ID: Red Team into Galena

We just caught a very quick Iditarod Live feed snippet of Aliy and the Red Team coming in to Galena. She "declared" her mandatory eight hour stop here. When asked why Galena she said "It fits my schedule and I have to do eight hours somewhere".

Even though she did "declare" (well, I do declare...) her rest it doesn't mean she HAS to stop that long and is allowed to leave the checkpoint before the time is up. She would, however, then have to do eight hours somewhere else.

The dogs loped happily into the checkpoint and after checking in, Aliy asked if they were "ready?" to move to their parking spot and they all snapped to attention and looked as if they were just has happy to keep going!

The feed showed Aliy giving the dogs some medication - it would likely be an Omeprazole/Prilosec tablet. This is an approved medication for the prevention of gastric ulcers. Dr Mike Davis and his team, who have done several research projects at SP Kennel, have done extensive research into this and it is now very common, and strongly advised, that mushers give omeprazole or pepcid to their teams every day. The tablet must be given three hours after food and half an hour before food so by giving them the tablet immediately when they arrived, Aliy can then continue her checkpoint chores and give them their snacks and meals as normal.

Sebastian Schnuelle has two great posts full of pictures of the Red Team, one on the Yukon River on the way to the checkpoint, the other when they arrived.


Sebastian Schnuelle's pic of the Red Team on the Yukon River before Galena