The weather has of course been affecting flying, too.\u00a0 All of this snow has lowered the ceiling, and that has some staff, crew, volunteers and media still sitting in checkpoints hours after they were scheduled to travel further along the trail.\u00a0 Another big curveball is that the Eagle Island checkpoint has not even been set up.\u00a0 Yes, you read that correctly.\u00a0 While that’s still 160 miles from where Jeff is, that kind of change can be huge to teams that were not prepared for it.\u00a0 Eagle Island will now become a Hospitality Stop (those of you that followed Alex on the Quest may be familiar with those!) instead of a checkpoint.\u00a0 There will be a vets, heet for making hot water, and they will be accepting dropped dogs – but there will be no resupply here for the teams.\u00a0 The Iditarod Trail Committee has been hoping to have those Eagle Island drop bags in Grayling so that teams can resupply with larger quantities, take those supplies with them, and stop along the now 102 mile stretch of trail from Grayling to Kaltag.<\/p>\n
Dropped dog:<\/strong> In other dog news, Barnum is in Anchorage and is hanging with Ryan and Ellen.\u00a0 One of our dog drop contacts, Paul, texted us last night that he had Barnum, and Ellen & Ryan scooped him up today so that they can bring him north with Zig this weekend.\u00a0 Here’s a pic of the big guy… looking pretty tired out!<\/p>\n
\nSwenson was left behind in Iditarod.\u00a0 Yes, we know he looked SO excited to go in the photo that Jeff Schultz caught of him in mid-air, but the vets said that he had an odd heart reading and as a precautionary measure he was left in Iditarod and will make his way back home by alternative means.\u00a0 Fear not, we’ll make sure that he gets plenty of love when he gets home, as well as a full check-up with our vet.<\/p>\n
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