Quite a few teams are camping out en route to Skwentna. Temperatures could not be much better for that. And depending on where the mushers camp out, they also can get some food. Signs were luring them in, like ” really good hot dogs “. Mushers who elect to camp out usually have their reasons. And that main reason is wanting peace and quiet. 

I stopped a few times to see how the respective musher reacted and I could tell that Jodi Bailey was in a talkative mood. So I went over and chatted a bit. She was in the process of preparing a meal for her dogs, a nice beef soup! The team was calmly resting on the straw. She had picked a perfect spot about 100 yards off the trail. 

” Sebastian I have seen more people in these past 3 days, than I usually see all year”. Jodi and her husband Dan live somewhat secluded on the Steese Highway en route the Central. They train remote also. So Anchorage sure is big city to them. We both work on glaciers in the summer to do dog tours and swapped some war stories, mostly weather related. Specially in the early glacier season in May, the weather on the glacier, theirs camp is about 3500 feet high on the Knik glacier, ours in 3600 feet high on the Herbert Glacier can bring some real severe weather. ” Last May we got 9 feet of snow in 36 hours, I had to stay up straight to shovel out dog houses ” Yep, that sounds familiar, although Juneau last summer had the opposite problem, not enough snow. 

In the meantime the checkpoint here in Skwentna is getting ready for the first team to arrive. Ketil Reitan from Two Rivers. Not quite what I had hoped for, as he is running 6 of my dogs and I personally would not have chosen to run them this long on their first run, on such a hard trail. But….., they are his now, for the duration of the race and I need to shut up and let him do his thing. Just got the call from outside: ” Look upriver, the northern lights are out “. Perfect time to head back out and catch some shots of Ketil.

Here are some pictures of Jodi’s Campout.