Aaron Burmeister, in Kaltag, was glad to have put the previous 60 miles behind him.
The run from Eagle Island to Kaltag, the Nome native says, was the most difficult stretch he had seen in the 2013 race up to that point. It was a wet, grueling stretch of trail: “a really intense workout” both for his dogs and for himself.
But with KNOM trail reporter Laureli Kinneen, the born-and-raised Nome resident was happy about the status of his dogs – especially in comparison to their state just a day or so ago.
Burmeister reports that “I was pretty heartbroke(n)” to see his dogs struggle with poor health – diarrhea especially – in the earlier days of Iditarod 2013. But during his 8-hour layover in the Grayling checkpoint, he put in a lot of “work” to revive his team – work that seems to have paid off.
“Right now, these guys are all doing really good.”
As Burmeister also mentioned to Laureli, the competition heading into the Norton Sound coast is stiff. Any small detail or mistake, he says, could make a big difference. But, his team has a lot of “power” to offer for the next leg of the race:
As of 12:30pm Sunday, Aaron Burmeister is in 2nd position. He arrived into Unalakleet, after a 13-hour-plus run, at 10:27am (Alaska Daylight Time) with 13 dogs.
