GALENA — Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race teams trickled into the checkpoint here throughout the day Thursday, almost 400 miles into the thousand-mile competition.
Many said they were worn out after slogging through miles of soft snow and warmer weather. They were looking forward to a solid 24 hours of requisite rest and relaxation.
“It's been tough and slow, but we're making it,” said veteran Iditarod musher Ryan Redington, wearing just a sweatshirt — in his signature green — as temperatures hovered in the 30s. “It’s just been a lot of soft trail.”
Redington and his 14 dogs were the 5th team into the Galena checkpoint, pulling in around 10:50 a.m. He quickly dumped a sack of frozen beef chunks into a bucket for his dogs. But breakfast wasn’t ready yet. He had to lug the beef buckets up a hill to the musher’s checkpoint, at Galena’s Community Center, where he would water them down and make them soft and chewy for his team. Even as he struggled with the buckets, he said his journey had been mostly copacetic so far — minus the soft trail.
“Quigley and Rivet are doing amazing up front,” he said. “They led every little mile. So far, they're doing really good. Lots of nice dogs in the team.”
The 2023 Iditarod champion said he’s hoping for thicker snow coverage ahead. Many mushers, including Redington, opted to stop in Galena for their required 24-hour rests and escape the heat of the day.
As mushers fed their dogs and fed themselves, checkpoint volunteers were busy hazing a moose away from the trail and flagging the way ahead as best as they could. They never got a shipment of trail markers, which were likely victims of the chaos of the last-minute route changes. Galena wasn’t supposed to be on the Iditarod map this year, but was added just two weeks ahead of the race due to low snow on the normal route. Volunteers said the surviving trail flags from the recent Iron Dog snowmachine race helped them close the gap and keep mushers oriented.
Inside the musher’s checkpoint Thursday morning, an Anchorage chef readied for an Iditarod tradition.
Every year, the first musher to get into a designated checkpoint is treated to a “Feast of the Yukon.” Checkpoint manager Tim Bedony said it’s not regular potluck fare — even though there was plenty of potluck fare to be had as well.
“They're always kind of bizarre, surreal experiences in which this really high-end food is cooked by executive chefs and seasoned professionals on hot plates, on Coleman stoves, in microwaves,” he said. “And yet, they produce this amazing restaurant, high-end, Bistro-quality cuisine, often at 3 in the morning at a checkpoint.”
Paige Drobny raced into town first, around 6:30 a.m., winning the meal.
But first, she got her dogs fed and comfortable and then snuck in a nap herself.
She was woken up from a FEMA cot behind a partition — the cots donated to the community years ago during flooding. She joined the adoring crowd on the other side of the room. The big, fancy meal was served at about 10 a.m., long before the regular dinner hour.
Drobny sat with local leaders and elders, and they all got the special full-course dinner served up by chef Carlos Walker of Anchorage’s South Restaurant + Coffeehouse.
“I'm stuffed — five courses of goodness,” Drobny said. “But I’m super, super excited to be part of it.”
Drobny’s favorite course was the braised beef cheek bourguignon with asparagus, rosemary mashed potatoes, sautéed mushrooms and shallot leaves. She gave her leftovers to fellow competitor Michelle Phillips before heading back behind the partition to sleep off the last few hundred miles of trail.
