And then there was one

The weather dumped a lot of snow in the Beaverdell area over Friday and into Saturday. Efforts to repack the trail from Beaverdell onwards were only partially successful and the leg became particularly grueling for the teams. They slipped further and further back from their expected times – so much so that for a while there was some worry they had strayed off the course. Thanks to Neil Sieben for rushing all the way out there from Grand Forks with a snowmobile to run up the course and check.
But eventually they appeared – Steve Mullen’s team had been reduced to 11 dogs with one in the basket after problems on the trail.
The remaining two teams lagged farther behind and when they finally appeared they were travelling together.
At the Kettle River Park crossing a meeting was held … to continue the race or not. At that point the last two teams, Wannamaker and Walker, decided to leave the race.

As I write this (10:30 PM) the front runner, Steve Mullen, and his team are the only ones left on the course. He is headed to Checkpoint Fiva. It’s a tough leg … will he carry on from there? We won’t know until he gets there … stay tuned.

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