Wednesday, February 13, 2013. Volunteers sort and stack musher Peter Kaiser’s food drop bags at Airland Transport in Anchorage to be sent out to the 22 checkpoints along the trail.
Today was the first of two days of intense work by a small army of volunteers in what is called the “Food Drop”. A week or more earlier, musher’s put together 1-4 bags of supplies for each of the 22 checkpoints. In these bags are dog food— frozen meat and dry food, musher’s food and drink, along with extra socks and gloves the musher may need. Each of these bags weigh 20-50 pounds. Multiply those numbers by the 68 mushers and you can imagine just how many pounds of supplies get moved around. Some bags get shipped by by-pass mail through the USPS (villages with a post office) and much of it gets flown out by the Iditarod Air Force to the more remote checkpoints— Finger Lake, Rainy Pass, Rohn, Ophir, Iditarod, Eagle Island etc.
Today was a flurry of work, by more than 50 volunteers. One of those volunteers, Wendy Walters, has been volunteering for 17 years. Just amazing!! What’s in it for the volunteers? A free hat and a chance to be involved in an event like none other. I love it for the same reasons. Friday will be the “people food drop” and Saturday the Air Force will begin flying it out. Stand by for more.
Thanks for taking us along !