The ceremonial start is a very festive occasion. The mushers draw their Bib numbers at the mushers' banquet two nights before the start. They travel (not race) about 11 miles through downtown and rural areas of Anchorage. They then stop and travel by more modern conveyance to Willow (about 20 miles north of Wasilla, where you know who lives). Tomorrow, they restart at Willow wearing the same Bib numbers and going in the order of those numbers. The trip to Nome is around 1,000 miles. The sleds leave the starting line in Willow two minutes apart, and the fun is over; it's all work for the mushers, and especially the dogs, for at least the next 9 days, 2 hours and 42 minutes, unless one of these 67 teams breaks Doug Swingley's southern route record set in 1995. I took a lot of Photos from my trail guard position, about three miles from the start, but can't brag about any of them. I've posted four up top: (1) unidentified white male (apparently homeless) who wondered on to my trail guard position; (2) Rachael Scdoris (who is legally blind - quite a story); (3) Bill Cotter, 63 years old, suffered a stroke in 2005, has six top 10 finishes, and won a Yukon Quest title; (4) DeeDee Jonrowe, a breast cancer survivor, started the 2003 race three weeks after finishing chemotherapy. She has 14 top 10 finishes, and finished second in 1993 and 1998.
