Travis is into White Mountain! Travis arrived in White Mountain at 9:33pm and will have to take a mandatory 8-hour rest there. This rest will provide a much-needed break for dogs and musher: it will mark one of the first good opportunities for Travis to sleep since he took his mandatory 8-hour layover in Shageluk 435 miles and 4 days ago. This rest will be crucial for the 77 miles he will have to travel from White Mountain to Nome.

When Travis leaves White Mountain, he is going to need every ounce of energy: it’s going to be one heck of a race to figure out 7th through 10th place. With some of the mushers moving significantly faster than Travis, I expect that he may drop a place or two in the standings but am hoping he will still be able to achieve his goal of his first Iditarod Top 10 Finish.

This race is far from over for Travis but for now, he and his team of loyal dogs get a much-needed rest.

Go Trav, go! Only one more run to go!

Boy, was that a doozy of a run! It’s going to be interesting to hear Travis’ stories from this stretch of the race: getting spun about, ground storms, and just a long, long, long run.

The Iditarod lists the run from Shaktoolik to Koyuk as a 48-mile run. Due to the sea ice that the mushers usually run on getting blown out to sea two weeks ago when the trail crews were going through, the trail was routed closer to the coast and partially overland. This added about 7 miles to the trail when all was said and done so the route was closer to 55 miles.

Travis left Shaktoolik at 12:26pm this morning and arrived at 10:19. His run time was 9 hours and 52 minutes. Ramey Smyth is starting to creep up and did the run approximately an hour faster. If you watch the tracker though, Travis and Wade got lost during the run and ended up running back towards Shaktoolik for approximately 15 minutes.  While theoretically, this was only a 30-minute error, it may have affected the overall speed of the team if their confidence was at all shaken.

I expect that Travis and Wade will take a long rest here, 5 or 6-hours, to recover the team. Richie and Linwood will be arriving at the checkpoint at some point and it will be important to look at their run times before getting a better idea of where Travis really sits.

 

Wow! Travis is into Unalakleet in 4th place. He stopped for about 1.5 hours on the trail and will rest here for 3-4 hours before continuing the 40 miles to Shaktoolik.

The dogs looked absolutely amazing coming in. There’s a great video now posted of Travis coming into Unalakleet on the Iditarod Insider. You have to have signed up for the Iditarod Insider program in order to watch this video.

Travis Beals Arrives 4th in Unalakleet – Iditarod

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Neighbor and friend, Kale Casey, was in Unalakleet and live-streamed  Travis’ arrival to the checkpoint as well as him doing his dog chores in the checkpoint.

It was great watching the team arrive and hard not to get excited by their strong performance. Travis comes into the video around the 15-minute mark: the first part of the video is Joar’s departure from Unalakleet.

The dogs all looked really strong. There were a lot of things to take away from this video: the first is that the dogs were moving great. The 1.5-hour break on the trail helped put some pep into the team and will keep them moving quickly down the rest of the coast. The other thing is that the dogs ate really well; they need this energy to continue fueling them down the trail.

Travis is clearly tired in the video and openly admits he hasn’t gotten any sleep. That’s tough. Right now, that’s going to be the most difficult thing for him to deal with. When you are that tired, even a tiny problem can seem insurmountable. From my experience on the Iditarod, Unalakleet has some of the best sleeping quarters in the race. Hopefully, Travis can get a bit of sleep here — though if he wants to stay in fighting position for the Top 5 he won’t get much more than 30 to 40 minutes; then it will be time to water dogs, booty and take off down the trail.

Travis remarked to Kale that the most important thing was that he was having fun; this has been our mantra all season. Even though it must be tough being so tired, I’m happy to hear he’s enjoying himself.

After the live feed ended, I spoke with Kale privately on the phone and he said that Travis was going to be switching out sleds. He may drop a dog, but who knows! Interestingly, he’s going to be going with his medium weight sled instead of his lightweight sled. This may have to do with the fact that his medium weight sled has a seat and his lightweight sled does not.  He’s prepping that for departure, will eat some pancakes, get a quick nap and get back out there.

Don’t be surprised when Travis leaves in a later position: Wade, Richie, Pete, and Ray will likely leapfrog Travis at this checkpoint. They rested longer on the trail and will blow through Unalakleet and run straight to Shaktoolik. Each strategy has different strengths and will unfold differently over the next 24 hours as teams make their way up the coast.

The benefit of what Travis is doing is that it will keep the dogs peppy and should keep him speedy down the coast. Travis is breaking the run from Kaltag to Shaktoolik into 3 runs. He ran 63 miles from Kaltag and camped for 1.5 hours. From his camp, Travis ran 22 miles into Unalakleet and after this run will run 40 miles from Unalakleet to Shaktoolik. These two short runs will build some speed back into the team for the final push from Shaktoolik into White Mountain.

Wade, Richie, Pete and Ray rested for Longer and broke up the 125 miles from Kaltag to Shaktoolik into 2-runs. They will rest less but rest less and longer runs will likely impact their speed.

Travis is betting that a little extra speed will help him be the musher in the front (or close to!) of this chase pack. Time will only tell how this strategy plays out.

Travis Beals Talks About His Lead Dog Fidget – Iditarod

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Go Trav go!

Make sure you follow Kale’s facebook page for more great live coverage of Iditarod 2018.

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.