“I made a mistake declaring my layover,” rookie Louie Ambrose says of his recent run in Iditarod 2013.
The St. Michael, Alaska musher (who was born in Tanana and raised in Galena) reports that he originally intended to take his mandatory 24-hour layover in Ophir but, in retrospect, wishes he had stopped in McGrath. Ultimately, Ambrose is resting halfway in-between: at the Takotna checkpoint, where KNOM trail reporter Laureli Kinneen caught up with him.
Despite his layover “mistake,” Ambrose remains focused on the race (his first Iditarod) and especially on his team. “Physically, my dogs are doing really well,” he says, despite a trail leading up to Takotna that, in places, was “mush.” His dog team was “swimming in it.”
With Laureli, Ambrose also talked about his goals for the second half of Iditarod 2013: keeping a healthy dog team, and traveling “pretty steady to Nome.”
As of 2:25pm Thursday, Louie Ambrose remains in Takotna, finishing his 24-hour layover; he arrived Wednesday night, at 8:57pm, with 14 dogs. Factoring in his starting differential (from the Willow re-start on Sunday), Ambrose will be eligible to depart Takotna at 9:25pm Thursday night.
