Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

[elsietee]

Around Finger Lake interviews:

Jessie Royer being interviewed slightly before Finger Lake said she trained in MT all winter and that - unlike last winter when it rained - they had good snow and cold temps, so she was happy with her training. Has been sitting on the brake the entire time and team are very strong.

KattiJo threw up at her camp - said she was nauseous at the start in Willow and thought it was nerves, but it seems not. So she thinks she maybe ate something bad - isn't hungry, so isn't eating.

Pete - looks sleepy. Said it was a nice bright night and could run without his headlight for a lot of the time. Says the next 2-3 runs will show how the dogs are doing. Said he didn't have a lot of snow to train on - lots of different weather. Says it's easy now they're on lots of snow. Trail is gorgeous - like a cakewalk compared to the ice at home.

Jason - says the dogs are as perfect as they can be, everything running to plan. Leaving with all 14 dogs - which is a first - he normally has to drop dogs. Eating well.

Mike Williams - biggest surprise was how nice the trail was. Has a young team, so stopping often and staying longer.

[elsietee]

Rainy Pass:

Bluebird day. 40°F in the heat of the day around noon-ish, baking in the sun. Lots of airplanes there because of the good weather, therefore not a good spot for mushers to stop because it's so noisy.

All mushers saying the trail is super-good - plenty of snow, nice and hard-packed.

Talking about Hunter - says he has a lot of preliminary races under his belt (six? more than necessary), has trained with Redingtons for three years, has watched lots of Insider vids and is a student of the race. He's running Ryan's dad's dogs. Said when he got to RP he immediately asked if Ryan had left - and followed suit. Bruce said he thought that if Ryan had stayed, Hunter would have stayed.

Rohn is very isolated and down in a hole, so can't get live coverage out of there. Bruce is going to spend the night there and get footage and take it on to Nik for uploading on Tuesday morning.

[elsietee]

Rainy Pass:

Jessie Holmes packing straw onto his sled with bare hands... in fact, everyone has bare hands.

Ryan said Brent passed him and made 18 mins on him in a very short time - Brent pedalling like mad. Dogs got in a bit of a tangle at one point, but he worked it out.

Brent, and Richie ran straight through RP at the same time - both visibly rushing to get in and out asap - fun to see them *racing* so early in the game (are they chasing Jessie, I'm thinking? who'd come through 25 mins earlier. Kelly came through a few mins later.

Dan Kaduce - too warm this afternoon, so resting at RP. Had one dog step in a trough and although she pulled all the way, he can tell she's a little sore, so he may drop her. Was eyeing the nice new hut RP has for the mushers, to go and take a nap.

Ryan's dog - Wildfire - the one that broke his leg was a little sore so got dropped in Skwenta. Says the dog has a lot of heart and was happy and eager - and is really special. Bummed to leave him behind.

KattiJo broke her sled - after the Happy Steps. She was going around a corner and her snow hook fell off the sled and hooked onto a tree and snapped her dead. She had to cut the tree down to get the snow hook out - it was in there about half an inch. Knocked the wind out of her. Sled is broken in two places - splinting it to get it fixed. Very hot today, so not unhappy about having to stop. Says her dogs won't stop "briefly" at a checkpoint - they insist that they have to bed down. She's a little frustrated that he schedule is messed up. She'll either have to rethink it, or just be happy to get to the finish line. Very cheerful, upbeat lady.

Wade eating tatertot casserole. Says he's going to stay at RP so he can run through the night... but as of midnight is currently stopped before the pass, just 23 miles past RP. Sophie said he'd do lots of short runs/short rests though. He says he fell off the bottom Happy Step and went down it backwards, but no harm done.

Jessie R says she's going to drop one of her wheel dogs - one of the best eaters on the team, but he's not very graceful and has pretty much fallen into every hole there was and is getting a little sore. She's bummed since he's a nice dog and she was hoping to get him to the finish. Says being further back in the pack, the trail is getting trenched by other's brakes. Says the trail is very windy, so she runs some of her dogs in singles so they don't get dragged into trenches by their partner. When running single, they can jump out the way better. Says she dreads the Dalzell Gorge a little bit - if there's snow, it's fun, but not knowing how it's going to be, she's always a little nervous until she gets past Tin Creek [just before Farewell Lake, where Ryan, Richie, Kelly, and Eddie are currently camped]. She laughs and says even though she's nervous, she still tries to film it.

