So far, so good. Laura has kept to her running schedule that she set before the race and seems to be on track. She is 194 miles into the race and is resting at Finger Lake checkpoint as I type this. She will be trying to rest the dogs and herself to ready herself for the climb to come. As she leaves Finger Lake she will be heading to Rainey Pass checkpoint, only about 30 miles from where she is now. After passing through that checkpoint she will be heading over the pass itself which is the highest point on the Iditarod trail (3771 ft above sea level). The scenery is supposed to be spectacular but she will most likely be running this stretch at night due to her rest schedule. Right now the weather there is not ideal for running the dogs. It is 32 degrees with a wind chill at 27 degrees. Ideally the dogs like it closer to zero. When it is so close to freezing the snow melts and refreezes causing ice crystals to form. She still has all of her dogs which is great. The trail was icy from the start to this point and it’s easy sustaining injury on that type of trail. We'll still have to see when she leaves this checkpoint if she still has all of her team. A musher has their whole rest time to decide if a dog will continue running or not so until she pulls out of Finger Lake we will not know for sure. I do know that she planned to intentionally hold her team back until they reached better trail conditions. Her miles per hour indicate that she has been doing this. Her normal racing speeds range between 10-12 miles per hour depending on the trail. Between the last checkpoint (Skwentna) and Finger Lake she averaged about 7.89 miles per hour. In order for the dogs to go this speed they have to be intentionally slowed by riding the drag. The drag is usually a piece of snowmobile track that is attached between the runners. The musher can fold it up for speed or let it "drag" with their foot pressing it down to slow the team. Well, I'm heading to my warm bed now and will be sleeping for the next 7 hrs while Laura tackles the pass and hopefully makes Rohn Checkpoint by morning. I'll post again tomorrow. Until then, keep your nose clean and be wary of yellow snow!