Junior Dispatch

WHITE FANG -- Part 3 -- Chapter 1

PART III
CHAPTER I—THE MAKERS OF FIRE
The cub came upon it suddenly. It was his own fault. He had been careless. He had left the cave and run down to the stream to drink. It might have been that he took no notice because he was heavy with sleep. (He had been out all night on the meat-trail, and had but just then awakened.) And his carelessness might have been due to the familiarity of the trail to the pool. He had travelled it often, and nothing had ever happened on it.

He went down past the blasted pine, crossed the open space, and trotted in amongst the trees. Then, at the same instant, he saw and smelt. Before him, sitting silently on their haunches, were five live things, the like of which he had never seen before. It was his first glimpse of mankind. But at the sight of him the five men did not spring to their feet, nor show their teeth, nor snarl. They did not move, but sat there, silent and ominous.

WHITE FANG -- Part 2 -- Chapter 5

CHAPTER V—THE LAW OF MEAT
The cub’s development was rapid. He rested for two days, and then ventured forth from the cave again. It was on this adventure that he found the young weasel whose mother he had helped eat, and he saw to it that the young weasel went the way of its mother. But on this trip he did not get lost. When he grew tired, he found his way back to the cave and slept. And every day thereafter found him out and ranging a wider area.

He began to get accurate measurement of his strength and his weakness, and to know when to be bold and when to be cautious. He found it expedient to be cautious all the time, except for the rare moments, when, assured of his own intrepidity, he abandoned himself to petty rages and lusts.

He was always a little demon of fury when he chanced upon a stray ptarmigan. Never did he fail to respond savagely to the chatter of the squirrel he had first met on the blasted pine. While the sight of a moose-bird almost invariably put him into the wildest of rages; for he never forgot the peck on the nose he had received from the first of that ilk he encountered.

But there were times when even a moose-bird failed to affect him, and those were times when he felt himself to be in danger from some other prowling meat hunter. He never forgot the hawk, and its moving shadow always sent him crouching into the nearest thicket. He no longer sprawled and straddled, and already he was developing the gait of his mother, slinking and furtive, apparently without exertion, yet sliding along with a swiftness that was as deceptive as it was imperceptible.

King leads Iditarod mushers into Ruby, Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Tracking information shows four-time winner Jeff King of Denali Park is the first musher into Ruby early Friday in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Ruby is the first checkpoint on the Yukon River and the next 150 miles of the route follow the river.

King is followed by Lance Mackey of Fairbanks, the defending champion who is going for a fourth straight win, and Hugh Neff of Tok.

Seventeen mushers have left Cripple, the halfway checkpoint on the 1,100-mile race to Nome.

Seven of the 71 mushers who left Willow on Sunday have scratched.

Iditarod racers go gourmet on trail

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race take care of their dogs first when they stop to rest, massaging sore paws and serving up stews of hearty grub for their teams.

Then it's their turn — and there's no skimping on the people chow found along the lonely stretches of the 1,100-mile race or at the checkpoints. Chicken tetrazzini and Thai noodles. Caribou stroganoff, linguini, turkey dinners with stuffing and moose breakfast burritos. Calorie-laden food for calorie-torching work.

Pioneering Mass. robot lost at sea off Chile coast

FALMOUTH, Mass. – A pioneering deep-sea robot made by Massachusetts researchers has been lost off the coast of Chile.

Granny camps out for grandson's ice cream

STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Here's one Wisconsin grandmother who makes time for her grandson. Michelle Cuestas of Green Bay used two vacation days and camped out for 43 hours to make sure her grandson would be first in line for the 2010 opening of a Stevens Point ice-cream landmark.

WHITE FANG -- Part 2 -- Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV—THE WALL OF THE WORLD
By the time his mother began leaving the cave on hunting expeditions, the cub had learned well the law that forbade his approaching the entrance. Not only had this law been forcibly and many times impressed on him by his mother’s nose and paw, but in him the instinct of fear was developing. Never, in his brief cave-life, had he encountered anything of which to be afraid. Yet fear was in him. It had come down to him from a remote ancestry through a thousand thousand lives. It was a heritage he had received directly from One Eye and the she-wolf; but to them, in turn, it had been passed down through all the generations of wolves that had gone before. Fear!—that legacy of the Wild which no animal may escape nor exchange for pottage.

