Jake Berkowitz Update – Waiting for a Plane

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Jake and his Team – Waiting for a Plane. Not a lot of snow for sure.

From Apex Kennels Website-

Update: Since the last 1PM update, Jake’s attempts to continue to make distance to a checkpoint are not successful. ITC are deploying 2 planes to retrieve Jake, the dogs, and the gear. They will fly them to McGrath for the night and I expect their arrival back to Anchorage tomorrow. Thank you everyone for reaching out and sharing your heartfelt concerns. Have no worries, Apex A team will brush the dirt off(literally) and overcome the unfortunate events.

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Richie Out of Nikolai

While Mike Jr. takes his 24 in Nikolai with Martin Buser, Richie is headed for points west. After a 4 hour break in the checkpoint he is more than likely headed for the Pies of Takotna!

Expecting a similar strategy for Pete given this trail condition. Early on Pete was wondering if he might switch it up a bit, but I’d guess that after such a trail, just keeping it simple and comfortable might be welcoming.

Stay Tuned to find out!

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Lanier Takes Advice – Scratches.

“If anyone sees Jim, tell him it’s not worth it.”

Words from Nicolas Petit as he tended to his dogs in Nikolai. Jim apparently didn’t need the advice. The 73 year old veteran injured his knee and scratched in Rainy Pass.

We are seeing quite a few teams take a beating. One, our friend Jake Berkowitz, who is already had a rope break and lost his team, may have a damaged sled. We are seeing the veteran musher stopped near where Pete and Richie camped out early this morning. He took about 6 hours to make the 20 miles and he has been resting for several more. Best wishes for Jake, another good friend of the Kaiser Racing family. We will keep you posted.

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Trio Report – Mike Jr. – The Story of the Morning

Low Bandwidth Audio Only Here-

Iditarod fans will be talking about the Epic run by Martin Buser from basically the Starting Line into Nikolai. Hopefully his strategy will pay out for him.

The story for our Fans, though, is the story of Mike Williams Jr. and the fine run HE is having. Mike Jr. and his Team left in 7th position from Willow and has bee running pretty much in the top 10 for the whole stretch of the race up until now. Presently GPS tracker has him in 7th just a few mile outside of Nikolai.

Mike’s Team started the race with 15 dogs in harness and he has dropped 3 to be down to 12 dogs at this point, but I looked through the histories and though this is a low number, it has been done several times. He will have to be conservative, but he is definitely in a good position.

The trail from Rohn to Nikolai has been described as the worst in years with nothing but glare ice and no snow. Guess what Mike has been training on??? Pete and Richie just couldn’t take it and repositioned to Nenana for better training while Mike just kept training on this type of glare ice, no snow, exposed tundra condition. For his dogs, this might just be a run out of Akiak to the Yukon and back.

Way to go Mike- Good Luck!

Where is the rest of the Trio??

Pete’s Tracker is not working at present, but Richie is camped out at the Farewell lakes just before the “burn.” I am sure that Pete is there as well as that is the last ping from his tracker. This spot is popular for mushers as it gets them 20 miles down the trail from Rohn. Trail reports had this first 20-30 out of Rohn as terrible at best with exposed tree roots, rocks, ice, tundra– the whole gambit. It will be good to take a break and head out in the daylight when they can hopefully see where they are going. Glare ice trail is hard enough to follow in daylight. Night is a bear.

burn

From ADN.com – Martin Buser on Burn Trail.

Egypt

If you look to the right of the far mountain on the left. About another 4 miles or so further out is a popular camping spot for mushers. Pete and Richie are in that area.

Iditarod 2014 - GPS Tracker - Google Chrome 342014 80752 AM

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It’s Going to Be a Tough One Tonight

Word from the trail is that the trail to Nikolai from Rohn hasn’t changed much from the Iron Dog two weeks ago. After Gux Laraux and Steven Boney made the trip, I asked them if there was any snow. Gux laughed and said if there was any, it was mixed with so much sand you couldn’t tell.

Sebastian Schnuelle just arrived in Nikolai and reports that the trail was the worst he had driven in a snowmachine with glare ice, bare ground and trees mixed in for good measure.

Martin Buser has made a different play this year and is striking out for Nikolai with little rest. He easily has 50 miles on the next nearest competitor and one wonders if he will do his 24 in Nikolai. Last year he took it in Rohn, but the weather changed the race and the strategy didn’t pan out. This definitely looks different, but there are quite a few miles of trail before this is even close to in the bag.

From what I am seeing online, the trail, if you could call it that, is going to be a tough one. If the lack of snow was a problem, the glare ice is it’s mother. Tonight there is no moon at all and the Headlamp is going to be Pete’s best friend.

Side note- Apparently tonight of all nights was the night for GCI to take down the Kenai, Bethel, and South Anchorage Internet, so tell us how it turns out. I’m typing this on a cell phone and for those that have been here, that means I’ve been working an hour on getting this post to go.

See Ya in the AM

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Waiting for ‘Cool Runnings?”

Newton Marshall from Jamaica- maan. Cool Runnings Alaska Style!

