A bit earlier than I had expected did the lead pack converge in Nulato. All 4 teams arrived within 3 hours of each other. All 4 teams had 14 dogs when they arrived. Quite honestly I did not expect Aily ZIrkle to stop, nor Jeff King who has yet to take his 8 hr layover. Sonny Lindner who ran all the way from Ruby sure can use a long 8 hr rest.
It will now be interesting what the chasers will be doing. One thing which I find interesting is the unwillingness of some of the front runners to even look at ” runtimes “. Back in Cripple one of the Norwegian followers handed Robert Sorlie a time printout and Robert put it down without looking at it: ” I can not see,I can not hear,” he exclaimed. He simply wanted to run his own race. A repeat of that was Sonny Lindner, who yet had to look at runtimes and had no intention to do so in Nulato. He also had his own race in mind. But the followers, I think is a different story. There is some very strong teams lurking in the back. I can not help but notice Hans Gatt for example, still driving a full string of 16 dogs. He has taken his 8 hr layover already and now in Galena he only rested 2.5 hrs. Hans knows how to put on the heat at the end of a race. He has done that in many Yukon Quests before. He is patient, he is athletic and when it comes down to it, he is willing to race hard.
Of course Nicolas Petit is right there. He is not a mushing household name yet, but from observation, he might soon be. Joe Runyan pointed out this afternoon in Galena, how much Nicolas seems to copy what Jeff King is doing. From the type of sled he is driving to feeding regimes. Nicolas is going all out, he is hungry and driven. And he has a very good connection to his dogs.
Sorlie of course is a factor. Dallas Seavey has been slowly getting closer to the front pack. Aaron Burmeister is still right there. Mitch Seavey of course wants to defend his title. Lots of really good chasers….
So far Martin Buser is hanging on to his lead, but it appears to be shrinking. Very exciting race to follow. I made it to Kaltag, the community had a big concert here tonight. Just now the school is getting a bit more quiet, time for a short nap before the action in the checkpoint begins. Martin is en route!
Happy trails
Sebastian
