6 Teams are bedded down in the dog lot. The sun is slowly working its way up and things have warmed up to a whopping minus 38 F.  

Martin Buser was tending to his team while the other mushers slept. He commented on how he should have left one dog in Galena.

Some mushers keep the dog coats on their dogs to have them sleep warm. Hugh Neff also piles as much straw as possible over them so they sleep nice and cozy. 

Yet others like Ken Anderson have shipped out a whole bunch of fleece blankets to throw over the dogs.

That is most likely the warmest way the dogs sleep, as they also breathe underneath the blanket. That does take the dogs quite a bit of getting used to. If a musher does not use those blankets in training, the dogs will not like them and stand up to shake them off, just to curl up next to them again. Some dogs stay stubborn like this all their lives, yet others are eagerly waiting when their master approaches with a compression bag full of fleece blankets.

Talking to Travis here he said that all the way up in Huslia they also got 4 days worth of rain about 3 weeks ago. This is pretty far north to have rain. Luckily, like most places on the race, they received 2 feet of fresh snow just prior to Iditarod start. Having had no wind since, it looks like a winter wonderland here.

Enjoy the shots: