The Iditarod current standings show Aliy was 4th into Rainy Pass checkpoint, only 90 minutes off the pace. This is great news and confirms that she is right on her “plan.” You can’t see Aliy’s number (#24) because it is hidden beneath Hans Gatt’s (#25) which means they are probably parked next to each other. What you can see is that Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Bjornar Anderson, and the rest of the leaders are all there as well!
Those of you who are watching the GPS may have been scratching your head — like I’ve been — wondering why the teams all went right through the checkpoint and stopped all together a few miles down the trail. The best I can figure is that the GPS coordinates are correct but don’t exactly match up with the map. So, I’ve decided that I will rely on the plots for relative location between mushers but I’m not going to rely on them for correspondence with the checkpoints. Does it always have to be complicated?
Anyway, I’m disappointed that my plane was grounded this morning and that I couldn’t be there to meet her and bring you back some “stuff.” But, you know by now how it goes around here! Right now I’m working on a plan to get to McGrath on Wednesday. I’m also working on some of the “stuff” I’ve been piling up for the past two days, so stay tuned!
Keep up the reporting. I was wondering about the GPS myself. It looked like they were all camping on top of each other out in on the trail. Like your analysis better.
I noticed that they were all outside Rainy Pass as well! I was also wondering why Allan was stopped so long at mile 97. Does anyone know which of his dogs was dropped?
It has been fascinating being able to follow everyone via UPS!