Anvik, Grayling, Eagle Island, Kaltag

[libby the lab]

Time for the river! Jesse, just enjoyed his first to the Yukon meal. Said he is taking his eight here. Nic and Brent will soon be here and probably start the long haul up the river.

[elsietee]

This comment really belongs here, so copying it over from the earlier trail thread:

Looking at the way they are set up right now - I thought Brent had broken the run from ID to Kaltag into three chunks - resting in Shag, and now on the trail outside Grayling, and then would go to Kaltag in one long run. But it's 115 miles, so that seems a bit extreme, even for Brent. The way he's set up, he'll have to take his 8 in Kaltag and then make a move over to UNK. So maybe he's just outside of Grayling for some peace and quiet, and will still take one more break (maybe a shorter one? Interesting...) to get to Kaltag.

Richie and Pete seem to be on the same schedule, although 7 miles back. Both posted fast times to Grayling, although Pete seemed to be biding his time on the trail last night- although he caught Ryan, he must have snacked and let him go ahead.

In terms of speed - Hunter Keefe, <phew> - his time was nearly 50 mins faster than Brent's to Shag (but he also rested nearly 6 hrs in ID). I'll be curious to see if a) Hunter can maintain this speed and b) do something useful with it? He really mixes it up with his schedule - unsure if this is due to rookie-ness, what he sees in this dogs (he was v. happy with them at Ophir), or just his personal style.

The wild cards are Nic, Kelly, Aaron Peck - all of whom are out of sync with the other mushers, so deceptive as to where they actually are in the field.

[tanglefoot]

the race is hotting up, this year is going to be close, so many good teams I bet most are still holding back and ready to unleash some monsters come the coast!

[elsietee]

It really is!

A quick tally - the time difference between first and 18th place is just 10 hours... and they still have 450 or so miles to go.

The latest checkpoints seem slow to update their standings (particularly given that these are real places, not a frozen lake in the middle of nowhere), making work for impatient watchers , although that may be more a function of all the mushers blasting through at speed.

Just watched Christian Turner blow through Anvik, dropped a dog, definitely in race mode (witness musher running back to his sled) and off he went. Ah, but sneaky! he stopped just outside town. Have to see how long he stays there.

Jessie has left Anvik at noon after taking his 8 there (even though the stats aren't showing that).

Squinting at Kelly M - he last rested for 3:45 on the trail before Shag at ~mile 472 - and is just now approaching Grayling 58 miles down the trail. Does he 8 there? (for comparison, Jessie Royer is now at the location he left at 6:30 am. 7.5 hours ago. Jessie R not racing... but will she pick teams off on the coast?).

[elsietee]

Brent rested 3:45 about 7 miles past Grayling. And he's off and moving again with Jessie still 9-10 miles behind.

Trouble is, Jessie has completed his 8, Brent hasn't. So at this point, Brent is still a little behind Jessie, timewise by ~ 1:45?

So we'll see what they do on these next couple of runs to Kaltag. In theory, Brent can cut short his next rest going in to his 8 at Kaltag... but he could also lose speed by doing that?

(I'm trying to figure out if Jessie can watch the tracker while he's going up the river, or if he has to rely on community cell towers? Does he know what Brent did? Does he care?)

[libby the lab]

If he has a Sat phone he could get the tracker.

[elsietee]

Uh oh! Sounds like the live-link from Anvik got messed up, so they weren't able to upload all their interviews. So there will be a slew coming in over the next few hours. I still haven't listened to today's interviews (ID Live were playing films from past years - 2009-2013 - which were mesmerizing as well as making me teary watching Lance in his prime).

* * *

Brent in Shag:
"It's dog mushing weather!"

(thermometer shows ten below 0 [-23°C] and there's frost all over his sled bag).

(Bruce, just now in Kaltag, said that Brent had been 'having some problems' [unclear what], but that thinks he's doing better now that it has cooled down.)


Jessie in Shag:
They ask if he's RIchie or Jessie. He says "I'm not the real Diehl". Checker laughs.

"None of your bags are here" - unclear why. But they offer him one bag and say something about changing his batteries - I think on the tracker. Jessie doesn't seem terribly concerned. When he discovers Brent is still in the CP, he says "I'm going to go and get dinner!... or breakfast?" (i.e. go on to Anvik).

Jessie in Anvik:
Trail was nice - no bumps, no nothing. Says he hasn't slept, but he feels good (he does seem really alert and coherent). They ask about his health (after breaking wrists/ribs, etc). He says the earlier trail brutalized him, but "I don't think about that kind of stuff out here. I smashed my wrist against a tree, and it really hurt, but I forgot about it immediately. When you're doing something you love you don't think about your sore feet...".

Tries to not tax the dogs so they continue to eat well. Says they're a really happy team. But he trained them really hard, so even though they are practically on a record-setting pace, they're handling it really well and it isn't a big deal for them. Says he will feed them twice on his 8, but lighter on the second feed. Really wants to let them sleep because they haven't been taking a lot of long breaks. Will come out and get them up to move so they don't get stiff. He wants to enjoy the meal and being in Anvik on his own and interacting with the community - and REALLY wants to sleep. He said the last place he went into the nice warm cabin and really wanted to sleep and all he could think of was that Brent was going to come through and I'll be sleeping. He couldn't stand it. So as a result he just lay there, thinking about times. He said he never understood how racers could go without sleeping - until he was up front <chuckles>

Nic arriving in Shag:
They tell him they're going to change his batteries too. Says he's been doing a lot of short runs and is due a long run. He spends a lot of time unzipping layers to put his tracker away. Checker is concerned "Did you put it in a pocket so it doesn't fall out?" Nic jokes that no, he just put it down his pants.

