Time: 6am
So, what happened over night?
After leaving the chute in Willow, Aliy and the team passed through Yentna checkpoint just after 8pm. Yentna is not a resupply point so mushers needed to pack everything they needed to get their teams to Skwnetna, 83 miles into the race, including meals and snacks for their dogs. They will have passed thousands of spectators and fans that made the journey out to the lakes and rivers along the way to cheer their favourites.
After passing through Yentna checkpoint, they camped just a couple miles around the bend on the Yentna River at race mile 55, about 5.5 hours from the start. Aliy packed straw with her from the start so the dogs could bed down for their two hour rest. Straw is a good signal for the dogs to lay down, and they love to arrange their own beds according to their individual specifications.
After their break they then made their way to Skwentna checkpoint where they stayed two and a bit hours.
As I write, the team is 100 miles into the race, 23 miles from Finger Lake checkpoint. At this stage of the race the teams are all still fairly bunched up with 30 miles between the first and last musher and all on the same leg, between Skwentna and Finger Lake. Don Bowers Jnr wrote this about this leg of the race:
“It’s uphill most of the way to Finger Lake, but the trail isn’t overly tough. The trail leaves Skwentna southbound on the Skwentna River, cuts off the left bank to parallel the river in a swamp for eight miles, then swings west to cross the river at the site of the old Skwentna Roadhouse about ten miles out. It then climbs up into the heavily wooded Shell Hills for a mile and a half, down through open swamps and wooded areas to cross Shell Creek after another mile and a half, then on for another three miles across small lakes, swamps, and woods to Onestone Lake, where you’re about 25 miles from Finger Lake. After two-mile-long Onestone Lake, the trail works west along open swamps and meadows, through occasional treelines, and across a few lakes, steadily climbing to Finger Lake.”
You can find detailed trail descriptions at this link on the Iditarod website and click on the race leg you are interested in.
After Finger Lake the teams start towards Rainy Pass where they will travel down the infamous Happy River Steps.
Because we miss them so much already – here are a few more pics from yesterday of the parings as they left the starting chute.
Written coverage by the Iditarod this year is by Sebastian Schnuelle as the Armchair Musher, Terry Hanke with an Eye on The Trail and the Teacher on the Trail Kelly Villar. All three have interesting and different takes on the race so make sure to check them out throughout.
Aliy & Red Team, have a safe race to Nome.
Follow You , Iditarod, Insider, GPS & my Favorites is You & The team.
Hi,from Florida, Fort Myers, Brita
Getting a grip 100 plus miles in, adjusting to what must be one strange scene of almost-Spring snow stormy weather makes this a different race than usual. “Usual” being the climate change no snow of the past half-dozen years (just a guess).
One never knows what will come in the next 90% of the race!
WOOF WOOF WOOF GO RED TEAM, GO ALIY!!!
Thanks for the pictures! Miss them is the same feeling I have. By the way, it was nice of the comments at the start that as Aliy left one said about the Beloved Quito passing this year. That was nice of others to remember her! Hope Aliy knows this when she finishes.
Monday morning back to work, made worse by daylight savings…..BUT the awesome thing is we get to watch the tracker and envision Aliy and her Team mates enjoying the trail and all the snow! Go SPK!!! Monday is much more enjoyable because they are out on the trail!
Aliy has been moving steadily overnight. Go Red Team!!
Super pictures & videos of the dogs from the start. I’m hopeful for some Insider videos later today from down the trail.
Beautiful pictures and awesome links. I could have saved computer time this morning if I would have come here first. I forgot that to get to the trail descriptions one has to go through the map link.
“still fairly bunched up,” you’re not kidding! The traffic around Aliy coming into Finger Lake, is about as crowded as I can remember. More like the Steese Highway in Fairbanks. LOL I hope she makes it out of the tangle rested.
Obviously Aliy is resting in Finger Lake despite her tracker saying she is running. Joar’s tracker doesn’t seem to register his “rest” either, and I wonder how that impacts the analytics for both of them.
Looking forward to an exciting SPK day, Happy River steps, and the Dalzell Gorge. Aliy always handles her team so well through these challenges. I’m hoping this year is no different and she sails through showing her expertise and teamwork. <3
Go Red Team!!!!
I am excited to see how this race is going to go! I am hoping to get to see the Insider videos when Aliy is at a checkpoint. Go Aliy!!