IditaProject Forum

Jessie and Matt are up and rubbing salve on feet and putting on booties, so it looks like they'll have taken 3:50-4 hours rest by the time they get out of Koyuk.

Bruce thought Matt might cut his rest slightly, since his team looked good, but...

Greg compliments Travis as he goes past on a great race. Travis said he made some mistakes, but is happy to be where he's at.

Greg says the weather is about perfect - sunny, but with a light breeze to keep the dogs cool. He says the trail out of there is not the easiest though.

And they're off - Jessie just 5 minutes ahead of Matt.

(it's the little things - Matt came in 10 mins behind and now leaves 5 mins behind - just taking 5 mins away from the dogs' rest... and they were sound asleep on their straw)

J's dogs looked a little peppier leaving, but Greg was complimenting Matt's lead dog who has been in sole lead almost the entire race - Dayide (sp?)(small town in AK, apparently). Matt said that the dog looks miffed if he tries to put another dog up there with him - like "what, I need supervision??".

Travis (who arrived a couple of hours ago) is feeding the dogs their second meal in Koyuk.

And Dallas, 16 miles past Koyuk, just got going again after an even 4 hours rest.

Jeff and Paige are approaching Koyuk - neck-n-neck (footage looking out towards the ice shows them just feet apart).

Both Jeff and Paige's teams look AMAZING!

Jeff's were lunging and barking to go from the checker over to their camp spot, thinking they were going through, while Paige's were wagging tails and lolloping up the hill into Koyuk.

Interview with Jessie at Koyuk - he says he forgot his parka in Shak, so had to go back about half a mile and get it. He said the dogs were fine with it - they loped back to Shak, and then loped back out again. After that he was running with Matt across the ice and they were taking it in turns leading.

Matt says Jessie is a tad bit faster than him. Earlier in the race, he felt the dogs were slow and it was frustrating. Now they're still running exactly the same pace as four days ago, and he can deal with that a lot better, since that's what he expects from them. Going 7 mph isn't so bad.

Jessie says he's given up chasing Dallas and is just running his team. Says you could give Dallas the worse dog team, and he'd still beat them. It just makes them go back to the drawing board and figure out how to be better mushers. He's quite impressive.

He says his dogs don't really know where they're going - saw that esp. in the Blueberry Hills - but says they are doing fine. And that it's good for him because he wants to race the Kobuk 440 next.

He seemed a little down (esp. compared to Matt who always seems so even tempered and upbeat).

So Matt went through Elim, while Jessie stopped.

Jessie is moving again after a 2 hour break, but Matt is now 10 miles down the trail. It's a bit tortoise and hare - Jessie is faster, but Matt is steadier. Time will tell if Matt can maintain his lead (and keep it once they leave WM tomorrow). Kudos to Jessie for being patient - it has to be hard to watch your main opponent go down the trail.

Dallas is 14 miles from WM (and Matt is 20 miles behind him) - and just stopped briefly presumably to snack/switch dogs.

Behind Jessie, the teams are evenly spaced - Jessie, then 10 miles to Travis; then 9 miles to Jeff and Paige (still running in tandem); then Mille 20 miles back. Jessie R, Pete, and Amanda are still in Koyuk, rounding out the top ten.

* * *

I'm whiling away the time by watching the race documentaries that they are streaming continuously on one of the channels. So many familiar faces I'd forgotten about. They don't tell you which year it's from, so it's a cliff-hanger to see who wins - although I remember some of the incidents that happened along the trail (Mitch just cut his hand open and was withdrawn on this one currently showing).

Hmm.. Looking at Travis, he is still around 10 miles in front of Deeter and Drobny, but he must have a slower run than the three in front. He is almost at Golovin and have 9 miles to go to WM.. and Jessie has been at WM for a couple of hours.

I rewinded the tracker, his GPS blipped to orange three times between Elim and Golovin, but only five minutes.. so it might be nothing.

Only on my phone, but been watching Beals progress, he is off the ice and almost catched by Deeter. I will rewind when time, but it looks like he have had a though leg