2016 Iditarod Update
or.......The Legend of Burle Haggard
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky-Norman Greenbaum
It was the mushing mortician that came through first; Scott Jansson. Someone started singing the song. We were waiting there with baited breath. All the work was done and it was about time. Some of us had peeled a fiver on who would be the first through. “Hey that’s Jordan’s musher.” 45 bucks.
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“One, two, three!” we lifted up on the bottom edge of the burl. It took a trying effort to get it to move but eventually it rolled over the edge of the fire pit and into the dancing flames. The damn thing weighed about three hundred pounds and fit rather nicely next to its smaller brother that I named Burle jr. Junior had been on fire for about thirty minutes and was sporting a good shine-on. Before long they were both were on-fire despite the quiet protests of my darling mother, who is a self-admitted burl fanatic.
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| Pete |
Due to poor snow conditions last year’s Iditarod restart was moved to Fairbanks. Rumor has it that the fine folks at Pike’s landing in Fairbanks have been making a strong lobby to keep it there for good. I don’t blame them. I like owner Jay Ramras. His free ice cream tokens, and his efforts to power the place with solar are commendable but you don’t mess with tradition. The Iditarod trail has snaked its way over the Alaska range from day one and to nix the most challenging section of the trail would be akin to lopping off the top 6,000 vertical feet of Denali.
As it turns out the snow cover wasn’t that great this year either but according to the Iditarod Trail Committee it was “good enough”, and so I knew that it wouldn’t be long before it would be time to cut some block. Build it and they will come.
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| Levi and Pete working over time. |
This year we made short work of the snow-block wall and with the addition of Tom and Levi Rollman, placement of the high blocks was a cinch. They are both well over six feet tall. I’m not above bringing in ringers.
Speaking of ringers Paul (Uncle Paulie) Johnson returned this year after a three year hiatus. To say that Paul has the gift-of-gab would be like saying that Dallas Seavey is an average musher. Paul, having just returned from Argentina with his brother Dennis was full of incredible fishing stories. Come to think of it, Paul was full of a lot of stuff; mainly B.S, a few hot dogs, and several brewskis.
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| Bryan Kirby staying warm |
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| Roughing it |
Pete and his whole family made a strong showing along with my sister Trish and the whole Miller clan. Bryan Kirby and his family rounded out the crowd roughing-it in their Arctic Oven tent.
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| New vinyl sign this year. |
Luckily this year the hot dogs were, one again,“really good” just like it says on the sign. Although they were indeed good they paled in comparison to dad’s Jambalaya. Dad brought out his big propane cooking rig with two burners and set-up shop inside the snow wall shelter. The spicy rice played-nice with the shrimp and okra. It was right about then that I looked up and noticed the stars. Wow, I should stay up late more often!
“Hun, do you want me to make you a Bloody Mary?”, I snapped out of my celestial trance and looked over at my wife.
Tamra was her normal workhorse-self prepping dogs, buns, and apparently bloody mary’s . “Sure, that would be great!” Who doesn’t want a Bloody Mary with their jambalaya?
She was finishing the next hot dog by slathering-on our own special sauce known locally as ketch-tard. Good luck figuring out both the ingredients. Hint: It’s orange. It wasn’t long before I was sipping a Bloody Mary next to Burle Haggard and the gang.
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| Jordan Starr, number 9 in your programs, number 1 in our hearts. |
Jordan Starr was in rare form this year. His Iron Dog team, known to some as “team 9” finished 7th place this year. Not bad. More impressive though was that he was able to find time afterwords for one more ride up to our camp. He was an integral part of the action this year. Jordan decided to let-loose with us well into the night despite the fact that he had to be at work early the next morning......in Anchorage.
Normally his folks Bill and Jacque are part of the festivities too but this year Bill was having issues with his Super-cub. Ironically, Jordan, who has become one heck of an airplane mechanic was unavailable to show up at the drop of a hat to help the old man. “I’ve got a job now dad.” he was reported to have said.
We missed Bill. This year no one fell into the Yentna. Chalking-it-up to “testing the waters”, Bill was one chuckle away from calamity back in ‘02. Luckily I was there to lend a hand, only one though, the other was clutching a beer. A guy has to have priorities. Good ol’ Bill.
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| Check out Brooklyn Harrison running in the background. |
Pete brought out a keg of local craft beer. The boys at OMR in Eagle River have been out-doing themselves and currently have eleven beers on tap. We figured that we’d snap a few good pics with the keg. Look where OMR beer has been kind-of-a-deal, but all we could find to make it interesting were a pile of slimy pike. Here have a delicious IPA along with a nice frozen Northern Pike!
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| This curious Gray Jay was interested in our fishing efforts. |
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| Brenton "B-Tod" Harrison |
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| Three floppers |
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| All in a day's work |
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| The sun even shines on a dog's ass every now and again. |
On Monday after some had left we focused our efforts on fishing for Pike. The fishing was stellar. After a slow start using tip-ups and herring, we switched to jigging with big flashy spoons. Fish on, hell yeah! Brenton earned top honors for his tireless efforts which brought in four or five big slabs. In all we roped in eleven in just over two hours. Dad and Paul cleaned them all on the deck and probably still smell like fish, but in some countries far-far- away that smell is considered an aphrodisiac. Who knew?
Since we were fishing nearby our party spot on the Yentna, I decided to ride out there and check out the after-math. As I pulled around the corner I couldn’t help but notice the prolific smoke stack. As I got closer I couldn’t believe my eyes, although it had been over sixteen hours since ignition, Burle Haggard was still on fire!
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| This burl is on fire! |
