Tails from the Trail 

Next stop Takotna! It was a beautifully clear day, so the flight was spectacular. We even got an overhead view of several mushers heading into McGrath.

Takotna is a smaller village, population 51, located on the Takotna River. This village has been known by many different names in its history, Berry Landing, Portage City, Takotna City, Takotna Station, and Tocotna. At one point it had many stores that helped supply the gold miners.  Today Takotna has one store, a post office, a beautiful school, and a church.  It also has a small landing strip just outside the village.  Of course what Takotna is know for during the Iditarod….PIES!! 

Several teams have moved in and out of Takotna today.  Kristy and Anna Berrington left around 11 this morning. Jeff Deeter, Jessica Klejka, Lev Shvarts, Karin Hendrickson and Robert Redington all came through on their way to Ophir.  

A Tribute to Perseverance:

Today’s tribute goes out to all the mushers and canine athletes along the trail.  Listening to the mushers who have rested in Nikolai and Takotna talk, the common theme is how cold the trail has been.  Several mushers mentioned -43 at least at night and very windy conditions. Being from Connecticut these temperatures are new for me, and I admire the strength they have to not only care for themselves, but to put the care of their dogs first!  Every musher has come in, bedded, fed, snuggled, and made sure their dogs were well taken care of and settled before they ate and warmed themselves. 

Teachers:

Snow, snow, and more snow.  In Nikolai there was 6 feet of snow on the ground. With so much snow imagine how much gets layered on the roofs! Today as I was talking with the teachers here, one was getting ready to go on the roof and move some of the snow off.  This got me thinking about a STEM challenge.  Have your students create a device that can safely and effectively remove large amounts of snow from a roof.