With the deadline of getting food drops ready to ship looming.. I have started to put things together into thier specific bags( designated check points) .
There are 17 Checkpoints, what you send to each varies greatly I am sure. My drops "ingredients" are based on my race sceduale.
I am looking at sending about 1500 lbs of dog food, musher supplies - spare clothing food etc.
 
500 lbs of dry dog food- First Mate Extreme a high energy, high fat premium dog food
and to keep me going - M&M meats have sponsored my personal food- they are great tasting and easy to prepare whats on my menu??
Examples are.
Pinapple chicken with fried rice
Serloin Steak!
Fettachini alfredo with shrimp and scallops
Butter chicken- like chicken tandori with rice  Yummy!
Apple crumble blossoms
Teriaki chicken kabobs


Beats the heck out of dinty moore and Klik thats for sure!

I have been also "camping with the dogs, running  a 20  dog string  140 miles  They have been doing very well. I had mentioned in a earlier post that I was looking to be doing 130 mile runs in about 10 hours,
Well I have been able to do 70 miles in just over 6 hours on a slow trail and 140 miles in  13 hours thats  a good speed on the tough trails of montana, anyone that has run here could attest to that.  Huckleberry is a big climb and I do it twice on the trail I run.
I have implimented some old school equipment that i will use for the first part of the race, A standard 5ft sled - northwinds model and a traditional harness - line setup 
The trail can be very technical for the first 250 miles or so of the Iditarod, a tough sled and control of the team is a big factor in being able to negotiate the trail, Doug Swingley had a major spill going into Rainy pass last year- breaking 2 ribs and spraining his hand. He was using a new designed sled and gaurd harness's the sled is very reponsive .. perhaps too responsive hence the desision to use to old stand by sled.
I will end out the "DS( doug swingley) model viper " to Takotna or Nikolai as well as a separate set of lines and harness's to use for the remainder of the race.
I must admit that the Gaurd harnesses are a pleasure to camp with as the dogs don't really get tangled and you aren't always untangling lines.