SPK Dog Log

What a fast paced race this is turning out to be! The trails are evidently hard packed and this is showing with the fast run times.

Both the Black and the Red team have arrived into the Sourdough checkpoint, manned by teams from Wrangell-St Elias National Park, BLM and Ahtna.

Allen and his Black Team raced through the 43 mile run in 3 hours, 32 minutes, arriving 2nd into the checkpoint at 9.28am. Aliy and the Red Team got in very soon after them at 9.37 with almost the exact same runtime of 3 hours 33 minutes! They will rest here a while to ready themselves for the 74-ish mile run to Mendentna Creek Lodge, the final checkpoint of the race.

From what I can tell from a zoomed in GPS map it looks like the checkpoint is set up the same as it was last year. The teams check in at the campground near the main road but then take about a mile and a half trail down towards the boat ramp where the checkpoint is laid out in what is the carpark during the summer months.

GPS detail of Sourdough checkpoint

It’s an old school checkpoint where they will make their own water in their cookers and, in these temperatures, likely sleep curled up with their dogs in the straw (if they stay long enough to get a sleep!)

At this point the teams have covered 138.2 miles. I’m not certain what the total route miles will be with the change at the start but they are about half way through the race so there’s still a while to go and, as we always say, anything can happen!

Last night the Northern Lights put on a dazzling show for the dogs, mushers, handlers and volunteers. It must have been such a sight to see. Check out these pics (click here) by Birch Leaf Photography.

The weather forecast says the Copper River area will be mostly cloudy with a few isolated snow showers in the afternoon. Highs in the mid teens to lower 30s… so, it’s pretty warm out there.

Allen(25) and Aliy(9) have just pulled out of the Meiers Lake Checkpoint, right on time after taking their mandatory 6-hour plus start differential rests. Leaving at 5:56am and 6:04 respectively, they left 7 and 15 minutes behind Nic(46), but they have both taken 30-minutes more of their mandatory rest. So, on the clock, they are still ahead of him.

The next checkpoint at Sourdough is about 43 miles down the trail. At current speeds, we expect them to arrive in something under four hours. To give you an idea how fast the CB300 race trail is, Allen and Aliy are 36 and 58 minutes ahead of their respective schedules. That’s a lot so early in the race… Stay tuned!

Good morning! There’s a very tight race going on in the Copper Basin!

Here is a summary of the top ten fastest teams into the Meiers Lake checkpoint:

Matt Hall is capitalizing on his early starting position by turning in the fastest cumulative run times so far. Allen, Aliy and Ryne are duking it out with only 13 minutes separating their times. Veteran mushers Nic, Jessica and Sebastian are hot on their heels, and the Redingtons are both in good position for their typical late-race surges.

This is as close as it gets, folks, with plenty of nail biting, GPS refreshing, yelling at your computer and drama ahead!

I expect that most teams will take their long “six-hours plus start differential” rests at the Meiers checkpoint, but you never know what strategies these wily mushers may be running… Stay tuned!

A very quick update from Meiers Lake Roadhouse.

Aliy and the Red Team were 2nd into Meiers Lake at 10:48 with a runtime of 6 hours, 52 minutes. Allen and the Black Team arrived at 11.12pm with a runtime of 6 hours, 35 minutes.

The checkpoint routine for both teams will be to give the dogs several tasty meat snacks, put straw down for a warm, comfy sleep then remove all the booties. The dogs will also get a jacket or blanket to be extra toasty so they can stretch out their muscles and relax. Aliy and Allen will then prepare a large kibble meal for the dogs then get some thoroughly well earned rest themselves.

Once a few more teams are in Magellan will do a checkpoint and runtime analysis so you can compare the top 10-15 teams so far. There is still a LONG way to go in this race!

The handler team has rolled into Meiers Lake to await the teams. There’s no wi-fi there so we are limited to text communication. They will be trying to get some rest themselves so they are ready for the arrival of the teams in what we are estimating to be late tonight or in the very early hours of the morning.

We found these great pics from the start on the Copper Basin Facebook page!

