Each year during Iditarod the time change from winter to summer time, poses some real challenges for a sleep deprived musher. Trying to figure out what the 1 hour time change does to your run rest schedule is confusing, when you have not slept in days. Travis Beals hands over his watch to one of the vets: ” Are you tech savvy, I do not know how to set it “… No sleep does that to the best of em….
Matts Pettersson was out walking his dogs. It is a good way to assess any potential soreness before a long 85 mile run. At the same time Ramey Smyth pulls into a checkpoint. We wanted to park him close to the checkpoint building, where a team had parked before. All the straw was raked up, yet Ramey preferred to be parked much further away, next to Travis Beals team, on fresh snow. Good move. That way his team is less likely to pick up any bug from another team.
Ryan Redington is having a great race. He just pulled out of the checkpoint with 9 dogs. Paige Drobny of Squid acres is currently rounding out the Top 10. Her best finish to date was 27th in 2015. She is still driving a nice squad of Squidos ( spell check did not like that one ) with 12 dogs. Matt Hall came in typical Yukon Quest fashion. Quickly in and out of the checkpoint. The wet slushy Yukon River did not phase this bush man. He so far has been the only team running straight through Kaltag. Sitting in 6th place in his 2nd Iditarod is a big accomplishment. But we are talking a tough Yukon Quest Champion here. He has set his sights on winning this thing too, at some point. Richie deal is in 11th place, still having his sights set on a Top 10 finish. Lots of trail left…. And some gnarly weather. Nome has gotten another 8 inches of snow overnight. As per Mike Webber: “ Another 8’ since 3 p.m. yesterday. Wet heavy snow. Plows can’t keep roads open.” I have been getting messages like that from him for a while. The snow must be epic in Nome….
Aaron Burmeister was talking about his run through the overflow. There were many different Snowmachine tracks on the river. In general the machine riders are being told to stay off the Iditarod trail. In general that is the best thing to do…, to not chew it up. In these deep overflow situation, that creates another scenario…. of water logged trails everywhere. Unfortunately something which was un-avoidable with having to deliver part of the mushers dog food and straw via Snowmachine to Eagle Island, as flying was simply not possible for days. A couple of checkpoint personnel also got a special adventure last night. They went for a 76 mile snowmachine ride down to Eagle Island. Luckily 3 locals ( Adolf, Calvin and Colby ) were kind ( and brave enough ) to bring them down. It is amazing how much the people of Kaltag are willing to help out. Quite a few people from upstream villages have come down, too, like Bill Honea from Ruby who has been tirelessly hauling straw to the river, garbage to the dump and shuttling back and forth to the Airport. Dean Painter from Nulato is also here with some friends. It is great to see the same devoted friends every year. They all tease me about getting soft from going from mushing to snow machining to now flying. Dang it…. I am hopping on a snogo next year again.
And hey, there is patches of blue sky out. We have not seen that in a long time.
Below a few unedited ( do not have time for that ) pictures again:
