The second team to leave White Mountain is Aliy Zirkle. Sitting over lunch, Aliy was recalling last night’s run, where she had taken her dragmat off in Elim to save weight and how deeply she regretted it doing that right before descending little McKinley. The trail down is on a sidehill, icy and just a groove in the dirt. It was not a pretty run down and her tracker speeding up to 15 mph tells the story. 

Aliy’s team looked also very nice and solid leaving. Quito continues to be in lead. Aliy’s handlers are in White Mountain and they wish they could touch the dogs and spread some love…. 77 more miles and it’s the handlers turn to take over. She is 1 hour behind Jeff King. Jeff has consistently posted faster runtimes than her. Unless Jeff will go off course or have some major issues, it is going to be hard ( but not impossible ) for her to catch up. She sure will try and from the second Aliy pulled the hook, she never stopped jogging next to the sled. She is determined.

Short before Aliy left Joar Leifseth Ulsom came into the checkpoint in 5th place. The otherwise always energetic musher was visibly tired from a long, nonstop run from Koyuk. And a tough run, too. He sure was ready for an 8 hr break.

The wind is picking up, but that is as such the weather is supposed to behave. I am leaving for Nome now myself. Happy trails.

Enjoy the pictures of Aliy Zirkle leaving:

handlers and neighbor Judy Currier

Aliy

discussing a few vet things

In the meantime Joar Leifseth Ulsom came in

Joar all smiles but very tired

Fans!

Sweet…

more fans

getting ready to go

and off she is!

jogging to Nome???See you down the trail