Sarah

What an interesting 24 hours of racing we’ve had!

I’ve been multi-tasking trying to prep for Nome while crunching race numbers. After a great run into Eagle Island yesterday, Travis and his best friend Wade Marrs of Stump Jumpin Kennel traveled the remainder of the trail together into Kaltag. From the tracker, it looked like they alternated taking turns leading. This is advantageous as neither team tires out their lead dogs. Being a lead dog, especially in such tough trail conditions, is challenging.

Before leaving Eagle Island, Travis dropped Granger. Granger came up with a sore shoulder on the run into Ealge Island and with soft trail and several long runs ahead he didn’t want to have to carry her. This isn’t anything to be too concerned about as his team has lots of depth. I’m sure another dog will step up to the challenge!

The 122-mile stretch of trail from Grayling to Kaltag took Travis 20 hours and 42 minutes. Wade posted a slightly faster time — but both Travis and Wade continue to post faster times than the mushers in front of them. Currently, Travis is camped at mile 712 approximately 25 miles from Unalakleet. Ray, Pete, Richie, and Wade are all camped a few miles up ahead 0n the trail. I expect these teams will rest, 4-5 hours, and blow through Unalakleet.

Travis won’t rest long on the trail. He’ll rest approximately 1.5 to 2-hours tops before continuing to Unalakleet. Breaking up the 85 miles run like this, into a 60-mile run and a 25-mile run, will keep the dogs peppy and keep speed in the team for the push up the coast. He’ll play some leapfrog here, passing Wade, Ray, Pete, and Richie going into Unalakleet but they will pass him back shortly. Travis will have to stop in Unalakleet for a few hours whereas these teams will be able to blow through.

In Unalakleet, Travis will switch to a smaller, lighter sled which will hopefully help him gain some faster times. It will be interesting to see how things take shape from there. Travis will have sacrificed some time but will hopefully have gained some speed. With already faster run times and a little extra rest, he’s hoping he can push past some of the competitors for a better finishing placement: it’s a conservative movement that will allow him to hold his current position with a possibility of gaining.

The 122-mile push to Kaltag has begun!

After arriving in Grayling at 11:40 last night in 11th position, Travis opted to stay 5 hours and 40 minutes before heading down the trail. He left in 9th position: two teams who arrived before him took longer rests and departed after him. These teams were friend Wade Marrs and Jessie Royer.  Jessie stayed 6.5 hours and Wade about 7 hours. These longer rests may prove beneficial a day or two down the line but for now it appears that Travis has the slight edge.

In mushing, there is a general rule of thumb that the dogs don’t really much of a benefit from a rest over 6 hours. That is, if a dog team isn’t restored from a 6-hour rest, an extra 30 minutes or even another hour or two isn’t going to be the deciding factor. Rests over 6 hours, however, do help the musher tremendously. With mushers only getting a little sleep here and there, a 6 or 7-hour break can really help the musher get a good quality 4-hour nap in and may better prepare them for helping their team down the trail.

So far, things are looking good on his run. He’s maintained some really good speed and appears to be putting distance between the teams he left ahead of as well as catching the teams who left before him. It’s been an interesting year given the tough trail conditions thus far. Although our training this year emphasized speed over power, this was the first year that speed has been our true emphasis in training. Even though we did not emphasize power training as much this year, Travis’ team has gone through several seasons of tough “power” training before switching to a different speedier style. Because of this, it’s hard for me to really say what our team specializes in. I’d give a slight edge to speed as that, after all, has been our focus — but that emphasis was built on a rock-solid foundation of many years where power training was the focus. Whatever it is, it seems to be working!

Travis will likely catch several teams, depending on the amount of rest he chooses to take while camped, before Kaltag. He’s also poised to overtake many other teams on the run to Unalakleet. I couldn’t be more proud of how he has managed his race: his strong team management has really shown in his run times!

In Unalakleet, Travis has two different sleds waiting for him. He will certainly switch to one of these sleds as they are both lighter, but I can’t say which one for sure. The important thing is: they are both much lighter than the sled he is driving now. This decrease in weight will make pulling significantly easier on the dogs and give the team a boost at a later stage in the race.

I expect Travis and the teams ahead of him will camp somewhere between mile 585 and 592. Mitch and Joar are resting at 585 and from the map, it looks like this might be a great spot out of the wind — which I’ve heard there is plenty of. Nic is further up the trail at 591. I screenshotted Eagle Island before it was “erased” and had that at mile 592 so it’s unclear if Nic is at the hospitality stop in Eagle Island or resting shortly before it.

