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[elsietee]

Scenes from Galena - looks overcast and cool.

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Ray Red: Ruby was busy with all the teams going back and forth on the hill, so the dogs didn't get any quiet time.

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Hugh planning to stay in Galena for 6 hours. Dogs jumping in harness as he's signing in.

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Jessie - stuffing straw into her sled bag like mad, says she likes Galena, but maybe next year. Said her fingers are getting sore from being frostnipped all the time.

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Chilkat running in lead - most beautiful dog on "the Tour":

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Michelle - rebootying her team during her brief stay - with neon green booties. Couldn't get her snow hook out of the icy ground.

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Jeff: asked his bib-number, has to look down at the tag on his jacket. Declaring his 24. Sounds husky, like he has laryngitis?

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Dave Branholm - frostbit his toes in bunny boots that first night. Says the last time he frostbit his feet was when he was 17 - in bunnyboots, out running dogs (he's 58 now). Is on dog antibiotic - he ran down a vet and asked them to "fix him up". Shows his toes - all blistered and peeling. Ouch. It only hurts "when I walk". Has some Northern Outfitter boots in Galena - soft ones - that he'll switch to.

[elsietee]

Wade - in Ruby

A bit bleary because he just woke up and came out to feed. Talking about Mitch's activities on the trail ahead. Is told he has the fastest team in the race right now. Wade says he's going to drop one dog in Ruby - she has a swollen wrist. Dogs look "awesome". The main thing is going to be keeping them going as fast as they have been going.

He estimates they have 1.5 hours on Dallas, but he expects to give that back on the way to Huslia, to give the dogs as much rest as he can, to keep them running fast. He want to give the dogs as much rest as he possibly can on the way to Huslia, so he can leave there with a really well-rested team. He's going to take his 8 in Huslia.

Speculates that Dallas is probably moving just as fast as he, Wade, is, but is losing time loading and unloading the dogs, messing around a lot more.

Has fed every two hours since arriving and they've eaten everything. He just gave them a kibble soup and they were slightly picky on it, so he's going to give them four hours sleep, so they'll be ready to eat a big meal again when they get up.

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Dallas - in Ruby

Says the aluminium around the bottom of his cooker is too thin and although he's tried the cooker out at home and it was always ok, the last few times he's used it, it's been eating away at the aluminium.

Says he needs to hurry up and get to his new sled before the bottom drops out of his cookier.

He says it's mounted ok, so even if the bottom part drops off, it'll still function - it just won't have the heat shield on it, so will take longer to heat up (currently says he can boil water in 5-7 minutes).

He loves the new cooker - the shape makes it so much faster. The quicker he can get a hot meal into the dogs ten minutes faster than usual, the better. It's as though he was travelling ten minutes faster down the trail.

They talk about Mitch "He's crushing it!" says Dallas.

He says he can't give him too much crap, since it's just the way it worked out, but says Mitch was like a shadow - every time Dallas stopped, Mitch would stop. "Here I am, trying to race him, and he asks 'what are you going to do?'" <laughs> "he knew I was going to take my 24 here ahead of time. I wasnt' sure where he was going to take his - he kinda evaded that question". Dallas guesses Huslia for Mitch's 24 and Kaltag for his 8. Thinks Mitch didn't like staying in Ruby in 2015 - felt it was too early in the race. "And he may be right, but it was the best option for my dogs right now".

Hasn't seen a team that didn't look great. Esp. impressed by Joar's team. Comments that Pete K did a little slower run over to Galena [6 hours], but says that might not be bad - he's not sure he'd want to go as fast as Mitch was going over there [5.5 hours] or Nic Petit.

Thinks that generally Mitch - because he has a bigger kennel - has a better 16 dog team than Dallas' 16 dog team. But says he has to bet on the fact that he has a better *9* dog team than Mitch does.

Thinking about maybe dropping 2-3 dogs in Ruby before he leaves - has one he's concerned about its stools. But thinks that maybe a 13 dog team might not make much difference compared to a 16 dog team, given their power.

[elsietee]

Richie in Ruby on his 24:

Comments on the slow trail, but everyone had to deal with it. Did two long runs to get there. Not sure where he's going to take his 8 yet.

Arriving in Tanana after the cold trail was lovely - just wanted to lay about in the warm for 8 hours. Hard to get moving again.

Q: is your gear dry?

