughest ever.

“We had an incredible snowstorm. You could be standing in front of a (trail) marker and you wouldn’t even see it,” he said in a phone interview from Whitehorse.
Who looked good coming out of the Quest?

Oettli said he thinks Schnuelle, who finished second, has a chance to place among the top five at the Iditarod. To Oettli, Schnuelle’s team looked the strongest arriving in Fairbanks. Good fat reserves. Full of energy.

“They were totally alert, still barking in the finish line, ready to go,” he said.

NOTE: Iditarod's almost here! That means it's blogging time. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and bookmark www.adn.com/sledblog for around-the-clock trail updates.

Hugh Neff gets a kiss from Geronimo at the Takotna checkpoint on March 10 during the 2010 Iditarod. Geronimo died during this year's Yukon Quest. Neff withdrew from the race. BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Iditarod and Yukon Quest musher Hugh Neff had a suggestion for me this morning as we talked about the upcoming Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

“Write something about how to win over the villagers again," said Neff who finished ninth in last year's race. "That’s the reason Joe Redington started this race. And there’s a lot of villages that don’t even really care for Iditarod coming through anymore.”

Why not?

“The whole … We just bring in a bunch of garbage, and what do they get out of it, you know?" Neff said.

“I think as mushers we need to promote more of, you know, why this race went through the villages in the first place. It’s a little speech that (Mark) Nordman, the head official, gives us every year. About being courteous to the locals and cleaning up your messes on the trail.”

Neff said he was talking about this with a friend last night. "It’s like my buddy told me ... Villagers nowadays are more into the Iron Dog than Iditarod. That’s what most of them are doing," he said.

Is that right?

Are rural Alaska communities more invested in the Iron Dog snowmachine race than the Iditarod? Send me a note at khopkins@adn.com.

Sebastian Schnuelle visits with his dogs Scruggs, Grisman and Cougar at the Takotna checkpoint on Wednesday morning, March 10, during the 2010 Iditarod Sled Dog Race. (BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News)

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race held its annual mushers banquet in Nome tonight, where competitors swapped stories and accolades to mark the finish of another 1,000-mile race.

One of the highest honors, the Alaska Airlines Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for the musher who demonstrated outstanding dog care while remaining competitive in the race, went to 7th-place Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse.

Maple, one of champion Lance Mackey’s leaders, took home the City of Nome Lolly Medley Golden Harness Award for outstanding lead dog. (Chin up, Rev.)

Belgian musher Sam Deltour was the Horizon Lines Most Improved musher, placing 41 in his second Iditarod. Deltour improved his time by a full day over this rookie run in 2008, when he finished 60th.

Here's the full winner list for 2010:

Pen Air Spirit of Alaska Award
• Jeff King

GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award

• Dallas Seavey

Millennium Hotel Anchorage Alaskan First To the Yukon Award
• Lance Mackey

Wells Fargo Bank Alaska Gold Coast Award
• Lance Mackey

Nome Kennel Club Fastest Time from Safety to Nome Award
• Paul Gebhardt

Horizon Lines Most Improved Musher Award
• Sam Deltour

Rookie of the Year
• Dan Kaduce

Fred Meyer Sportsmanship Award
• Ray Redington, Jr.

ExxonMobil Mushers Choice Award
• Jim Lanier

Northern Air Cargo Herbie Nayokpuk Memorial Award
• William “Middie” Johnson

Golden Clipboard Award
• Cripple

Golden Stethoscope Award
• Caroline Griffitts

Alaska Airlines Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award
• Sebastian Schnuelle

City of Nome Lolly Medley Golden Harness Award Winner
• Maple - Lance Mackey’s Leader

Team Redington: Ray Redington Jr.'s dogs rub their heads in the snow as they arrive at the Unalakleet checkpoint on March 14 during the 2010 Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Redington won the sportsmanship award at the mushers banquet today in Nome. (BOB HALLINEN / Anchorage Daily News)

Karen Ramstead of Alberta stops her team to enjoy a rendition of "O Canada" at the mile four muffin checkpoint where the trail runs adjacent to Wesleyan Drive during the Iditarod's ceremonial start March 6 in Anchorage. Ramstead was going to mush on through the crowd, but changed her mind when the singing began. "I just want to see if you know all the words, " she said. (ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News)

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Think of Karen Ramstead when you pull on gloves or crack your knuckles tomorrow.

The Perryvale, Alberta, musher is off to a doctor's appointment to inspect the left hand she impaled on a black spruce branch less than two weeks before the Iditarod. With the hand red and infected, Ramstead scratched this year in McGrath. While she has a full range of motion, she's guessing there's still some tree branch in there as a hard lump has formed above the wound, Ramstead said in a phone interview today.

"It kind of looks like a little alien's about to burst out of it," she said.

Ramstead posted a photo of the injury on her Facebook page, if you're adventurous. (Leave it be - it's grosser than you think.)

Meantime, here's a palate-cleansing image to think of:

The 45-year-old musher -- who has started nine Iditarods and finished four -- runs with a team of purebred Siberian huskies. The handsome, bushy-tailed dogs are the kind people imagine when they think of mushing, rather than the mixed breeds that now dominate the sport.

On her Web site, Ramstead's kennel motto is "pretty sled dogs," and some members of the team compete for beauty as well as brawn. Three are Canadian champion show dogs, Ramstead said: Dasher, Crunchy and Q.

"I believe in an older style, tougher, trail-hardened dog than a lot of those guys do," she said.

Nik: Karen Ramstead's dog Nik eyes race fans while waiting for the 2003 ceremonial start on 4th Avenue. (Erik Hill/Anchorage Daily News)

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

This clip from Two Rivers musher Aliy Zirkle's blog is up elswhere on our site, but is too cool not to post here as well. (Zirkle shares the Web site with her husband and fellow Iditarod musher, Allen Moore.)

...

I'd taken a picture of Zirkle's sled cam back at the ceremonial start in Anchorage, hoping to find time to write about it from the trail. Here's a look:

Eye on the trail

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage –

While the race has already been won, there are still 1,000 stories to be told among the mushers still pressing toward Nome – and 1,000 stories left untold from the early days of the race.

Before a duel for the lead among Lance Mackey, Jeff King and Hans Gatt sent us rushing to catch up with the frontrunners, for example, I’d hoped to write about the time 18-year-old rookie Quinn Iten fell asleep for 15 miles along the old mining road that leads into Ruby. Or about the time Allen Moore jumped from his sled into the middle of a musherless dog team after Justin Savidis’s dogs had gotten away from him. The leap conjured images in Arkansas-born Moore’s mind of cowboys jumping aboard stagecoaches in the westerns he watched as a kid.

Another story left in the notebook was a feature on mushers’ hands. Given how painful their fingers looked whenever they peeled off their gloves to tend to their dogs or make some repair, I wondered how they ward off frostbite. Turns out, some don't.

I recorded some of the interviews. Here’s a sample:

Cold hands, split fingers from Kyle Hopkins on Vimeo.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

It was the turning point in the race -- and one of the tensest of moments. Lance Mackey had just made his move to overtake resting Jeff King in Kaltag, driving his team roughly 140 miles at the risk of sapping his dogs energy later in the race.

Here's what the two champion mushers had to say about each other at the next checkpoint, in Unalakleet, including whether the race had become personal:

Lance Mackey in Unalakleet from Kyle Hopkins on Vimeo.

...

Jeff King in Unalakleet from Kyle Hopkins on Vimeo.