Readers using the wonderful tracking tools at the Insider can instantly understand the big spread in competitors.  As I  post, Buser is ahead into Rohn while Mitch Seavey the Older  is just approaching Rainy Pass, an obvious testament to the difference in opinion of our top mushers. 

Here in Rainy Pass, in the middle of the lead pack, we may be visiting the mushers with a prudent game plan. They are confident in their dog teams and therefore have pushed to the front, but their run/rest schedule is measured and regular.

Aliy Zirkle, Hugh Neff, Roger Sorlie, Jeff King, and Hans Gatt are parked consecutively in spaces on Puntilla Lake.  You could make a good argument that this is the “core of the front pack.”

Aliy’s dogs were lounging on straw in the bright sunlight as tourists arriving by airplane and wearing light coats, no gloves, and baseball caps snapped photos of her feed bag with “Aliy Zirkle.”  She was inside one of the lodge cabins designated for mushers taking a nap.  

Hugh Neff, whose dogs were matching the trail speeds of Buser step by step last night, was just finishing feeding his dogs, pointed out some of his huskies from the Yukon River, including a very unusually dark chocolate coated wheel dog.  His dogs resting comfortably, Hugh eased up on his sled bag, head resting on the rear cross piece of the sled basket, parka draped over him as blanket, and settled into a nap.

Flash, our radio operator, just told me that Maixner arrived with a busted sled first into Rohn.  The Dentist with a daring plan—-he forged ahead of the race and even race rabbit Martin Buser—-was carrying dogs in a sled caboose and alternating them in and out of  the team.  We can imagine his experience when he reported the Dalzell to be “very technical.”

King and caboose for leaders

Robert Sorlie, the 2x Norwegian champ, was ladling food from a green five gallon plastic bucket into a strange assortment of plastic bowls and small buckets with handles.    The Race marshal suggested that Robert give one of the lodge workers five bucks for the bucket and ladle.

It’s true, Sorlie’s (bucket & ladle) looked different.   What had happened to the rear compartment on his sled normally loaded with a cooker, dog bowls, ladle and bucket?  What was also his seat had been ripped off the sled when he flipped going down the Happy Valley Steps.  Jeff King was just behind him and filming with his Go Pro mounted on his baseball cap.

Jeff said, “I have it on film when Robert was yelling, “My Bowls are Gone!”  Robert lost his bowls, cooler, snacks, ladle, and seat in an instant.   Sorlie and King found this very amusing.  Robert shrugged, “Maybe I’ll get it back some day.”

In the photo above, Robert Sorlie (in black) looks to the rear of sled, once occupied by his baggage compartment for dog snacks, bowls, cooler, ladles, etc.

Jeff King was eating his own snacks while fooling with his string of dogs asleep on hay beds.  In addition to his traditional sled, Jeff is towing another sled retrofitted with what looks like a tube tent.  It is actually a caboose designed for dogs.  “Oh yeah, we use it in training all the time.   I have hauled dogs all along the trail, usually two at a time, but it could haul more.”  He would like to give all his dogs a ride but now he is concentrating on rotating his leaders.  “They like it.  I just turn them loose and they jump right in.”  Four different leaders have been riding alternately in the sled since the start.

Hans Gatt, the Yukon Quest Champion, was second in the 2010 Iditarod and 3rd in the 2011 Iditarod      .He dominates in mid distance racing and is always taken seriously.  In addition, he builds (as a business) sleds for mushers.  He also is a triathlete.  In combination with a well designed sled and athleticism, it ‘s no surprise that he described the trail, “Honestly, it was a great trail.”  Possibly he is upbeat about the trail because he hasn’t been in a train wreck, but for the moment he is on the trail with confidence.

FLASH  on the Iditarod radio   “Due to high fire danger in Rohn , the race marshal will be giving monetary fines to any musher with an unattended fire.”  Good example of how dry it is on the north side of the range.   I am confident on our next flight to Rohn we will see plumes of dust before we see mushers on the Nikolai Burn moving in direction Nikolai.

Aliy was first in amongst this group—expect her to be first out of Rainy Pass.