2020 Iron Dog – Day 3 Coverage
https://www.thealaskalife.com/blog/2020-iron-dog-day-3-coverage/
Updates since the article:
Team 7 - first in Nome!
Team 7 plane did go down, pilot/co-pilot are ok, but reported the plane is “bent”.
Team 6 - not out with the plane, the problem was their GPS wasn’t pinging. After 3 hours, the GPS started pinging & they were showing well down the trail towards White Mountain, to everyone’s relief.
Some fantastic video today from locals at checkpoints ... Koyuk was particularly good - got to see some wrenching, hear some stories as the racers came through.
The Canadian Expedition:
Team 37 [Fosty/Hildebrand], two Canadians, running Iron Dog for the first time - gotta love these guys .... The new course includes a loop (i.e. think balloon on a string) including Kotzebue & some smaller villages. There is no checkpoint where the string attaches. To do this part (about 400 miles), you go north up the string, hang a left to Kotzebue, then continue around through Norvik, Kiana, & Selawik, then down the string through Buckland, then west at Koyuk to Nome.
These Canadians missed the ‘string’ on their loop around and ended up making a circle ... back to Kotz!! Needless to say, they were very discouraged. The Kotz checkpoint had closed; however, the good folks there ramped back up to get these guys fuel/oil & food. Folks on FB were cheering them on - get back on the trail - you can do it!! They did get back on the trail & made it as far as Buckland, where they were put up for the night. Somewhere in there, they took advantage of their 6 hour flex layover. They still need to make it to Nome - looking at the rules, it’s not crystal clear what the deadline is, but all are hoping that if Iron Dog has to make a decision, the Canadians will still be in the race!
The course this year is new & there were lots of ‘wrong’ turns, but it is “point to point” - the main thing is you cannot miss the checkpoints. If you take a detour into the Granite Mtns or by the hot springs, or out on the sea ice to come into Kotz the ‘wrong’ way, it all works ... and except for making a circle, the different routes have all worked out ok, with some being really fast (sea ice) & racers making up time.
One more thing I really have liked about the ‘new route’, the race is being run as a ‘stage’ race as opposed to the multi-layovers of the past. Fairbanks to Galena (Stage 1); Galena to Kotzebue (Stage 2), Kotz to Nome (Stage 3) for the first half. A big discussion item yesterday - who is breaking trail on the 2nd half after they got dumped with snow? Looks like people were working out crews for doing just that. The Rec class was in chest deep snow so trails would be “helpful”! The leaders would rather be racing than digging their way through while the rest of the pack catches up, so a trail would be ‘nice’. Also, I learned about 144s/long tracks yesterday. Todd Palin is running a 144 & I think Todd Minnick is also running a ‘long’ track which gives more flotation on snow than shorter tracks. Two Todds ... do they know something that non-Todds don’t(?) ..... other than being wily veterans!
Link on tracks:
Snowmobile Track Size Guide
https://www.sportsrec.com/346541-snowmobile-track-size-guide.html