Greetings Race Fans!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an ice box here in Denali ~ and we live in the \u201chot spot\u201d at JUST -37! If it doesn\u2019t warm up to -30 in Fairbanks for a low, we\u2019ve decided not to race in the Quest 300 this weekend. Forecast for Chena Hot Springs right now, for the first night of the race, is -50 to -65. That\u2019s below zero \u2013 Fahrenheit. No thanks. I hate to pull the rug out from beneath Jason\u2019s feet, but there\u2019s just no good that can happen in those kind of temperatures. It would be Jason\u2019s first race, as well as several yearling sled dogs. This would not be a good introduction. It was in this same stretch of trail that I froze the ends off of several of my fingers in temperatures of just -35 with wind. As much as I prayed, my fingers just never grew back. I wouldn\u2019t feel good doing this to Jason or the dogs (not to mention Carrie who was going to drive along in a pickup truck, can\u2019t afford her fingers freezing!). If I sound disappointed, I am. I know that Jason and the crew was really looking forward to this race. I promise we\u2019ll make it up if at all possible.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been busy working on food drops for Iditarod. We currently have bag #1 for each of the 17 major checkpoints locked and loaded. I\u2019d tell ya what was inside \u2018em, but then I\u2019d have to kill ya\u2026(Carrie says\u2026and you\u2019ve all heard that before)! I can share that food drops consist predominantly of dog food. About half of that dog food is fresh frozen meat; the other half Caribou Creek Gold commercial dry dog food produced by my good friend Lloyd Gilbertson in Michigan. My personal food has also been added to bag #1 and consists of \u201cSeal-A-Meal\u201d packages of some of my favorite home-cooked meals: Christmas turkey dinner; Linguine with extra sauce (say with heavy Italian accent); Lasagna (say with another heavy Italian accent); and a breakfast buffet like only Donna can make (said with an awww & lots of love). Over 1,000 booties and a grand total of 2,000 pounds of food and gear will be delivered to Anchorage next week to the official Iditarod Food Drop location where race volunteers will sort and ship over 200,000 pounds of food to the 17 checkpoints. Wow. Talk about a job.<\/p>\n
My Dodge broke down big time last week and has been in the shop after a very long tow to Fairbanks. Depending on when we get my truck back, we\u2019ll make alternate plans for the dogs, training, and food drop delivery.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be delivering our food drop to Anchorage on Wednesday afternoon, after which Donna and I will attend our first book signing at Title Wave Books from 7pm-9pm at their main store on Northern Lights Blvd. Carrie has been frantically packaging books and has already made four trips to the post office getting out all the \u201cCold Hands, Warm Heart\u201d that are destined for interested fans around the world. It really has been fun and we\u2019re thrilled with the final outcome and production quality of our first ever book. Thanks for being patient!<\/p>\n
No new pictures this week because the camera froze\u2026 global warming my frozen butt!<\/p>\n
Stay tuned for Iditarod 2008!<\/p>\n
Happy Trails,
\nJeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greetings Race Fans! It\u2019s an ice box here in Denali ~ and we live in the \u201chot spot\u201d at JUST -37! If it doesn\u2019t warm up to -30 in Fairbanks for a low, we\u2019ve decided not to race in the Quest 300 this weekend. Forecast for Chena Hot Springs right now, for the first night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n