Pete and the Team were out of Nikolai after a 4 hour break. Weather in the area looks beautiful to be sure!
Team Kaiser Fan Dietrich Nikolai got some great drone footage. (Pete’s Twin! Haha!)
Next on the agenda will be Takotna or Ophir for a 24 hour layover and the next section of the race. Teams are looking forward to a break at this point in the race and Pete is no exception. What everyone is hoping for is cooler temperatures.
In Pete’s 2019 Championship Iditarod, it took just under 10 hours total time from Nikolai to Takotna. That would put Team Kaiser into Takotna this evening around 10-11pm. Looking at trail times compared to that year, Pete is about an hour and 30 minutes later at this point in the race. In 2019, Pete and the Team left at 12:23pm, while this year Pete left at 13:48.
Presently the weather is vacation like with 29 degrees, calm winds, and super sunny skies. It’s going to be a warm bright one for Teams on the upper Kuskokwim River.
This is the only section of the race where Pete will travel the frozen water of the Kuskokwim. In the summer, Pete runs Kuskokwim Wilderness Adventures, a riverboat charter operation that runs the rivers on the lower section of the river. Fun to be able to travel on his “home court” so to speak.
Weather for the rest of the day:
McGrath:
Today– Mostly sunny. Highs in the lower 30s. Light winds.
Tonight– Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of light freezing rain and snow after midnight. Lows in the lower to mid 20s. Light winds.
