My first sign of the elusive Brent Sass was an empty nest, 10 miles outside of Ruby. He had long packed up and gone. What a nice spot he had picked. no wind and a beautiful view up and down the mighty Yukon River. Then I finally could see a speck moving on the horizon. …
Aliy Zirkle on the Yukon River
A beautiful morning on the Yukon River. I was not the only one thinking that, as when I passed Aliy Zirkle, she called ove,r ” Isn’t this a fine morning on the Yukon River ?” The closer she got towards Galena, the better the trail conditions were getting. Leaving Ruby, the Yukon is quite bare …
Morning action from RUBY
Many teams are arriving under a beautiful sunrise into Ruby. Hugh Neff watched Michelle Phillips’ team being parked: ” I won’t see her very long “, which in musher talks means, that she has a very nice looking team, and Hugh doubts that he can hang with Michelle. The checkpoint volunteer had a hard time …
Mitch Seavey into Ruby in 7th place
Mitch was visibly tired. Who would blame him. These early wee hours of the morning are tough. He did not declare his 8 hr and said he was going to stay for a little bit. That can mean 2 hrs or 5 hrs. He lost quite a bit of time to his son Dallas Seavey. …
Good morning from Ruby. Lots of early morning action here, under very faint northern lights. Nicolas Petit was the 4th team to arrive and he pulled into the parking lot. Each musher has a very distinct way with their dogs. Nicolas does not want handlers to touch his dogs, ” Do not touch them, I …
Brent has once again come and gone. He is camping again, about 10 miles outside the checkpoint right now. A bit too far to go for a quick visit. He has that planned well, ensuring peace and quiet. I have to admit that I thought he would stop here this time, being in the middle …
Strategy Talk
Before I hit the pillow for a few hours, a few thoughts on the strategies playing out there. As I type this, Aliy Zirkle has just pulled over to camp. She was traveling closely with Brent Sass, but she had come from before Cripple and in the past has run a similar schedule, with skipping …
Brent Sass Campout en route to Ruby
Leaving Cripple I caught up with Brent Sass, who had camped out. He had a nice spot picked out, 5 miles past Cripple. I had hoped he would be up and about, and sure enough he was. We chatted for quite a while… all secrets I can not share here…., sorry. Brent enjoys staying outside, …
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. …
This is interesting to look at. Mitch Seavey had left Ophir 16 minutes ahead of Hugh Neff , at 1.26 a.m. Where Mitch rested almost 4 hrs on the trail, Hugh has been running straight through. And Mitch repassed him on the way to Cripple. Not much else need to be said about the speed …
