Kristy, Anna, and their dogs arrived in the checkpoint of Iditarod at 3:30am Friday morning. They spent 5 hours 50 minutes in checkpoint giving the dogs a good long rest, I'm sure a very necessary thing after an exceptionally cold night on the trail and before the long 80 mile run back to Ophir. They pulled out around 9:20am and joined those mushers already on the return half of this year's trail.
Anna was reported out in 27th place with 11 dogs in front of her sled after opting to return one more furry friend from Iditarod. Kristy was out in 28th and retained her 12 dogs. During a long distance, multi-day event like this, the twins will rarely run the dogs more than 60 miles at a shot before stopping to give them a longer (4-6 hour) rest. This will almost certainly be the case on the return 80 mile stretch to Ophir. I just don't know where, exactly, the twins might stop along the trail. They left me a really great diagram with their run/rest plan for this year, but only the first half of the race was laid out with any degree of certainty.
There were whispers before the race started that there was at least a chance that the 20 mile Flat loop at Iditarod would get shortened or scrapped. So the twins suspected early on that they would have to make a lot of game time decisions during the second half of the race. But they sensibly planned for some of the more likely changes, so the diagram I received reads very much like a 'choose your own adventure' book. Anyone else remember those? I had a couple as a kid, and I loved them. Every few chapters of the story, you were presented with two options... if you wanted the character to proceed like this, go to Page X; if you want the character to make this choice, go to Page Y; and then the story proceeded accordingly. I read these books over and over, trying different choices, each time ultimately arriving at the end of the story in a slightly different fashion.
That's basically where I'm at both deciphering and writing about what the twins are most likely to do next. The closer they camp to Ophir (mile 512 on the return), the less likely they are to take an extended rest in Ophir. That said, they also have to declare and take their 8-hour rest before or, at the latest, in Rohn. When we spoke with them on Wednesday, they were still not yet sure where they would take this rest. I wouldn't be too surprised, though, if they waited until McGrath or even Nikolai to take this other rest. I doubt they'll wait until Rohn, though. Running up and over the Alaska Range is one heckuva undertaking, but the twins have to keep in mind they have their final required 8hr rest on the other side, in Skwentna.
Whatever they decide to do, this Mad Blogger will be here adding commentary to accompany their journey. Sure, I might be making a lot of it up as I go, but that's kinda been my approach to life so far. Why quit now....!
A couple other interesting notes before I wrap up this post... First, I love Iditarod volunteers. Not only because they help make this event possible, but also because they are often the source of great stories during the race. Case in point - I recently ran across a brief story from the Skwentna checkpoint. Volunteer Doug Ramsey, of Wyoming, stepped in with a couple Alaska State Troopers to save the day when two young brothers got into trouble on the Skwentna River, one falling into the water and nearly getting drug under the ice. Kudos, Doug, for your quick thinking and selfless actions. That is exactly the spirit that the Iditarod is created around.
The other thing I simply have to comment on, especially in light of my recent Special Feature on cold weather gear. Man oh man, did they need all that gear recently! I watched a couple of the Iditarod Insider interviews this morning from Ophir. When Joar pulled into this checkpoint around 6:30am Friday, it was 52 below zero! Ambient air temp! Every musher they talked to was frost covered, from eyelashes to neck gator. One musher heard the current temp and speculated he must have seen at least -60 out on the trail overnight. Dios mio. I mean, that's just silly.
Mushers are likely to continue to face extreme cold for the next couple days, but then things are scheduled to "warm up" (relatively speaking, of course). Chances for precipitation increase along with temps Sunday into Monday, and mushers could be back in the realm of +10 to 20F for daytime highs. But for now, the Iditarod Weather Center link has the Ophir/McGrath checkpoint approaching noon Alaska time with a temp of only -9F.
Happy Friday, armchair mushers. Have yourselves a lovely little weekend, but don't stray too far! Mushers and their dogs will continue to move down the trail and aren't taking the weekend off. Neither is your Mad Blogger.
Anna was reported out in 27th place with 11 dogs in front of her sled after opting to return one more furry friend from Iditarod. Kristy was out in 28th and retained her 12 dogs. During a long distance, multi-day event like this, the twins will rarely run the dogs more than 60 miles at a shot before stopping to give them a longer (4-6 hour) rest. This will almost certainly be the case on the return 80 mile stretch to Ophir. I just don't know where, exactly, the twins might stop along the trail. They left me a really great diagram with their run/rest plan for this year, but only the first half of the race was laid out with any degree of certainty.
There were whispers before the race started that there was at least a chance that the 20 mile Flat loop at Iditarod would get shortened or scrapped. So the twins suspected early on that they would have to make a lot of game time decisions during the second half of the race. But they sensibly planned for some of the more likely changes, so the diagram I received reads very much like a 'choose your own adventure' book. Anyone else remember those? I had a couple as a kid, and I loved them. Every few chapters of the story, you were presented with two options... if you wanted the character to proceed like this, go to Page X; if you want the character to make this choice, go to Page Y; and then the story proceeded accordingly. I read these books over and over, trying different choices, each time ultimately arriving at the end of the story in a slightly different fashion.
That's basically where I'm at both deciphering and writing about what the twins are most likely to do next. The closer they camp to Ophir (mile 512 on the return), the less likely they are to take an extended rest in Ophir. That said, they also have to declare and take their 8-hour rest before or, at the latest, in Rohn. When we spoke with them on Wednesday, they were still not yet sure where they would take this rest. I wouldn't be too surprised, though, if they waited until McGrath or even Nikolai to take this other rest. I doubt they'll wait until Rohn, though. Running up and over the Alaska Range is one heckuva undertaking, but the twins have to keep in mind they have their final required 8hr rest on the other side, in Skwentna.
Whatever they decide to do, this Mad Blogger will be here adding commentary to accompany their journey. Sure, I might be making a lot of it up as I go, but that's kinda been my approach to life so far. Why quit now....!
A couple other interesting notes before I wrap up this post... First, I love Iditarod volunteers. Not only because they help make this event possible, but also because they are often the source of great stories during the race. Case in point - I recently ran across a brief story from the Skwentna checkpoint. Volunteer Doug Ramsey, of Wyoming, stepped in with a couple Alaska State Troopers to save the day when two young brothers got into trouble on the Skwentna River, one falling into the water and nearly getting drug under the ice. Kudos, Doug, for your quick thinking and selfless actions. That is exactly the spirit that the Iditarod is created around.
The other thing I simply have to comment on, especially in light of my recent Special Feature on cold weather gear. Man oh man, did they need all that gear recently! I watched a couple of the Iditarod Insider interviews this morning from Ophir. When Joar pulled into this checkpoint around 6:30am Friday, it was 52 below zero! Ambient air temp! Every musher they talked to was frost covered, from eyelashes to neck gator. One musher heard the current temp and speculated he must have seen at least -60 out on the trail overnight. Dios mio. I mean, that's just silly.
Mushers are likely to continue to face extreme cold for the next couple days, but then things are scheduled to "warm up" (relatively speaking, of course). Chances for precipitation increase along with temps Sunday into Monday, and mushers could be back in the realm of +10 to 20F for daytime highs. But for now, the Iditarod Weather Center link has the Ophir/McGrath checkpoint approaching noon Alaska time with a temp of only -9F.
Happy Friday, armchair mushers. Have yourselves a lovely little weekend, but don't stray too far! Mushers and their dogs will continue to move down the trail and aren't taking the weekend off. Neither is your Mad Blogger.