Newton Marshall from Jamaica- maan. Cool Runnings Alaska Style!

Is it just coincidence that we have a musher from Jamaica that we think of the movie “Cool Runnings” and that’s more than likely what Pete was waiting for. Word from the trail is that it was 38 degrees in the shade at Rainy Pass today. That explains the early rest for Pete and the Team. Pete and the Team took a 4 hour break and left back on the trail at 8pm. I expect him into Rohn before Midnight and am thinking that he will continue a couple of hours before breaking to split the run between Rohn and Nikolai.

Here’s my perennial look at the Dalzell Gorge– It’s a Doozy, but times have been decent and I expect it isn’t as bad as it has been in the 4 preceding runs.

Dalzell Gorge Entrance

Dalzell Gorge Entrance

From Iditarod.com-

This leg is not as long as the official mileage indicates. It is really only about 32 miles, and should take three and a half to five hours. It has some very tough trail, including the notorious Dalzell Gorge. Given a choice, most mushers prefer to do this during the day, although a nighttime run is entirely feasible, and with a bright moon can be ethereally beautiful. If possible, leave Rainy Pass Lodge so as to be at the summit of Rainy Pass about dawn (about a two or three hour run). If you do it in the afternoon, plan to be at the summit with at least two hours of daylight remaining.

The trail runs in the open on the tundra of Ptarmigan Pass from Rainy Pass Lodge to the mouth of Pass Creek, which it then follows northwest up to the summit of Rainy Pass itself. Then there are several miles of sometimes steep downhills and often tight, twisting trail through scrub willow southwest along Pass Fork to Dalzell Creek. The trail then drops into the infamous Dalzell Gorge for a few miles and finally onto the Tatina River for the last five miles to Rohn.

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Through Rainy Pass – Trail Break before the Pass

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Pete and the Team were in and out of the Rainy Pass checkpoint after 3pm this afternoon and came upon Richie Diehl camped out on the trail for his trail break. It must behave been a good spot, for Pete and the Team decided it was time to join them. Of course Pete and Richie are pretty much trail brothers after spending so much time together this season, so I’m sure it was comfortable to be camped out together.

Team Kaiser Media is just getting on the jet to Bethel. More Soon!

Mushing 

UPPER KUSKOKWIM VALLEY-
INCLUDING...MCGRATH...NIKOLAI...TAKOTNA...FAREWELL LAKE
536 PM AKST MON MAR 3 2014

.TONIGHT...INCREASING CLOUDS. SCATTERED FLURRIES.
LOWS 7 BELOW TO 8 ABOVE. NORTH WINDS TO 10 MPH.
.TUESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW. HIGHS IN THE MID
TO UPPER TEENS. NORTH WINDS TO 10 MPH.
.TUESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW.
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Out of Finger Lake

puntilla

Pete and the Team are just out of the Finger Lake checkpoint just about Noon. Weather is warming a bit, and the sun is blinding, but the day is just beautiful. Clear skies and light winds will make this trip literally breathtaking.

I am looking for him to work his way all the way to Rohn before resting and then heading out over the “Burn” this evening. The trail ahead is 30 miles of tricky terrain to Puntilla and then another 35 miles to Rohn. This will be the Alaska Range Crossing that everyone has been worried about. Worried because there have been such warm temperatures and virtually no snow.

Conditions may be better than expected as the first Musher, Kelly Maixner, has just arrived into Rohn in from Puntilla. His time of 4 hours 21 minutes isn’t too terrible bad and in fact is about the average over the run of last year’s race. Times into Puntilla are also pretty comparable to last year’s race. This tells me that the trail crew has done an outstanding job of putting a trail together for this race.

Description of Trail from Iditarod.com-
After leaving Finger Lake, the trail climbs steeply over a ridge to Red Lake, runs along it for a mile or two, swings up a ravine, and then follows a series of climbing wooded shelves interspersed with open swamps. About ten miles from Finger Lake, the trail drops down a series of wooded benches toward Happy River, then onto the river itself via the dreaded Happy River steps. Then it’s down the river to its mouth, up the Skwentna River for a few hundred yards, and back up a steep ravine to the plateau on the south side of the Happy. The trail will cross Shirley Lake, then Long Lake (11 miles from Rainy Pass Lodge) and then run along the steeply sloping mountainside above the south side of the Happy River valley to the checkpoint. There are two nasty stretches of sidehill trail in the last eight miles.

Kusko Trio Report:

Mike Williams is on the trail between Puntilla and Rohn, about half way to the checkpoint. He is running 14 dogs.

Richie Diehl is about halfway between Finger Lake and Puntilla. He is running all 16 dogs.

Weather for today and tonight:

UPPER KUSKOKWIM VALLEY-
INCLUDING...MCGRATH...NIKOLAI...TAKOTNA...FAREWELL LAKE
1001 AM AKST MON MAR 3 2014

.TODAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE MID TO UPPER 20S. NORTH WINDS
TO 10 MPH.  
.TONIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS 6 BELOW TO 5 ABOVE. NORTH WINDS TO
10 MPH.

 

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