The Urban Iditarod - March 9, 2001. 5 miles, 5 bars, lots of people dressed up as dogs, some sleds, a shitload of fun. This is not an authorised event or anything, no roads get closed for us, the police aren't notified. Basically, teams (about 30 or so teams all up) of "dogs" harnessed to their sled and driven by their musher turn up at a back alley in SoMa midmorning on a saturday. Eventually a dude "Alpha dog" turns up with a megaphone. He has filed his incisors to make them more pointy. He hands out a couple of maps for those that didn't print them off from www.urbaniditarod.com. Our sled was a lovely walmart model, with the dog team consisting of Karl, Jess, Mike, Emma, Mats, Nick, Cynthia and Charlie. Jess had made us all ears and tails to wear, and a sign, the rest of us didn't really do much. We hitched up to our sled, after chatting to the local black dude in the carpark, and wandered off to the starting line. Alpha dog yelled some stuff about it's illegal to drink in public, and jaywalk, do whatever you feel like, and we hit the road. We ran hard, we ran fast, when one of our dogs stumbled, (emma) we didn't hesitate for an instant, we just started dragging her until she bounced back up again. (Ouch, emma is tough!) We managed to avoid the fiery exhaust of the gasbbq powered sled, and came in second to our first rest stop. The irish bank. quick beers in the alley, then back on the road, almost last to leave. Next stop, china town. A massive unheralded party crashing wild ride straight down the middle of the road. Barking, yipping, running, swigging the last of our beers from the irish bank, we stopped traffic, turned many many many heads, and then were gone again. Another alley bar, Red's place. (We caught up most of the pack again) From here a quick burn up and down a hill and into Washington Square Park, for some limbo, and various other games. We lost another dog here, with jess coming unharnessed and having to run to catch up again. Quickly off again, just as the original inhabitants started to accept as here for the duration. Next stop, Caesar's/China House. In the middle of nowhere. This time the police managed to catch up with us, and made us all get off the road while we waited. Alcohol was beginning to tell on some of the teams by now, some of the dogs started getting their gear off, and much more mingling and jostling for position. The second last leg was next, Jefferson Street, up towards the cannery and Steelhead brewery. Tourist central. Dogs bounding up on the cable cars, barking at tourists, climbing aboard and all over a firetruck that drove past. This turned into quite a lengthy stop, and nearly completely drained our beer reserves on board. We incited some bikers to lay down some rubber for us too, turning all of the district into a madcap party. One last leg, and this one turned out to be a real killer, known for vomiting dogs and laying waste to whole teams. It's a long up hill slog into fort mason park. We slowed a little, but showed our true class and form and rolled on in amongst the first 5 or six teams. (not there's any prizes or anything, or even a finish line) From here it was just laying in the grass, rolling around like dogs do, and playing fetch with various masters.
Eventually it started getting cold (and we were out of fuel) so we started the trek to Mats's place, trolley in tow. Had a good bark or two at various people enroute, and even managed to pick up a sofa and lazy boy and carry them back to Mats's as well. Got a whole heap of pizza, and sat and recovered. Another great weekend. Some more pics are here (These are Jess's digicam pics)
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