IditaProject Forum

With Jessie and Brent on trail to McGrath it's time to start this one.

You left out Takotna

Wondering if Brent will 24 in Ophir, or go all the way to ID?

And will he and JessieH start playing games with each other, to try and trick the other into thinking they are staying when they're going?

Ryan Redington - first to McGrath. Dogs looked great and rearing to go - jumping in their harnesses:







Jessie Holmes came in just a few minutes behind him.

Jessie H goes straight through McGrath:

And Richie minutes behind him. Dogs were *crazy* to get going again - barking and lunging:

Brent rushing to get through the checkpoint - dogs look strong:

Kelly Maixner arrived in McGrath. I looked away from the screen for a minute, and when I looked back they were dragging his dogs and his sled out of the snow bank at the entrance to the check. No idea what was going on, but he opted to stay and as they were leading him over to park, he was crouched behind the sled using his snow hook as a drag brake. I'm wondering if his main brake/drag brake have broken, so he's stopped to make repairs?

That sounds likely, why do such a thing otherwise?

Liz Failor reporting that Kelly is taking his 24. <shrug> Who knows.

* * *

Watching the front runners - Ryan and Richie have both opted to take a break in Takotna (their last "proper" break was in Nikolai, 63 miles ago), while Jessie and Brent have both gone through (their last breaks were 40 and 50 miles ago, respectively). Currently, Jessie has a 35 minute lead on Brent... except that Jessie is bib #2, while Brent is bib #14... what's the time difference between mushers starting? 2 mins? or 3 mins? So either 24 or 36 mins deficit...? so nothing in it really. Jessie has 22 miles to go to get to Ophir, while Brent has 26. What will be interesting is to see their relative run times between McGrath/Takotna and Takotna/Ophir - to see if they are losing speed from the long run.

Bruce Lee reporting that although Brent is down to 11 dogs, he still has a lot of power in there. I worried that the heat would really affect Brent's dog, but they did look good coming through Tak (I missed Jessie's team). Brent says he'll likely 24 in Ophir, but there's a slight possibility that he'll go on to Iditarod.

Pete Kaiser is due next - and Bruce says Pete's going to 24 at Tak, since that's where his food drop bags are.

The trail to Iditarod is possibly blown in (when they were reporting, the trailbreakers hadn't got there yet). Remember the year Joar had to bump over tussocks? It could be like that again.