Rainy Pass-Rohn-Nikolai

[elsietee]

Bruce Lee wasn't able to get into RP as usual, with the weather coming in, so they are in Nikolai. It's warming up. About 20 miles out of Rohn they started hitting soft snow. The trail between Nik and McGrath. Because of the weather, even though they have ppl in Rohn, they won't be able to get the footage out, but will have live footage of mushers in Nik.


Rainy Pass vids:

Most people in sweaters. Joar eating his meal bare-handed.

Best footage by far - Joar is packing snow hooks into the back of his caboose.. zips up the bag and pats the flap down - and the dogs shoot off - with Joar in hot pursuit, scrambling to jump and climb on the caboose to get to the sled in front. Pete K next door sprints in from the side to jump on the sled and get the hook out.

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Pete Kaiser - happy to have reached RP right around noon just before the heat set in. He said his dogs were good at going into a low gear so as to not overheat themselves pulling. He said it doesn't really matter, since in a day or two his schedule will have him running in the afternoon regardless.


Ray - they ran us up over some steep hills to avoid that glacier - in a few years that'll be a really good trail for the future. It's a long run from Skwentna to here, and sometimes that trail gets torn up, so it's nice being in the front.

Linwood's team are barking and screaming to go every time he stops to snack - they have exceeded his expectations. He's happy that they can lie around in the sun and heal up.

Wade - says his dogs are going slow because they're not used to this warmer weather. Wade himself is sore - hasn't been this sore before. It's going to be a long race. Hurt his back a few weeks back. Got some work done on it, and some massage, and then it felt pretty good, but his starter went out at the Ceremonial start, so by the time he'd changed that, he was right back to where he'd been before - his lower back and hip is out. Once you bend over, it takes you about ten minutes to stand upright again. It doesn't hurt too bad to bootie - but then you have to get upright again. <laughs>

Jessie Holmes - wanted to get to the front so he could bank some big rest before his 24. Says he's staying when he arrives (but he actually went through and camped about a mile out).

Hugh - joshing with Karen R at the check-in "I was just talking about you the other day". Karen: "Yeah, nothing but good things I hope?". Hugh "yeah, it was 'whatever happened to that lady... the siberian lady'...". Laughs.

Nic - had to throw out two hooks to get his dogs stopped upon arrival.

[elsietee]

Jessie Royer going for the minimalist approach - just a single, non-sit-down sled...

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Chilkat looked pretty hot in RP:

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[Heidi]

Wow that was crazy! And a close call. Lucky Pete was there to help.

Thanks for the shots, Elsietee.

[frizzell66]

Dropping dogs now is definitely what needs to be done with the air being warm and the trail being punchy - a lot more dogs coming down with ailments much earlier in the race. The Fairbanks start and northern route skipping this early Alaskan range definitely made it a different race with a lot more mushers able to take full or almost full teams farther down the trail.

Definitely back to the Iditarod I remember from 10+ years ago!

John

[Moose]

Great series of pics, Elsie. Thanks. Routines and plans are starting shake out and firm up. A wheat/chaff part of the race. Very cool to see two Redingtons running in the front pack.

[mira]

It will be really interesting to see what happens further on. Warm, softer trails, the teams build for speed might get some trouble.

Big parade heading for Nikolai, lead by Ryan, 25 miles to go.

[flowerpower]

Thanks for the updates all. I didn't bother with Insider this year since I'm mostly too busy to watch any of it anyway, so I really appreciate everyone's little snippets!

[fladogfan]

Yes elsie thanks from here also, loved seeing the pics of catching the sled.
Good for Jessie!

[Moose]

I haven't subscribed for several years--mostly because of dissatisfaction with the ITC. It seemed they took the fun out of the race for me. But now I'm wondering if my own little protest itself has taken the fun out of it. Standing on the sidelines watching isn't near as fun as jumping into the middle. It just may be time to jump back in.

[libby the lab]

Moose- I jumped in last night. As many issues as I have with ITC I want the race to continue for the mushers sake and their livelihoods! Spent most of last night catching up on videos now watching Nikolai checkpoint live!