Another day down the trail

I won't go out on any limbs and say Brent Sass has this race to lose now but he is moving out at a heck of a brisk pace not too far from Nulato.. However, he has a mandatory eight hours to take somewhere and that will let a few fast follows make headway. One of those is Aliy who has paced close to him all day, even passed while he was resting and held that lead into Galena but he went on through while she was resting there. She took her mandatory eight at Galena and is now out of there ahead of those who arrived after her.

And only one of them, Dallas Seavey, has taken his eight. He did it at Ruby, just a short 100 miles from his twenty four at Cripple. Either he is supremely confident or else he or his dogs were not doing too well. He puts a good face on things, so it is hard to tell, but it looks like his speed is down some. He is into Galena but has not left yet. His dad just got out a few minutes behind Aliy. She will probably run most of the night down the river with one dry-land portage rumored to be very rough to get round some open water on the river, another problem of it being warmer than normal. Nulato and then Kaltag on the river and the trail then turns west toward the coast.

At any rate it is getting very interesting now. By the time they get to Unalakleet, the first checkpoint on the coast, the top five to ten should be getting very clear.  The leaders have about 150 miles to go get there. Right now of the top twenty, six have taken the eight hours; a few others may be doing so now.  Sigrid Ekran from Norway and Michelle Phillips are in 15th and 17th place. Sigrid has taken the eight and Michelle has not. Jessie Royer is at 23 but she said in an interview today that she too has had sick dogs. Not enough.to have to pull out but she is nursing them along and it is hurting her speed.  She sounded a little discouraged which is understandable as she looked to having a fine finish in the top five or ten this year after finishing fourth last year.

So far today, though, Aliy is making a good run. Allen and the Black Team are chugging right along too. He is currently in 37th place running from Cripple to Ruby. Both the Red and Black teams are still running with fifteen dogs and so far no sickness. XX fingers crossed. Since they both like to camp away from checkpoints this may help if it is a virus type bug. At any rate. once you do the eight you can run your own schedule through to White Mountain, the last mandatory eight that all mushers must take, And then the hard, fast dash through blizzard alley to Safety and on to Nome!! Monday maybe?

Martin Buser admitted he did not have time to prepare well and is just going along for the trip. I kind of expected Rohn would race and he would not but I think the son realizes that dad is not kid and can only go so many more times (Martin is 58 I believe) while in the early twenties, Rohn  has many races ahead of him. They seem a good, tight family and that is a fine thing.  Deedee is doing well, not trying to make speed but keeping a steady pace and still has thirteen dogs--I expect she may have had a sick one or two also. It is not being a good race for the dogs and few teams are at or near full strength sixteen.

Here again are my four heroes: Some great people here and folks I consider friends and very admirable. I now have one of Aliy's red beanies since I became a 'Red Team" member. How cool is that?

!!