McGrath -Takotna - Ophir - Iditarod - Shageluk - Anvik

[libby the lab]

Thanks for doing all that math!!

[elsietee]

Snippets from today's videos:

Takotna

Pete: <snowing on him>
Hasn't stayed there in 3 yrs, but used to stop here. If he stops here he doesn't have to second guess himself about if he should have gone further. Got about 7 hours of sleep last night which helped. Got up to care for his dogs and is going back to sleep.

Beringtons:
Says they've gotten a little more rest than the front runners. They said that living in Knik their dogs are used to the warm and muscles stay warmer so easier to work on the dogs. Tell how it's hard to drive through moguls - that you can't do basic stuff (snacking, napping) on the sled because you're having to work to make it easier on the dogs by not having the sled jerk around.

Ryan:
Dogs eating really good. Taking it one run at a time and having fun. Likes the warm - trains in the warm and the dogs do good in it. Switching sleds to a lighter set up so he can start racing further up the trail.

Matt Hall:
Wanted to go as far as Iditarod, but the weather stopped him in Takotna. Planned on taking extra rest this year - and he has definitely taken extra rest due to the heat. Stopped several times to let the dogs rest when it was hot and let the trail firm up. In Takotna, he's about to give the dogs their third meal in 12 hours, going to work on them for a few hours - massage, stretch, and walk each around individually. Grew up on the Yukon in a remote community [Eagle] and his family had a trapline and about 12-15 dogs. They would boat them down the river right before freeze-up, then spend 4-5 months out on the trapline in the winter, was homeschooled (obviously), then when they had gathered enough furs, they would mush back to Eagle when they ran out of supplies - which was about 50 miles and would take them three days (he laughs "different style of dogs, different sleds"). At night his parents would bed him down in a sleeping bag in a sled with a hot water bottle to stop his toes freezing (says he's not sure it worked - his toes, as an adult, feel strange). He has a new team this year - his past 6th-place team have all retired now.

Bridgett:
Has been very conservative, resting a lot. Trail from Nikolai was very slow, plus she snacked them every 1.5 hours, so carrying lots of snacks. She has had her team since they were puppies. Dogs are carrying great weight. Learned a lot watching Gerhardt Thiart last year - he was using the Seavey's feeding protocol and his dogs were eating really great. Coming into Rohn yesterday - she had planned to go to Tin Creek, but switched it to two short runs/rests instead - staying in Rohn - which proved to be a really good decision because it was so warm. Her snacks melted in her sled. Said as she was camping and teams were passing, she could hear them panting as they passed. Talks about how the trouble with taking short rests is the human doesn't get any rest - she looked at her watch and only had 15 mins to take a nap. She said she sets an alarm and what she learned last year is, when the alarm goes off, you have to sit up immediately. To not do that is playing with fire. She says she does a countdown 5-4-3-2-1 and UP.



Nikolai are dealing with the death of Jon Runkle(sp?) (without researching it, sounds like he was a long-term volunteer there).

[elsietee]

Wade has been going for 6 hours and has moved 42 miles down the trail = 7 mph
He has 30 miles to go.

Doing the math for Wade's run.

Iditarod is at mile 432.
Wade is at 361
Distance = 71 miles
He stopped at around 11 am... say he rests for 4.5 to 5.5 hours - he'll start to move at 3:30-4:40 this afternoon...

Run times:
7.5 mph = 9.5 hours to ID
7 mph = 10+ hours
6.5 mph = <11 hours
6 mph = <12 hours.

So he'd arrive in Iditarod any time from ~1 am to 3 am. That's a good time to be leaving ID after he finishes his 24.

[/quote]

[elsietee]

Wade ...has 30 miles to go.

Annnd Bruce just said that last 30 miles is the part that is usually blown over and a bit sparse of snow and has the tussocks, so is rough. Be interesting to see if his speed drops in these last 30 miles.

Bruce is saying mushers leaving Takotna need to split the trail into two chunks to get to Iditarod - and because it's cold tonight, it makes more sense to do a longer run tonight and a shorter one tomorrow when it warms up.

They are having difficulty getting the landing strip set up in Iditarod, so aren't sure if they can get the Insider presenters in there. They have a camera crew there via snowmachine to film Wade upon arrival, but won't know if they can fly in until tomorrow.

