Good morning from Ruby. Lots of early morning action here, under very faint northern lights. Nicolas Petit was the 4th team to arrive and he pulled into the parking lot. Each musher has a  very distinct way with their dogs. Nicolas does not want handlers to touch his dogs, ” Do not touch them, I tell them where to go “. And with much skill, he guides his dogs through the people and into the dog lot, notably using no necklines on his leader either. They listen extremely well.

We can see the trail coming down the hill into Ruby and could see that 3 headlights were approaching in short succession. Next in was Aliy Zirkle. She just stopped in quickly, to access her drop bags and continue ” Waylon, stop that, leave your boots alone “. She knew the culprit once she heard the rrrssstttt sound of a bootie come off. Not very helpful when you try to go through a checkpoint quickly.

Right behind Aliy was Wade Marrs. He declared his 8 hr layover, and he sounded like he really wanted to take it too.

Here are some shots: