Aliy Arrives in Nome!

Aliy is in Nome! She arrived at 10:57am with 7 dogs in harness. She finished with ChaCha and Oddball in lead. Manny was in single swing, then Pingo and Bullet, and Teddy and Tony in wheel. She had to drop Heeler when she went through Safety.

Oddball had never run lead in his life before this race and has now run close to 200 miles up front. I asked Aliy before she fell asleep whether it was a one time thing, being short on dogs. She said that he looked like his dad AJ up there. That is quite a complement. She also said she didn’t know if he would have the concentration to be able to lead once he was off the race. However , she could never put AJ up in lead until he had already run about 1000 training miles. Maybe a new star was born.

Oddball wasn’t the only neophyte leader in the team. Tony, Oddball’s brother, also lead the team down the coast. Tough situations make for interesting choices.

Allen is on his way to White Mountain. He should be there by about 8pm tonight. We are expecting to see him in Nome about the same time Aliy arrived today, around noon. He was telling us yesterday that he was having some pretty interesting hallucinations over the last few days. We are wishing him some entertaining ones on his final trek.

I am sure we will hear many more stories over the next couple of days from both Aliy and Allen. I will pass some along. We are off to feed the dogs and get them settled in their new little dog yard. Keep checking to Blog for pictures. I’ll get them up as soon as I get some in.

I am so happy she is here!