While reading the articles on the Iditarod at the Alaskan Daily News I came across a few photos from the restart. Go to www.adn.com, click on Iditarod 2010, then on Official restart( Willow) photos and go to photos #29 and 65 out of 72 to see a few faces you know!

For those of you interested in how these amazing athletes are able to do what they do mile after mile you will enjoy this article. Mike Davis is a friend of ours that reviewed all of our dogs bloodwork with Warren before he made his final decisions regarding the final race team. http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/201003/sled-dogs-human-athletic-performance-research-1.html Happy reading. K

Hi all, I wish I had some insider information for you all as to what is going on out there with Warren and the team. I have not had computer access for the last 15 hours or so so have been hoping that the last report ( from Karen) that he was in Nikolai by the gps tracker last night was correct. I wasn't too surprised that he took a long time to get to Nikolai as he was planning to camp out on the trail. However, I wasn't expecting him to stay in Nikolai, thought he would blow through and then travel a bit more and then camp. But seeing this morning that he dropped three dogs in Nikolai - no word yet as to which three- the dogs must have needed to stop there. Last report I have seen from Iditarod headquarters from an hour and a half ago shows him in McGrath, gps shows him still there as well.. I have a friend that flew up to McGrath this morning so I am hoping to be able to connect with him to see if he saw or spoke to Warren. I have the cell phone on me at all times but so far have not heard anything from W. I got Annie off at the airport early this morning as she needs to get back to Canada for health reasons asap. We found out firsthand how crazy expensive the American health care system is on Monday. I wish Obama well changing the system because it is out of whack. Both she and I were sad to see her go. She has already offered her handler services for next year and I gladly said of course we would love it. We wish her the best and will be seeing her when we return to Canada. After the airport I went to ALaskan Air cargo to get the crates sent up to Nome. Since 2007, the mushers have been required to send their own dog crates up to Nome for flying the dogs back post race. It was much easier when Alaskan AIr supplied the crates. Ah well, all good things come to an end as they say. I expect I will be in Anchorage for the day until I know more about not only our three dropped dogs but the dogs from other mushers I am helping out with their dropped dogs five at last count, Ross Adam( one dog Liberty came in last night but he is suspected of having pneumonia so was taken to the vet hospital for observation. I hopefully will be able to get him back today. Ross bought Liberty from us last spring so he is a dog I am very familiar with and very fond of - he will be riding back to Willow in the back seat of the truck) , Ken Anderson(2 dogs), Kirk Barnum(4 dogs) Kirk unfortunatley scratched yesterday - I don't have more details as to why except that his dogs were tired and no news as to when he will be returningto Anchorage. John Stewart(1), and Tom Thurston(3). I really need to learn how to say NO to people when they ask for favors!!John has offered to give me duct tape for my mouth for next years banquet where most of the requests came from! It sounds like alot but it is only Warren, Ken and Kirk that I am the main dog person for, the others have their handlers here and we are all going to be working together to make it as easy as possible for all of us and with the least amounts of tripsinto Anchorage. Since Kirk scratched I am thinking that the four dogs he dropped before scratching may be reunited with him before I ever get them. As it stands now, I believe I have the possibility of 14 dogs to pick up and I do not have the trailer with me. I have borrowed some crates from John and Mari so with putting three dogs in the truck, possiby four depending on the dogs, plus four in the back crates, I can almost transport them all in one trip, but not quite. It will be an interesting day I have a feeling. I will keep you all posted as I find out more information. Being in town at least I will have better computer access. Plus, all the errand running around is done. I know how strong a musher Warren is and how great our dogs are so I am putting my faith in him and trusting that he is making the right decisions for where is at now, not where the schedule should be, as is is now off abit. Send out your good thoughts too! Later, K

Good morning all,
For those of you who are like me the next ten days or so, the first thing I do in the morning( even before my coffee) is check where the man is. Then I get a cup of coffee and study his times as well as everyone else's.  So waking up today I expected to see that Warren was in Finger Lake, a wonderful start to the day to see that he was in 2nd place in Finger as well to see that he is right on his schedule with a run time of 5:39. While the placing of anyone before all the madatory 24 hour layovers happen really is not indicative of where the race will go, it is sure good to see and I am sure if makes Warren feel good about things. He will be running his own race no matter what else is going on around him. That  does not mean they he won't be  watching where everyone else is and what they are doing. It means he won't change his strategy once someone else pulls the snowhook to leave earlier than he had planned. Warren has spent countless hours studying the trail maps, previous run/rest times for himself and for all the past champions to develop his race strategy. So I will keep you updated as to how he is matching the schedule that was left for me. Obviously alot of factors, weather in particular can change the schedule. I am hopingto hear from Warren from the trail this year as we have an Alaskan cell phone now. We have finally stepped into the 21st technology with many years with no cell phone, now we have one in Canada, one in Montana( after last years exorbitant bills on the Canadian one calling Canada) and now one in Ak.