Bruce said Nic's team looked really good going through Takotna - the dogs were raring to go and Nic was in good spirits. Bruce wasn't sure how they'd be after Nic stopped in Nikolai, but was pleasantly surprised.

They have camera footage of interviews from Ophir - but haven't been able to get them out of there yet, so those will be uploaded tomorrow.

It's coming up on 9:15 in Takotna and you can see Ryan packing his sled in the background (leaves in 20 mins). The dogs throughout the entire dog lot have all started to howl in unison - about 100 dogs says Bruce.

Bruce says to watch the stats between Takotna and Ophir when the mushers leave, since they won't be stopping to snack or rest, so that will be a true indicator of everyone's speed (although he concedes they still have a long way to go).

Mushers leaving here will likely go 3-4 hours from here before stopping to snack the dogs - some kibble, piece of fish or meat. You don't want to give them too many snacks before you get to your main resting spot - so the dogs aren't so full they don't eat the main meal there. He says the trail out of Takotna is an old mining road for the first 30 miles, so is straightforward and not technical at all.

Apparently Ryan had cracked a runner, which is another reason he's switching sleds. Most mushers are starting to jettison unused equipment out of their sleds - less clutter, less weight. Anything they haven't used in the last three days will likely get taken out.

Wise words from Mitch Seavey: don't make big changes, just make smaller adjustments and that will make the difference.

[elsietee]

(I'm typing this as they're doing the live report from Takotna)

Richie is getting ready to go. Bruce said while he was here, he was walking the individual dogs and the whole team were whining and making a noise, wanting to go. Now they are on the line and barking and whining and lunging to go. And he's off!! Go Richie!!!

[elsietee]

Now Ryan is about to go.

Because Takotna changed the route through town, they moved the camera up from the river into the dog yard - they say this is the first time they've ever been able to show this live (and it is pretty cool!!).

Dogs are all HOWLLLINNNNNNG in the background and Ryan's team are gone!

[elsietee]

Eric Kelly in McGrath:
Had to stop here to buy a pair of glasses (actually two, so he has a spare) - his dogs got in a tangle further back down the trail and his glasses fogged up, so he put them in a pocket and they fell out somewhere along the way. Says he can't read his GPS without them. Says he's about 10 hours ahead of his planned schedule - even though he took a longer break last night because of coming over the moguls.

Deke:
It's raining. Got lots of sleep dozing on the sled because it was such slow conditions. Going to get some coffee and go over to Ophir to take his 24. Dogs are from Fairbanks - it was -37°F the day the race started, so they are big and fluffy - "Yukon Quest dogs" - so they're taking their time.

Kelly Maixner:
Says his dogs were pulling so strong that his drag brake wasn't holding them, so that's why he was using his snowhook to park them. They were going so slowly on the river on the way there that he was really surprised when they didn't quite make the turn into the dog yard in McGrath and ended up in a tangle in the snowbank. Said he just has one female in the team. Planned on bringing a second (who was on Chad Stoddard's 7th place team last year) who was a great leader, but she came into heavy heat right before the race started so he opted to leave her at home (said female's in heat drive the males crazy and make them grouchy and fight, and she'll turn the team around to try and get bred). Said he has one dog with a sore shoulder, so put a warm coat on it with a hot pack in it last night.

Riley:
Planned to go on to Tak, but if he'd done that, it would have meant the second leg going to Iditarod in the heat, so he wasn't keen. Has a young team - 1 and 2 yr olds, so decided to stop in McGrath to avoid the heat. He's bummed because he didn't know that Brent and Jessie stayed in Ophir. He says he was ahead of Wade on the trail, so if he'd kept going to Iditarod he would have gotten the half-way prize. Laughs and says he should have checked the trackers. Said he just assumed Brent would be well on his way to Iditarod by then.

[elsietee]

McGrath

Jed Stephenson:
Sounds a little stoned from lack of sleep - really punchy. Said he flipped the sled in the gorge and held on and whacked his face into a bush.

Joanna:
Doing 30-40 mile runs. Says she likes to ease into the race and catch any issues early. She said it was 60°F in the sun yesterday - much too hot to be running dogs. She likes it when it's 10 below. It's the first time she's used a trailer on her sled and worried about it and kept checking behind, but it hasn't been a problem. Said she's focusing on the here and now, so she doesn't get stressed about the future - that's what the dogs have taught her.

