Good morning from White Mountain! First off, we did not get to see the beautiful northern lights last night. Too cloudy. Real bummer. While Dallas Seavey claimed his second consecutive, third overall victory, it has been a steady coming and going here.
The latest arrival in 16th place is Ray Redington, Jr. joking around as usual. Mushers here are in a good mood, which goes from being happy to only have one more run, to dreading to go back to the real world. Kelly Maixner was ready to throw a bag of dog meat at me. Ken Anderson’s mental wheels are already turning for next year, “Sebastian, it will be fun to debrief with you after this is over.” Man, those guys are truly addicted.
Pete Kaiser, Christian Turner, and Kelly Maixner are egging each other on for a race to Nome. They are all within a few minutes of each other. There will be quite a few races within the race. Mushers are currently “stacking up in Shaktoolik”. They are facing a north wind of 25 miles an hour on the nose. Curt Perano and Seth Barnes had a long slow trip over Norton Sound. They braved the conditions in the dark. It has gained them quite a few places. There always is a reward for hardship.
We will hit the trail now, taking some pictures of the teams traveling to Nome right now. Happy trails one more time. Sebastian Enjoy the checkpoint pictures.
