While I was walking around the checkpoint to take pictures of the resting teams here, Wade Marrs quietly arrived under the ” Cripple Arch “. No palm trees this year. Its been 4 years since this checkpoint was used last, with 2014 going via Huslia. So maybe the palm trees blew away in the meantime. Mushers always also talk about how many veteran dogs they have in their team, and Mitch Seavey commented on how he only has 4 dogs on his team who have been here before,  although he is driving a veteran team of mainly 3 year olds.

Cripple air traffic control is announcing the arrival of 2 planes. At the same time some of the dropped dogs are being loaded up to fly back to McGrath. Logistically this place is very challenging. That considered, it is amazing how smooth things are running.