Sea Ice Crossing – March 13, 2008

     Laura is on her way across sea ice towards Koyuk. She will have 48 miles of mostly flat, barren sea ice. She arrived in Shaktoolik at 3:00am Alaska/4:00am Pacific time and after 6h 35m rest started off for Koyuk at 9:35am Alaska/10:35am Pacific time. At Shaktoolik she had covered a total of 893 miles! All that is left now is the equivalent of a small long distance race. She did drop one more dog in Unalakleet so she is down to 12 dogs. This is still a big team for this far along in the race; many teams are down to 8-10 dogs. The leg she is on now is where the wind starts to really start to blow. It is uncommon to have winds under 20-30 mph and they normally blow head on with the mushers. Laura’s team should do really well on these last few legs. They are well rested and a few of them have done this trail before so will encourage the others to speed up. If you’ve ever heard the saying “like a horse headed to the barn” then you will get a clearer picture of how they are going to be functioning now. The dogs that know this trail will be picking up the speed about now. They will begin to recognize that the finish is near and their excitement will lend pep to the whole team. Most teams will take between 5-9 hrs to complete this leg unless there is very rough weather. Right now the weather looks great and the temp is hanging around 9 degrees. Great running temps! I may be able to do another update tonight. We’ll see how busy the evening gets. Otherwise you’ll hear from me in the morning.