King Catches Up!

He’s at it again .Paul Gebhardt, (despite losing his dogs for an hour or so earlier during the race) has passed the lead group of mushers taking their 24 hour rest in Cripple, and is heading onto Anvik where he will take his layover. If you look at the time it took him to get from Ophir to Cripple its obvious that he has a tired team. Even after resting for 5 hours, why would he keep going, instead of stopping with everyone else? Well, he did this same thing last year, and even though it didn’t help him to much in the rankings (he finished 9th) the first musher to the Yukon River gets a huge 5 course meal, and a cash bonus sounds like a good place to rest if you ask me!

So, around 3am PST (2am Alaska time) Doug Swingley will be back on the trail from his 24 hour layover out of Cripple. Jeff King pulled into Cripple at 2:45pm AKST this afternoon and has already completed his 24, he could leave anytime he wants and be “in the lead” inroute to Ruby, he could probably even beat Paul Gebhardt’s tired team there! Here is the advantage taking your 24 hour rest earlier gives you, Jeff King traveled a rested team from Ophir to Cripple in almost 8 hours, Doug Swingley’s tired dogs took 13 hours on the same route.

Aliy Zirkle is on her way to Cripple after completing her layover, just behind her is Hugh Neff, Lance Mackey, and Nome’s own Aaron Burmeister.

Stay Tuned!