Hard Fast Trail Continues into Rainy Pass

Most stories from the trail involve endless miles of trying to slow Teams down on this hard fast icy trail!  You look at the pictures and you think "what a gorgeous day to be out Mushing on the trail" but in reality the dogs don't do as good in 20 to 30 degrees above zero.  They much rather run in below zero temps than above!  That said, the Mushers are hard on the brake, trying to protect their Teams from burning out.  Hugh Neff, who is now at mile marker 188 just easing down into the checkpoint of Rohn, is leading the way....he is the first through the Dalzell Gorge....it will be interesting to hear how the trail was through that notorious part of the trail!  Hopefully the trail holds together for the chase pack....right now Noah Burmiester is at mile 172, Gebhardt is resting at mile 168, Jason Mackey at 166, Petit at mile 165, Lance Mackey (SO nice to see Lance in there) is at mile 165. The trail of Teams continue on at a steady pace.  Soon the hard technical driving will be over....and then its a long march on to the inner recesses of the State....with Buffalo, Carabou and Moose wandering the country.  Blogger Sebastian Schnuelle was turned around by a moose while motoring down the trail on his snow machine to Rainy Pass.  He ended up relinquishing the trail to the beast.

I heard an interview with Dallas....his Team is doing great but man, does he sound horrible.  Its got to be terrible being out on the trail with the flu.  Hopefully its just a 24 hour bug and he will bounce back in no time.  I see Aliy stopped short of the Rainy Pass Checkpoint to take a nice long break camping out.  Probably a good choice for a quieter place for her dogs to rest...plus she is away from any sick Mushers who are at the checkpoint!  Aliy is presently at mile 159 after a quick 6 minute stop in Rainy Pass.  She left 3 minutes after Dallas with 15 dogs.

Wade Marrs appears to be feeling much better...he was all smiles heading down the trail.  

Mitch Seavey had to drop another lead dog.  What a bummer....thats the 2nd veteran leader to be taken off the Team!  

The Teams were treated to a nice northern light show last night....I hope they have another great night tonight!  Sunset for them is around 6:30 pm...thats 10:30 EST.  Many Teams may be heading down the gorge at night...if the aurora is out, I doubt they will have the time to enjoy it!