We’ve been sitting here all afternoon waiting for the action to get underway. Teams have been making their way into Grayling and resting up for the long run up to Eagle Island. Ryan Air came to the rescue of the Iditarod with two CASA planeloads of supplies were flown from Unalakleet. Iditarod Officials had informed Teams that there were no drop bags or anything in Eagle Island. A few calls to Boyuk and Lee and a plan was quickly arranged to save the day.
“We had a CASA from Nome in Wales. We redirected it to Unalakleet to make the loads and then sent it to Bethel to start the day fresh. It worked out for everyone, but the Mushers mostly,” said Lee Ryan. “Always glad to lend a hand to the Mushers on the Trail!”
Save the day is an understatement! Now Teams headed North know they can take a layover and have food and straw for their Teams.
Nic Petit arrived first into the Grayling checkpoint and took his Yukon 8 layover. Joar Leifseth-Ulsom, who arrived after Nic, but had already taken his layover, also took a good long break.
A few hours later, Jessie Royer, Pete, and Mitch Seavey arrived.
As night settled in Joar finally took to the trail, but an hour later Nic’s layover was complete and he headed off in pursuit.
Pete’s friends like to tease him with the Slippery Pete moniker. I’m not sure if he likes it or not, but they all give him a good back slapping hard time over it. Well tonight, Slippery Pete slipped out of Grayling, not having taken his 8 hour break and in pursuit of Joar and Nic.
I’ve been doing alot of thinking about the strategy. I’m thinking Pete is thinking that if the trail is poor, more traffic will make it worse, so his Team will have an easier time of it following just a couple of Teams. He also has been used as a pacecar for Mitch Seavey for the last 80 miles or so. This will free him from that stress and be chasing instead of leading. One last detail is that warm weather is coming and it is as cool now as it is going to get. So taking advantage of cool slick trails is far better than warmer softer ones. When he gets to Eagle Island he would have probably taken a 5 hour rest anyway, so why not rest during the day and keep it as cool as he can for our favorite Kaiser puppies!
In any case, it is a strategy we haven’t seen before! Awesome! Try something new and see if it will pay dividends!
Thanks again to one of our Prime Sponsors, Ryan Air, for coming to to the rescue of all of the Teams. You guys are, as Tony the Tiger would say, GRREEAAT!!
GO Team Kaiser!
