Last Update on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

Rachael Scdoris, wearing bib # 55, scratched from the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Koyuk on March 13. I haven't been able to find out the reasons for it, but here is an article from Anchorage Daily News.
Zoya DeNure completed the race in 12 days, 1 hour, 57 mn and 35 sec. She arrived in Nome on March 14 with 11 dogs left. Here is a link from her website.

We are now officially finished with our Iditarod Study and we all had a great time doing it. We are looking forward to following this race next year!

Lance Mackey Wins the Iditarod!

Dragon's musher Lance Mackey won the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race for the second time. He arrived in Nome, Alaska early today at 2:46am. He took a total of 9 days, 11hrs, 46 mn and 48 seconds to complete the 1150 mile race. You can see pictures from the finish line at the official Iditarod site, here. I also just read that Lance is not planning on resting yet, he is running the 400-miles All Alaska Sweepstakes in a week and a half! We will all follow that race, especially Dragon. It starts March 26, 2008. Here is the website.

We are still tracking our 3 other mushers, Martin Buser (Dad's choice), Zoya DeNure (Fairy's) and Rachael Scdoris (mine). All 3 are still in the race.

* Update: Martin Buser did arrive in Nome on March 12 at 10:11 am, in 5th place.
Fairy's musher is still racing as of March 14, Zoya DeNure is currently in 55th place at the White Mountain checkpoint, and Rachael Scdoris is in 62nd place at the Koyuk checkpoint.

Sled Dog Lapbook

Here are the pictures of the sled dog lapbook!

Sled Dogs!

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race starts this weekend and we have been working on our sled dog lapbook this past week. We have also picked each a musher (even Dad did!) and watched a beautiful video on the Iditarod . If you visit the Iditarod site I have linked, look for the Free 18 minute "2008 Iditarod Preview". We are planning on following the race on the internet, and we will use a Daily Race Statistics chart (found here) to keep track of each musher's progress.

Here are some pictures of our lapbook so far...I will post more pictures when we are finished as well.

Winterfest 2008

The kids and I went to Winterfest this morning. We all had so much fun! Great way to beat the winter blahs! I will have to add more pictures later on, but the highlight was the dog sled rides, especially since we have been reading about the Iditarod. Fairy and Princess went on one, and Dragon and I on an other. What a great experience!

Iditarod

We started today our Iditarod study by reading "Iditarod Dream" by Ted Wood. It is the story of Dusty and his sled dogs competing in the Junior Iditarod Race. The junior race is much shorter than the regular one, but still a very tough one. It is for fourteen to seventeen years old mushers. It's a two day race starting and ending in Wasilla, Alaska, about 158 miles.
This year, the start date is Saturday, February 23 (Dragon's birthday!).
Here is a link for the official site of the Jr Iditarod Sled Dog Race . The kids and I will soon be choosing our junior musher and following him or her during the race through this race update site.
The books we read will be added to the blog, on the left side.
The Iditarod Race starts March 1. I will post about it later on.