Hugh has a 2 minute lead out of Carmacks over Allen and a 3:14 minute lead over Lance. If Allen wins by less than 30 minutes, Hugh will complain, as he always does when this happens to him [hint: this isn’t the first time Hugh has been hit with a penalty] but it is all part of the race.

Barring unforeseen events, Jake Berkowitz has a comfortable lead over Joar Ulsom for the Rookie win.

Sonny Linder is down to 7 dogs, probably as a result of the heat. Michael Telpin is the only musher with all of the starting dogs still in the race.

Update: Allen got to Braeburn 12 minutes ahead of Hugh, and will leave with a 42 minute lead after the mandatory 8-hour stop because of Hugh’s 30-minute penalty. Allen was 14 minutes faster on that run, so he is looking good for the win as his team is peaking at the right time.

Standings at 10PM CST:

Beyond Braeburn
1 Allen Moore (1)
2 Hugh Neff (6) {+0:42}
3 Lance Mackey (16) {+3:23}
At Braeburn
4 Jake Berkowitz (13)^R
Beyond Carmacks
5 Brent Sass (10)
6 Sonny Lindner (3)
7 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)^R
8 Kristy Berington (2)^I
9 Abbie West (21)
Beyond Pelly Crossing
10 David Dalton (4)
11 Kyla Durham (7)
At Pelly Crossing
12 Gus Guenther (20)^R
13 Paige Drobny (12)^R
Beyond Scroggie Creek
14 Trent Herbst (22)^I
15 Yuka Honda (19)^R
16 Brian Wilmshurst (11)^R
17 Misha Pedersen (5)^R
Beyond Dawson
18 Marcelle Fressineau (15)^R
19 Michael Telpin (24)^R

These are the official standings. That means they are official, not that they are correct. Things jump around a lot as people decide to update the standings. This problem is especially bad in the back of the pack, as no one bothers to update those standings when the lead is changing.

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

I was going to write something about the agreement between the attorneys generals of the states and the banks, but I discovered that it is vaporware, despite all of the publicity. The agreement has to be submitted to a judge, and there is no document yet available to submit. One can only wonder what the parties involved were agreeing to?

When you read comments on either side of the settlement, keep in mind that everyone is working from targeted leaks, not from any actual document.

Don’t expect any money that is doled out to benefit any of the victims of the bankers crime wave. I fully expect states to use the money to plug budget holes, not to help people who homes were stolen with fraudulent paperwork.

So, I’ll mention the heat on the Quest trail. Just when it looked like things were returning to normal, the Chinooks are affecting the Canadian portion of the trail, and Lance Mackey’s drop back is a direct result of that. His dogs trained at an average temperature of -18° in January, with only three days above zero. He has to run at night, because the dogs are not going to maintain their performance in above freezing temperatures. The trail is going to be a sloppy slushy mess.

This is also the kind of weather for colds among humans as well as dogs. Colds are rather rare during Alaskan winters, probably prevented by extremely low humidity as well as the actual temperatures. If a dog starts coughing, or is congested, it can’t run. Dog drops will probably increase.

In a ‘fashion note’, if you look at the pictures, you may see some dogs wearing leggings. Read the article to understand why. This is an unintended consequence of cross breeding for speed, but at least there is something that can be done about it.