Hugh Neff only stayed a few minutes at Rainy Pass. He snacked his dogs about half a mile from the checkpoint. That was a pretty good indicator that he planned to go through. When you snack a team before the checkpoint, as a musher you can still do a decision based on that feeding. If they take the food well, there is not a reason to not keep on going. If they do not snack well, he could have still pulled over to camp in the checkpoint.
He grabbed one of his food drop bags and packed some hay for a campout. Veterinarian Phil Meyer asked Hugh, ” How did you like the Quest this year “. Hugh answered that it was easy and that he liked the outcome.
The veterinarians gave his team a brief exam and Hugh was on his way again. Airplane traffic is heavy right now and I am sure that has something to do with Hugh’s decision to keep on going a bit further down the trail. He inquired about the temperature. It’s 20 F outside, perfect camping weather.
Looking at runtimes. Dallas has travelled almost 45 minutes faster then Nicolas Petit over here. Hugh is only a few minutes slower than Dallas. Hugh took almost 12 hrs to reach Finger Lake. He rested for 4 hrs there and now is on the move. Looking back at the pre-race interviews, Hugh told Bruce Lee: ” The coast always kicks my butt, so I am going to take it easy at the start of Iditarod this year “. Dang, if this is Hugh’s definition of taking it easy, what will be see later on?
