ID: Thursday Evening in Galena

It’s 9pm Thursday night.

RED TEAM UPDATE

Aliy and the Red Team pulled in to Galena at 1.33pm. They took five hours, 53 minutes to cover the 50 miles from Ruby. It appears she is doing the mandatory 24 hour rest here.

Padee is our eyes on the Live Feed and saw the team come in to the checkpoint. She noticed wagging tails and ‘yipping’ happy dogs. It lifts the spirits to see the dogs enjoying themselves!

An Insider video shows Aliy giving Champ precautionary wrist wraps once they were settled onto the straw. She explains that she first massages holistic liniment into the joints and feet then wraps in a neoprene wrap. Then, to make is really firm and secure, wraps over the top with vet wrap. Champ was laying back enjoying his massage and looked quite fetching in his blue and pink wraps. This kind of attention is all part of racing, it’s not just jumping on the back of the sled and stopping to feed and rest the dogs every few hours; individual care attention to each dogs’ needs is paramount to any success.

Supplies for a 24 hour stop include about 70-80lb of kibble and about 90-100lb of meat snacks including turkey skins, beef and salmon for multiple meals. She will be trying to get as many calories into them as possible during the break, combined with as much sleep as they will take before getting restless to hit the trail again. We also sent fleece jackets, blankets and vet supplies (wraps, liniment massage oil, foot ointments etc) as well as human food and clothing. Human food for Aliy in Galena includes chicken and sweet potato pesto and grilled cheese sandwiches. The checkpoints will often have lots of food for mushers to enjoy also.

The 24 hours stop is also where the “time differential” will apply to every musher. This is where the difference in start times becomes equalised. Musher number 73 stays 24 hours exactly then each bib lower stays an extra two minutes. When the Red Team takes 24 they will, in fact, have to stay 25 hours and 4 minutes. The Black Team will stay 25 hours and 14 minutes having left 10 minutes before. For those playing at home I found this useful link in the “Edu” pages that helps explain how it all works. The equation I use is
(73-bib#)*2 = additional minutes.

The earliest Aliy and team can leave Galena would be 2.37pm Friday afternoon.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

The Black Team left Ruby at 4.37pm having spent 6.25 hours resting. Allen still has 16 team members with him and they are moving along very nicely. They are currently 15 miles from Galena and will therefore be at the checkpoint while the Red Team is still there. It will be great for Aliy and Allen to catch up, they haven’t seen each other since Nenana.

There is a great Alaska Dispatch New article where the reporter talked to a few mushers about how they stay warm during the -40F temperatures. Allen said he sings and dances to Christmas songs including Jingle Bells – he said it really perks the dogs up and helps him stay warm. Check the article out here.