Musher Naps at Finger Lake in the Heat of the Day (photo D. Poyzer)

Here’s the Tuesday morning summary of Iditarod action.  By the way, you know you’re a serious Iditarod fan if you get weather alerts for Nikolai, Alaska rather than your own community!  Looks like teams will enjoy a rather warm day, light winds and a possibility of snow.  Insider photo guy, Dave Poyzer, captured some excellent photos of mushers doing just that in Finger Lake on Monday.

Ryan Redington is the first musher to reach the village of Nikolai located on the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River.  Nikolai has a population of just fewer than 100 residents and most are of Athabascan heritage.  Since leaving Rohn, Ryan has passed through the Buffalo tunnels, over the Post Glacier, sledded by Egypt Mountain and traversed the Farewell Burn.  The run from Rohn to Nikolai is 75 miles. 

Egypt Mountain out of Rohn on the Way to Nikolai (photo 2012)

Looking at Ryan’s racing stats, he’s not stayed in a checkpoint as of yet.  He camped between Skwentna and Finger, between Rainy Pass and Rohn and between Rohn and Nikolai.  Now though it looks like he’s spending some time in Nikolai.  Mushers have access to wall tents but not the school or the community center as in past years.  It’s snowing in Nikolai so I suspect mushers will take advantage of the tents to catch a nap.  

Trail Goes On and On Through the Farewell Burn to Nikolai (photo 2006)

Teams soon to arrive in Nikolai include Aaron Burmeister, Richie Diehl, Dallas Seavey and Peter Kaiser.  Altogether there are 35 teams out of Rohn.  Right now rookie Sean Underwood brings up the rear of that very large group.  I’m amazed at how close the race continues to be.  Usually by the time the teams leave Rohn they are more spread out.  If you think about it, there are 35 teams in 75 miles so by doing the math, one team per 2.14 miles between Rohn and Nikolai.  That’s a pretty densely populated trail for this stage of the race.

Tracker shows nine teams resting in Rohn.  Hal Hanson with his Mitch Seavey puppy team has departed Puntilla Lake and is making his way up Rainy Pass to an elevation of 3,200 feet, the highest elevation on the trail.  Normally it’s a one shot east to west climb but this year the mushers will have the challenge of climbing from west to east when returning the Deshka.

Aerial View of Nikolai on the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River (photo 2006)

Here’s a story from Nikolai from a few years back.  The teachers at the K-12 school were quite concerned about the activity level of the students.  It seems that more and more they were playing video games and being less and less active. They adopted a goal of skiing from Nikolai to McGrath, a distance of 54 miles on the route they decided to take.  Every thing they did in school that year was based on that trip.  They began preparing for the journey long before the first snow.  They acquired ski equipment, sleeping bags and proper clothing.  They did multi-disciplinary projects researching clothing, food and survival.  They began training when the first snow arrived. 

A few weeks after Iditarod passed through the students began their parent supported trek.  Five days later they skied into McGrath.  Along the way they completed lessons using GPS and took advantage of studying their environment.  Each morning they did lessons before putting on their skies.  Parents used snow machines to haul gear and food to each predetermined camping spot.  The eight students in grades 3 thru 9 along with their teachers were very proud of accomplishing their goal.

Come back this evening for another summary of Tuesday Iditarod action.  Following the race with GPS Tracker and Insider video clips is the next best thing to being there.