tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3762197037886589909.post6339841487634150306..comments2023-12-05T09:07:24.960-09:00Comments on Mushing Tech: John Schandelmeier's ADN piece on trackersMelindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03551112597725478690noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3762197037886589909.post-54073571676136075602014-03-16T15:32:22.126-08:002014-03-16T15:32:22.126-08:00I just found this, and understand where he is comi...I just found this, and understand where he is coming from. I really do, but what he doesn't understand is he has the real authentic experience. This is as good as it gets for us, and like elsietee I don't just sit and watch the tracker. I read, listen and absorb as much of the look and feel of the trail as I possibly can. The Quest fb page does a wonderful job with pictures and videos. I use the tracker to see the elevation plots and the analytics are great. Not a video game to me, it's real. I bet I know more of Slaver's Roadhouse history than many Alaskans. BTW John, how's Mudflap? SAYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09388875754188928583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3762197037886589909.post-58955605125391953842014-02-27T19:43:16.784-09:002014-02-27T19:43:16.784-09:00Thanks elsietee
You have written much better, my t...Thanks elsietee<br />You have written much better, my taughts, on this matter. The trackers often point to a story, the needs to be told, to us dog sled racing watchers.<br /><br />I hope John takes the time, to write about his experience of this Yukon Quest race, on his wife's "Zoya's kennel journal" blog. Because that will help tell the story, of all those green blips on the tracker map.G. Delichtehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09966717027889384814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3762197037886589909.post-28568077858769557592014-02-27T18:09:17.649-09:002014-02-27T18:09:17.649-09:00With respect to John Schandelmeier, I don't th...With respect to John Schandelmeier, I don't think he has any idea what the experience is like for those people who aren't in Alaska and can't be there first hand. I also don't think he realises that coverage of the race gets better and better every year and just how much information is making its way out of the Yukon during the race. If he thinks it's just the trackers, then he isn't paying attention. <br /><br />Of course there are people who are just watching the tracker blips and forming very little picture in their heads as to what's actually going on, overreacting to every little glitch, and not having any idea what it's actually like on the ground. They just see computer dots moving along. <br /><br />But there are also a great many of us who use the trackers as just one of the tools available to us - supplemented with video, Emily Schwing's most excellent audio reports, photos, first-hand reports from people on the ground, musher's blogs, musher's spouse's blogs, musher's handlers blogs, tweets, FB, etc - and you start to piece together a reality. Is it the same as being there? No, of course not, but we do the best we can.<br /><br />As you mentioned - John and Matt's overflow experience on the Yukon before Dawson was one where - from the trackers - all we saw was "strange" movement on the river. Later you listened to Matt Hall describing the situation and the pride he had in his lead dog... and yup, because of that we know his lead dog is named Keeper - who says we know nothing about the dogs involved? ...and you can only imagine what it was like and "what you might have done".<br /><br />Similarly, when Brian, Mandy, and Jerry found themselves in the same boat about 12 hours later, what struck me most (in another Emily Schwing interview) was Mandy saying later "there's no way I could have dealt with that on my own in the dark". <br /><br />When Brent was making his final push, I remember thinking "can he possibly pull this off?" and then hearing (yet another) Emily Schwing piece from Carmacks - it wasn't much - all you could hear was a bleary-sounding Brent in the background and although he might not have been doing so good, from what he was saying, his dogs were still doing great. And you started to think "maybe he CAN pull this off??".<br /><br />You watch the trackers, you do the math of run/rest, and if you're following along in real time, you do get a sense of the vast distances, just how long it takes to travel those distances at "dog speed". You watch those little blips and you wonder at what's happening. How are they feeling? How are the dogs feeling? Which dogs are performing? Can the musher really pull off the balancing act of so little sleep with so much trail time? And if he can't, when might it come back to bite him? <br /><br />You listen to the interviews with the mushers talking about which dogs led when, which dogs were performing well, which dogs were struggling, which dogs were dropped, why they were dropped, how that affected the team, ...and on and on. <br /><br />You watch the video and listen to the crunch of the snow in the dog lot when it was -30°F in Dawson, you listen to the weary sound of the mushers' voices at checkpoints, and you try to extract every last snippet of information that you can out of the resources available to you.<br /><br />Is it the same as being in Alaska, being on the trail? No, of course not, but we do our best.elsieteehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13758968162013696640noreply@blogger.com