Nic going through:
Appears to be wearing a trash bag as a rainsuit. Says he stopped in Nik because the sun was out. He likes hot dogs, but not his own dogs to be hot. Says he doesn't make plans because you just have to change them.

[elsietee]

Gah - they're putting these videos up faster than I can watch and type.

Takotna:

Dan Kaduce:
Dogs were starting to get tired, but not worn out, so it was a good place to stop. Plus the heat wasn't good.

Richie:
Says he'll break up the 103 mile run - says he doubts anyone will do it, without ending their race. It could be a brutal run. Is admiring Pete's team. Says Ryan's team - dogs look perky and eating good - those are the only two he's really seen. Is happy with the dogs - eating well. Have a lot of energy... almost too much - he wishes they would settle down. There's a dog barking in the background and Bruce asks "Do you still have that big leader... what was his name...?" Richie laughs and says yes, that's who's going nuts in the background - "Myer".

Matt Failor:
Most important - checking for any issues - really looking at their feet and checking for any sore spots. Tak was his planned 24. He wanted to go to Ophir to make the run to ID shorter, but oh well. At least this way he can drop a dog in Ophir if he needs to. Will split the journey to ID into two runs. Has older dogs, so doesn't have top end speed, so doing shorter runs.

Eddie:
Bruce says "give me the Tony Browning report - what would you tell him?" (Tony was one of Eddie's mentors). Eddie says he thinks Tony would be happy with what's going on. Dogs are gobbling up their food, have good weight, everyone has gone on a walk, has one dog that seemed a little stiff in back, but he gave her a good massage and she was a lot better. They're dragging him around and he can barely move. Says they work out of any stiffness in about a minute of trotting. Bruce says they don't even look tired. Eddie "I like what I'm seeing". Has some young dogs, so there's no way he'd do a 100 mile run all the way to ID. Instead he'll run to Don's Cabin and run in the heat for a bit.

Christian:
Dogs came in well from Nikolai. Woke up and it has been raining so everything is wet, so he's dealing with that. Adjusted his plan from Rainy Pass onwards because of the heat. Sent enough food to multiple places to 24, but with the heat stopped here. Is doing short runs - they aren't the sort of team that can do long runs.

Hunter:
Didn't have a real plan coming in - but did want to come to Tak for his 24 - good food and good people. Has four young dogs. Has eaten two burgers, a piece of cake and some pie.


(have two screens going - Pete Kaiser just left Takotna - leaving like a freight train - dogs loping out really strong, barking like crazy.)

McGrath:

Gerhardt:
Turns out he broke one of the runners on his sled and hadn't even noticed until the checker pointed it out when he arrived. He had planned a nice rest on his 24, but now has to deal with that. They are trying to get his spare sled from Nikolai and if that doesn't pan out, Kelly Maixner has switched to a smaller sled and has offered his "larger, greener one". He says that when he and his wife go away for the weekend, she always brings so much stuff and he tells her "we're only gone two nights"... laughs and says he has so much stuff in his sled he can't even fit his kitchen sink in there. The positive thing is, he'll have to learn to be more efficient and leave stuff behind and pack lighter. Is running five hours ahead of his schedule - was feeling so good... until he found out his sled was broken. Turns out his spare sled initially came to McGrath before flying it over to Nik.. now they're trying to get it back from there. He says "the spare is a little bit bigger, so I can fit my kitchen sink in it".

Riley:
Getting ready to go in a few hours. Feels great - got a really good quiet night's sleep (with just him and Kelly there). He's ready to be back of his feet again. Turned out to be good to stop there instead of the planned Takotna - only a couple of hours difference - it was so quiet in McGrath with plenty of space and room to dry all his gear, not hemmed in by other teams. Team all did the Quest 550 as a training run, where they gained a lot of mental maturity. Only has three dogs over 3 yrs old. Wants to finish with a big healthy team, so that they can be top-10, top-15 in the future. Thanks his girlfriend Isabel who has helped him get the team ready and is why they are doing so well now.

[elsietee]

Wade has gone another 3 hours, but only moved 16 miles, bringing his speed down to just over 5 mph.

His FB team are saying that a lot of snow machines have been all over the place on the trail, making it very difficult to find the firmest option and making it hard to stay a consistent pace.

He has 10 miles to go.

Wade has been going for 6 hours and has moved 42 miles down the trail = 7 mph
He has 30 miles to go.