Hi Everyone,

Hope you are still enjoying the race as much as I am.  How are your favorite mushers doing?  Thanks for all the comments you’re leaving on the blog.  I really enjoy reading them. 

I have been looking at the update page and I noticed that mushers were staying at certain checkpoints for long periods of time.  Then I noticed boxes to the far right of the race update page and saw little boxes that said 24 hour and 8 hour.  I decided to do some research and found rule #13 called Mandatory Stops in the musher’s rules.  Mushers are able to rest anywhere along the trail.  Mandatory Stops are rests that they must take. They have to be taken at a checkpoint and the mushers must sign in and out to start and end all mandatory stops. 

Mushers are required to take 3 mandatory rests during the race.  The first one is a 24 hour stop.  It can be taken whereever the musher feels would be the best for the dogs.  It looked like most mushers took this rest in either McGrath or Takotna.  I’ve heard both places are nice and have good food. They both seem like really good places to take a long rest at.  Mushers take this time to rest their teams, rest themselves, fix any equipment that needs fixing, and trade stories with each other.  During this rest, the starting differential is figured into the time the musher must stay at the checkpoint.

The next rest is an 8 hour stop that must be taken at one of the checkpoints on the Yukon River. Many mushers take this stop in Cripple or Ruby.  That’s right after a couple of long runs and it’s a good time for a longer rest. 

The last Mandatory stop is another 8 hour rest that must be taken in White Mountain.  White Mountain is 77 miles from Nome.  This will be the final rest for most of the teams. 

Most mushers have already taken both their 24 hour and 8 hour on the Yukon River.  In the next day or so, the front runners will be at White Mountain.  Watch to see if the order the mushers come into White Mountain is the same order they get to Nome in.  If the race is close, this will be a time the mushers will plan a strategy to either stay ahead or get ahead.

I’m off to check the updates to see how everyone is doing.

Happy trails,

Gypsy