Matt in Shag:
Says he was falling asleep on the sled. Nic is amazed that he could fall asleep on that section.

[elsietee]

Meal for Jessie:

Lobster bisque, king crab salad with creme fraiche; slow cooked veal with stock and mashed potatoes; cheese cake.

Brent in Anvik:
Finally wearing his parka with ruff (I think the first time this race?). They offer him his bags and he says "I don't need any of that". Asked where he's going to 8, says Kaltag is the plan right now.

Nic:
Asked if he's going to take his 8. He says "I dont' have to declare it, do I?" They explain that they don't have enough straw, so if he's staying 8, they'll give him a full bale of straw. Otherwise he only gets half a bale. It looks like that decides him (the video cuts right as he says something). Dogs are SCREAMING to get going, so not really ready for 8, but he take it anyway.

Later interview - has been sleeping a lot. Says the trail has been hard pounding since Rohn - dogs are ok, but his feet hurt. Talking to Jessie sounds like he, Nic, might have done a few things right there. They had a cushion because it snowed just a little bit, where it might have been a hard, fast trail for others - just after his 24 [back in Nik], so maybe that helped. Has been putting on a lot of ointment and pretty happy with how the dogs look.

Ryan in Shag:
Decided to 8 there because of the hilly run over there - get some rest on the dogs. Seemed like the smart move for his team. He got some sleep and feels pretty happy. Has heard there is some overflow on the river, but as cold as it was there, he wonders if it froze. Really proud of how his dogs have run the first half the race - he learned a lot and had fun.

Dan in Shag:
"I might be a certifified vet by the time i get to Nome. I've been doctoring the whole way." Has carried a dog for at least part of the way on every single run since Rohn. Has been a lot difference than last year when it was pretty much smooth sailing the whole way. Carried a dog with a sore wrist (the one he's putting a wrap on as he's talking), then carried his biggest dog - Eggroll - who he thinks is the biggest dog in the entire race, in on the run before that. It has been challenging. But is happy now that it's cool - the dogs like it, so he's hoping to turn his race around.

Wade in Anvik:
Was expecting the trail to Anvik to be a little shorter - it was a few more miles than he anticipated. Bruce asks why he decided to stop there, since he just 24ed in ID. Wade says "no, this was a long run for us - about 70 miles" which is a big push for his team. Cites that they aren't very far off John Baker's record*. The front runners are killing it. Bruce points out that although John has the record, he says he did it doing a consistent 7-8 mph. Wade agrees - says he hasn't let his dogs go over 9 mph the whole race. When they hit 9 mph, he hits the brakes. Says his dogs dropped down to 8 mph "Hey? what are you doing?", so he chivvied them a bit and they raced up to 11 mph "No, don't do that either!" <laughs>. Dogs will need to settle on the river. Where they live now in WI is very hilly, then they did the Quest out of FBs, which was also hilly, so they aren't used to flat, so it'll be interesting to see how they come up the river.



[I was looking at this earlier. It looks like John arrived in Anvik ~5:40 am, where Jessie arrived at 4:00 am - so just over 1.5 hours faster]

[elsietee]

Bruce's analysis in Anvik:

Saw Brent in Rohn and reports from other places and it didn't seem like Brent was really "on", but coming through Anvik he was the same old Brent - "GAME ON". Didn't waste any time. Team looked better than they did 100s of miles back.

Jessie is where he wants to be. Says he's still holding the dog team back, but has a few cracks that he's dealing with, so was happy to take his 8 so he could deal with those issues. But Bruce says Jessie will have his hands full besting Brent.

Wonders if Brent has been holding his team back. Heister wonders if it's just the cooler air. Bruce agrees. Thinks that Brent was maybe holding them back because of the heat, but now it's cooler he can work with the team.

Speculating about Nic 24-ing in Nik. The current trend is to go longer until you 24. Points out that Martin's first win was when he 24ed in Nik. You look like you're behind - but then Nic just came in in 2nd place.

Bruce likes Kaltag for taking your 8. Thinks Pete did that also. Says it's a big run from Kaltag to Unk, so the dogs are a little fresher arriving on the coast. It gives you some options if you have some gas in the tank.

[elsietee]

Brent is resting at Eagle Island. If he stays 4 hours, he'll leave at 1:30 am... another 8.5 hours or so (assuming 7 mph) to Kaltag, which gets him there at 10 am. Which puts him leaving to go over to the coast ~6pm, which is about perfect.

Last year he ran to UNK in 13 hours (resting somewhere on the trail and going through), so if he repeats that, he'd be in Unk ~7:00 am Sunday morning.

If he rests 8 hours in EI, he'll get to Kaltag at 2 pm, which is much less desirable.

Based on that, if he stays at EI for his 8, then he has issues going on with the team.

* * *

Jessie rested for 4 hours at mile 560. Set off again at 22:40. 175 miles to UNK... he's going about 45-50 miles on each run, ~7 hours.
Two runs to Kaltag (7 + 4 + 7 = 4:30 pm in Kaltag... rest 4 hours... has him leaving Kaltag at 8:30 pm.

* * *

How the HECK do mushers figure this out??? By my calculations, Brent was behind him this morning, and now it seems like he's ahead...


(and I'm not even going to TRY and figure out Nic/Richie/Ryan/Pete/Kelly/Mille/Christian/Eddie/Matt/Wade/Hunter... ack.)