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Colorado
Iditarod mushers complete Last Great Race And very quiet. Clarke, who scratched from the race at Eagle Island in 2003 was determined to finish the race this year. “It felt so bad to scratch two years ago that I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to scratch this time,” Clarke said. “I had lots of friends and family making donations. I felt like I let them down two years ago.”
Glenwood Springs musher Bill Pinkham arrived in Nome a day earlier with nine dogs to finish the race in 42nd place. His time was 12 days 52 minutes 49 seconds. This is Pinkham's third finish in as many races. A total of 63 mushers completed the race. Sixteen mushers scratched from the race including legally blind musher Rachel Scdoris and veteran mushers Charlie Boulding, Sonny Lindner and five-time Iditarod winner Rick Swenson. Several teams including Swenson reported that their dogs had caught a virus.
“A number of times I sacrificed my own body,” Clarke said. “Getting through the first 300 miles is the obstacle course. I went through a lot of willows, spruce and alders. You have to duck a lot and can’t stick your feet out. At one section, the sled and I tipped over and I was dragging and dogs were still running… 18 to 20 miles per hour. I was getting dragged downhill fast. You just try to keep your head inside the sled. The willows whip you in the face and chest.” Clarke had many highs and lows during the race, but coming down Front Street to the finish line in Nome was definitely his biggest high.
Pinkham was unavailable for comment, but his volunteer TC Wait shed some light on his run. “Although Bill didn't come in as fast as he wanted to, overall he was very happy with his run from Unalakleet into Nome,” Wait said. “His team had the fastest time from Safety to Nome to finish it off! I guess his dogs were sick with a flu along the Yukon River and he took some extra time to get them feeling better, then they booked along the coast faster than most of the other teams.”
Clarke, who bought his first sled dog just four years ago summed up the race with a grin saying, “I’m not a rookie anymore”.
May 10, 2005 post script - Just when you think there are no more updates to the 2005 Iditarod: Marbles, the dog who went into heat on the trail and was subsequently dropped from the race, has given birth to five Iditarod puppies. Though the pups' bloodlines may be unknown, both parents are Iditarod veterans and the pups have the karma of being conceived on the trail of the Last Great Race.
Rich Stromberg is the editor and publisher of Rocky Mountain Magazine and is the owner of alaskacolorado.com - a fine art landscape photography business. He is currently pursuing a journalism degree at the University of Alaska Anchorage. |
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In
fact, both Colorado mushers finished the 1,100-mile Iditarod
sled dog race from Anchorage to Nome. For Buena Vista
musher Clarke it was his first Iditarod finish on his second attempt in three
years. Clarke, who finished in 60th place, arrived in
Nome on Sunday, March 20 with 11 dogs. His time was 13 days 22
hours 53 minutes 3 seconds.
Clarke’s team had to deal with five- to six-foot-deep ruts
left in the snow by mushers ahead. In other places the trail had
six-foot drop-offs and open water.
“My low was the second day in Skwentna,” Clarke said. “Four
of the dogs chewed through the line. I had a female in heat and
four dogs trying to breed the female. One of my leaders was
breeding the female. I had a tangle with dogs facing forward and
facing backward. That probably cost me two and a half hours. I
thought ‘what’s the point?’”
For
completing his first Iditarod, Clarke received a belt buckle and
a large patch after reaching Nome. He also received an un-told
number of hugs and kisses from his wife, Linda.