Iditarod – Race Day 5: On the Trail Again..

Jeff and the team spent 25 hours in Takotna on their 24-hour mandatory rest.  We were up this am hoping to see them depart, but alas… no luck.  Communication in remote Alaska can be affected by many things and the Iditarod live stream was ‘stuck’ for us.  So instead.. we just imagined a well-rested team of 14 amazing dogs raring to go and looking back at Jeff saying “pull the hook!”.  🙂

From Takotna Jeff and the team will head to Ophir (23 miles), and from there they will begin the long run to Iditarod (80 miles).  The run from Ophir to Iditarod is often split into two runs by stopping along the way for a break of several hours. For Jeff, we may see him take a break at a common stopping spot known as Don’s Cabin which is about 35 miles outside of Ophir.  So far Aliy Zirkle is the only team into Iditarod and the run took her 17.5 hours, with about a 3.5 hour stop along the way. We can expect a similar run pattern from Jeff, so projecting out, and with no unexpected complications, he will reach Iditarod sometime in the wee hours of tomorrow/Friday morning.

Iditarod Insider reports that the trail heading in to Iditarod is rough.  There is very little snow, some standing puddles of water, and lots of tussocks.  Add to that the warmer temperatures (highs in the low 30’s F!!) and this could be an even longer run for teams that are trying to avoid running in the warmest part of the day.  Only time will tell, and

KTVA caught up with Jeff when he was in Takotna and talked to him about his choice of sled runners:

Obviously Jeff’s just a Kid from Alaska.  🙂  If you’re looking for that fun sweatshirt check out our sponsor Kaladi Brother Coffee! We also highly recommend their Red Goat coffee – that’s Jeff’s fave and keeps all of us going – summer and winter!