By my estimation, Trav will be pulling off the trail sometime between 11-12:30 which will give him and the rest of the pack he is with the benefit of resting during the heat of the day. Nic, Mitch, and Joar do not have that benefit. Make no mistake, these three teams have a significant lead over the rest of the chase pack — but with some forecasted snow along the coast, mother nature could throw a wrench in their races plans.

There’s been some concern from race fans that Travis hasn’t taken his 8-hour layover. Don’t worry! He took his mandatory 8-hour layover in Shageluk but there appears to be a glitch in Iditarod’s system. Every time they try to update this section of his racing information it doesn’t appear to save.

I am off to do some last minute packing, cleaning, etc before flying to Nome tomorrow morning!

What a day!

Travis arrived in Shageluk this morning at 9:38 am after a very long run. Between the fresh snow and continuous wind, the trail was extremely difficult and made for slow going. Still, he slogged ahead with his leaders breaking trail for the entire 55-mile run. Many of the teams in front of him, it seems felt that this was a particularly difficult run which is why so many teams declared their 8-hour mandatory layover — and many of the teams behind him struggled to get into Shageluk, with many opting to camp along the way. I’m so impressed by both Travis and the dogs, not only in their willingness to face every challenge that comes their way but to do so happily and to make adjustments when needed.

Arriving in Shageluk, Travis declared his 8-hour  layover. Mushers can choose where to take this mandatory layover but it must be taken at a checkpoint that is on the Yukon River. This year’s route means that mushers can take it in Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling or Kaltag. Although Travis hadn’t planned to take his 8-hour layover this early, the bad trail and concerns for one of his main lead dogs necessitated it. If you haven’t been introduced to our 2018 Iditarod team, make sure you do!

Travis wasn’t alone in choosing to take his 8 in Shageluk: the pack of mushers he has been running with all decided to do the same. I imagine this must have been a fun place to be early this morning and this afternoon with mushers swapping stories of their journey down the trail in between trying to get some shut-eye.

It seemed that the 8-hour rest did Travis well. He left Shageluk in 13th place with 14 dogs and cruised along into Anvik where he arrived at 9:01 pm. He had a runtime of 3 hours and 19 minutes, the third fastest recorded runtime yet and has been making up time on the teams ahead of him. Because the run to Anvik was so short he, and many of the other teams went through to Grayling.

He posted THE FASTEST run time from so far from Anvik to  Grayling: 2 hours and 39 minutes and came into Grayling in 11th position. He made up over 40 minutes on Aliy Zirkle, passing her shortly before getting into the checkpoint. I expect Travis will rest in Grayling for 4 or 5 hours before continuing on down the trail.

With the snow and wind, Iditarod has faced an unanticipated hiccup: the drop bags for the Eagle Island checkpoint could not be delivered. Because this checkpoint is a remote location set up by Iditarod, drop bags are often flown in right before racers arrive: otherwise they risk exposure to the elements and to wild animals. Due to the bad weather, however, this didn’t happen in time. Iditarod, therefore, has turned Eagle Island into a hospitality stop for the remainder of the 2018 race. Mushers will not have any drop bags there though they will have access to a vet and will be able to drop a dog if needed.

The trail from Grayling to Kaltag is 122 miles long and throws a rather interesting wrench into Iditarod 2018. Due to tough trail conditions, mushers will have to break up this run into approximately two 6o-mile runs or into three 40-mile runs. The trail and weather will ultimately dictate what many teams choose to do. Here’s the kicker though: teams are going to have to carry all their gear for this 122-mile stretch. This means extra weight in their sled on an already slow, tough trail. This may end up being an equalizer: stronger, slower teams will have the advantage in this section whereas smaller, faster teams may struggle.

Additionally, the teams out front, Nic, Mitch and Joar — will have to break trail. Their heavy sleds may compact the trail and make it speedier for the teams to follow. If it continues to be windy or to snow, however, any trail they put in may quickly vanish. I’m not sure if the teams behind them will be able to catch them as they have built a fairly substantial lead. That being said, anything can happen!

The run into Kaltag and then onto Unalakleet is traditionally the portion of the race where teams jockey for position to race along the coast.

One thing I know about Travis though is that he shines in adversity!