house out on ice used for dredging for gold. These guys dive under the ice and suction dredge. do they make money? would anybody dive under the ice for fun?

house for sale, only 15,000 and you can locate to outskirts of Nome

dredge which is used for sucking up the famous black sands of Nome

anothe view of no mans land

view of collection of camps and cabin marking the old ft. West. this is the start of NO MANS LAND

7PM Nome  Seavey guards lead

One can only conclude that everyone in Nome is turning on the GPS tracker and CRASHING the bandwidth at my hotel room directly across from the Iditarod finish.  I have to be lucky to even get this article to the Iditarod website.

In a twist of fate, I bump into an old friend of mine who happens to be the director of Nome Museum.  Laura Samuelson is also interested to know about the Ft. Davis sign which mark the beginning of NO MANS LAND and on into Nome.  We drove out Ft. Davis, now marked by a collection of fish camps and cabins that grew up around the old gold era Fort.   We did not see the sign, and thinking that it would be important for closely running front competitors Mitch Seavey and Aliy Zirkle, we called headquarters.

The trail crosses a road near the old Ft. Davis and the general start of the NO Mans Land is obvious if you are a local.  However, if you are not a local, and its pitch dark, and you are tired, and rummy, and a little hyperventilated because you are trying to beat the musher ahead or behind you, then it would be nice to have a sign or an indication.  More on that if you watch our live broadcast of the finish. 

Seavey continues to guard lead

Pundits surrounding me kept insisting that Zirkle was going to pass Seavey.  AT one point this afternoon I am told that the gps tracker actually had Aliy in the lead, but then others in the main live broadcast center near the finish line told me it was probably an aberration.   I never saw it.

Once again, I took a snapshot of tracker at 7:30PM and it shows:

Seavey                                 913

Aliy                         911

King                       898

This leads some people to believe that Seavey is guarding his lead.  Others here in production center, who have accumulated hours of watching the tracker, are less confident that the tracker is a true representation.  In fact, several insist that Zirkle is intentionally drafting on Seavey, waiting for her moment to pass on the final miles or mile, or hundred yards into the chute.  I think the tracker is probably a reliable indicator as it has shown a gap between Mitch and Aliy through the day.

My very insightful friend Bruce Lee, after contemplating this strategy and talking it over with his contacts, is convinced that Aliy would have dropped the hammer and buried Seavey if she could and would not take the chance to sling shot passed Seavey in the final moments.

Yet, we still have a dynamic that could change for any number of factors.  Mitch’s leader is a big “once in a lifetime leader” who prefers to single lead.  While other leaders like  a companion for support, the occasional leader which is individually confident appears.  Tanner is a leader that wants the front to himself, preferring to dominate to the front and occupy the trail by himself.  This is a great asset, unusual, valuable, and a key to success.

The two teams are now only 23 miles from the finish and closing. To pass, Aliy must have a strong leader or pair of leaders, to lead her team to the front without hesitation.  It is the natural inclination of a team of sled dogs to the front to slow down after passing.  It takes training to successfully pass teams and then pull away.  Aliy has been running a remarekeable little female leader she calls Quito in single lead. 

Flash—-Mitch just went through Safety (the dot representing safety is not correctly represented on the map) but the position of the teams seems accurate as they approach NOME.

Now, to the NO Man Lands section of trail.  After viewing Ft. Davis with Laura Samuelson, I realized that I would never have known its location in the dark, even after running quite a few Iditarods.   Andy Willis, trail director, quickly made a sign that indicates the start of the zone.  By truck, we estimated the distance at about 3.2 miles.   I saw him by the finish chute and we joked around about it.   Ft. Davis is actually just a collection of fishcamps and cabins that grew up around the old fort.  The fort itself has more or less deteriorated in a century to a memory.

Ok, now we are gearing up for the live finish.  Check out the web around 11PM Alaska Time!!!!