Now's about time that we settle in...fewer updates with less information and recycled photos (not really, I have a handful left over from the photo dump in McGrath, such as the gem above). If I'm as productive as I hope to be today I'll get some of the videos on the YouTubes for easier viewing. Speaking of ease, I heard feedback that this site doesn't play all that nice when not on a computer. 1) Sorry for that...I use this platform for my Congress class's research blogs (the right hand blog list is all their research on senators up for reelection if anyone gets bored) and so since I was already on it, I figured it was just as easy to use Blogger over another site. Wrong. Sadly, not much to do about it now; 2) I did discover that if you are on the site and want the latest post, click on the literal name of the blog at the top ("Dumb Hobby Diaries") instead of the entirely too logical "Home" button and that should refresh more accurately.
Turning to what little update I have (commentary I seem to have plenty of ha!)...
Ryan left McGrath (Mile 306.6) early afternoon on Sunday....there was heightened awareness of some possible weather and the rapidly progressing dog teams (turns out, the dogs' trek from Rohn to Nikolai was unusually difficult and slow). Having read the checkpoint descriptions, his quick stops at Takotna (Checkpoint #9, Mile 327.5 - "no services, village closed to visitors) and Ophir (Checkpoint #10, Mile 345 - "Wall tent; Iditarod dog race checkpoint. ITI racers are welcome on a space-available basis) make sense. I heard from him yesterday morning that he was back in the mountains and got some snow overnight and again last night as I was off to bed...the guys (Chris, Daniel, and Ryan are on again, off again trail buddies) were bivying for the night. Apparently, there is a "large rock for shelter" about 15 miles past Ophir....doing my bad trail math, I think that adds up to where they landed (Mile 361). Must be one hell of a rock, as they've been sheltered for 8+ hours! Might also have something to do with spending half the day in snowshoes (boooooo). I'm not sure they got all that much new snow so much as it's just that remote pre-dog race. There is a shelter cabin about 11 miles from where they're at now, so I'd anticipate a stop there, as it's a loooooooong stretch to Cripple...and there isn't much going on in Cripple to begin with.
Good (???) news is the trail breakers for the dog race should have come through last night. Bad (???) news is that means the dogs have arrived. Someone who's shared the trail with dog sled teams can certainly speak better to this, but it's my understanding that etiquette/smarts is to step off the trail for the teams...if you can hear them...they are insanely quiet! (Side note: this video is 3.5 hrs. long and makes you feel like you're pretty much in Alaska with Ryan, bahahaha, almost. Great ambient video for studying or dog entertainment). Stepping off the trail doesn't seem all that laborious, but this year I think stepping off the trail means hip deep snow, so yeah... Dogs on the trail also mean tiny little paw potholes, which I imagine are just annoying more than anything...but probably no more annoying than the rollers caused by the Iron Dog race. Intel from lead bikers indicate being at the mercy of the Iron Dog trail break (which has led them away from the Iditarod Trail/red line on the tracker), but maybe that changes with the dog race trail break?
The leaders of the Iditarod dog race came through Ophir early, early this morning. You can sign up for a free version of the race tracking, which is largely just a spreadsheet of data...things like time in and out of the checkpoint, time spent in the checkpoint, mph, and how many dogs they have left (or how many they have available depending on how you want to interpret the metric, "Dogs" 😹)
I'm guessing this is how a lot of you feel, but I am so lost, yet intrigued by this whole dog sled race...I don't understand the various strategies of resting, as they seem all over the place. I did learn a lot from this trivia and facts page put on by the Iditarod #themoreyouknow
***UPDATE*** Just received a text from Ryan...they got to high five the first dog sled teams as they were packing up and it was "completely awesome." (IYKYK, but eye roll emoji 😈)
More from me as I get word, but for now I'll leave you with some more Northern Lights porn :-)
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