Black team await their turn (from CB300 Facebook)

Black Team at the start line (from CB300 Facebook)

Red Team at the start – the question answered: she started with Waylon and Dutch in lead (from CB300 Facebook)

Evidently Aliy said her run to Chisto was “perfect” – their passes were great and the dogs responded fantastically to commands. Wes confirmed that Dutch and Scout were in lead into the checkpoint, then leaving Chisto she put Lydia up into lead with Scout.

As predicted, Allen had more trouble with his passes and ended up with four dogs in lead (Mismo, Chipper, Tinder and Junior). They had a lot more passing to do! He had Mismo and Kodiak (Edit: this should read Tinder) in lead out of Chisto to power up the hills.

One of those hills is know as “the hump” but according to the elevation map it is 3298ft high, the highest point of the race, so it is quite the long, slow climb. Can you picture the teams pulling hard with Aliy and Allen running and poling up the hill! Phew!

For a few miles before the checkpoint, the teams follow the Alyeska Pipeline before they cross over the road to the Meiers Lake Roadhouse. The road crossing, although over the major Richardson Highway, is very well manned, with signage and flashing lights and is as safe as possible for dogs, mushers and motorists.

More when we can.

Checkpoint times have finally been posted to the CB300 website! Here is the summary of top-ten run times:

As you can see, Aliy ran a dead heat with Matt Hall at two hours and forty minutes, which is really great considering she had to pass seven more teams to do it! Considering that Allen started way back in the pack at #25 and had to pass so many teams, it is remarkable that his run time was just 9 minutes slower. Our good friend Ryne Olson ran just a minute faster than Allen, so she is definitely in the hunt again this year!

So far it all looks great as the teams make their way to Meiers Lake, with only 25-30 miles to go. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Both teams are now out of the Chistochina checkpoint and on their way to Meiers Lake checkpoint, some 73 miles away.

We have an UNOFFICIAL arrival time for Aliy and the Red Team in to Chistochina at 1.56pm giving them a run time of 2 hours, 40 minutes over the 33.2 mile leg. (She was lead in by Dutch and Scout so either she swapped the leaders around during the run or she actually started the race with Dutch and Scout in lead, I’m not sure which.) After what looks to have been about two hours of rest, the team left at around 4pm.

We don’t know exactly when Allen and the Black Team checked in to Chisto but they are now back on the trail also after (according to the Trackleaders tracker data) about the same rest time of two hours.

We are awaiting official times to be updated on the CB300 website.

In a comparison of Aliy’s and Allen’s speed charts, below, from the tracking statistics for the first leg, you’ll see Allen’s is much more “stop-start”. This is presumably showing all the passing manoeuvres they will have had to negotiate, hence why mushers prefer a low bib number to start the race. We will likely see this reflected in the run time.

Aliy’s (top) and Allen’s speed charts for the first run into Chisto

The various strategies come in to play now as mushers spent differing amounts of time at rest in Chisto. A few mushers blew straight through the checkpoint while others chose to stay a few hours. Now is where the ‘total elapsed time’ that Macgellan was talking about earlier (see here) becomes the race indicator.

The focus for our teams at the checkpoint was to get a good meal into the dogs and get some rest after the fast first leg, ready to climb the hills into Meiers Lake. Aliy and Allen will be ski-poling and running hard up the hills to give the dogs as much help as they can, so it’s important they themselves got some rest, fluid and sustenance.

Have y’all noticed the new feature on the GP tracker? They have an elevation map at the bottom and you can move the “pin” anywhere on the map and it will tell you the elevation! You can see they are heading uphill for about the first 75 miles with a few peaks to come after that!

We’re having some trouble making contact with the handling crew at the moment so we’ll get pics and details when we can.

We’ve just received this pic of the Black Team at the start line. You can see Junior and Chipper in lead looking ready to roll!

Mark said he did get some video but will be unable to send it through until there is some reliable wi-fi so we’ll get that to you later.

A note from Macgellan: CB300 Analysis Tip: When you refresh the GPS tracker, don’t forget to hover over the numbers to see how long it’s been since the last update! Location on the map is shown since the last GPS update. Not all beacons refresh at the same time, so you may have to do a little mental extrapolation about how far a team may have gone since it’s last update!

For example, see the screen shot below – how far has Matt Hall actually travelled in the intervening 16 minutes…?