He is off. Dallas Seavey left in 1st place out of White Mountain. A small crowd was onlooking as Dallas pulled the hook and left with 10 dogs from the second to last checkpoint, after completing his mandatory 8 hour layover. He was not in a particular rush and joked, “I need to go to the bathroom first.” Well, his dogs at least did need to do that.

Meanwhile his dad Mitch was having a well deserved rest in the checkpoint and new arrival Jessie Royer was massaging some of her dogs and repacking her sled. I commented on the nice salmon she had packed for the dogs. Jessie mentions that with her having to pack the food drop from Montana, she needs to haul that salmon already down the spring before – April – 11 months before the following Iditarod. Talk about long term planning when you live as far away as she does. The salmon she was dishing out to her team was human grade fish she scored from fellow competitor Ray Redington, Jr.

Enjoy the White Mountain shots: