Anna and her dogs pulled into Galena (race mile 545) a little after 5pm on Saturday, March 9th. She was reported in 24th place, a position she has been holding steadily for a while now.
She did pull into Ruby overnight Friday into Saturday - 2:30am on Saturday, to be precise. She and the dogs had spent 15 hours on the 70 miles of trail from Cripple to Ruby, part running, part resting. I’m sure a touch of civilization was a welcome sight. Ruby is also the first checkpoint on the Yukon River, so the fact that she opted to declare and take the 8 hour mandatory rest required at a checkpoint along the Yukon here makes sense.
Anna hit the trail out of Ruby at 10:39am Saturday and spent the rest of the morning and afternoon mushing the 50 miles to Galena, arriving six and a half hours later just after 5pm. I suspect she will rest in checkpoint for at least four hours, but I wouldn’t be surprised (nor concerned) to see that rest extend to five hours or a bit more.
Kristy did speak with Anna not long after she got into Galena, and reported that Anna seemed in good spirits and said the dogs are doing incredible. I got a brief text from Anna as well. But despite the temptation, I didn’t hit her with a barrage of questions. Just a lot of love and support!
Kristy also told me that all six of the dogs Anna returned home, are now, in fact, home! Anvik joined Zwickel, and then Fog, Maverick, and Albert landed in Anchorage where Kristy picked them up. Rocky was at the kennel for a bit, but as he was on loan from the Redingtons, he’s already back with his home pack. All of the returned racers are eating really well and displaying no ill effects of the many miles they travelled.
And just to review Anna’s dog team now, that leaves the 10 canine athletes in front of her sled as: Diego, Shoshanna, Ruckus, Mayhem, Astro, Platinum, Havoc, Rampage, Trout, and Elmer.
Speaking of the dogs, check out the cute article from Alaska Public Media… a feature on Mayhem! She really is the sweetest dog, and a major asset on Anna’s team. She was in lead at the restart and I know has been leading Anna a lot over these last 545 miles. She’s really showing her Iditarod veteran chops out there.
As Anna and her dogs rest in Galena, Travis Beals is gobbling up trail. He is the only musher as of this post to hit the trail out of Kaltag (race mile 629). It’s not quite 9pm in Alaska on Saturday night, and GPS has him at mile 642. Five other mushers are reported into Kaltag - Jessie Holmes, Paige Drobny, Matt Hall, Ryan Redington, and Dallas Seavey. Travis was mushing a 10-dog team when he left Kaltag, and the rest of the top ten last had 11 to 15-dog teams. Every musher has completed their 24 and all but 11 have checked off their 8 hour along the Yukon.
Which makes sense as those 11 are the back of the pack and only just out of or into Ruby. They’ll satisfy their 8s soon. The very back of the pack includes rookies Bryce Mumford and Joshua Robbins, who are both closing in on Cripple. Which gives our field a current lead-lag spread of 159 miles.
The cold is starting to really ramp up out there. One article reported a windchill of nearly 40 below in Galena Saturday morning, and one app this Mad Blogger consults has Galena at -7F now with clear skies and 7mph wind. Which doesn’t sound so bad until I scroll over and see -21F forecast for Sunday morning.
Anna and the other mushers will have a cold night out on the trail.
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 9: Down By the River by Milky Chance.
She did pull into Ruby overnight Friday into Saturday - 2:30am on Saturday, to be precise. She and the dogs had spent 15 hours on the 70 miles of trail from Cripple to Ruby, part running, part resting. I’m sure a touch of civilization was a welcome sight. Ruby is also the first checkpoint on the Yukon River, so the fact that she opted to declare and take the 8 hour mandatory rest required at a checkpoint along the Yukon here makes sense.
Anna hit the trail out of Ruby at 10:39am Saturday and spent the rest of the morning and afternoon mushing the 50 miles to Galena, arriving six and a half hours later just after 5pm. I suspect she will rest in checkpoint for at least four hours, but I wouldn’t be surprised (nor concerned) to see that rest extend to five hours or a bit more.
Kristy did speak with Anna not long after she got into Galena, and reported that Anna seemed in good spirits and said the dogs are doing incredible. I got a brief text from Anna as well. But despite the temptation, I didn’t hit her with a barrage of questions. Just a lot of love and support!
Kristy also told me that all six of the dogs Anna returned home, are now, in fact, home! Anvik joined Zwickel, and then Fog, Maverick, and Albert landed in Anchorage where Kristy picked them up. Rocky was at the kennel for a bit, but as he was on loan from the Redingtons, he’s already back with his home pack. All of the returned racers are eating really well and displaying no ill effects of the many miles they travelled.
And just to review Anna’s dog team now, that leaves the 10 canine athletes in front of her sled as: Diego, Shoshanna, Ruckus, Mayhem, Astro, Platinum, Havoc, Rampage, Trout, and Elmer.
Speaking of the dogs, check out the cute article from Alaska Public Media… a feature on Mayhem! She really is the sweetest dog, and a major asset on Anna’s team. She was in lead at the restart and I know has been leading Anna a lot over these last 545 miles. She’s really showing her Iditarod veteran chops out there.
As Anna and her dogs rest in Galena, Travis Beals is gobbling up trail. He is the only musher as of this post to hit the trail out of Kaltag (race mile 629). It’s not quite 9pm in Alaska on Saturday night, and GPS has him at mile 642. Five other mushers are reported into Kaltag - Jessie Holmes, Paige Drobny, Matt Hall, Ryan Redington, and Dallas Seavey. Travis was mushing a 10-dog team when he left Kaltag, and the rest of the top ten last had 11 to 15-dog teams. Every musher has completed their 24 and all but 11 have checked off their 8 hour along the Yukon.
Which makes sense as those 11 are the back of the pack and only just out of or into Ruby. They’ll satisfy their 8s soon. The very back of the pack includes rookies Bryce Mumford and Joshua Robbins, who are both closing in on Cripple. Which gives our field a current lead-lag spread of 159 miles.
The cold is starting to really ramp up out there. One article reported a windchill of nearly 40 below in Galena Saturday morning, and one app this Mad Blogger consults has Galena at -7F now with clear skies and 7mph wind. Which doesn’t sound so bad until I scroll over and see -21F forecast for Sunday morning.
Anna and the other mushers will have a cold night out on the trail.
Seeing Double Iditarod 2024 Playlist…
Song 9: Down By the River by Milky Chance.
Left: Satellite view of Anna's GPS tracker as she nears Galena. Look at the scale key in the lower left corner - the Yukon is over 3,000 feet wide at that point! Above: crazy cracks appear in the ice of a lake while one of the twins was out mushing back in January 2016. Turns out, there had been an earthquake! |