Rohn Checkpoint #1

[tanglefoot]

sounds good to me,

mitch coming upon jeff and lance...only 4 miles away from their camp... cim catching mitch looks like has some good speed going through the tunnels

[tanglefoot]

cim now past mitch, who must be camped out or snacking..or maybe the tracker has not updated .. cim about to pass king jeff and lance

[aren]

Kjetil left Rohn approx 4:30 after Lance. All 6 in front of Kjetil blew straight through Rohn without any rest.
Kjetil cut his resttime in Rohn by 1 hr compared to 2004. This is looking good at the moment.

[Di*]

I had no idea the gorge could be that intimidating. I think I'll stay up a little longer tonight...

I know this is way late but here is an excellent blow by blow account of the trail.....
http://www.hardcorehuskies.com/updates.php

[MotorWerk]

Wow! Is that a webpage for gothic mushers?

Thanks for the link, I'll read it when I get home from work.

[Di*]

Yea, style would suggest that Motor! It is Heather Sirtola's site, she is from North Dakota but living in AK now...

[aren]

Rohn has had a busy day. 80 mushers with around 1200 dogs has been through this checkpoint in one day. It must be quite a task for all the good people at the checkpoint. I am sure they are all doing a great job and if it hadn't been for these volenteers there would not have any race at all. This is something to remember among all the exitement going on at the front of the race.


It is also comforting to notice that Rachel and Joe seems to be doing real well this year. They arrived in Rohn as nr 81/82 at 18:00 AKT. Looking forward to keep following their progress along the trail

aren

[Moose]

Interesting speeds into Rohn from Rainy Pass, if they're accurate:
Wayne Curtis: 18.23 mph
Zoya DeNure: 14.05

Head-of-the-pack times not so fast:
Buser: 11.43
Backen and Gebhardt: 11.08
Gatt: 10.55
Mackey: 10.43

Of course some might have stopped to snack or "run into the trees" on the 48 mile stretch.

[aren]

Rohn is still a very busy place. At the moment there are 21 teams in the checkpoint. This include the current Red Lantern, Dries Jacobs that arrived 03:00 this morning and also include Kim Franklin who arrived as # 91 at 02:12. I am sure that they receive the very same hospitality as the teams in front of them.
In my eyes all the teams are keeping up a good pace this year. Dries Jacobs arrived just 31 hr after Lance who was first into Rohn. If we compare with last year, the Red Lantern into Rohn arrived more than 3 days after Lance, who was already in the lead at that point.

aren

[Johncn]

Hello,

Way late, but here is an APRN Podcast from yesterday morning on Rohn:

Backen First to Rohn
http://aprn.org/2008/03/04/backen-first-to-rohn-mcgrath-arrivals-expected-tonight/

IdIitarod leaders were on the 75 miles between Rohn and Nikolai this morning — lots of them. Among the first ten reaching Rohn last night was Rick Swenson. He stayed for more rest than most. Some just checked in and kept going. Nenana veteran Aaron Burmeister says this is a point in the race where you can’t fall too far behind.

First into Rohn, with a two hour lead on Paul Gebhart, was Team Norway’s Kjetil Backen, back after a three-year absence.

Tonight the leaders will reach McGrath. Among the many who will be there to greet them on the Kuskokwim River will be former Iditarod musher Eep Anderson, now the proprietor of McGuire’s Tavern.