Around noon on Monday, the front of the pack is heading to the coast while the back of the pack is closing in on Shageluk.
Qunice Mountain with 10 dogs in harness is resting short of Grayling south bound. Sydnie Bahl with 13 dogs in harness is southbound to Anvik. Justin Olnes with 10 dogs in harness is in Anvik south resting. Ebbe Pedersen is approaching Shageluk with 14 dogs in harness.
Rookies Calvin Daugherty, Connor McMahon and Jenny Roddewig are all in Shageluk. They likely enjoyed the brief respite from the Yukon River while on the trail from Anvik to Shageluk.
In his trail notes, Don Bowers says the trail from Shageluk to Anvik is a well-used village to village snowmachine route. Most of the trail runs over lakes, swamps, sloughs and a little tundra. The trail is considered easy but there are a few steep climbs up banks of sloughs and some narrow trail in the heavy timber along the Yukon River. Departing Anvik, the teams cross the Yukon to the east shore of the river to head inland to Shageluk. At the crossing, the river is a mile wide.
Once the teams reach Shageluk, they will take a trail back to the river and the village of Garyling. From there it’s 126 miles back to Kaltag. The run south from Kaltag and the run north out of Grayling have offered major challenges. The southbound trail between Kaltag and Eagle Island was described by Paige Drobny as one of the ten worst trails she’s ever run on. It was slushy with overflow when the trail breakers went through on snow machine. They churned up the trail and then it froze into an icy rough runway. Then Mother Nature added her special touch with heavy snow and winds creating drifting and whiteout conditions, making for very slow trail.
There are rumors about the trail out of Kaltag toward Unalakleet. Insider Bruce Lee reported last evening that earlier snow machine traffic has created moguls on a section of trail out of Kaltag. While the dogs can manage the frequent little hills, it’s the up/down action of the sled that is a challenge for the mushers. That section of the trail doesn’t go on and on for miles but even 10-15 miles can be bone jarring.
Late last evening, Jessie Holmes was the first musher to return to Kaltag. He was met be race judge, Greg Parvin and Kaltag resident Violet Burnham who presented the Bristol Bay Native Corporation Fish First Award to Holmes. The award consists of 25 pounds of fresh Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon filets, $2,000 and a wood burned art piece created by BBNC shareholder artist Apay’ug Moore. Holmes promised to buy something nice/useful for the dogs then enjoy the amazing salmon himself.
Holmes took his required Yukon 8 hour rest in Kaltag. It was the final place to complete the mandatory Yukon River rest. When talking to Insider, Holmes indicated he planned to divide the remaining 266 miles of trail to White Mountain into 4 runs of approximately 65 miles each. Following that plan, Holmes will be camping outside of checkpoints until he reaches White Mountain where all teams are required to rest 8 hours before covering the final 77 miles to Nome. This serves two purposes for Holmes, if he’s not in the checkpoints his competitors don’t really know where he is and he and his team are comfortable with the 65 mile runs.
Jessie arrived in Kaltag with 12 dogs in harness and one in the trailer. Upon leaving Kaltag Holmes was carrying straw, left the trailer in Kaltag and had 11 dogs in harness. This is shift in strategy as he’s been rotating/resting dogs along the trail using the trailer. It seems that for the final push to Nome he’s paring down to the essentials.
Matt Hall was the first team to depart Kaltag. He’s camped about thirty miles out of Kaltag, likely at the Tripod flats Safety Cabin. That sets him up for a nice run to Unakaleet.
Paige Drobny told Insider she’s considering seven or possibly 6 runs to Nome. For the most part, Drobny just runs her own race all while setting a limit of what she’ll ask the dogs to do. Paige likes where she is in the race but says it’s very easy for her to bow out of the competitiveness. She doesn’t really know where her closest competitors are except Mall Hall. She says, while she and Matt have different strategies, they often, like now, are running very close in the final third of the race. Drobny’s dogs are excited to be in Kaltag as they are ready for some hills and wooded terrain to the coast. Paige is debating about camping out side of checkpoints on the way to Nome but admits she enjoys creature comforts available in checkpoints.
Nicolas Petit has sometimes sprinkled some “rogue” ideas into his racing strategies. Today he did a 90 mile run from south of Eagle Island to Kaltag. That’s a long run by most standards but Petit says his dogs have fun running longer and resting longer and he says they eat better. His plan is to rest 8 hours in Kaltag then do the 81 mile run to Unalakleet. This schedule has him resting in the heat of the day and running in cooler weather. Petit is resting in Kaltag with Michelle Phillips, Mille Porsild and Bailey Vitello.
Rookie musher, Bryce Mumford has scratched in Grayling citing the best interest of his team. Mumford, a US Postal Service mail carrier had 8 dogs in harness.
Currently as I prepare to hit publish for this post, Jessie Holmes is moving at about 8 MPH and is at mile 53 of the 81 miles run from Kaltag to Unalakleet. If he stays true to his plan, he should rest in another 10 miles.
