Wednesday Evening

I spent the day preparing for a trip to Anchorage over the weekend, where my brain will be re-filled with medical knowledge and my hands reminded of the skills needed to close wounds, fill teeth, and keep pipeline workers safely on the job.  Now my dogs are safely over at Mike Green's place, where they will be living until I can return home.  Abner is safely back with James Langston, his owner.  I'm sure Abner will be returning to visit in the future.  He had a GREAT time visiting with us.

Now I'm looking at spending a long period of time at work related stuff.  I'll be in Anchorage through Monday for annual medical training, and when I return from Anchorage I'll have less than 24 hours to be at my regular post, and immediately following this next tour of duty I'm scheduled to fly Outside for a week of clinical training.

So, I spent the day taking care of the dogs, packing suitcases, installing some new telephones (the old ones were dying an agonizing death) and gearing up for this long haul.

Speaking of the long haul, many of the Iditarod mushers are taking their 24 hour lay-overs.  In Takotna, most of the front-runners will be heading out tonight.  Only a couple of them decided to push onward before stopping.  Most notably is John Baker, who is now out of Ophir and on the trail out of Cripple followed by Dallas Seavey.  Hans Gatt also pushed on, and is currently stopped in Ophir.  Cim Smith, Ramey Smith, Martin Buser and Bruce Linton are also in the Ophir checkpoint.

Of those who stopped in Takotna, Jeff King will lead a group of 13 who are eligible to leave sometime between 10 pm and 3 am.  By this time tomorrow night we should have a pretty accurate idea of who is really leading in this race, and which teams are trying to play "catch up".

Apparently the Dalzell Gorge has claimed another victim.  Kathleen Frederick scratched in Rohn due to "equipment and gear problems."  There is a rumor floating about that at one point her sled was trapped in water under the ice, but that has not been confirmed. 

Wolves May Have Killed Teacher in Village

This story deserves it's own headline, and probably it's own blog post, just because if the woman truly was killed by wolves it is so rare.  In a nutshell, it appears that an itinerant special education teacher working in Chignik may have been attacked and killed by wolves while running after work.  I'll let you read the story in the Anchorage Daily News, and I'll keep you posted as I learn more.