Laura has made it into Nulato covering a total of 719 miles of race trail! She arrived at this checkpoint at 5:38pm/6:38pm Western/Pacific time. If she stays with her race schedule she should be heading to Kaltag in the middle of the night. That will be great for the team as temps are still hanging in the high 20’s. The next leg is 42 miles and should take between 3-5 hrs to complete. Depending on how quickly she completes this leg she may either spend a short time in Kaltag or breeze through and camp on the trail a couple hours towards Unalakleet. The trail to Kaltag is still running on snowmobile trails on the Yukon River. This area has 1,000 ft ridges and hill on the right bank so cutting corners as the river bends is out of the question here.
      There is not much else to report on Laura right now but our parents just flew to Nome tonight. They will be staying with a local family for the duration of the race and through the finisher’s banquet. This is the part where I have to try not to be jealous. After all these years of helping, watching, and encouraging (and of course, making fun of) I would do almost anything to watch her come across that line. Most of us never set goals of any magnitude and those of us that do rarely fly in the face of modern society. It takes dedication to become a doctor; it takes so much more to do something that is so foreign to the rest of the world. To test yourself in the way she has done puts me to shame. What have I set my sights on and poured my all into? It’s definitely something to think about.