Hi Boys and Girls,

Yesterday’s question was: What is a mandatory rest?  How many are there and how long are they?  Where are they taken?

An Allen Moore dog rests in the sun in the afternoon at the McGrath checkpoint during the 2018 Iditarod race on Wednesday March 07, 2018.
Photo by Jeff Schultz/SchultzPhoto.com (C) 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Mushers are required to take 3 mandatory rests during the race. The first is a 24 hour rest which can be taken at any official checkpoint.  The mushers take this time to rest themselves, rest their teams, fix equipment and trade stories with other mushers.  During the rest the time differential is figured into the time the musher must stay at the checkpoint. 

The next rest is an 8 hour stop that must be taken at one of the checkpoints on the Yukon River including Shageluk (when racing the southern route).  The last mandatory stop must be taken at White Mountain.  The mandatory rests cannot be combined. 

We’re going to start seeing mushers taking their 24 hour rest.  So if you musher doesn’t move for a while this is probably why. 

Today’s question is:  Did you know that the Iditarod race has many volunteers helping make the race successful?  What is a volunteer and what are some of the volunteer positions?

It’s time for my rest break. 

See you on the trail,

Gypsy