Iditarod 2013.

Time is absolutely flying! I cannot believe the Iditarod has already come and gone! I am usually a fanatic, but this year I have been sick with some sort of cold/laryngitis that I can't kick and mostly have not cared about the Fur Rondy or Iditarod. In past years, we went to the ceremonial start of the Iditarod in downtown Anchorage, but never to the official restart in Willow. Now that we live outside of Anchorage and closer to Willow we figured we'd go see what the real deal entailed!

Unfortunately, the actual Iditarod start occurs on a Sunday. It isn't really a "Sunday activity", per se, but it happens only once a year and we are thinking that in the future we will offer Iditarod tours, so we decided we would go out for research purposes. We got out of Church and headed out to Willow (about a 30 minute drive). We had heard that parking could be difficult and that maybe we should take a shuttle so as not to worry about parking. Well, we were late enough (it started at 2 and we arrived at probably 3:15) that we snagged a front row parking spot in the main lot, right on the lake where it is held! Holla!

This picture is classic Alaskan to me. This was the entrance of the main parking lot right off the highway. There were snowmachines intermixed with people waiting to cross the road.

 It was a b-e-a-utiful day! Blue sky and clear enough that we could see Mt. McKinley in the distance.

Blogger is being weird, I can't get my pictures separated! Anyway, we got there really close to the end, but still enjoyed ourselves. It was certainly more enjoyable because the weather was great. I think if we incorporate it into future tours we will try to set up camp a little further out on the trail, away from all the people. Who knows...I suppose time will tell!