It’s 2:45pm Tuesday afternoon.
RED TEAM
Aliy left Koyuk with all 10 team mates at 9:14am this morning after resting six hours in the checkpoint. They are now on the way to Elim and currently they have about 10 miles to go.
Koyuk was a busy place over night with several teams resting there. I like to zoom in to the maps at checkpoint to see how the teams are parked, especially when they are in a village or town, to see how they utilise the space available.
The trail to Elim is 48 miles over well used snow machine trails. From Koyuk, the trail runs just offshore on the sea ice for about 12 miles and then cuts inland across the wooded peninsula behind “Bald Head”, a prominent cape.
Ten miles later the trail crosses the mouth of the Kwik River, makes an overland run along the dune line, and then jumps across Kwiniuk Inlet to Moses Point. It then runs along a narrow spit and across some tidelands. From there, the trail usually follows an unplowed state highway up and over the heavily forested bluffs and down into Elim.
Here’s an interesting satellite image of the area showing the coastline and mentioned forested areas.
The weather forecast for the Elim area today is for pretty good visibility but with snow in the forecast it may warm up and close in, resulting in potential white-out conditions.
Back in August, Aliy visited Elim on her tour of three Iditarod Trail villages. This is what she wrote about Elim:
From a Musher’s perspective:
An Iditarod dog team is nearing the village of Elim after it reaches Moses Point. Moses Point is a summer fish camp along the ocean that is completely abandoned in March. After the trail passes by fish nets decorated with icicles and boats upturned to the weather, it gets on an unplowed road leading to Elim.
The road is very protected and there are even trees and bushes that add a sense of security if windy conditions arise. But there are also many hills along the trail between Moses Point and Elim. For a tired dog team these hills are huge mountains, for energetic teams this are just small mounds. At the crest of the last hill driveways appear on both sides of the road and the teams are usually greeted, day or night, by barking dogs. “Who is in my neighborhood?”
You can read more about Aliy’s visit in this post “Elim is Wonderful”
BLACK TEAM
They have arrived into Kaltag! Allen rested his team a second time along the way to Kaltag and they arrived at the checkpoint around 2.30pm. We expect he will stay there a while also before hitting the portage trail to the coastal town of Unalakleet. They’ve been travelling on their own much of the time from Grayling so they will be pleased to see other teams and volunteers in Kaltag.
We are having fun imagining the combinations Allen is running. He had a tendency of giving his JV team opportunities to run in positions and next to other dogs they might not have done before. Is McCaw having a turn in lead? Do QT and Perky make a good combination? Will Willie lead the team over the finish line? What do you think?
Nice pic of Aliy in Elim. I hope she is feeling as cheerful today.
I guess we won’t need to wonder if Willie will lead the team into Nome. I am certainly impressed that he made it to Kaltag again this year, at the age of 9! Way to go buddy.
Good work to all the Black team members, especially Allen, who didn’t give up the fight even when he was sick. Keep some rest and heal up my friend.