PDW: Towards Eagle

There is not much I can tell you about how Jeff and the Red and Black Team are moving along the trail, to be honest. With his tracker malfunctioning I am just guessing and extrapolating from the information we have. We estimate they will arrive into Eagle about 11-11:30pm (Yukon time). Teams have a mandatory six hour stop in Eagle but can choose to stay longer if needed.

Earlier in the afternoon they pulled into Fortymile at 3:48pm in 9th position where they stayed exactly two hours before heading out to Eagle.

I know Jeff was excited to go to Eagle, after handling the whole way for the Yukon Quest but not being able to go to that checkpoint as it is not on the road system.

The trail between Fortymile and Eagle differs from the Quest in that teams do not go over American Summit, they stay on the river the entire time. Teams will cross the border into the USA just before the village of Eagle and mushers are to be prepared to clear customs as they arrive in Eagle and again when they finish the race in Dawson.

We know from following several races for several years that trackers sometimes just do not update and there is not that much that race officials or tracker people can do about it. It could be that Jeff is carrying straw on top of his sled and it is blocking the tracker, or that it has fallen into his sled bag and cannot ‘ping’, or the batteries are not fully functioning. Regardless, we just have to do it “old school” (although not completely old school when there were no websites, more like: “recent school”) and watch for the standings to be updated with their arrival time.