Gatt makes his move

Remind me to eat a piece of pie the next time I visit Takotna. 4 time Iditarod winner Jeff King always seems to choose this town of 50 along the banks of the Takotna river for his 24 hour layover, and the chance to eat a piece of one of those famous pies is a big reason for that. King indicated that would be the case again this year when he arrived first at this checkpoint in the 2010 Iditarod sled dog race. At this writing, there are more then a dozen other teams taking extended rest there which for many of them may indeed turn into their one mandatory 24 hour layover. Hans Gatt, the recent winner of the fastest 1000 mile Yukon Quest ever was having none of that however. As he pulled into the checkpoint, his GPS tracking device measured -21 degrees (F), but he was all business and left the checkpoint immediately, possibly even forgetting to sign his log book. This move gave him a 1 hour jump on the next team piloted by Cim Smyth. John Baker stayed 6 hours, and then decided to give chase as well. He may get the chance to pass the two front runners by skipping rest at the next checkpoint if those 2 decide to pull over there. These 3 teams will need to take their 24 at some point, and positions will likely get jostled again, so only time will tell if the decision to forgo the Takotna hospitality was a mistake or smart choice, but this much is certain, the trail from Takotna to Ophir is currently fast with the low temperature, hard snowpack and little wind. This is Alaska however, and that is all subject to change.