Today was a matter of waiting for people to file into Dawson for the 36 40 hour mandatory rest stop. They get to sleep, eat, and fix their sleds before heading out to take on the worst part of the trail.

It isn’t very likely that Lance Mackey will be joining them as he is down to 7 dogs. He is hanging in to make Dawson, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to attempt to climb Eagle Summit with a team of 7 dogs.

If he makes it to Fairbanks, Hugh Neff will receive four ounces of gold as the first into Dawson, but the prize stipulates that you have to complete the race to receive it. He now has a $6,500 reason not to scratch.

Update: Kelley Griffin (8) scratched after reaching Dawson. She spent minutes short of an entire day to get from Scroggie Creek, so the team was having some problems.

Update: Scott Smith is a Quest rookie with 4 Iditarod’s on his CV. He is talking about the heat being a major factor for a lot of people. It is colder now, but the early part of the race was like a marathon at 85° for the puppies.

The Standings at 9:30PM CST (7:30PM PST):

At Dawson
1 Hugh Neff (4)
2 Allen Moore (11)
3 Jake Berkowitz (20)
4 Brent Sass (18)
5 Scott Smith (23)^R
6 Markus Ingebretsen (2)^R
7 Abbie West (17)
8 Susan Rogan (10)^R
9 Normand Casavant (7)
10 Dan Kaduce (15)
11 David Dalton (21)
12 Ed Hopkins (25)
13 Crispin Studer (26)
14 Denis Tremblay (13)^R
15 Cody Strathe (5)^R
Beyond Pelly Crossing
16 Brian Wilmshurst (1)
17 Lance Mackey (6)
18 Misha Pedersen (16)
19 Matthew Failor (14)^R
20 Rob Cooke (3)^R
21 Darrin Lee (24)^R
22 Dyan Bergen (19)^R
23 Randy MacKenzie (9)^R
24 Christina Traverse (12)^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, and the small “R” indicates a 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.

Michelle and Aliy (+ 8 seconds) made it to the finish line 2 days, 7 hours, and 20 minutes after the race started. It took Colin 3 days, 14 hours, and 15 minutes to cross the line with the Red Lantern. The first 7 teams finished in under 3 days.

Five of the original 18 teams dropped out along the way. At the end it was the mushers who had to quit because they weren’t ready for the exhaustion that comes from staying awake for days at a time with only brief naps.

The final standings:

1 Michelle Phillips (58)
2 Aliy Zirkle (56)
3 Jerry Joinson (55)
4 Olaf Thurau (59)
5 Yuka Honda (53)
6 Marcelle Fressineau (54)
7 Tamra Reynolds (51)
8 Ryne Olson (65)
9 John King (57)
10 Gaetan Pierrard (60)
11 Jennifer Levy (63)
12 Jonathan Lucas (62)
13 Colin Morrison (52)

I’m not sitting at the computer watching the sled dogs race in the Yukon. I check in throughout the day to see what is going on, but I’m still working on the rehab.

Lately I’ve been cleaning the stove and refrigerator while I’m waiting for people to finish their work. I need to shut off the water for an extended period, and the guys really get upset when I do that. They don’t understand how to use a bucket to flush a toilet, so they don’t think they can use it.

The problem with working with guys who don’t have a lot of experience as bachelors is that they don’t seem to know how to clean anything. Cleaning seriously dirty appliances is not a job for wimps as the chemicals involved are not kind to the human body or clothing. They thought the nitrile gauntlets were overkill until I chased them out of the area with the smell of the stuff I was using to ensure there would be no mold in the refrigerator and no grease on the stove. I think I made believers out of them when I told them what would happen if they mixed the stuff I was using together – there’s something about poison gas that gets attention.

Hopefully today I can finally shut off the water long enough to pull out the stems for the shower and bathtub to take with me to get new ones. Someone did some freestyle plumbing and now it has to be fixed.