The trail over from Unalakleet to Shaktoolik could sure use some snow, specially the 1st part out of Unk. I bet the fat tire bikers love it, matter of fact a mountain bike would do well too. Coming off the Blueberry Hills there is more snow again. At the shelter cabin I did see one of those fat tire bikers rest, strangely he slept on the porch, not in the cabin. In the hills I had a hard time shaking Mitch Seavey, so I did not dare to stop much to take pictures. Mitch has emerged as a leader, as Dallas predicted when we talked during his camp out en route to Kaltag. It is interesting to look back a bit in the race to see how he got there. When it comes down to it, Mitch ran a very standard race. What do I mean with that?

At the beginning of the race in places like Finger Lake Mitch was in 16h position. When we were jn Nikolai, by Noon Insider commentator Bruce Lee said: ” The winner of this race is here right now ” Once again that held true. Matter of fact the Top 5 back in Nikolai are once again the Top 5 now, just in a different order and Noah Burmeister fell back and Aliy Zirkle slid in the Top 5. Back in Takontna, Mitch said, ” You can never go wrong with 24 ing here”. Leaving Takotna Mitch ran aggressive, but not anything crazy. He paid very close attention to the daytime he was running at, and specially to keep the teams speed up. 

It is going to be interesting to see how short Dallas and Brent will rest here in Shaktoolik. Because they know that Mitch will have to stop here for a while, with his run being 20 miles longer than theirs. It’s typical ” windsong weather here in Shak “. Not howling crazy, but the wind is singing in the overhead electrical wires. For me that is a sound synonymous with Coastal Alaska, be it Shaktoolik, Nome or Kaktovik. The trail coming in has some fairly long glare ice sections. With the wind coming at a 60 degree angle from the front, that can be challenging on a dog team.

Here are a few night time shots: