Ruby - Kaltag (Yukon river)

[COHusky]

good points elsietee

if the official standings are correct, it shows jessies speed on the run into kaltag at almost 8mph
thats not slow, she was also breaking trail

thanks for posting the insider info

[flowerpower]

That's why it's a dog race. Can't push rope. Sorry for Richie, though.

[COHusky]

thomas into kaltag
1/2 hour faster than jessies run

how much rest will he take?

[braider]

I'd say that there are still 20 mushers that could win this race.

[elsietee]

Another interview with Jessie in Kaltag (snowing lightly and calm winds):

Feels her team is in good shape, has 13 dogs, all eating good. They're a little slow, but she thinks everyone is a little slow because of the trail conditions - the new snow... the snow on the river was not sliding, it was like a really sugary... like gliding on sand, the sleds wouldn't glide, so everyone's slow. This new snow is helping a little bit because there's more moisture in it, so the sleds are gliding better, but it's making it tougher to find the trail. It's getting wind-blown and snowed over, so everyone's going to be breaking trail unless they're right behind somebody.

Q: So do you want to be breaking trail?

Not really. Breaking trail through a few inches is not a big deal, but if we have a lot of snow, that's not fun for anybody, but I don't know how much snow there is ahead. <as she's talking, Thomas' team are arriving in the background>. Somebody has to break trail - you can't wait, there's too many people coming, you've got to go.

Asked about times and she says she can't even remember what time she arrived she's so tired. They do some math and figure out Thomas is a couple of hours ahead of her. She says it would be nice if he was only a half hour, or maybe an hour ahead of her, because he'd lay a trail down and it wouldn't be so windswept, but a couple of hours, by then the trail could be gone again. But she's happy that someone's going out ahead and maybe putting down a trail.

Q: D'you think this 8 hours will be enough to get your team back to where it needs to be.

Er... she thinks she is still contending [i.e. she never got to where she shouldn't be]. Still have a long way to go, esp. with the no Shak, that's going to really throw a loop in a lot of things. So much happens on the coast. All three of us, even if he's a couple of hours ahead, that's nothing on the coast, depends on the run/rests and what people do on the way to Unk and to Koyuk. That's going to be a big deal going to Koyuk - that'll be interesting to see, how people handle those two really big runs to Koyuk.

Q: It's fun for the fans to watch, how fun is it for you in the middle of it?

You def. can't let up. I was only going to stay 4 hours in Galena, but that was when all the chaos of "oh no, Shak ... and trying to figure out what's going on..." So with all that chaos, she lost about a half hour, so was kind of bummed. And at Nulato she was only going to stay three, but she was so tired she could not stay awake on the sled, so she was maybe 20 minutes late leaving Nulato....not that the dogs couldn't use the rest - but that's almost an hour that she wasn't planning on , .. is it going to make a difference to her team? Maybe, maybe not, but it makes a difference in that now she's an hour further behind Thomas. It all adds up. She's been beat by two minutes, and beat by a second before, ... but you can only do your best.

All of our race plans have changed with no Shak - have to rethink strategies. Be interesting to see how ppl break it up.

Asked what her plan is, or maybe she hasn't thought that far ahead. She laughs and says she has thought about it and she has a plan in mind, but she's not going to say what it is. It's going to be way different from what she normally does. She was planning to stop before Unk and then go all the way to Shak. But now there is no Shak. There are a lot of teams that do that. So now what? Will they go straight to Unk? Are they going to break it up? Brent likes to do long runs - Thomas doesn't. But T has the speed, so he doesn't have to do long runs.

Heister says the forecast calls for a foot of new snow from Elim to Nome.

"Oh good grief" says Jessie... laughing, that's what she's talking about - T could be a couple of hours ahead and then has to break trail through a foot of snow and - boom - we catch him. A this point, who knows. Thomas is faster, but he's not that much faster - he's not kicking our ass. Little bits here and there, it adds up... but then he's out front breaking trail and we catch him.

My team right now are strong. They're eating well, and going along. They're tough and we don't quit... we're never going to quit.

Heister: Jessie Royer, the ultimate Grinder.

Jessie: I'm a scrapper, that's for sure.

Heister: Go get some sleep.

[elsietee]

Argh - I can't keep up. As soon as I transcribe one video, they post another.

This from Thomas:
His plan A had been to go through Kaltag and camp about 20 miles up the trail, but it's so warm it's better for the dogs to stay, and wait for the night time, for it to cool off. His dogs have big coats. Because of the heat and soft trail, this last leg was physically hard for the dogs, so better to rest their muscles.

His dogs still look amazing - very peppy and animated, screaming round the corners as they go to park in Kaltag.

Qrill Paws have outfitted both Thomas and Joar out in these bright fluorescent orange gear - dog coats, sled bags, musher parkas (Joar's looks like an enormous orange and black bag that reaches almost to his calves). I will try and find a picture of them, because they look really quite startling.

[elsietee]

OOh! Richie's having another attempt at leaving Nulato. Good luck to him!!! (so bummed if he ends up scratching because of a mutiny).

It's not looking good. I'm guessing he's walking ahead of the team at this point, or trying to switch leaders around. He went out right behind Michelle... but she's now four miles down the trail.

[elsietee]

Woo hoo! He's going again - two miles down the trail. Started out at 5.5 mph, but is now up to 6.4 mph (which is about normal for that stretch of trail), so hopefully they are moving properly again.

[elsietee]

They finally got their live feed going in Kaltag and are beaming footage of the dog yard - with an actual person manning the camera, so they zoom in and out to the mushers doing their chores.

They were just showing Joar (? I think), working on wrapping his dogs while the vet was doing his checks.

This pic shows the sleds lined up - Joar (?) on the far side - see the bright orange, Ryan's green sled, Wade's bright pink one and... possibly Aaron's closest to the camera?

[elsietee]

And here is the field as of 9 pm AK time:

(Richie is still going along - but I think he's in 12th place, despite what the confused standings say. Lance went out behind him).