Oh what a day! A quick recap to today and all the excitement already brewing on the trail.
First thing this morning Pete got a text from friend and fellow musher Matt Failor– 18 inches of snow at his place in Willow. Most he’s ever seen in 24 hours. Hmmm…
So Pete makes the call that we should leave a little earlier and we all gather up and hit the highway. As we made our way North to Willow the road got snowier and snowier and traffic got slower and slower. Luckily Pete was up front and got into the dog lot with little trouble. That wouldn’t be the norm, however. Later on, Sterling Rearden got stuck in traffic of over a mile of cars. It took an hour to go 2 miles.
Pete was in good spirits and it was snowing, oh how it was snowing! Temperatures were in the twenties so we didn’t get to wet too quickly, but it was sure a white one!
I’ll write up more later, but as we made our way back South there were still a couple of miles of cars headed northbound to see a race start that had already happened 🙁
We got to Doug Dorland’s house for our annual dose of fresh homemade pizza and watched the tracker as Pete made his way to Yentna.
Pete and the Team are presently leading the race having been first into Yentna at 7:01pm with a 2 minute signin and back onto the trail at 7:03pm. Looking at last year’s time, that’s 36 minutes slower.
Pete stopped for just a few minutes out of Willow at friend and Knik President, Dan Hall’s place that sits right on the trail. Pete is carrying a banner honoring a Knik employee, Ryan Lee Armenta, who was killed earlier this year in a motorcycle accident. After a quick photo with the Knik folks, he was back on the trail. Word was that the Team looked great as they made their way up the trail.
No word on trail conditions at this hour, but Teams are slower than last year for sure.
More soon!
Go Team Kaiser!
