The mushers who are leaving Nikolai right now got a nice break in the weather. After a clear sunny morning, some clouds have rolled in, and make the ” heat of the day ” feel a lot less hot. Dallas Seavey rolled out of here a while ago, and Mitch Seavey has just pulled the hook. Walking up his team, he asked if his dogs were ready? Oh yes they were, barking and howling up a storm. He was not running a full string, still resting dogs in his trailer. That tells you a lot about the strength of his team.

Mitch getting ready

Wade Marrs, who was parked right next door, wasted no time to chase the 2 time Iditarod Champion out of the checkpoint. Wade is visibly having a good time. That also reflects in his dogs. They looked very solid leaving.

Wade Marrs having a good run

Aliy Zirkle was putting booties on her team, so she will follow shortly. Others were fixing sleds. Although the burn not being near as bad as 2 years ago, it did some damage, as it usually does. Justin Savidis is dealing with a broken runner; others like Cim Smyth are happy to have some runner plastic that actually fits the sled. He tried changing plastic in the burn, unsuccessfully. 

Aliy Zirkle getting ready

Around Ralph Johannessen’s sled it looked like a yard sale. He was changing runner plastic too, and talked about how much better the run through the burn had been. Sebastian, so not take pictures of this….its too unorganized. Sorry buddy…, my camera is always in my hand…His dogs were enjoying a good snooze.

Ralph Johannessen

With quite a few teams having left, that means saddling up the Iron Dog to head over to McGrath. Happy trails. Enjoy the photos: