The Happy River "Steps" - Boring???

The Steps are a famed section of trail, where there is a series of switchbacks....the more Teams who travel down the Happy River Steps the more trenched the trail gets...to a point where the brake isn't making any connection with the snow to slow the Team down.  Looks like Kaiser, Diehl and Lance Mackey were the first down the steps....and Lance described them as "boring"!!  Wow.....at least for this first group of mushers it appears the trail has been groomed to perfection!  And so far NO moose!!!  Yeah!

As I write this there is a parade of Teams making their way into Rainy Pass.  This is a popular fly in check point for fans....but the weather has been sketchy for bush plane traffic with the storm.  It appears to have let up...and as the Team traverse down the west side of the Alaska Range the temps are going to plummet below zero....those are temps that typically do not make snow, and they are also temps that dogs LOVE!  Looks like many of the Teams will run this next leg that includes the Dalzell Gorge during the night!

Its interesting no one is camping outside of Rainy Pass....so I suspect the plane traffic is not so much and Teams are opting for rest in the checkpoints.  With all the snow, camping out is more of a chore because you might have to put on your snowshoes and stamp out a rest area for your dogs to use.  Time is everything to a competitive Musher....these people are living off of 10 and 20 minutes of cat naps, so there is not much time for extra.  The check points provide the Mushers water!  When they camp out they have to melt snow for water to make the kibble soup...which again takes time.  Many Mushers will not stay in Rainy Pass due to all the commotion of the planes and fans...but this years appears to be an exception.

Right now there are 10 Teams resting in Rainy Pass, with Jessie Royer the next one to arrive any moment, followed by Aaron Peck, Millie Porslid (Rookie!!), Mitch Seavey, Aliy, Michelle Phillips, Kelly Maxiner, Brent Sass, Lindwood Fiedler and Robert Reddington stretched out about 8 miles from the checkpoint.