March 9
Trent pulled out of Nikolai at 706AM AKT this morning. He checked out with all 16 dogs so the team must be doing well. Trent left Nikolai in 54th place of the 82 remaining mushers.
He got it to Nikolai at 1106PM last evening. That makes his stay exactly 8 hours which makes me wonder if he knew he wanted more than 4-5 hours rest and declared his 8 hour mandatory rest so that he could be more flexible down the trail. Hope they had a great rest and a couple of good meals.
Next checkpoint is McGrath, race times in to McGrath have been 5-1/2 to 6 hours so expect to see the team pull in to McGrath at 1PM-ish today. As mentioned, Trent said before the race he intended to 24 in McGrath. If he does, that would put him back out on the trail at 1PM in the heat of the day. I'd say it's 50%/50% that he rests in McGrath and heads back out in the colder part of the day to take his 24 down the trail. We shall see.
The race at the front is really moving fast, with probably 10 teams including Dallas and Mitch Seavy that are bearing down on the halfway prize at Cripple... they will arrive there later today!
