Here a few shots of the teams dropping down towards the Big Susitna River. They had just passed ” Camp Flamingo “.

From here on out, traveling is on the wide open river. The trail not always clearly defined. Down the big Su, hang a right onto the Yentna River and go upstream. Go for the bonfires. Hot dogs and beer might be waiting!

The first subtle differences in run style already emerge, not even 10 miles into it. The only words heard from Allen Moore are ” easy…. easy”. Not much surprise that Allen did not show up in the same order, as they had left Willow. A few teams had already passed him. Jessie Royer was also notably going much slower than Nathan Schroeder, who passed Jessie quickly after exiting onto the Big Su.

Slow is the name of the game in these temperatures. Several teams came by trotting very nicely. Nicolas Petit’s team looking beautiful, one hard driving leader, everybody else trotting in sync. He was carrying a huge bale of straw in a big toboggan behind the team. Anything which slows a team down is good. I assume he will camp out before Skwentna, hence the straw.

Current Champion Dallas Seavey just came in. He had 12 dogs on the line, that means he is resting 4 dogs in his trailer, and to gain some weight to slow the team. Kelly Maixner passed with a full team of 16 dogs, no dogs in the caboose. Mitch Seavey, runner up, also diid not have a full team. He is carrying 2 dogs, still riding his brake hard, following Aliy Zirkle. 

Enjoy the shots,