Good morning all.

Warren and the crew arrived here just before 11pm. He had dropped Hulk last minute leaving Central with a sore triceps ( he is now cuddling with Lena in the backseat of the truck) So he did the Summit with 11 dogs. Warren said it was a definite challenge, the slope was steep and he thought he was over it when the trail started going down and then came around the bend and saw the really steep part. He said it was so steep he  couldn't even walk it , it was more like crawling up. The dogs did fairly well. He did have to use the snow hook at the front with the leaders, move them up and then reset the hook and then move the sled up abit and then continue the whole process again for awhile. A pretty typical process for this stretch of trail. He came in pretty tired and needing to dry out all his gear by the fire here but the good part of that process is that the dogs really got a pretty good rest coming up the summit. They ate great here and are resting now. Warren is going to sleep /rest until 100am and then head out after bootying the dogs up and possibly a quick snack. From here it is 74 miles to Two Rivers/Twin Bears Campground and he is planning to run it all in one shot, expecting about a ten hour run. He will have a mandatory 8 hour rest at Twin Bears and then the final 45 miles to the finish. So he will most likely be arriving in Fairbanks in the wee hours of the morning so we know we won't see some of you locals there at the finish. We are both excited to see the kids and Warren's Mum who all arrived in Fairbanks yesterday. They will be venturing to the campground tomorrow and obviously will all be at the finsih line no matter what time Warren and the team arrive. I know they (as well as many of you following online) are frustrated not having a better idea of what is going on. It is hard to explain that it is hard to predict the arrival times of teams as there are so many variables going on in the course of this race. Also this being our rookie year, we aren't sure of the actual mileages and terrain. So sorry Karen, you won't be seeing me until the very wee hours of the morning. I will be driving back to Fairbanks after Warren leaves and I get the dog's camping spot cleaned up. I'll proabably arrive back around 430 am or so. I now have Dobie in the truck with me as well with a sore wrist/triceps so when I arrive in Fairbanks I will get the three dogs in the truck another good meal and then I will try to get a few hours sleep - handling in this race you work on getting sleep wherever and whenever you can. Then it will be time to repack the trailer with the extra drop bag stuff from the Circle and Central checkpoints, reconnect the trailer, take care of the extra 14 dogs and then head up to the campground. Never a dull moment handling in this race! I will hopefully be able to catch a quick nap during the mandatory layover.

If Warren takes off around 130am- 200am he should arrive at the campground around 1130 am- noon. The weather is supposed to stay clear so that variable shouldn't be an issue. I don't think there is any wifi at the campground so not sure if I will be able to update. Thanks to Jody for loaning me her computer for this update, ours is with Karen in Fairbanks. So, all things going as planned, Warren and crew will be heading off for the finish line mid evening today (Feb24th), expecting a 5-8 hour run for the last bit. I did manage to get some pics today of Warren coming in to Central so when I get back I will attempt to download and post them. I have been having trouble uploading the pics I have taken so far so hopefully in between the races I will be able to  get the pics on for you viewing pleasure. All for now.
Cheers, Kate