Don´s Cabin, about 34 miles past Ophir and 39 miles to go to Iditarod. It is blowing a good 25 to 30 mph. Luckily a tail wind. Both Jason Mackey and Jim Lanier bedded down and were discussing strategie. 24 in Iditarod or Anvik. Good thing the cabin is fixed up a bit. Jason retold the story of how him and Lance were going to travel together out of Rohn, and than Lance didtched him, once Jason saw a bale of straw, in typical Lance manier, he knew he would not see his brother again. He Hd left Nikolai by the time Jason got there. In 2005 I camped at Dons´s the weather was similiar, above freezing and too warm to run. In 2007 it was the opposite it was super cold. By 2011 not much of the cabin was left, more holes than wall. Over the last 2 years quite a bit of work has gone back into it. This cabin is right on the trail, where most of the other BLM Cabins sit about 1 Mile off trail, so they are not much used by mushers.
When Jim bedded down his dogs at Don´s he pulled out these skookum sleeping mats fort he dogs. And boy you could tell he had used them plenty before. Each one would get up immediately, let Jim lay the mat ( foamie sewn into food drop bag ) down and would curl up on top. It was so windy out, that Jim and Jason had to use the lee side of the cabin to get their dog food cookers going. I tried uploading this from the top of the mountain again, but that sure was a no go. I did make it up… but almost belew away, so no go. Just made it into Iditarod.
Here a few pictures of last night.
Jason Mackey and his team
Jim Lanier bedding down his dogs
Jim Lanier 
Pretty cool sleeping mats. The dogs love them
Jason Mackey reflecting on his race so far
The comforts of Don´s Cabin
Hiding out of the 25 mph wind, to get the cooker going
Jim cooking up a storm
Last time I camped out here, you could look through the walls. Some nice work done
