Nulato Checkpoint #1

[Heidi]

Any idea why Ryan Redington scratched in Ruby?

I just noticed this! Oh no, not flathornlake!!! I know he made the best decision for his dogs though.

[mamamia]

Well I fell asleep waiting for the next group of mushers to come into this cp. it looks like Dee Dee and Iten were traveling together and blew in after passing those camping at Bishop Rock then settled in for a rest. Iten left after 4h 40m while DD is still resting. It looks like the campers rested long - as much as 6 hours - before checking in together. These were R Smyth, Lanier, Anderson, Buser. Interestingly Anderson, Lanier & Buser went straight through the cp while Smyth decided to rest some more at the cp.

Gebhardt went ahead and took his man 8 here rather than waiting for Kaltag dropping a dog before leaving. He left only 12m behind the Anderson, Buser, Lanier pack.

Swenson interestingly took 8h 23m rest here although he had already taken his man 8 in Ruby. Was he tired or were the dogs? When he left an hour after Gebhardt he hadn't dropped any dogs. John Baker too decided to rest for 8+ h even though he took his man 8 at Ruby but when he left he had the same 12 dogs he came in with.

Of note, the Irod map give the mileage fron Nulato to Kaltag as 42 miles but by the tracker it seems to be only 35 miles.

[mamamia]

One more interesting note... Aaron Burmeister pulled into Nulato in about 22nd place but blew straight through leap-frogging himself into 10th. Maybe he is tired of running so far back in the pack. I hope so. I have him in my top ten again this year. I've been waiting for a couple of years for him to live up to his potential.