Kristy and Anna pulled into Rohn (race mile 188) minutes after midnight Tuesday morning. As expected, they didn't spend too long in checkpoint, hitting the trail again after just 44 minutes. It looks like they stuck to their plan and camped trailside not far after Rohn and were on the move again around race mile 230 by 11:30am late Tuesday morning. Anna was reported out in 24th with her full 14 dog team, Kristy was out in 25th with 12 dogs in front of her sled. I suspect we'll see the twins rest in the next checkpoint of Nikolai when they get there.
The front of the pack began arriving in Nikolai (race mile 263) just after 7:30am with 5 more mushers arriving within 2 hours of that. The rest of the field is either tackling the 75 miles between Rohn and Nik or getting ready to. Only four teams are still on their way to Rohn, and no one has scratched from the race yet.
In other news... one of the Seeing Double Dogs on Kristy's team this year is named Mayhem. She's part of the trouble litter and making her way to Nome with most of her siblings. Mayhem (the dog) is very good trouble, and I was hoping her and her littermates would be the only good trouble out there with the twins this year. But this IS Iditarod, and unfortunately Murphy (with the Law) got ahold of his cousin Mayhem (of the Allstate commercial variety) and suggested he go have some fun out there...
Not long before the race started, Kristy and Anna were both able to get their sleds into sponsor Mike's shop (of Mike's Welding). There, in well-lit warmth with every tool imaginable at hand, they each gave their sleds a thorough going-over. They inspected nuts and bolts for cracks and tightness, put on new handlebar tape. Kristy worked on her drag pad (one of 3 braking mechanisms on a sled), adding fresh carbide snow machine track. Anna adjusted the foot pads on her runners, patched some holes in her sled bag, and did some work on the brush bow. That is at the front of the sled and is where the lines feed through. After hundreds of miles, the lines had worn a groove and it needed smoothing out to prevent extra wear on the precious lines keeping the dogs attached to the sled.
All in all, they thought their sleds were in good shape and ready for the long journey ahead. During our chat, I asked them, "so what's your biggest concern with respect to the sleds when out on the trail?" The answer, without hesitation, was cracking or breaking a runner. Although the twins thoroughly inspected their sleds, their runners are made from aluminum. You often cannot see points that are weakening from long term stress until something fails. Think of it like a paperclip - if you're fiddling with one, bending a particular point back and forth, back and forth, what happens? All of a sudden the metal gives way and you're holding two pieces of paperclip. Putting it back together with duct tape and chewing gum is a feat even MacGyver would struggle with.
But that's more or less what Anna had to do! Thanks to an Iditarod Insider video posted early Tuesday morning of the twins while they were in Rainy Pass, we now know Anna's sled suffered a crack in the rear left runner not 50 miles into the race! She was able to reinforce the cracked section with some rope and keep going. In Rainy Pass, she got her hands on some bolts, steel plates, and a drill and fashioned a more robust repair. Despite the challenge, both twins seemed in very good spirits in the video and Anna appears to have faced the adversity like a champ.
Time will tell if this sled issue creates further challenges down the trail. Normally, both Anna and Kristy ship out reserve sleds to a checkpoint like McGrath for issues just like this, but for reasons I'm not currently aware of, that didn't happen this year! When Andy, Kristy's husband and RDC currently holding down the fort back at the kennel, learned what happened, he frantically tried to find a way to get a sled shipped out to McGrath last minute, but the logistics were tight and the cost absurdly prohibitive. If we're able to communicate with Anna, there's a chance we might still be able to ship a sled to her further down the trail, or at least learn she's content with her repairs or was able to borrow a reserve sled from another musher.
So many questions, and a while before we'll get any answers! But at least they're together out there and the MacGyver’d sled is holding well enough for Anna to be leading the way at 9.7 miles per hour as they make their way to Nikolai.
The front of the pack began arriving in Nikolai (race mile 263) just after 7:30am with 5 more mushers arriving within 2 hours of that. The rest of the field is either tackling the 75 miles between Rohn and Nik or getting ready to. Only four teams are still on their way to Rohn, and no one has scratched from the race yet.
In other news... one of the Seeing Double Dogs on Kristy's team this year is named Mayhem. She's part of the trouble litter and making her way to Nome with most of her siblings. Mayhem (the dog) is very good trouble, and I was hoping her and her littermates would be the only good trouble out there with the twins this year. But this IS Iditarod, and unfortunately Murphy (with the Law) got ahold of his cousin Mayhem (of the Allstate commercial variety) and suggested he go have some fun out there...
Not long before the race started, Kristy and Anna were both able to get their sleds into sponsor Mike's shop (of Mike's Welding). There, in well-lit warmth with every tool imaginable at hand, they each gave their sleds a thorough going-over. They inspected nuts and bolts for cracks and tightness, put on new handlebar tape. Kristy worked on her drag pad (one of 3 braking mechanisms on a sled), adding fresh carbide snow machine track. Anna adjusted the foot pads on her runners, patched some holes in her sled bag, and did some work on the brush bow. That is at the front of the sled and is where the lines feed through. After hundreds of miles, the lines had worn a groove and it needed smoothing out to prevent extra wear on the precious lines keeping the dogs attached to the sled.
All in all, they thought their sleds were in good shape and ready for the long journey ahead. During our chat, I asked them, "so what's your biggest concern with respect to the sleds when out on the trail?" The answer, without hesitation, was cracking or breaking a runner. Although the twins thoroughly inspected their sleds, their runners are made from aluminum. You often cannot see points that are weakening from long term stress until something fails. Think of it like a paperclip - if you're fiddling with one, bending a particular point back and forth, back and forth, what happens? All of a sudden the metal gives way and you're holding two pieces of paperclip. Putting it back together with duct tape and chewing gum is a feat even MacGyver would struggle with.
But that's more or less what Anna had to do! Thanks to an Iditarod Insider video posted early Tuesday morning of the twins while they were in Rainy Pass, we now know Anna's sled suffered a crack in the rear left runner not 50 miles into the race! She was able to reinforce the cracked section with some rope and keep going. In Rainy Pass, she got her hands on some bolts, steel plates, and a drill and fashioned a more robust repair. Despite the challenge, both twins seemed in very good spirits in the video and Anna appears to have faced the adversity like a champ.
Time will tell if this sled issue creates further challenges down the trail. Normally, both Anna and Kristy ship out reserve sleds to a checkpoint like McGrath for issues just like this, but for reasons I'm not currently aware of, that didn't happen this year! When Andy, Kristy's husband and RDC currently holding down the fort back at the kennel, learned what happened, he frantically tried to find a way to get a sled shipped out to McGrath last minute, but the logistics were tight and the cost absurdly prohibitive. If we're able to communicate with Anna, there's a chance we might still be able to ship a sled to her further down the trail, or at least learn she's content with her repairs or was able to borrow a reserve sled from another musher.
So many questions, and a while before we'll get any answers! But at least they're together out there and the MacGyver’d sled is holding well enough for Anna to be leading the way at 9.7 miles per hour as they make their way to Nikolai.
 Anna discusses her sled repairs.  Mayhem - the very best kind. A Seeing Double dog running on Kristy’s team. |  Anna in Rainy Pass talking about her sled.  Mayhem - the Unwanted Variety |