So the grey cub knew fear, though he knew not the stuff of which fear was made. Possibly he accepted it as one of the restrictions of life. For he had already learned that there were such restrictions. Hunger he had known; and when he could not appease his hunger he had felt restriction. The hard obstruction of the cave-wall, the sharp nudge of his mother’s nose, the smashing stroke of her paw, the hunger unappeased of several famines, had borne in upon him that all was not freedom in the world, that to life there was limitations and restraints. These limitations and restraints were laws. To be obedient to them was to escape hurt and make for happiness.

When to rest? It's a big decision for Iditarod racers

-In any Iditarod, a crucial strategic decision is where mushers take the one 24-hour rest mandated by race rules.

The decision is completely the musher's -- and they range from as close to the starting line as Skwentna, about 80 miles in, to Galena, more 500 miles down the trail on the race's northern route.

There can be a small financial incentive to pushing. Nine years ago, on the race's southern route, Linwood Fielder of Willow pushed on and on and on before stopping, earning $3,000 for being the first musher to reach the Yukon River at Anvik.

But Fiedler didn't earn a Dodge truck at the finish line; that went to champion Doug Swingley, who passed Fiedler and never looked back.

This year, a similar gambit may be developing on the 1,000-mile trail to Nome.

John Baker of Kotzebue made the first move Wednesday morning.

While most front-runners were in the middle of their 24-hour layovers in Takotna, Ophir or McGrath, Baker, 47, struck out alone for Cripple, the abandoned mining town where he should be able to claim the $3,000 halfway prize.

A bid for a nice check?

A move to break a tightly bunched race open?

A desire to spring free of such front-runners as Yukon Quest champion Hans Gatt, Sebastian Schnuelle and Jeff King, the four-time Iditarod victor aiming to join Rick Swenson atop the Iditarod heap?

Perhaps a little of them all.

But there's no doubt every musher with designs on a championship noticed Baker's move.

For one thing, Baker is hot, winning the world's premier middle-distance race, the Kuskokwim 300, two months ago. And last year's third-place finish was his best Iditarod in 14 attempts.

Plus, the longer the Kotzebue musher waits before resting, the closer he gets to home terrain, where brutal coastal winds are commonplace.

Just last year, Baker pulled into the Norton Sound town of Koyuk with one eye half-frozen shut and proceeded to cut his team's rest in an effort to keep up with Schnuelle on the final stretch. Temperatures were well below zero and headwinds gusted to 70 mph.

"Growing up with (the wind) makes (it) a little easier," he said at the time. "As long as we don't get too excited, thinking that it's harder than it really is, it's just a little wind."

Until all the front-runners have completed their layovers, it will be hard to determine exactly who is ahead -- and by how much.

During the layovers, race officials account for the difference in starting time in Willow on Sunday.

But by the time mushers get off the mighty Yukon River in Kaltag, the difference between the race leaders and chasers may be a little clearer.
Additional minutes of rest time added to 24-hour layovers (based on starting times)

Linwood Fiedler 140

Cim Smyth 138

Wattie McDonald 136

Jessie Royer 132

Paul Gebhardt 130

John Baker 128

Ray Redington Jr. 126

Justin Savidis 124

Blake Freking 122

Matt Hayashida 120

Scott White 118

Newton Marshall 116

Jeff King 114

William Johnson 112

Ross Adam 108

Mitch Seavey 106

Hans Gatt 104

Ramey Smyth 102

Jane Faulkner 100

Art Church 96

Ryan Redington 94

Tamara Rose 92

Warren Palfrey 90

Quinn Iten 88

Karen Ramstead 86

DeeDee Jonrowe 82

Robert Nelson 80

Chris Adkins 78

Sebastian Schnuelle 74

Michelle Phillips 72

Martin Buser 70

Kristy Berington 68

Cindy Gallea 66

William Pinkham 64

Dallas Seavey 62

Sven Haltmann 60

Jim Lanier 58

Sonny Lindner 56

Hank Debruin 54

Zack Steer 50

Gerald Sousa 48

Lance Mackey 46

Aliy Zirkle 44

Ken Anderson 42

Dave DeCaro 40

Emil Churchin 38

Allen Moore 36

Gerry Willomitzer 34

Hugh Neff 32

Rick Swenson 30

Celeste Davis 28

Michael Williams 26

Trent Herbst 24

Colleen Robertia 22

Thomas Lesatz 20

Lachlan Clarke 18

Dan Kaduce 16

Bruce Linton 14

Sam Deltour 12

Peter Kaiser 10

Tom Thurston 8

John Stewart 6

Billy Snodgrass 4

Jason Barron 2

Judy Currier 0

Crash ends Iditarod dream for ailing rookie

Mar. 10--Ulcerative colitis, a disease that targets the intestines and kidneys, was diagnosed nine years ago, but that couldn't stop rookie Chicago musher Pat Moon from chasing his dream to run the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Nor could non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, diagnosed 13 months ago.

