Its nice in ELIM, with being able to see the team a little ways out, when they come down the hill into town. Wade Marrs’s dogs happily trotted into the checkpoint at 10.58. When asked if he was staying or going, he immediately asked how far Pete Kaiser was back. Wade knows of the ” danger ” of Pete Kaiser traveling behind him traveling pretty fast. He does not want to loose his Top 5 spot, which would be his best finish to date. Wade will be dropping one dog here, the 1st dropped dog for the Elim checkpoint. Dropped dogs come in categories. White, blue, and red, depending on how much care they need. 

Wade Marrs arriving in ELIM

The checkpoint is getting a little busier, town has woken up. I am sure once school is out today, a lot more kids will show up. Looking back down the trail. In Kaltag Wade arrived half an hour behind Dallas Seavey. Aliy Zirkle was actually still half an hour ahead of Dallas in Kaltag. And now she pretty much left ELIM, when Dallas made it into WhiteMountain, a full checkpoint ahead.  Ever since Kaltag, Dallas Seavey has camped out a lot. Once on the portage trail to UNK, once at the shelter cabin outside of Shaktoolik and another time at the shelter cabin outside of Koyuk. With those moves along the coast, Dallas basically cut out one rest stop. Instead of stopping in 3 checkpoints ( Shak, Koyuk, Elim ) he only stopped twice on the trail. Camping on the coast is not easy. Its windy out. With camping out, Dallas also avoided doing any super long run, as it is often done with skipping a checkpoint Typically a musher goes from Unk through Shaktoolik to Koyuk. That is what Brent Sass has done, and that is how his team lost its prior good speed. Now Brent skipped Elim and his speed has dropped even further, which has led to the widening gap between the team. 

Here are some pictures of Wade Marrs coming into ELIM.