Mitch Seavey and Joar Ulsom First Mushers to Bolt Outta Ruby

We presently have 2 Teams that opted not to take any mandatory rests and cut lose from Ruby after 4 hours rest (Mitch) and 3 hours rest (Ulsom).  They are presently at mile 356 and 351 with Mitch in the lead.  

So far, no one else is leaving Ruby and is quite likely staying to knock off one of the mandatory rests....either the 8 hour or the 24 hour rest.

Remember that group that already took their 8 hour rest back in Tanana....well they just hit Ruby.  Reddington leading the pack with Jason Mackey 3 minutes behind him and Buser a mere 2 minutes behind Jason!  King is still out on the trail into Ruby about 14 miles to go to the checkpoint.  This is the group to watch....Mitch and Joar are physically leading, but this group here will easily overtake them once they finally stop to serve out some mandatory rest.  Then again, its a balance, because these teams too will have to log in some rest....but their rest is more flexible. No one, not even this group, has yet to serve out there 24 hour rest.  Dallas and Wade Marrs did declare they are staying for 24 hours in Ruby....but Dallas seemed to waiver on that....he might break out after just serving his 8 hours and then do his 24 hours further into the race. 

I'm glad I am off tomorrow, as the race really gets exciting in regards to strategy in the next few days!  Weather will be a factor coming up....as some fairly warm temps are about to raise some havoc with the trail.  This may spell trouble for Teams further back, as well as spell trouble for the "Dog Hauler" Dallas and his Father Mitch.  Hauling dogs may prove too heavy for the soft trail to handle.  Awe....they might have to just run their dogs on the tug line instead of boxing them up in the sled! 

Next checkpoint is Galena 50 miles down the trail, presently at -17 degrees but the mercury will rise to 14 above today.  Mushers will quite likely start running their dogs at night as these kind of temps will zap a teams strength quick.  By Friday the temps in Galena and Huslia will be 18 to 22 degrees above 0...good for Mushers but bad for dogs!  Talk about extremes!  First 40 to 50 below and now this warm up?  Oh, and it may even rain....yikes!