JayP, where are you?

It has been 3 days, 23 hours since JayP left McGrath headed towards Nome with 4 other bikers. The next checkpoint is Ruby which is 234 miles from McGrath with little in between except a food drop along the trail in Cripple. Jay told me before the race that they literally drop the drop bags along the trail and mark them with a stake. That is it!

JayP hamming it up early in the race

I hope Jay and the other racers actually have a trail to follow. There is uncertainty whether the trail remains from the Iron Dog race two weeks ago or whether it has been blown in from recent high winds.

There is a cool interactive map on the Iditarod site that currently shows the official Iditarod trail breaker outside of McGrath heading for Takotna so he should catch up to the bikers quickly if they are stuck in Ophir with no trail to follow.

Side Note: How in the world do the dog sled teams get through Dalzell Gorge when there is open water? The bikers had to push along a sidehill to avoid it but I wouldn't think you can do that with a dog sled.

I hope we hear that JayP is in Ruby soon! Go Jay!