Good Morning All, Well I received a pleasant surprise this morning. Warren was able to have cell service at the trailhead for the race so I was able to start my day with talking to him! He and Sam and the dogs and the Beast( the nickname given to our truck and 5th wheel trailer that houses us and the dogs during the Quest) went up on Friday night to the trail start and are camping there for the weekend. We often do this to allow the mushers more rest during a race. So, Warren did come in first yesterday but unfortunately he had a race experience not uncommon to frontrunners- he went the wrong way on the turnaround loop and consequesntly was given a five minute penalty. In some races, five minutes may not seem like a lot of time but if you look at the results from the run yesterday, it changed the positioning of the frontrunners. So rather than being chased today War will be doing some chasing. Martin Koenig 2:55:07 2 Dave Turner 2:56:01 3 Sam Palfrey 2:57:07 4 Warren Palfrey 2:57:48 5 Doug Swingley 3:11:06 6 Steve Riggs 3:15:36 7 Nicole Lombardi 4:07:40 8 Gerry Allen 4:59:03 9 Morgan Buckingham 5:22:37 Sam had a good run yesterday. We expect his time to be faster today as he said he was keeping them slow. He will use the same positioning of the dogs with Caper and Cleo in lead. Warren just got Widgi back from Tom Thurston who had been training him for his Iditarod team. We feel Tom made a mistake by deciding to not keep Widgi in his team( he felt he was the most unknown variable and was not able to know he could totally depend on him - I think we and Lance know this to be different) In any case, it is good for us as now Widgi is back for us for Flathead and for Stage Stop at the end of the month. War said he took a few miles to adjust to the faster pace of the race yesterday but came through with flying colors and his typical great attitude. Warren will be using Widgi and Black Dog in lead today, moving Brutus back to point. All the young dogs are doing really well with this their first race experience. All eating and drinking well and no injuries. Trail was apparently quite icy the first mile or so but as they gained in elevation the trail was nice. Temps look today to be overcast and about zero degrees. War is going to try and see if he can get cell service on the trail, he thinks maybe up on the higher elevations so there just may be a mid race trail report coming to you all soon. Provided of course that I can hear my phone ring while I am in the dog yard. We have above zero temperatures here today after about six hours of consistent snow yesterday and it is expected to get up to plus 9 today. Not ideal for sure except that is does make it a lot easier to change the straw in all the dog houses and that is one of the main jobs for Peter, Jesse, and I today. WIth that said, I am off tot he dog yard for chores. Happy Sunday to you all. Kate