As much as I would have liked to stay in Ruby, the internet there is about half a mile away from the checkpoint and it’s difficult to see the racers yet do updates. As the other Insider guys were saddling up their iron dogs about 2 a.m. I thought what the heck I might as well go, too. The Ruby checkpoint was quiet, Martin Buser had just left. I passed him a few miles down the trail. Sorry no shots, too dark, not even the faintest of northern lights out there. 

Talking to Jeff Praille who is part of the Insider film crew he recalled the whole Scott Janssen rescue story. A part the media so far has left out is, how did the dogteam get out of there, after Newton Marshall assisted Scott? When the Insider guys came along, wanting to shoot the overflow, they came upon the accident scene. After Newton left, the ball was in their court. Jeff being a musher himself hooked the 15 dogs to his snowmachine and than drove them out to Farewell Lake, the first place a plane could land to pick them up.  Keep in mind that he is towing a huge sled with camera gear and that the trail was pretty rough to begin with. Now attach 15 eager sled dogs to your machine with a leader who questions your authority. Then having to drive over the burn and onto Farewell Lakes which were mostly glare ice. Jeff sure had some fun on this trip. He said the sleep he had just gotten in Ruby was the first real sleep since Rainy Pass. Now he is filming on the Yukon River at 4 a.m. while Aliy Zirkle is coming by. 

Cool, I have to strap that to my sled. It was waiting for me here in Galena 

Aliy was moving at a very nice clip when I passed her. The river is smooth and fast, with just a skiff of snow on top of hardpack and ice. Runtimes over here will be fast. The scenario is a bit of the same, as it was 2 years ago, Aliy took command of the Iditarod in Ruby. At that time, she was on a much worse runtime schedule, having to run into the heat of the day. Now, with being far ahead of that schedule she can run through colder temperatures, and cold it indeed was on the River, about 15 below Farenheit. In the end, Dallas Seavey caught her from behind. There is a whole group of mushers behind Aliy all hungry for a win as she is.  Aaron Burmeister is the third team who dropped onto the Yukon River. He has a very fast team. Amazing how he keeps on going despite his badly hurt knee. Jeff and Sonny must be sitting on their hands…. wanting to leave real bad, but having to wait a few more hours till their 24hr layover is up. They are not likely going to stop here in Galena.

I am going to add a few pictures once Aliy is coming in, the checkpoint is slowly waking up….

Happy trails Sebastian