It’s the morning of day five of Iditarod 53. Jessie Holmes is resting in Kaltag. Paige Drobny has completed her 24 hour rest in Galena and departed for Nulato and places south at 06:55 with 15 dogs leading the way. Drobny is the 3rd musher to complete the long layover.
Veteran Nicolas Petit is out of Nulato Heading to Kaltag 1. Michelle Phillips, Mitch Seavey and Travis Beals are all resting in Nulato. Rookie Emily Ford has departed Galena for Nulato.
There are eleven teams in Galena – two rookies and nine veterans. Six rookies have departed Ruby for the 50 mile run to Galena. They are all hoping that the trail will be firmer than prior to Ruby.
In Ruby, Rookie Connor McMahon, Justin Olnes and Calvin Daugherty are joined by veterans Matthew Failor and Jeff Deeter. Both Failor and Deeter completed their 24 hour rest in Tanana.
Yesterday when Samantha LaLonde’s team arrived in Ruby they stood still long enough to check in but didn’t like the idea of stopping so as they were heading to a parking sport, they just continued back to the river. Eventually they did end up parked in Ruby. Insider Captured all that action.
At the back of the pack approaching Ruby, mile 319, are rookies Mike Parker with 15 dogs and Quince Mountain with 14 dogs. Parker is resting at mile 285 and Mountain is running at mile 308.
If you’re into figuring out who is doing their 24 hour rest, you can access race logs through Race Center – Standings. If a musher has been sitting still for longer than 6 hours, it’s likely they are in the long rest. For example, Michelle Phillips has been in Nulato since 20:20 Thursday and it’s now 07:20 on Friday. Phillips has rested for eleven hours and will be ready to depart at around 21:00 tonight.
While this post is short, I’m going to take advantage of the adage, pictures are worth a thousand words. Included are several of David Poyzer’s shots from outside of Ruby. Can you believe the vastness of the mighty Yukon River? Enjoy while imagining what it must be like to run the Yukon from Tanana to Anvik and back up to Kaltag, a distance of 527 miles. Mushers and dogs are going to be thrilled to run the portage trail heading to the coast from Kaltag.
View more of David Poyzer and Siri Raitto’s spectacular Iditarod photos in the photo galley found in the right hand sidebar on the front page of Iditarod. They share new photos of scenery and candid shots of mushers and dogs daily.
