Party at Old Woman Cabin

In a turn no ones truly predicted, the entire lead pack chose to rest at Old Woman's Cabin early this morning. Dallas Seavey was first to the cabin followed by Jessie Holmes, Travis Beals, Matt Hall, Pete Kaiser, and Paige Drobny. They didn't all come in together, but it was an interesting sight to see at the front of the Iditarod all of the potential winners huddled together waiting for the other to twitch.

At around 8:40am, though, trackers indicated Jessie Holmes was out first from the party pack.

Judging by the slow going - well under average speeds for these teams on this leg - the trail conditions must not have been ideal. Dallas Seavey led all night but managed only to make it as far as Old Woman. Travis had a four to five hour rest on everyone at his campout and yet he chose to wait until after Seavey passed to get moving, and he didn't make up any time on the five time champion.

Dallas has taken shorter rests - other than the mandatory 8 - on the Yukon to catch back up to the others and then did this push in what seems to be tough trail. It's a gamble that may or may not pay off, but it seems to be a risk Dallas was willing to take.

This is anything but normal in recent memory. Most often your leader was out on the trail all alone. Now we still don't have a clear favorite to win, and it's all guesswork. 

At 8:48am the tracker showed Dallas Seavey on the move giving chase. This is far from over, folks. Buckle up and settle in, the last leg is going to be a WILD RIDE (see what we did there?).