While reviewing my pics of the Iditarod, I think I saw a few patters of what make for accidents at right angle turns.
First of all, a nice wide turn just seems the best.
Get a lead dog who doesn't follow your instructions synchronously with the other lead…..
and, despite your best effort to correct the imbalance….
the discombobulation might get the best of your ride.
On the other hand,
give your order to turn too early…...
and the dogs might just do that…..
making your inner track hit the pile ….
thereby, making you loose control...
and getting icy snow upon your face.
Even if you recoup your stance, you can be sure…
there'll be someone from the paper there to record your fall.
Cindy Abbot just finished the Iditarod!
She got to extinguish the light and got the Red Lantern Award as the last person to finish the 1000 miles from Fairbanks to Nome.
We are excited, because we have been following the race closely this year.
It is the third time she tries to finish the race. In her 1st attempt, she had a fall by one of the earliest stops. But the pain seemed to improve somewhat, and she continued halfway through the race. At last she had an x-ray, showing 2 pelvic fractures making her quit for fear of not being able to finish the race and properly care for her dogs.
Last year she had to quit because of bad weather, which affected many others as well.
Anyway….the Red Lantern Award she received stands for "Perseverance, hard work, determination, and the will to not give up". We think she deserved it!
And to top it all off, she finished with 13 dogs, a commendable number and indicative of great care in the prevention of injuries to her "team mates".
Here are a few pics we took at the start of the race this year.
Can you imagine so much energy!
From the front to the back,
everyone was ready to go!
Don't know who they looked at the finish.
Hopefully another year we'll be there to see them come in at the finish line.
We had a chance to drive by Colorado Springs this week,
a day or so after some snow.
We tried going up the road in our van, but had some slipping,
so decided not to take the road around the park
.......and sure wished we had one of these instead.
So, we took a short hike along the road.
Boy, what beautiful skies they have!
A hiker coming the other way told us that if we walked another quarter mile along the trail,
we´d get to see a great view of Pike´s Peak.
But, alas, we had people to meet and a schedule to keep.
So, we just got to see a glimpse of the size of those giant red rocks along the entrance to the park.
Maybe we´ll have more time next time we pass by here after a snow.
