Dinner is at nearby Bear Creek Lodge before an evening briefing on the Iditarod itself, via video and other materials. Day 5 Breakfast is early to hit the road and get to the Race start in downtown Anchorage. We'll have a 2nd floor office overlooking the area just behind the start line, to use as a base to come and go, with snacks and lunch there any time the urge hits. The start has an atmosphere all its own as literally thousands of dogs and people are crowded into a tiny area, all focused on the event that for many, is the experience of a lifetime. The perennial contenders have their own professional determination while many others are participating for the first time, though every one of the mushers, spouses, and handlers are concentrating on the grueling and perilous 1100 miles of wilderness ahead.
Dinner is of course sumptuous, after exploring a bit about the neighborhood on a snowmachine.
A great breakfast makes the morning leisurely, with plenty of time to explore the neighborhood by snowshoe or snowmachine, or dog team if you can convince young Stacy Johnson of your dog driving credentials. If the weather is clear, Mt. McKinley, North America's tallest mountain should give proof just to the north. In the afternoon we'll busy about preparations for the evening's bonfire, as the dog teams race our direction. After dinner, we'll bundle up and head out by snowmachine to a rendezvous on the Yentna River, which is the Iditarod Trail for this portion of the race. Hopefully the northern lights will grace us and lead us back to our cozy homestead, with thoughts no doubt of those on the trail, the sled bag their only accommodations.