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Morning update from Cripple
The night was relatively quiet here. Jeff King came and stayed exactly 4 hrs and is en route to Ruby. He seems to like having a good 5 star menu there, courtesy of the Lakeview Hotel. He is one of the few people who have 24’ed in Ruby before. Jeff will have some peace and …
Monica Zappa has departed McGrath after a five hour rest. Her dogs came into the checkpoint trotting smartly with Monica wearing her usual brightly colored parka and musher hat. Zappa usually wears a smile nearly equal to Aliy Zirkle’s and is very upbeat and positive about the performance of her team. No deviation today, big …
A Look at Runtimes and Carrying Dogs
Sitting down with Mitch Seavey is always interesting. He is carrying dogs in the sled this year, voluntary that is. More and more mushers are doing that. Each times I pass one of those teams, I try to get a count of the number of dogs they have loaded up. Dallas often had 4 dogs …
Evening Update from Takotna
I normally stay the night in M Grath with my friend Rick Breckheimer, not so this year. The pace is a bit quicker and teams very tight and bunched up. Not wanting to get caught in the middle of that, I opted for going to Takotna instead. The run over showed me how quickly things …
Dallas Seavey was the first musher of the 2016 field to reach McGrath. Spectators saw Dallas as he rounded the bend of the Kuskokwim River but then lost sight of the team as they climbed the bank to the trail along the river. When they came back into sight, the team was smart looking and …
Skwentna was my first Iditarod checkpoint experience. Looking back I will long remember the hospitality of the “Skwentna Sweeties” that helped make it so memorable for me and all the volunteers and mushers. The checkpoint is actually on the confluence of the Skwentna and Yenta Rivers. I arrived via Iditarod Air Force, and …
Race leaders on the Trail to McGrath
This is the lowest snow I have seen on the Kuskokwim River. Normally in low snow, there are not many moose. Not so this year. I finally even managed to get a shot of one. The river as such often only had a skiff of snow, if any for snow cover. Fast traveling conditions. …
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 …
Scenes from Nikolai
Nikolai is hopping. And this is just the beginning. Team after team is coming in. Wade Marrs was checking in. It was fun to see him sit down while driving his sled. He used to give me a hard time for having a sit down sled. Wade’s leaders wanted to visit locals first, before heading …
The leaders are getting to Nikolai. Their strategies seem to converge here. And VERY different strategies they were. Nicolas Petit did a huge long run all the way to Rainy Pass, then followed by a short run to Rohn, now running nonstop to Nikolai. His travel speed is still up. Dallas Seavey has done …
