In McGrath, not everyone took off right away. In fact, Wade Marrs pulled in, and promptly declared he’d be taking his 24 hour mandatory rest here. Marrs is battling a cold.
“Been coughing a lot and a lot and a lot, so hopefully we can get that taken care of. I just got some stuff from Dr. Carson here, nice guy, so hopefully that helps out.”
Still, that’s not why he decided to rest here.
“This was our plan, and I really like it at McGrath here. You get a lot of good attention from the vets, seeing as there’s not many teams here, you get a lot of attention from the volunteers, and good food and you don’t have a lot of people, too many people around you.”
But Marrs is an exception among the first dozen mushers to reach McGrath. Those that didn’t shoot away, only stayed for a quick rest. Dallas Seavey was the first in — and surprised many when he opted to stay for three hours.
Lance Mackey was ninth into McGrath, and stopped for a little over two hours, splitting apart square plastic bowls frozen together and ladling a hot salmon and kibble broth to his dogs.
“How many people you know feed their dogs out of cat-litter boxes?”
Mackey says it’s just a little easier to deal with some kinds of chores here.
“I just wanna be able to give ‘em a good break, a little break I should say. And I wanna fill my thermos and do some things I don’t really feel like doing in Takotna.”
Mackey says Takotna has too many distractions, and he plans on stopping there just long enough to grab supplies. Asked where he’d be taking his 24, Mackey was less than forthright.
“I would have to say… somewhere before White Mountain.”
In a building by the checkpoint, Mackey downed soup at a table next to John Baker, who arrived right after him into McGrath. And Baker’s reasons for staying are part animal care, and strategy, but other reasons, too.
“I got family and friends that I wanted to visit, some things going on here that I wanted to be a part of.”
Experienced mushers know to keep their options open and set themselves up for a 24-hour mandatory rest at more than one checkpoint. For now, Baker says he’ll probably take his in Takotna.
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