This is where I was working for too long today. The white pipe is the drain for the bathtub in one of the bathrooms. It is of ‘singular’ construction, and not particularly apt for moving water out as it has almost no drop due to length of the down pipe. The execution of the P-trap displays a lack of measurement that is common when you are installing something under the house.

I have a picture because I took my camera to the site in hopes of a cat picture [no luck], and got tired of describing things to the two guys who didn’t want to crawl under to see the situation for themselves.

We haven’t quite figured out what all of the blocks are supposed to be supporting, It would make more sense to put them under the joists if the floor is sagging. With this house, who knows…

Hugh headed out this morning in light snow and single digit temperatures. Above the clouds is a waning crescent moon, so his headlamp is all the light he has. The normal run to Eagle is 150 miles over the American Summit where you cross the border into Alaska. Because of impassable trail conditions on the mountain, thus time it will be about 100 miles on the river. Allen headed out two hours later, and three more teams will get to leave Dawson today.

Update: As expected, Lance Mackey (6) scratched as soon as he arrived at Dawson. His puppies were just not happy on the trail for this Quest. He will be attempting to figure out what’s not working before the start of the Iditarod.

Hugh and Allen should be in Eagle around midnight.

The Standings at 10PM CST (8PM PST):

Beyond Dawson
1 Hugh Neff (4)
2 Allen Moore (11)
3 Jake Berkowitz (20)
4 Brent Sass (18)
5 Scott Smith (23)^R
At Dawson
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
15 Darrin Lee (24)^R
17 Brian Wilmshurst (1)
18 Rob Cooke (3)^R
19 Matthew Failor (14)^R
Beyond Pelly Crossing
20 Misha Pedersen (16)
21 Dyan Bergen (19)^R
22 Randy MacKenzie (9)^R
23 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.