Good morning form Koyuk. Yesterday I was wondering out aloud about a photo finish, but expected it more between Mitch and Jeff. Now Aliy is right in the mix, and made up a lot of time on the run to Whitemountain. I sure would prefer to be right there watching, but am glad I decided to stay here in Koyuk for another night after reading Joe Runyan´s report about a sugar snow trail with no base. Although I was itching to leave last night, my gut feeling told me something was going on with the trail, after seeing Jeff King stop twice to Elim, and looking at the general traveling speeds of the front pack. The last thing those mushers would have wanted was our snowmachines chewing up the already soft trail more. I will see, how much catch up we can do today, without damaging the trail. It is cold out, about 10 below, so it should set up.
Koyuk has been relatively quite compared to yesterday. Vets, checkers and officials are getting some much needed rest. The local´s are sleeping too. Kelley Griffin from Wasilla is up and about. She commented on how she is holding up the middle of the pack, but has been traveling on her own for much of the way.
Jessica Hendricks from Two Rivers came in about an hour after Kelley. She thought she was only going 5 mph, but has one of the fastest runtimes over the ice.
Interesting enough Kelly Maixner and Matt Failor, who were both part of the front runners all the way back in Rainy Pass are now behind Jessica Hendricks. . Remember. That bold move Martin did and convinced his student to do too, run all the way to Rohn. It sure looked good at the time and shook things up, made for good stories too, but did unfortunately not work out in the end for neither musher. Patience, patience still seems to be tha name of the game in Iditarod. Did Aliy have enough patience in this race? It is going to be one heck of a race from White Mountain to Safety to Nome.