It's dry now <laughs>... after 12 hours. You do your dog chores and it's always wet because you've got so much gear on. So as soon as you leave your stop and you're a bit damp, it really gets cold.

Very happy with his team of 13. There were a couple he wasn't sure about before the race, but they did really well - esp on the two long runs, so he's really happy.


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Jason - in Galena

Declaring his 24, not sure if he's going to.

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Ray Red in Galena

Declaring his 24. Checker has to chase after him when the dogs start to leave.

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Pete in Galena:

Don't want to overdo it coming into the 24, or they won't bounce back. He's very happy with how it worked out for him.

[elsietee]

Forgot to add the snapshots of Chilkat - scroll up two posts before.

[Milehigh]

My favorite dog!
Thank you for posting.
Put a BIG smile on my face.

[elsietee]

Aliy towards the end of her 24 in Galena. Seems in good spirits:

Dogs are like people. When you have a little bit of a belly ache, you don't want to eat. When your dogs are eating and drinking - it makes you smile.

I took 8 hours in Ruby, 24 hours in Galena... maybe it's time to start racing? Hopefully? <laughs>

Q: Weather? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Indifferent, there's nothing you can do about it, so getting bummed one way or the other isn't going to help you out. For a person it's easier, for a dog, it's not as easy.

I don't even know if they're really sick-sick. They're just not 100%. And this is such a good team - this team can win the race, when they aren't 100%, ... you want 'em to be.

That's why I stopped both times. Let's hope it was a good coaching move. I came in to this race saying "Aliy, if you coach this team right, you'll have a really good race. If you don't coach it well, you won't". It was my call. Man, the things you do at 2-300 really affects what happens at mile 800.

So we'll see. It's exciting, one way or the other. Do the best you can.

Dogs look *great* going out - bouncy and waggy, barking.

[elsietee]

My favorite dog!
Thank you for posting.
Put a BIG smile on my face.

There was another shot of her arriving in Huslia last night - panting and panting and panting while Jessie was signing in. That big coat isn't going to help if it's warming up.

[elsietee]

Jessie this afternoon in Huslia:

There's been so slow trail - going into Ruby. And actually some slow trail coming in to here. But you just have to remember, mentally, that we're all going slow. Some people are just going a little slower than me. <laughs> I'm not going fast <laughs again>


I got to say, I was looking at times earlier and I'm pretty happy - we're right up there with some of fastest times of anyone in the race. Nic might be a few minutes faster.

Kind of cool for me - and this might change - I have not been passed once this race, from behind, when we're moving. I've been passed while we were stopped, camping on the trail. But when we're moving, I have not been passed. That's a pretty confident feeling - knowing that your team's strong and you're doing good.

There's a couple of teams I've travelled with who were going similar speeds. Michelle - I was going just a *hair* faster than her. But not much. I was travellign with Pete earlier and we were going the exact same speed. But I've passed a lot of teams on some of those slower stretches.

You get frustrated because you're going so slow, but it's fine because you're still going faster than the other teams.

[elsietee]

Interviewer points out that Mitch, Nic, and Jessie are the only ones in the front still with 16 dogs.


Jessie:

11 of these dogs just finished the quest, the other 5 are older dogs that have finished ID with me multiple times. Ranger here has finished six IDs. It's a given that proably some won't finish... I just hope it's not this guy <looks down at the dog she's walking>. He's probably the only one right now that I'm really working on. Everyone else is doing really well. Even he's nothing too major - I'm just working on him to prevent it getting any worse.

I've had good lucky rubbing some knots out of shoulders and such. I had three shoulder dogs in the Quest that I was able to work through and get them to finish - and i'm hopign he'll be the same way.

So I'm pretty excited. I've definitely come into my 24 with a lot more problems. But we're only half-way. It's a long way to go. We're going to keep going, keep pushing... not that we're pushing that hard. We haven't done any huge major moves that have taken too much out of the team.

Nic in Huslia:

Says he had a plan to go a bit further, but had a couple of dogs that were getting thin, so opted to stop.

Winning shouldn't be the priority. It should be the dogs and your personal interaction with them, and what you can accomplish training them - in a beautiful training season.

Winning sounds great - I'm not opposed to the concept. But for me it needs to be done in a way that I can sleep at night during and after the race... and the following year, that you can look ahead and think this is going to be even better than last year! <laughs like a kid at Christmas>

[Milehigh]

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2015