Ed Hopkins arrived into Takotna at 10:39 this morning, greeted by his partner Michelle Phillips who is volunteering as trail crew here in Takotna. His dogs looked super happy when they arrived, as soon as they spotted Michelle their tails started wagging and Ed’s leader jumped on her to say hi and give her kisses.

Ed is parked near Charley Bejna, one of my neighbor’s in Knik. Charley had a rough run from Rohn to Nikolai and broke one of the runners on his sled on that run. The other runner on his sled snapped on the run from McGrath to Takotna, so he had his spare sled brought here to change them over while he’s taking his 24 hour layover. He says otherwise his race is going really well, and he’s in good spirits!