But shortly after noon on Tuesday, a tree in the notoriously steep and twisty Dalzell Gorge knocked Moon unconscious -- and out of the race that had become the passion of his life.

Moon was about a third of the way down the gorge, according to race marshal Mark Nordman, when the collision took place.

"When I talked to Pat," Nordman said, "he said it was in an area where he was surprised it happened. It was just like, 'Wham!' He doesn't remember hitting a tree per se."

The collision knocked Moon out. Moments later, young Belgian musher Sam Deltour, who finished 11th in last month's Yukon Quest, came upon the wreck.

He first made sure Moon was still breathing and then checked the Chicago musher's dogs. By the time Deltour got back to Moon, the musher had regained consciousness.

"He skinned his face up a bit" but otherwise wasn't hurt beyond the knock to his head, Nordman said

An Iditarod race judge helped Moon, 33, to the Rohn checkpoint. From there, he was flown out to Lake Hood and taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where he was listed in good condition Tuesday night.

His 15 dogs were not injured and were also flown out.

Eventually, Deltour continued racing. He reached the Rohn checkpoint at 3:24 p.m.

The Dalzell Gorge comes after mushers have reached the highest point on the trail, 3,160-foot Rainy Pass, and are descending toward Rohn.

In two miles, the trail drops hundreds of feet as it zips back and forth across Dalzell Creek on narrow ice and snow bridges that span open but shallow running water.

Four years ago, Moon was an Idit-A-Rider, riding through Anchorage with another musher on the race's ceremonial start, and the 11-mile trip in a sled basket to Anchorage's Far North Bicentennial Park convinced the Chicago man he had to run this race, a decision he quickly announced to his wife Melanie.

Before long, Moon was training with Iditarod veteran Ed Stielstra of McMillian, Mich. Just getting there was an eight-hour drive from Chicago.

"I have to change the way I look at not only what I am doing, but how I do it while still remembering why I am doing it," he said in a story posted on the race's Web site.

"Most importantly, I have to remember that I elected to do this. This was my choice, and therefore, no matter what the situation, I need to smile and stay upbeat. The dogs always are, so why shouldn't I be?"

That attitude may be tested in the days ahead.

The injury will prevent Moon from visiting the villages along the Iditarod Trail, something he was anticipating.

In that same story on the Iditarod's Web site, Moon, in an almost-spooky harbinger, said: "When (veteran mushers) see a particular tree, to them it may indicate 'Lean to the left in 50 feet.' To me, I am most likely just going to think, 'What a neat tree!' "

Moon still hopes to encourage others with health challenges to chase their dreams.

"I'm hoping that one ill child out there thinks that if I can run the Iditarod, then maybe they can play dodge ball in gym class," he told the Iditarod.
Four other mushers ended their bid to finish the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Monday.

--Michael Suprenant, 45, of Chugiak, scratched for medical reasons in Rainy Pass with all 16 of his dogs still in harness, according to an Iditarod press release. Suprenant finished 49th last year.

--Zoya DeNure, who was nursing her 7-month-old daughter Jona until the race began, developed an infection of the tissue called mastitis that spread to her left arm, according to husband John Schandelmeier, and needed antibiotics.
DeNure, 33, of Paxson, had 15 dogs still in her team when she scratched. She and Schandelmeier operate a rescue kennel for unwanted sled dogs. DeNure was 53rd as a rookie musher in 2008.

--Karin Hendrickson, 39, of Chugiak, scratched in Rainy Pass when one of her sled runners broke, according to husband and fellow musher Varan Hoyt. All 16 of the dogs that started the race with Hendrickson, who finished 40th in her rookie race last year, were still in her team.

--Kirk Barnum, 41, of Seeley Lake, Mont., was down to 12 dogs when he scratched at Rainy Pass. Barnum, 41, who finished 67th as a rookie two years ago, said that his dogs were tired and scratched to protect them.

Midnight knitter pulls the wool over NJ shore town

WEST CAPE MAY, N.J. – Someone is spinning quite a yarn over one New Jersey shore town. An unknown person dubbed The Midnight Knitter by West Cape May residents is covering tree branches and lamp poles with little sweaters under cover of darkness.