Noon—Koyuk—News Roundup
typical view to village of koyuk from checkpoint to ice of norton bay
Joar arrived in the Koyuk checkpoint 5th, an accomplishment for a guy that has never seen the trail or raced against this set of Iditarod competitors. In the checkpoint I get to talk to him. “Are you doing some running? Joar: “Yeah, quite a bit. I need some new shoes because my feet are sore.” “You will have a lot of hills between here and White Mountain (a distance of 86 miles), some of them pretty steep.” Joar: “Sure, I will run them and try to help the dogs out. I think it makes a big difference.”
Mentioning the notion that he needs new shoes creates an urgency in the checkpoint. Everybody wants to help, even me, but I only wear a size 11 and he needs a size 12. A tall pilot says he wears size 12 and immediately leaves the checkpoint to walk back to his airplane, while Joar goes to the mushers sleeping area for a nap. Joar’s girl friend is in the checkpoint and we all tease her, “Gee, this guy Joar doesn’t seem quite so dangerous when you actually talk to him. He seems like a nice guy,”which in truth is the case. He has a good sense of humor and seems alert and unaffected by the long night on the ice.
Jake Berkowitz—still driving 15 dogs and putting on a show. Jake’s team continues to evoke comments like,”why doesn’t he rest two hours and pursue King and Seavey.” Possibly Jake’s reply is more reasonable, “I have fifteen dogs, I want to keep my place, and I don’t think there is enough trail to reach either Mitch or King.”
The race out of koyuk.
Snapshot as I write. King is at mile 797 and Mitch at 790. Mitch said he was going to rest 3:40 and he actually departed at 3:38 on the rest clock. King, according to the Tracker rested on the trail exactly three hours. Guaranteed, well, almost guaranteed, both of them will go to White Mountain.