Riley Dyche - enjoying the heat. Says he and a few mushers around him are used to training in the cold. Just have to be careful not to overdo it or you can zap their energy for the rest of the race.

Eddie - says trail, weather, and dogs is what dictates his schedule - stopped in RP because it's warm. You can't get frustrated or grumpy as the dogs pick it up. And you pay a lot of money to be here. Feels good about his dogs.

[elsietee]

Rainy Pass:

Jenn LaBar crashed on the Happy Steps and dislocated her finger (they have footage of her crash). She says it didn't hurt initially, but she could feel in her glove that it was "not normal" (she's laughing as she says this). So she waited until she got to the checkpoint before she took her glove of. She holds up her hand and her ring finger on her left hand is decidedly crooked. [I'm wondering if she can find someone to pull it straight for her]. She was holding a ball of ice against it as she's sitting on her sled, chatting to the interviewer.

Bailey Vitello - says it's three days exactly drive from their place in NH to their base in AK, so he drives it straight through. Stops every 4-5 hours to let the dogs out and stretch, which gives him a chance to walk around. Said it's not so bad - "just like running dogs". Interviewer asks if that prepped him for Iditarod. Bailey laughs and says no, the prep came from him spending -40°F / - 50°F nights out on the trail and discovering you can't really sleep when it's that cold because you'll get frost-bite, so you have to stay awake and make sure the dogs are cared for. He also says being a dog person helps - you don't sleep normally. Has 14 happy, healthy dogs. Everything going to plan. Says the trail ahead can't be *that* dangerous or they wouldn't send them that way. There's nothing you can do about it - "just hold on and scream a little". (made me laugh out loud).

Bridgett - says at the Happy Steps she pulled her phone out to film and thought "this is a bad idea, I'm going to bite it' - but she didn't. Says the dogs listened to her, that she has chains on the sled so is under control and there was no 'free-falling'. Remembered them from last year - and said it was the most fun. And that the gorge will also be fun - but she's probably glad to be doing it at night, so you don't see the 20ft drop offs. But those two runs are what dog mushing is all about.

Christian - cut his rest short at Finger Lake because it was so hot - 50°F by his thermometer. Took all his gear off and was running next to the sled to help out. Decided to stop at RP because they had water there. He didn't plan on it being that hot.

Eric Kelly eating pizza from Mountain High Pizza in Talkeetna, owned by a friend of his. RP is the first checkpoint he has stayed at. GPS was messed up and he thought he still had 10 miles to go when he arrived. Has sent one dog home who was tired and not pulling. Interviewer asks at what point do you wonder "why am I doing this?". Eric laughs and says this trip he hasn't yet, but last year, when he got to UNK he called his wife and asked "what am I doing with my life??" - and took his self-imposed mandatory 22 hour break there... and went on to finish. Says he feels like his dogs are peaking perfectly.

Aaron Peck - laughing - said the steps were fine - right until the last one. Says that the "Disaster Cam" missed catching him wiping out on the bottom one - due to poor sled driving skills on his part. Fell hard to the left and it hurt - says he'll be feeling that for the rest of the race. Wonders if he cracked some ribs.

[Moose]

Thanks so much for these reports, Elsietee! I signed up for II this year, but on my old(er) computer, there's a lot of vibration in the audio, making the conversations hard to follow. Your reports fill in the gaps perfectly!

[tanglefoot]

getting vibrations on my iphone xr, newer laptop as well so think it's their feed and whatever that new provider is that keeps dropping out and giving us a test page like a rainbow

[elsietee]

Thanks so much for these reports, Elsietee! I signed up for II this year, but on my old(er) computer, there's a lot of vibration in the audio, making the conversations hard to follow. Your reports fill in the gaps perfectly!

Try using headphones if you have them, you can hear miles better.

[elsietee]

getting vibrations on my iphone xr, newer laptop as well so think it's their feed and whatever that new provider is that keeps dropping out and giving us a test page like a rainbow

oh, yes, that. I think that's because they were livestreaming and the signal cut out.

[libby the lab]

Thanks for digging that rule out Elsietee