Good morning to you all,
Warren left Mcgrath at 635 this morning. He did not stay one minute over his scheduled layover time so that is a good indication to me that  he is racing again. I was able to talk to Warren late last night ( thanks to Aaron for the cell phone!) from McGrath. While he is abit bummed that he has fallen back some, he was regrouping and ready to go out and make some moves. As we talked about, there are still alot of miles to go and alot of racing to go. His main  troubles came between Rohn and Nikolai as he had to load at various points three of our larger dogs , the three he dropped at Nikolai whom I was able to get back late last night - Frank, Redneck and Hazer. Redneck has a sore wrist and shoulder but is happy and ate well. Frank has a slightly sore shoulder and Hazer was just tired but is in good spirits now. By the descriptions of that portion of the trail we have all been hearing, I can't imagine doing that while having dog(s)s in the basket. Rookie Scott White gives a very good description of that portion of the trail on an insider video of him from yesterday.So, Warren obviously dropped those three dogs in Nikolai, took a rest and continued on. He then had to load Black Dog  periodically on the trail from Nikolai to Mcgrath - not sure what is bothering him but he is not his usual crazy self. I see that Warren left with all 13 from McGrath so he must have rebounded from the 24 hour layover. It is only a short run into Takotna so he will be able to check any of the" ify" dogs out and drop them if needed in Takotna. The dogs that they showed in the video of him talking about 24 hour strategy all looked good so that what a really good thing for me to see. By the end of our conversation he seems more focused on the race again and more positive. Words from home can go a long way when on the trail. Keep your eye on him, he may have some surprises yet for us all!

Both Warren and Aaron said the energy in McGrath is abit subdued. Most of the mushers that took their 24 there did not plan to - not the A Plan as W was talking about in the video, so many are abit discouraged and some are talking about scratching - not Warren though not to worry. 

 All for now as I am off to feed my returnees and others. I also have two of Ken Andersons dogs here who were quite cute when they got to our dog trailer early this morning, Frank, Hazer and Redneck were so excited to be home that Ken's dogs got excited to be here! I had a great almost midnight visit with John Stewarts parents in the Chugiak post officeparking lot ( at -24below celcius) when I delivered Monty into their care. They are one of not many kennels in Scotland with their kennel celebrating the history of Scotty Allen. Nice folks I am glad to know now. Jody if your reading this we made the connection and they are so glad you are at the kennel.

More later. Enjoy your day!K