A young Galena resident watches Brent Sass heads out on the slough

With great anticipation the Galena checkpoint waited for our second Iditarod musher to come through…Brent Sass.  A short 54 minutes later, Brent whipped in, stopped for 5 minutes, cut open his drop bags, grabbed the food bags for himself and his dogs, and headed out. 

They will leave the dog yard from the frozen Alexander Lake next to the checkpoint to Antoski Slough (pronounced slew) about a mile away.  What is a slough?  It is an off-shoot of the main river.  They just have incoming water and can be slow moving or stagnant.  In the winter here in Galena it is frozen, so the Iditarod teams will rest on it in rows like parked cars or continue on to Nulato.  

I met up with Brent’s father, Mark Sass, and we continued our trail tradition of taking a “selfie” together.  Mark is traveling along the trail to support his son as he makes his way to Nome.  He made it just in time, and just simply waved and hugged him as he moved on down the hill.

Brent seemed focused and in high spirits as he continued on quickly past the Galena volunteers, fans, and TV crews and into the quiet Alaska wilderness.

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His straw was left behind, so I asked Brent’s father about that.  It is interesting what a musher leaves at a checkpoint, and there was much speculation about it:

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Brent had a little help from a volunteer checker as he made the turn to mush towards the slough.  Best wishes Brent!

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Meanwhile, Aliy took a little nap inside the checkpoint on our cots, heated her boots and ate some spaghetti.  Aliy is possibly taking her 8 hour rest here.  The rest of us are waiting for Mitch Seavey and the next group to come in as the residents bring in food donations for the checkpoint.  Galena is a great place to be!

Aliy recycles!