Ramy Makes His Move

Tuesday, March 11, 5 p.m.

Ramy Brooks arrives at Koyuk.

Ramy Heads up the trail after only a brief 4 minute stop.

RAMY MAKES HIS MOVE

Ramy Brooks has declared his intention to win the Iditarod. The Healy, Alaska, musher spent only four minutes in Koyuk adding food into his sled bag, and a bale of straw on top. He had to remind his leaders once to trust that he knew what he was doing, and wouldn’t ask them to run more than they could.

The dogs expected to rest here at the checkpoint, as they had in Shaktoolik and Unalakleet. But there is a shelter cabin only 22 miles down the trail from here. And if Ramy rests his team there, he could conceivably push on through Elim and on to White Mountain for a final, mandatory eight hour break prior to the push for Nome. That shelter cabin will be about half way between Shaktoolik and White Mountain.

We flew into Koyuk just a few minutes before Ramy Brooks arrived. We knew from our flight that Jeff King was about 13 air miles behind Ramy. Robert arrived at this checkpoint, on the northeast shore of Norton Bay, just after 2 PM. His team is here sleeping soundly, and Robert has just gotten up to get ready to go. Jeff is expected in at any minute.

Ramy’s dogs sped into here was almost forty-five minutes faster than Robert’s. But Jeff’s team seems to be moving faster than all of them as well as we can see from the air. We’ll know from Jeff’s time into here which team moves most readily into the wind.

WOW!! What an exciting race.

Our plan is to wait for at least two hours, or a little more, after Ramy’s departure, and then fly to White Mountain, trying to spot Ramy’s camp from the air – perhaps even landing there. We’ll try to keep you posted as rapidly as we can on the changes happening at the front of the Race.