Aniak, Alaska’s Richie Diehl is experiencing the Iditarod for the first time in 2013, and for the most part, he says it’s going well.
Aside from his dogs not always eating as much as he’d like – and an illness that hit his team earlier in the race – Diehl reports his rookie run as a “pretty fun ride” so far.
His dogs are recuperating from their trail sickness (a relatively common affliction for Iditarod teams); “on our way over here from Nikolai,” Diehl told KNOM’s Laureli Kinneen, his dogs were “in a beautiful trot.” And Diehl is happy with his run times so far; his team is “doing good (considering) the circumstances” and, Diehl says, still has some potential still to be realized.
“If I can get them into a rhythm, they’ve got a little bit of speed.”
In our trail interview with Laureli, Richie Diehl talks about the “wild” ride through the Dalzell Gorge, a close (but thankfully benign) encounter with a wolf, and his plans for his trail run beyond Takotna, where he’s currently taking his 24-hour layover.
As of 7:45pm Wednesday, Richie Diehl is in 36th position. He arrived into Takotna at 1:28pm with 15 dogs and, with accounting for his starting differential (from the Sunday re-start in Willow), will be eligible to return to the trail at 1:32pm on Thursday.
