Definitely an unusual turn of events here in Nikolai. Brent Sass has come and gone. He said in the pre race interviews, that he would not stay much into the checkpoints this year. Brent prefers the solitude of the trail. With being able to grab some hot water here in the checkpoint, this was a good place to pass through. That means he does not have to melt snow for his dogs. The trail is flat, leaving from here, so carrying a big bale of straw is also not  slowing the team down any. Brent is now camped next to the trail.

See Denali in the background

Noah Burmeister is the second musher to pull a twist and has since passed Brent and is still moving towards McGrath. Time will tell how much further he goes, rumour is that he will go about 2 hrs before stopping. Most likely that will get both teams going to Ophir, instead of the ” usual ” run into Takotna for a 24 hr layover.

In the meantime the checkpoint here is filling up with teams. Rick Casillo was not a happy camper with having 2 dogs in the basket. I am also happy to see Ketil Reitan come in right before noon. All my 6 ” Skunks ” are still doing well in the team. It’s definitely strange, to see your own dogs camped out and not being able to massage or feed them.  

It is fun to walk around the checkpoint and see the different sled and gang line setups. Jeff King is carrying 6 inch stovepipe for his new heater setup. Quite a few sleds and trailers have a new setup which prevents the sleds from sliding sideways. Each year, there is another little new invention. Jeff has quite the gangline setup. Some of the dogs have a regular harness hookup and a side hookup at the same time. Jason Mackey is also very pleased with his race. He is here earlier than before, and with a very nice looking team.