Photos from the Aniak Facebook page (Check it out!) and one from Dave Cannon (Check out his great photography website here!)
UPDATE- Rohn and Jeff are out of Whitefish lake.
Pete and the Team seem to be having a pretty good run. Right now GPS shows them a solid 6th, but there is almost half of the race to go. Most teams haven’t reached the Whitefish Lake checkpoint yet and are out on the barren tundra with the wind crossing the trail. Once they reach Whitefish, they will head Northwest and the trail will change.
Some folks seem to be a little nervous as to Pete’s progress, but fear not– There is much racing yet to come!
The battle right now seems to be for the lead as Rohn and Jeff duke it out on the tundra. Teams battling for any position tend to travel a bit quicker, but this early in the race most will just want to stay within striking distance waiting for a mistake that they can garner advantage from.
Pete and the Team are following not only those two mushers, but Paul Gepbhart and Tony Browning who have had great success in the K300 as well. Browning has not been back for years so he is somewhat of a wild card. (A wildcard known for pulling a rabbit out of a hat on occasion!!)
I am thinking that Pete and the Team are in fine shape, though he has to worry some about the massive pack of mushers HE is leading that are right on his tail. The advantage that Pete has is that the teams up front are breaking trail and if it is at all drifted and in poor shape from wind and snow, the going will be much easier for him.
A bit of trivia– The top times between Kalskag and Aniak were within 20 minutes of each other except for Rohn who had the fastest time (3:21). Pete’s time was 3:49 and Jeff’s was 3:39. This is really racing folks!
Presently Pete is about 2 miles from the Whitefish lake point.
Go Team Kaiser!!
