Through the Gorge and on to Nikolai

The trail from Rohn to Nikolai is 75 miles long with a lot of rolling hills.  This is where the buffalo chutes are located with a local herd roaming free through the area.  The only front running Team who rested in Rohn was Pete Kaiser....and he was there for about 3 hours....everyone else moved through with a quick stop to reorganize their sled and grab some supplies from their drop bags if they intend to camp once along the way to Nikilia.  Mitch Seavey appears to be pressing the pace of his Team after holding them back a bit to this point. 

Nic is currently resting at mile 230 and Pete appears to be making a long run after his rest in Rohn and is currently running at mile 225 and will quite likely pass Nic soon.  Most other Teams who blew through Rohn have camped out along the trail just shy of half way through the 75 mile run.  According to the tracker, Teams started to take their rest around 10 pm Alaska time, and as I write this it appears Joar is back on the trail running at mile 215....so it looks like Teams are taking about a 3 hour or so rest on the trail to break it up into 2 runs.  Redington, Hall, Aliy, Beals, Drobny, Failor, Diehl, Royer and Seavey are all camped out from mile 209 to 208.

Returned dogs....that is the term they are now using to describe a dog that has been left at a Checkpoint to be "returned" to Anchorage.  Most Teams still have their full compliment of 14, the only Teams out in front who have returned a dog and are down to 13 are Joar and Mitch.  Being down 1 dog doesn't really impact a Team too much....sure they miss them, but if a dog was in need of more rest and TLC it is the right choice to make. 

Now on to Nikolai......soon after, Teams will start taking their 24 hour rests to recharge, regroup, and relax!