NL300: Into Talvista

Chris and the R&Bs pulled into Talvista, the second checkpoint, earlier this afternoon. They will rest there for a few hours.

The trackleaders.com trackers give us loads of great information to see what's going on. In the view below you can see when, and for how long, the team stops in checkpoints or at their camp spot. You'll see they camped for around three hours then their next stop was at Yentna checkpoint for the mandatory six hours plus time differential (the extra time lower bib numbers take to correct for the staggered start). The little 'dips' in the tracker are likely to be when he stopped the team to snack or replace a bootie or something and the tracker updated right at that moment.



The next leg is an out-and-back loop up Skwentna River and return to Talvista checkpoint where, as I understand it, the teams can use their same campspot and straw.

We can see from the race standings that he left Yentna with 12 dogs. At this stage we have no idea who he left behind as we have no way to communicate with Chris. We will find out once whoever it is returns to Big Lake for Steve to pick up. Until then we ask for your patience as we await further information. We've heard from Steve that they have had about four inches of snow there and are unlikely to be able to fly the dogs back today but they will be well cared for at the checkpoint by the vet team and volunteers. We will let you know more as soon as we can.

How's that refresh finger - getting into shape for the Quest and Iditarod?