Good Morning Race fans!
It is looking like the warmer temperatures may have also tempered what were first described as tough trail into Nikolai.
Nicolas Petit arrived first this morning into Nikolai at just before 7am. Taking no breaks from Rohn, an impressive 8 hour 30 minute run over the trail. He has declared his 24 hour layover, but we will see if that happens or not. It is common to declare your 24 hour layover because the layover time starts when the musher declares the rest. With warm temps in store, who knows if that is his strategy. Many mushers will declare a layover, but Petit took a 24 parking spot. Let the games begin!!
Down the the trail, Pete is moving in a good speed in 8th position. After leaving Rohn last night at 9:30, Pete and the Team continued two more hours stopping at 11:42pm. After a 4 hour break they returned to the trail at 3:50 am on the trail to Nikolai. I wouldn’t expect any breaks between his present position and Nikolai. Presently (7am) they are 23 miles out of Nikolai which should put them into the checkpoint right about at the end of the 6 hour run.
Weather is not optimistic, unfortunately with warm temperatures rearing their head. Teams are going to be looking forward to Takotna and Ophir to wait out the warm weather and return to cooler temperatures later in the week.
The Team is still running with 14 dogs which is good news at this point. Several Teams have dropped dogs along the Alaska Range.
Here’s my first plug for the Insider. It really is worth it to see the GPS and the videos. At $4/day or so, it’s pretty worth it.
