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Musher sex appeal Out on the Iditarod Trail to Nome, there may be wanderlust and stardust. But on the not-so snowy paths leading through cyberspace, there's just plain musher lust. Some of this year's Iditarod fans are starry eyed - and not just over the blue-eyed huskies. A few are picking favorites based on the musher's sex appeal. Judging by the heated e-mail on an Internet Iditarod chat room, the leading heartthrob so far is Caleb Banse, a teenage rookie from Moose Pass described by one ardent fan as a "hottie" with "deep, blue, beautiful eyes." Still it's not possible to be everyone's dreamboat. Another fan thought otherwise of Banse: "Caleb's ugly, what are you thinking???" One spirited 105-pounder Former Iditarod champion Joe Runyan has been filing dispatches and personal observations from the trail on to the web site of Cabela's Sporting goods. On Tuesday he described a series of mishaps at the Happy River gorge - where the trail drops precipitously down a series of steep benches. After admiring the white dogs and orange-and-black dog blankets used by Chugiak rookie Anna Bondarenko, Runyan said he was most impressed by her spirit. In Happy River, Bondarenko's sled slammed into a rut and got stuck. "What a predicament when you weigh about 105 pounds?" Runyan wrote. "She told me she struggled with it, but with 16 dogs pulling downhill, the situation was only getting worse. Finally, a musher came along and helped her ease the sled out. Oh, she forgot to mention that she broke her finger in the process." Runyan concluded: "THIS WOMAN IS TOUGH." Other Runyan dispatches can be read at http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/. Time to rest One of the Iditarod's knotiest decisions involves picking the site for the mandatory 24-hour layover. In early races, mushers often picked the log cabin checkpoint at Rohn - an isolated spot on the other side of the Alaska Range, some 272 trail miles from Anchorage. Recently, top racers have pushed beyond McGrath, 400 miles into the race. But longtime Wasilla musher Shane Goosen, running in last place on his second race, pulled into Finger Lake about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday with 12 dogs and declared his 24-hour layover, the first of this year's race. - Doug O'Harra
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