Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

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Re: Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

Postby fladogfan » Mon Mar 16, 2020 2:16 pm

Frozen Chosen wrote:
braider wrote:And at 804 then when Thomas departed his mileage went backward at first ...down to 797, now 799. I'm pretty sure this is an old glitch that we've had before.


Braider, they say there's a "time warp" somewhere along the eastern Norton Sound area...dog mushers long long ago would "disappear" for a few mins, then suddenly show up a mile down the trail (near the cliff head just west of Koyuk, i forgot the Inupiat name for it). the musher would say he was gone for several years, had to start another family, etc, then suddenly reappear at the "present"...

Froze


That would explain the screwy markers we see. Thanks Froz
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Re: Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

Postby braider » Mon Mar 16, 2020 2:18 pm

Frozen... That's the best explanation I've ever heard about it and I'll go with it. Thanks!
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Re: Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 16, 2020 2:31 pm

Mitch just arrived in Koyuk, with the fastest run time of the front four - he was 30 minutes faster than the others at 7 h 08 m.

All of the mushers out on Norton Sound are going <6 mph currently (although Paige cheerily hit 7.3 mph just now).
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Re: Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:33 pm

Wade and Brent have arrived in Koyuk after a slow slog over there.

Brent's team look really good, still, despite the "hot" weather and slow times. Taking into account his rest on the trail, he was an hour slower than Mitch and 30 minutes slower than Thomas. But he's also only been travelling for four hours (after a 3:00 break on the Sound), so in theory could only take a relatively short break (Jessie and Aaron B have been resting 2 hours).
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Re: Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

Postby Another UK Fan » Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:37 pm

elsietee thank you so much - I have to sign out shortly and have been able to catch up quickly, after a domestically busy evening, thanks to your postings. Can't thank you enough.
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Re: Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 16, 2020 6:04 pm

Vids from Koyuk:

Aaron - the wind was going exactly the same speed as them - 5-6mph - so it felt dead still. They were going 6-7 mph until 6 snowmachines passed them "and life changed" [I assume they broke through the crust, and caused the trail to break down]. Aaron says they would have arrived 1.5 hours earlier if it wasn't for that. "That's the way it goes. Thomas lucked out, doing it in the dark before all the traffic". He was laughing - saying he saw Thomas leaving as he, Aaron, was coming in - and said that's what he'd do. He says he's not giving up, but he's at a distinct disadvantage. Thomas can go and sit in Elim and wait for them to come up - and then leave. Doesn't look like there's going to be any weather. Says Mitch, Jessie, and Brent are strong - and so is Paige. Says Mitch has been doing 3 hour rests all the way down the Yukon and all the way up the coast - have to see if he can keep that up - he's pushing hard to get up here. If we get a cooler night, I can get them to speed up, but otherwise, we'll just be going along.
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Re: Up the coast (Kaltag - Koyuk)

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 16, 2020 7:05 pm

More Vids from Koyuk:

Ryan: trail was real soft - have a feeling it's going to be like that all the way to Nome

Paige: This year Norton Sound was just miserable. Her favorite "movie" is when Jeff King saw the rabid seal out on the ice - makes her laugh. So they were out there and it was sloggy, and gross, and disgusting, and she started looking around going "where's the rabid seal? we need a rabid seal right now!"

Then an earlier interview camping out before Norton Bay: dogs were moving really well last night when they went through Shak, and she'd heard it was going to get warm, so she figured she'd come out and cut some mileage off the run and avoid such a long leg in the noon-day sun. Her plans totally changed - at the end of the day, she'd rather come across the finish line with the dogs barking and having fun, rather than not looking as good as she'd want.

Wade: has a bloody nose and what looks like a piece of dog bootie stuffed up his nose. Says he and Brent are hustling for 5th and 6th place. Just have to maintain the team and not make bad decisions. Dogs got a bit "disinterested" on the way over Norton Sound <laughs>. Has never run a dog team at 4 mph before, but they did fine. Thinks Paige has the best chance of passing them. She could beat them in run time. She's probably the only one behind Mitch who could catch Mitch. [and maybe Mitch thinks that too, since he cut rest]

Brent: 4.5-5 mph... mashed potato snow. All you could do was brush your teeth five times. He quit asking them for more. Ski poled a bit just for something to do. Haven't seen temps this warm all year.

Thinks his original plan might have worked if it hadn't been hot. Even this morning he thought it was going to happen - there was wind. But then the wind dropped and that was that - plan gone. It was dead still. Going to wait until this evening for it to cool down. It barely got above 0°F this winter where they train - and if there's one thing that he can't train for, and that's heat.

He was definitely going to go through Koyuk, but the dogs wanted to stop 10 miles out on the ice, so figured he'd just get them into Koyuk and feed them. He would have stopped out there on the ice and fed them if he had any dog food.

But it is what it is, and he's fine with it. He has to concentrate on his team. Was bummed because he only got to actually race for a really short amount of time.

Mitch: was conservative earlier on - tough trail/cold weather, so gave the team lots of rest, so suddenly we're kind of speedy. Dogs have responded well - thinks they have the most rest. Thomas is pretty well out of reach, so nothing they can do. Compliments Thomas on his skills and dogs. Dosn't want to wish him ill, but it would take something happening to him for them to catch him.

If he cuts rest, he'll lose the speed. So he won't push it. Not worth having a really tired dog team at the end of the race.

Jessie: Have been running the race since 2001 and has never heard of a tail wind over Norton Sound... Can think of two other times it was "pleasant" out there - but never with a tail wind. She's wearing her "Never Give Up" Iditarod hat - you never know when you're going to come around a corner and get a surprise.

Thinks Brent could out-march them, but probably not with the warm temps. At this point, she and Aaron are just trying to put a gap between themselves and the teams behind. They're not even looking at Thomas - just the teams behind.

Talks about how animated teams don't mean anything - Nic's were animated and shut down, Richie's were animated and barking and shut down at Nulato.

Just trying to get to Nome with an adequate, but minimal amount of rest. If the trail conditions were better, you could cut rest - but they're SO slow, if you start pushing, we could all end up with the "hoods up", so have to be careful of that too. Have never had it happen, and am not about to.
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