We left McGrath on Sunday 13th, on the Caravan, taking a few dropped dogs with us up to Unalakleet. With no means of communicating while in Unalakleet, I am finally catching up. Will be offline again for a day or so & then back again (I hope). Enjoy…
Mar 162011
Mar 122011
Before light dawns in McGrath, Kris Hoffman is out looking after his dogs during his 24 hour layover.
Mar 122011
Wattie took his 24 hour layover at McGrath and left around sunset (8pm) on March 10th. This is a video of his departure where he had a few technical hitches… First his runner fell off and then he took a bit of a spill as he went down the Kuskokwim river bank followed bu a small line tangle as he recovered himself. Wattie always has a great sense of humour & doesn’t take these things too seriously! It ended well as he headed West on the river.
Mar 122011
As we flew through the Alaska Range on the way from Yentna to McGrath I tried taking some video. This was the result:
Mar 112011
Mar 102011
Mar 102011
I arrived at McGrath on Monday and have been here since. It’s a nice little town with an airstrip. The checkpoint is about 1/2 mile down the river with a real chef in attendance. The food is awesome. Back in town, the Iditarod has taken over Susie’s cafe and that’s where my bags are. I get intermittent wifi at the cafe but none at the checkpoint. We were very busy from Tuesday evening to the middle of the day yesterday and now it’s just the tailenders. Several mushers took their 24 hour stop here (although most stopped at Taktona about 20 miles further on). We’ve been busy with dropped dogs and looking at teams as they come through. Last night we saw the Northern lights – lovely 
. I’m not getting a lot of sleep but that’s OK… I’ll catch up later (maybe). In a while I’ll upload some pics but now I gotta eat & then check out a team (Wattie McDonald, from Scotland!! – go Wattie!).
Mar 092011
The fun & games started around 5.20pm and we had all 62 teams through by 8.40pm. A record, they tell me. The trail is hard & fast and it was warm out there (relatively, of course). Sometimes we were waiting for teams and other times we had 5 or 6 at once – it was exciting. I saw Marshall & Mackey come through, Dee Dee was first up and then we were non-stop. 2 dogs were dropped here at Yentna and both are looking great this morning, ready to fly back to Anchorage.
Mar 062011
10 am Alaska time I flew on a wonderfully painted plane (see photos) to Yentna Station. The ride was 20 minutes & the view spectacular.
There are 5 vets here and a whole crowd of volunteers. We vets are in a warm, dry cabin to ourselves and right now we are waiting for the witching hour. In about 3 hours from now the first mushers will come on through and life will be frantic for the next 3 – 4 hours as we try to check all the teams before they head off to Skwentna. By midnight most folks should be on their way up the trail.
