I’m afraid I don’t really know anything more than you do from looking at the Iditarod leader board and GPS tracker.
Aliy is on the move between Rohn and Nikolai, right in the thick of it with other top mushers like Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Hans Gatt and Bjornar Anderson. They are all within a couple of miles of each other. It appears that she has dropped a dog in Rohn, but I don’t know which one. I can tell you that she is right on her “plan” and I don’t see anything that leads me to believe the race isn’t going very well for her overall.
Allen is in Rohn, stopped and pretty obviously resting. Given his crew of youngsters and their unknowns, Allen has less of a “plan” than Aliy but he is clearly doing very well too. His speed from Rainy Pass was certainly very good! He dropped a dog in Finger Lake, but I don’t know who. Like you, I hope it wasn’t Beemer!
So, overall the “news” is very good… So frustrating to have all this technology to share information but not really have any to share! I will let you know any news I get just as soon as I have it. Looking forward, I am booked on a flight to McGrath early tomorrow morning. At the pace she’s running, I’m skeptical that I will get there ahead of Aliy but you never know. If I get there after she has passed through, I will try to get someone with a snow machine to run me down the trail to Takotna and see if I can catch up with her. Frankly, I give the whole plan a 50/50 shot but it’s worth trying, just to get some real info!
To give you something worthwhile here and now, I’ve taken the best of my Official Start photos and uploaded them in this post. Clicking on the photo thumbnails will take you to full size images that I think you’ll enjoy. Also, I’m working on a couple of other goodies for you that I will post in a little while… So, stay tuned!
