Conditions were windy and snowy in Kemmerer. With those conditions comes very flat light. It is hard to see where the trail is, specially with snow blowing into your face. In sunny conditions there would have been quite a bit more local Snowmachine traffic on the trail. In todays condition we only saw one group of 4 machines. Unfortunately that one group was enough to wreak a bit havoc. When passing the teams they nicely went off trail, passing on the west side of the main 8 feet wide, packed trail.
A couple to teams had the misfortune to take one of those offshoot trails. And with those machines not being trail riding machines, they were free to go into deep powder. And that they did. Just ask Bruce Magnusson…. how deep the snow got. He will talk about that in this video:
Jeff Conn from Ester Alaska also had the misfortune to follow that Snowmachine trail. I paralled the main trail, maybe 20 to 30 feet over to the west. Bringing the dogs over to the main trail was not as easy as it sounds. A musher has to decide…. to either keep on following the trail, not exactly knowing if and where it might join the main trail…. or to try to bring the dogs over. Snowhooks will not hold in those conditions and things usually end up in a bit of a tangle. Here is what Jeff Conn had to say:
One Musher who so far has had a series of clean runs is Anny Malo. She defended the Yellow Bib today. Here is what Anny had to say about todays run ( She was the last team leaving the starting line ). It is nice to see very good camaraderie amongst the competitors on the trail!
