Tim's in and out of Anvik already and on his way up the Yukon River (130 miles) via Grayling and Eagle Island, then onward to Kaltag; Grayling will be the last village they see until they're done with the Yukon in Kaltag. Seems pretty lonely to me, especially since the half-way point is just a guy's camp on Eagle Island -but I cut-and-pasted images of my head on swimsuit and lingerie models, even me waving goodbye and stepping onto Air Force One with George Bush, and tucked them into Tim's drop bags to take the edge of these long, long runs. He'll need a laugh. I also know that of all the drop bags at Eagle Island, crows picked open Tim's and ate the Momentum kibble (which says a lot about the food and sophisticated palate of the crow, I might add). By the way, crows here go a good solid 30 pounds, bark, and, like the muskox, snarl like Dick Cheney.

It's supposed to be bitter, bitter cold for the next week, with wind chills of 50 below or more. It will be interesting to see how teams fare as the weather raises the bar; keeping weight on the dogs will be difficult, but do-able. And speaking of weight...

Stop the madness with the restaurants in Wasilla, already! Tonight it was moussaka: layers of eggplant, potato and ground beef in a slightly cinnamon-ish tomato sauce, topped with Bechamel sauce and baked. Come on! Mediterranean halibut with Greek Spaghetti, Pad Thai, halibut BLTs, XR burritos, paninis... And if that's not enough, listen to the picnic Helen Lundberg packed and spread out on a reindeer hide for the restart in Willow: moose burgers with Havarti on homemade sesame seed buns, homemade pickles, homemade (and I mean the mayonnaise part, too) curry aoli, chile drumsticks, glug, coffee and brownies. Perfectly fitting fare for the restart of the Iditarod. Not so good for high cholesterol.

Tim and the dogs are eating well on the trail, too; kibble, salmon, beaver, turkey skins, tripe, and the dogs like..... Here's the routine for meals: Tim will get water or snow boiling in his big cooker, drop in a vacuum sealed meal, then prep the kibble and meat for the team while his meal cooks. When his meal is done, he pours the boiling water over the dogs' dry stew and voila, searches in vain for a utensil for himself. Very thrifty use of time, energy and water. All right. It's getting late. Tim's 5 miles out of Grayling, and I imagine they'll hunker down for a while before heading out. Good night.