WINDS, TOO LITTLE SNOW, POOR VISIBILITY AND INJURIES PROVE THE IDITAROD ISN'T FOR SISSIES OR COUCH POTATOES!!!!!

It sounds wicked out there. But, our mushers are hanging in there with Clint holding position 42 and Cindy at position 47. The mushers will start to stop for their required 24 hour rest periods so the position they are in will not mean as much for a while. Then they will all start to charge toward Nome and it will matter lots!
It seems that the times of the leaders are very fast this year and there is a chance that the record will be broken....maybe even by the guy that set it!
Currently Cindy is in Nikolai. This is an Athabascan villiage located 40 air miles east of McGrath. It has a population of 104 and is at mile 352 on the trail.
Clint is out of Nikolai on his way to McGrath, at mile 400 with a population of 423. McGrath is at the confluence of the Kuskokwim and Takotna rivers, it has a small, full-service airport, stores, a resturant and is the hub of the Iditarod School District. The first musher into McGrath gets the Spirit of Alaska Award from PenAir.
Between Clint and the front runners is the Village of Takotna (ta-COT-na), population 50 at mile 418. This Athabascan village is one of the favorite checkpoints and where many mushers take their 24 hour layover (no, I don't know why-I think I would stay at McGrath???)
After Takotna is Ophir. The top six are out of Ophir (OH-fur) and to my knowledge no one has taken the 24 hour layover. Ophir is a ghost town at mile 443 and is named for a nearby creek that supported placer mining. The name is a reference to the biblical Ophir thought to be the source of King Solomon's gold.
They are a little over half way to Iditarod at mile 533, the official halfway point on the southern trail. It is now a ghost town but was once a bustling community of over 10,000.
We still have halfway to go but we'll wait here for the group.

By the way, it is snowing in Alaska! I love Alaska when it snows!!!

PS....Is anyone out there?????