Trio Out of Tanana

Ruby – Wednesday Morning March 8 – (-31 degrees)

After a 4 hour 34 minute break, Pete and the Team left Tanana last last night at 1:07am. He was joined by a Dallas Seavey and Wade Marrs, who also left at the same time. These three Teams are some of the fastest in the Race and Team Kaiser led the way for 5 hours until it was time for his break. He is stopped about 6:15am 43 miles down the trail.

The next checkpoint, Ruby, is 119 miles and will require a rest for Teams making their way downriver today. Doing a little armchair mushing, I’d expect Pete to discount Ruby altogether in his calculations and make for Galena as his final goal. He will have to check in at Ruby, but if he breaks down the Tanana to Galena run into 4 sections, the 169 mile run would be 43 miles per section. In 2015, Pete took his 24 hour in Galena which is 396 miles into the Race, so I’m thinking that is today’s strategy.

Traditionally, Pete takes is 24 hour in Takotna, 329 miles into the Race. In a Fairbanks start, Galena makes sense as it is right before the long runs into Huslia and back and down the river to Kaltag. A good break in Galena seems like a great strategy especially since the weather seems to be holding and actually improving

Speaking of weather- Today’s Yukon River Iditarod forecast calls for sunglasses!! It’s very cold this morning with Galena reporting -31. Today’s high temperature will rise up to +4 though and it is what we call in the aviation business- Severe Clear!

Tonight will be a bit chilly once again as temperatures fall to -20, but after that it’s a fairly warm forecast.

Lower Koyukuk and Middle Yukon Valleys

Today- Sunny. Highs around 5 above. Light winds.
Tonight- Clear. Lows 10 to 22 below. Light winds.
Thursday- Sunny. Highs 9 to 12 above. Light winds.
Thursday Night- Mostly clear. Lows 1 to 13 below. Light winds.
Friday- Sunny. Highs in the lower 20s. Light winds.

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