A Special Ride

A new friend of ours, Jeff, has a special role to play in tomorrow's race!  He has a lot in common with us - he teaches at an all boys' school in Boston!

Anyway, tomorrow he will get to be an Idita-rider!  Each musher has a race fan, or Iditarider, who rides with them for the first eleven miles of the race!

Jeff's riding with musher Lachlan Clarke from Buena Vista Colorado.  He's gotten to know Lachlan a bit - he had lunch with him the other day and got to sit with him at the Musher's Banquet.

Lachlan thanks his sponsors at the banquet

Lachlan has had quite an adventure getting to Anchorage for the race!  He drove his truck here from Colorado and on the road he hit a moose and totaled the front end of his truck!  Luckily he and his dogs were fine.

Once he got to Anchorage, he took his dogs out on training runs and within one week we was charged by two separate moose on the trail.

It's been a long tough road to get here, but Lachlan is ready to hit the trail tomorrow.  He is ready to leave the starting shoot at 12:20pm tomorrow, in the second to last slot!