Tails from the Trail

It was a beautiful morning on Knik Lake.  At 10 am, nine teams took to the Jr Iditarod trail for the 43rd Jr Iditarod.  The weather was cool and partly cloudy.  The calm before the snow that is expected this evening.  These 9 juniors, ages 14-17,  will travel 75 miles to Yentna Roadhouse Station, rest for 10 hours, then head back to Willow Community Center on Sunday.

We arrived at the Roadhouse early afternoon. The flight was amazing! Even with the clouds rolling in the skies were clear enough to see the Alaska Range.

 Yentna Station Roadhouse  was so welcoming and bustling with excitement.  Snow machiners were coming and going, and halfway checkpoint was beginning to take shape.  

 Just as the snow started to fall the first musher arrived.  Rookie, Julia Cross arrived at 5:21, followed by rookie Nicolas Sousa at 5:44 and Anna Coke at 6:05.  Ida Kohnert arrived at 6:15.  Then 3 mushers arrived quickly Calvin Dougherty, Kristal Hansen, and Cassidy Meyer at 6:43, 6:44, and 6:46.  The final two Sam Paperman and Bjorn Keller finished up the evening.  

The first musher will be leaving around 3:30 am. 

Tribute to Perseverance 

Who was another musher that received the Red Lantern twice?  Ellen Halverson!  Ellen’s first Red Lantern was in the 2007 Iditarod.  He time was 16 days 11 hours 56 minutes 20 seconds.  Her second was in 2011 with a time of 13 days 19 hours 45 minutes 49 seconds.  Ellen beat her time by almost 3 days!

Why is the number 13 and 6 important to several mushers?  Stay tuned…..

Teachers:

Explore the current race standings on the Jr Iditarod page to figure out time differentials in Yentna.