Annie and I only have four dogs left with us on the truck, Hula, Oyster, Ozzy and Iza.  Warren was in a good position having a hard time to pick the final 16 out of the 20 we had on the truck. Most of his reasoning for the final decisions were that Hula, having recently finished her heat cycle was a bit underweight for where we like our dogs to start the race, The other three, Oyster and Ozzy both 2( brother Onyx is out with Warren now) and Iza ,2 as well,(brother Mogur out with Warren now) all have a skin allergy- from straw we believe- that caused them to loose the hair on the back of their legs and a bit on the underbelly. While we are treating the condition and the hair is growing back, it is obviously not an ideal way to start the race particularly if there are cold temperatures out there. While we both wished that they could go to gain the experience, they are all young and there will be much more racing for them. We will be able to put them all out in John and Mari's dog yard too which will be nice. No need to set up our own dog yard in the trees like usual with so few dogs. Tom Thurston's handler Craig is staying here as well and he only has 5 extra dogs so we will be taking turns with putting our dogs out and back in the truck as everyone's scheule dictates. He is a really nice guy we are looking forward to getting to know.
All for now, Annie and I are headed into Wasilla first thing to run some errands.
Warren is planning to rest 5 and a half hours in Finger Lake so everone can take a break from checking his status for a few hours. 
More later, K

Greetings race fans,
Well, the team is on the trail!! All went well today at the restart. We started the day with a gourmet breakfast here by Mari and headed over to the staging area around ten. We were met with a small alarm when the parking people told us there was a problem with the ice...the entire staging area is on a lake...any problem with the ice is a not what we would consider a "small" problem. Happily, there was not a problem with the ice and no one went through it. The problem was with overflow on the edges yesterday but talk about a way to get your heart pumping on a day where there is already enough adrenaline in the air. Ahhhh.
So, that problem solved we went about the business of getting things out of the trailer and the various packing totes we keep all the supplies in and getting the sled packed. We were lucky to have of course Annie's help, also Doug and joined as well by our friend Jamie Adams and her friend Zoe , a new convert to the Iditarod and one I heard exclaiming throughout the day" this is getting funner every minute" - another dog junkie is born right in front of our eyes! So things went smoothly throughout. Warren was very relaxed and got his things together as he bantered with friends, fans and media alike. Once he made his final decisions on the team Annie and I got to work on the collars. Every collar must have the mushers name,  the dogs name and of course their Iditarod tag to identify them to the vets and officials. Then it was the last feeding, more of a heavy baited water a few hours before they left. All the dogs have been eating well and are in great spirits. The final roster is ... Caper and Widgi leading the team out on their great adventure and then (not in the order they left in in the team) Blueberry, Hulk, Redneck, Hazer, Black Dog, Frank, Dobie, Hurricane, Cyclone, Mogur, Hena, Cash, Naboo and Onyx. Warren has already gone through Yentna Station, only staying 9 minutes to turn his bib in and pick up supplies. He will be going a few hours further and then resting the team for a few hours before continuing onto Finger Lake where he plans to stay for 51/2 hours. Predictions are for a fast trail. Luckily there was some snow here last night so hopefully the trail will be abit better than expected. I don't expect him into Finger until the early morning hours so I am off for a shower and then some sleep.  For the handlers/spouses of the race, our sleep deprivation is mostly the last few nights before the race as we do all the dog care and race preparations so our mushers get some needed sleep.  Then of course we are as glued to the internet as the rest of you as we try to follow along with the excitement.

Happy trails, Kate

PS There is a great photo of Warren from the ceremonial start on the Iditarod website, go tot Images from the trail for March 6:):)

Wow, what a day it has been already. The ceremonial start went realy well this year. As usual, the trucks are all staged throughout the streets close to 4th Ave and the crew that creates the snow covered streets overnight where there had been almost none did a great job. There was snow for us to run on. We had a spectacular Iditarider this year that made it all the more fun for us. She is Denali Adams from down on the Aluetian Islands here  in Alaska ( sorry Denali, the name of your town escapes my tired brain at the moment!) She is seven years old and a great personality who our dogs took to immediately, even Caper wasn't shy with her and Cyclone and Widgi couldn't get enough of her. She got to harness her first sled dog, Frank,  and helped me with booties and the Canadian flag bandanas for our lead dogs. I also really enjoyed meeting her Dad David who drove over to the finish line with Doug and I. Thanks for all your positive energy David.
And I got to ride a sled for the first time this year since hurting my knee...I rode on one of Warren's runners up to the starting line. We discovered a great Canadian hat for Warren to wear - a jester's hat with the maple leaf on it and man did we get Go Canada cheers all the way up 4th Avenue, and a few cheers for the Canadian Olympic hockey teams! Annie rode the second sled through town and had a blast.
Warren is now napping as I am doing packing prep work for the sled for tomorrow. We have a delicious dinner awaiting us from Mari, her gumbo which is becoming a tradition for us on the eve of the restart here in Willow.

