Thanks guys. I was glad it wasn't worse (and that the horse I had in the trailer is a pretty mellow guy who isn't fazed by much. I spent the day pricing out mirrors, fenders, wheels, welding, etc. My deductible is $1,000, so it looks like I'll be doing the repairs
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Bruce and Heister in Kaltag:
Still windy in Kaltag. Bruce says Brent has the advantage being in front, but the disadvantage that He has no idea what's going on behind him with regard to who's rested and for how long. Dallas, OTOH, can tell by looking at the signs in the snow as he goes past, to see how long Brent rested. Bruce says if he was just looking at teams, he thinks Dallas has the advantage - he's pulled that team together by taking meticulous care of them, they look a little stronger. But that it's not a totally fair analogy because they had taken an 8 hour rest and were just getting up and getting going. But he likes how hydrated and the weight that was on Dallas' dogs. It's up to Brent to manage his team going up the coast - and this thing isn't over.
Heister, OTOH, says that he was impressed because he's been to Kaltag a number of years and sometimes seen the eventual winner of the race's team not look as good as Brent's dogs did there.
Because of how/when they're resting, it's hard to tell how much lead Brent actually has, but when Dallas came through his team were "powered up and in 4-wheel drive, and digging for the coast, it was an impressive scene".
Bruce agreed about past teams - that both Brent and Dallas' teams looked remarkably stronger than past winning teams have in Kaltag and leaving climbing the hill leaving there.
Bruce is speculating that although Brent could do the run all the way from Kaltag to UNK [thinking Bruce wasn't the one interviewing Brent, when he specifically said he would break the run up and stop half-way], Dallas is very unlikely to do that - he's much more patient to gradually catch up - very like Mitch, coming from behind. Bruce says at this point, Brent has more rest in the bank.
Heister then talks about how Dallas' dogs were sick earlier in the race, but that when they came into Ruby they'd turned a corner.
They talk about Jessie Holmes being in a nice position, but with lots of good teams behind him ("vultures", they called them). Bruce says being in that "rest of the top ten" pack is harder on mushers than being at the front. At the front, you can just do your own thing. In the rest of the top ten, you'll be in a check point and there'll be 7 mushers there... if one musher gets up and grabs and cup of coffee and says they're going to go and look at their dogs, *everybody* else gets up and goes out. It gets so you can't lay down and sleep because they might sneak out on you, it can be really really a grind, and they get less sleep than those up front.
Heister goes on to say the front of the race is an absolute dream. Dallas Seavey, a 5 time champion and a possessed human when it comes to being great at this. And then you've got Brent, who has put so much energy into this, is as tough as they come, a real woodsman, kind of a reflection of what the ID was in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. Extremely impressive what's going on up front and he hopes that they stay competitive right up to the final miles, so we get a really great finish in Nome some time early on Tuesday.
They are moving the rear comms teams over to UNK, but the wind is blowing 40 mph on the coast, so it has been difficult to get planes in or out of UNK. At the time of the interview, they have two planes flying over there, trying to get in to UNK. If they are successful, they plan to come back and get Bruce and Kevin Bodie. Heister will stay in KAL with the livestream, and there'll be another livestream in UNK. Then early in the morning they're going to move the KAL livestream up trail to KOYUK. The wind is playing havoc on their logistics. They also have snowmachiners to catch up with Brent and Dallas on the trail.
In summation, Bruce says Brent and Dallas are more than just tough, they are also highly skilled at outdoors and their knowledge of dogs. The best compliment a musher can have is that you're a 'good dog man' (and that includes women) - and those guys are both good dog men.
Heister says he's looking forwards to seeing Brent and Dallas running to Nome - both great athletes. Brent is down 15 lbs from a year ago, he's been running and is in incredible shape; while Dallas is a relentless competitor and will battle right to the final mile on Front Street in Nome.