Good Morning Race Fans! Welcome to Day 3 of the 2018 Iditarod!
After a break in Rohn, Pete and the Team returned to the trail at 12:15am this morning with 15 dogs in harness. Weather is a bit warm and maybe a little wet with light snow and temperatures in the upper 20’s as predicted.
After a 5 hour run Pete and the Team are now resting at mile 232. The were joined by Aaron Burmeister and his Team just a bit after 5:30am.
The run from Rohn to Nikolai is about 80 miles. Different strategies are playing out as some Teams are going to make the run in one long run, while others have broken it up into two runs. Many Teams stop at “Little Egypt” just before heading out into the flats, but with calm winds, a break a bit up the trail, as Pete has done, is another place Teams will stop.
After a break this morning, look for Pete to make the 30 mile run into Nikolai just after lunch.
Basically we are seeing three different strategies this morning–
- Non stop run – Rohn to Nikolai
- 30/50 – 30 mile run to Little Egypt – 50 mile run to Nikolai
- 50/30 – 50 mile run to tundra break – 30 mile run to Nikolai
Teams are seeing warm temperatures and possibly a fragile soft trail, so being conservative can be a pretty good thing.
Currently in Nikolai – 23 degrees Calm Wind Overcast Skies Flurries in the area.
Weather forecast for today-
Today: Snow. Areas of freezing fog. High near 29. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Tonight: Snow. Areas of freezing fog. Low around 21. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.