The twelve dogs who ran today are all eligilbe for running the race. Warren vet checked 20 dogs and the final 16 for the race will come from that group. He has not made it final team roster yet, possibly after the nap this afternoon, and more likely tomorrow morning. The twelve that ran today were Frank and Naboo in lead, Widgi, Hurricane, Hula, Hulk, Oyster, Ozzy, Onyx, Cyclone, Iza and Mogur. Most of this crew have never seen crowds like the ceremonial start  before but they all came through it with flying colors. They are all resting now but I know they can feel our excitement and theirs will continue to build over the next hours.
All for now, back to work for me.
Kate

Good morning! Just a quick update to let you all know that Warren chose starting position #27 at the banquet last night. That will put him out of the chute at 2:54 on Sunday. We had a great table of folks with us at the banquet, obviously Warren and myself, our handler Annie, and friends Doug, Kit, Marilyn and Kay plus three new folks Randy and Tamara from Tennessee and Pat Kennedy from Chicago. Tamara will be the iditarider for Judy Currier. We have not had the pleasure of meeting our idiatarider yet so we look forward to that tomorrow. Yesterday was full of meetings for Warren and orgainizing and packing of sleds for me. We got the second sled sent off to Mcgrath thanks to a ride to the airport from friend Ken Anderson. Our beast - our truck and trailer's nickname- was pretty well stuck in amongst all the other dog trucks at the Millenium hotel lot. We were finally able to get it out just in time to go to the banquet. Today will be spent doing all the last minute errands. Warren is going to take the dogs out for a short fun run to stretch them out and check them out. We are heading just north of Anchorage to Chugiak. Warren was in Chugiak in 1996 as the coach for the Northwest Territories juvenile dog mushing team so he will get to run on the trails there again after many years. All for now as I am off to drop the dogs while Warren relaxes here in the hotel room. More later, Kate

Hello everyone, Where did the month of February go?!? Just yesterday it feels like it was the end of the Quesnel 200 and now it is already March withthe race right around the corner. I enjoyed finally being a bit more mobile with my knee in the last few weeks to be able to spend some time with our dogs. I still am not running dogs yet. Baby steps at first. I am just so happy to be spending time with them again. They are all being very patient with my old lady speed, more patient than I am. Even my most crazy dogs are calm when I am with them. They have such an amazing ability to read our health and emotions. Though now the dog yard is feeling very empty as Warren left on Saturday with the 20 dogs that will be the Iditarod 2010 team. The dogs on the truck are Dobie, Onyx, Caper, Blueberry, Cash, Oyster, Ozzy, Hazer, Hula, Hena, Hulk, Widgi, Frank, Black Dog, Cyclone, Redneck, Hurricane, Iza, Mogur,and Naboo. Warren took them all on their last training runs prerace last week. As the snow is rapidly leaving us here, he trucked the dogs about an hour east of us to Wells where the snow was still good. He went form Tues-Thursday running and camping with the team and seemed happy with the way things are looking for the team. He stopped in at our friend's Danny and Loraines's place outside of Wells to check in with the Olympics periodically. There was a bit of a glitch getting our handler from last year Annie to connect with Warren for the drive up but happily they did connect and I do not have to worry now, I know with the two of them the dogs are in good hands and they will be safe driving the long miles with each other's company. I will be flying up to Alaska tomorrow to be there for all the prerace logistics. In the meantime, this entry will be brief as there are the home/kennel logistics to be finished up here before I go. We are feeling so lucky to have moved in to this amazing community here where our friends are being so amazingly wonderfully helpful. I know some of them do not want to be named on the internet but we do want them all to know how much we appreciate them and all their support in so many ways!! Thank you all so much!! Kate

Here you go folks, here are the final results by checkpoints of the Inaugural Quesnel 200. QUESNEL 200 - 2010 Bib# MUSHER START CP#1 IN CP#1 OUT CP#2IN CP#2 OUT CP#3 IN CP#3 OUT FINISH 1 WARREN PALFREY 16:00 22:07 3:25 10:02 16:21 23:19 5:37 14:29 2 JERRY JOINSON 16:02 21:43 2:59 9:26 15:58 22:50 5:13 13:29 3 RANDY MACKENZIE 16:04 22:13 2:53 10:38 16:00 23:33 5:39 14:15 ** (14:45) 4 ROSS ADAMS 16:06 22:43 6:40 13:46 19:58 3:45 10:51 19:30 5 ABRAM PERRY 16:08 22:42 6:40 13:47 19:58 3:44 10:52 18:30 6 KIM VERGE 16:10 22:44 3:49 10:59 16:01 0:12:00 6:11 DNF 7 CRAIG HOUGHTON 16:12 21:38 3:10 9:27 15:58 23:01 5:10 13:48 ** 1/2 hour penalty for leaving bib at CP#2