As 12-time Iron Dog competitor Bradley George looked toward Nome, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“It's a good feeling when you do come and crest the hill at and you see the town, it's like, yeah baby,” George said.
While he and his teammate, Robby Schachle, fought vicious crosswinds 20 miles east of Nome, George ran into ruts while crossing a bridge near Safety Sound.
“I was just staring at the ground, trying to keep my carbides on the ice, not to run on the asphalt. And I looked up last second, and there's like a four foot tall drift at a 45 degree angle off to the left," George recalled. "I jam the brakes, and I just slid sideways. I hit the drift, and it shot me up, and I thought I was gonna go off the bridge.”
Moments later he found himself between two boulders. Luckily, George was relatively unscathed. The same couldn’t be said for his sled, he destroyed a windshield, headlights and some other parts.
“The thing that sucks is up until 30 minutes before we pulled in, we didn't have anything to wrench on,” George said. “We'll have it fully repaired after we wrench tomorrow, it'll be 100% back together.”
Team 20 led the field at the halfway point with a time of 30:00:37.
Just a half hour off the leader's pace, Team 14 ran into problems of their own. Bryan Leslie towed teammate Casey Boylan for the final stretch into Nome after running into problems with an exhaust sensor. Leslie says the team will use the wrench day to rest before the 1,000 mile journey back to Big Lake.
“Being in Nome is awesome, you get a few days of rest, that’s pretty much what we're looking forward to. But really get off the sled for a day or two and not have to get back right back on it,” Leslie said.
Nome's hometown team of Wilson Hoogendorn and Bubba McDaniel made it to the halfway point in seventh position and just over five hours behind the top team. Nome's Mike Morgan and Soldotna's Bradley Kishbaugh got to Nome in second place with a time just nine minutes off the leaders.
The teams will take advantage of the wrench day to repair their sleds and take part in the Halfway Ceremony, where awards for the casual Expedition class that finished in Nome will also take place.
