Good Morning Race Fans!
As we slept the night away, there was exciting action on the Kuskokwim 300 trail last night.
Eddie Burke and his Team were first into Kalskag early this morning at 5:04 am followed 6 minutes later at 5:10 by Pete and the Team.
Elapsed times between Tuluksak to Kalskag are pretty consistent across the board. I would imagine the trail to be holding up so far as the warm temperatures through the night most likely haven’t caused the trail to deteriorate yet.
This morning temperatures are in the 30’s and it is expected to warm dramatically throughout the day. This is the last thing Teams want to see and mushers will be taking great care of feet and making sure their dogs are well hydrated.
Today Teams will head out over the Whitefish Lake Loop. It’s 11 miles longer than the river trail, so I expect mushers to rest a bit longer before heading out on the trail. As veteran watchers will remember, mushers have 6 mandatory hours of rest to “spend” on the three checkpoints, Kalskag UP, Aniak, and Kalskag Down. With the warm temps, I’m expecting a longer layover this morning before the longer trail. Especially due to warm temperatures.
Take a look at this year’s trail here!
So who is Eddie Burke??? Veteran watchers may remember Eddie from way back in 2018 when Eddie and a couple of his friends got a table at the 2018 Iditarod Banquet. They called themselves Table 200 SuperFans! They were quite a hoot and super fun to be around. But there’s a problem… Hang around dog mushing too long and it gets in your blood. Then it becomes a fever and it’s all over! Haha!
Eddie linked up with Aaron Burmeister and here we are! Eddie is just off a Knik 200 win and seems to be having the time of his life. Congrats!!
As for today, the talk of the trail will be weather and trail.
It looks like a warm one! Go Team Kaiser!!
Today’s Mushing Weather Forecast for Aniak:
