The first full day is coming to a close for the racers. Some notable things have happened. For one, around 80 miles into the race Mitch had to drop his Golden Harness prized lead dog Pilot. The Seaveys are saying Mitch emotionally must be feeling that. He has other leaders....but when you have to drop your #1 leader it has to rock your world. He pulled into Rainy Pass with 15 dogs on the line, but I noticed one dog had a harness rub and I'm going to assume that is the dog he dropped because he left with 14. There are reports he still has been carrying dogs in his sled....sometimes up to 3 at a time, but he had them all on the line coming into Rainy Pass Checkpoint. There is no rule against carrying dogs...you just cant haul them behind you.
Both Ryan and Ray Redington are running a great race thus far....Ryan presently in the lead with Wade Marrs at mile 169 and Ray at mile 165. The top 12 mushers are spread out between mile 169 and Burmeister at mile 155.
Jessie Holmes is resting just a few miles outside of Rainy Pass Checkpoint, and there are a boat load of Teams still resting in the checkpoint. Jessie is having a hell of a race and is pushing for a finish in the top ten, if not in the top, then he would like Rookie of the Year. Matt Hall, who is no stranger to winning a 1,000 mile race is running conservatively....but is now in Rainy Pass resting. Its still too early to tell how these two will fight it out for Rookie of the Year. As the tracker just updated, Jessie is back on the runners and now running with Burmeister.
On another note, Rob Cooke had a close encounter with 2 moose yesterday outside of Willow....WOW....and someone caught it on video!
The front running Teams will be heading down the Dalzell Gorge tonight....always a fun time....should be a fairly tame ride with snow this year, but there are some nasty twists and turns and ice bridges to make as they traverse down the gorge and on into the Rohn Checkpoint. I hope the Iditarod Insiders post some videos soon....its been radio silence for a while now.
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