It’s going to be a cold one!!
UPPER KUSKOKWIM VALLEY- INCLUDING...MCGRATH...NIKOLAI...TAKOTNA...FAREWELL LAKE 516 PM AKST TUE MAR 9 2010 .TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY. SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS. PATCHY FOG. LOWS 10 TO 20 BELOW. SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH. .WEDNESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. PATCHY FOG. HIGHS 5 BELOW TO 5 ABOVE. SOUTHWEST WINDS 5 TO 15 MPH.
Pete is officially into Nikolai at 7:48pm this evening with 15 dogs. He dropped one at Rainy Pass.
Next up – McGrath!
Pete has been working for Knik on the boats with Took Laraux. I am not sure, but bet that he knows McGrath pretty well.
Grant Fairbanks and his crew are awaiting him in McGrath and will be sending photos our way.
The run to McGrath is 54 miles. The first musher in this year, Jeff King, made it in 5 hours and 21 minutes. After a break in Nikolai, we should expect Pete into McGrath in the early morning. Strategies come into play here and we’ll see where he decides to take his mandatory 24 hour layover.
The tracker shows Pete near Iten and Williams Jr. in Nikolai (Bush boys sticking together??)
Don’t forget to check the Cams page which has a live McGrath webcam.
McGrath Checkpoint
McGrath
McGrath
Editor’s Note- All of the Checkpoint photos are garnered from around the web from various sources and are NOT from this years race. They are intended to give the viewer a feel for what Pete will see as he encounters various parts of the trail.– Thanks JW
Thanks to John McDonald, Selena Malone, andYKHC for a whole slew of photos now posted on the Photos Page! Here’s sample:
Beverly and Gerri Cheering Section
Believe it or not, this reporter actually lived in Nikolai. When I was if first grade, my parents were the teacher and principal there. A pilot now, I took my first small airplane ride from McGrath to Nikolai in 1969. My how it has changed!!
Pete is about a mile from this village on the upper Kuskokwim River. Temperatures are a bit below zero with wind chills to about -20 in some parts of the trail. He will have some protection from the slight wind from the trees.
Once Pete reaches Nikolai, he will have reach mile marker 347 with 765 miles to go. He isn’t as far down the trail as it seems with the Anchorage miles built in, but he will have covered 284 miles since the Willow restart. Basically one Kuskokwim 300 race under his belt. One other notable tidbit of trivia, the Rohn to Nikolai stretch is the 3rd longest in the race between checkpoints at 75 miles.
Here is where the sleep and exhaustion take hold as he begins to decide where to take the 24 hour layover.
Doin’ GREAT so far!!!
Pete got into Rohn early this morning at 5:19am. No other information is available on the Iditarod website. They don’t have any out times or Dog information from Rainy or Rohn.
He arrived 42nd into Rohn.
Temperatures have dropped just a bit below zero (-4) with light snow. Anchorage is experiencing a blizzard.
Weather Forecast- TODAY...SNOW IN THE MORNING...THEN SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON. SNOW ACCUMULATION AROUND 2 INCHES. HIGHS 5 TO 10 ABOVE. SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 20 MPH. .TONIGHT...CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS. LOWS AROUND 10 BELOW. SOUTHWEST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH.
The next section is referred to as the Farewell Burn. Unfortunately this area has very little snow.
–From Anchorage Daily News
Last week when the Iron Dog snowmachine racers traveled about 75 miles across the Burn, they encountered snow-starved sections of brown mud, brown tussocks and brown stumps from a controlled burn in 1984. Most racers stopped repeatedly to prevent their engines from overheating and, where possible, scoop up a handful of snow to pack on the heat exchangers.
“Boy, the Iditarodders are going to have a hard time getting across the Farewell Burn,” said Doug Dixon, a member of the second-place Iron Dog team. “There’s no snow on the Burn.
“The beauty part is that they’re traveling at a slower speed, and they’ll have time to prepare. Plus, dogs can run across tundra and don’t overheat like a machine.”
Some veteran mushers shrugged off reports of bare trail as unavoidable — or at least not as bad as years such as 2003, when the Iditarod restart had to be moved to Fairbanks.
The trail sounds “doable,” said three-time defending champion Lance Mackey.
“That’s a rough ride and, you know, could be a sled breaker. I’ve had my sled break in there,” Mackey said. “I’ve had one runner for 200 miles.”
Willow musher DeeDee Jonrowe said it was almost a relief to hear the race marshal’s trail report at a mandatory musher meeting in Anchorage on Thursday. The trail didn’t sound as bad as reports mushers heard from the Iron Dog.
“Most of the trail sounds fast, and it sounds well defined,” Jonrowe said.
This isn’t the first year Iditarod mushers have encountered a snow-starved Burn. Nor will it be the last. In fact, it may barely slow them.
“Dogs love running on dirt,” race marshal Mark Nordman said Wednesday. “It’s like playing out in the yard for them. Dogs have no problem with it.
Tillies Restart Photos have also been posted to the Photos Page
It was very exciting and lots of fun! Carolyn and Marilyn Moses were the loudest fans, too bad we didn’t get a picture, they were priceless. -Tillie
Check out the Kaiser Super Dogs in Mushing Magazine!
