With a blanket of new snow covering the trail on day 2, the times for each class were slower than day 1. class leaders remained the same, with some jockeying for places lower than first. Greg Jurek maintained his 1st place lead with Jim Herriges and Susan Seitz switching places for second and third. Jennifer Probert maintained her lead in both the 4- and 6-dog classes.The greatest upset came in the 10-dog class. After the turn-around judges had been through the trail, some atv drivers tore up the trail through the Moose Meadows creating what Jill Schreiber called ‘soup.’ The trail was so badly damaged, that the mostly fast trail we saw yesterday was a bottomless foot deep wallow which many dogs tripped, and some drivers almost lost their sleds. Arleigh Reynolds interrupted a group of would-be ice fisherman who decided to try their luck at drilling a hole, in the middle of the trail, 1/2 a mile from the finish line. Not only were the fisherman drilling a hole using a gas powered auger, most of the party were lying across the trail. Arleigh showed his skill as a great dog trainer as he called his dogs off the trail to go around the fisherman and back onto the trail, to finish with an overall winning time. 2nd place musher, Trisha Sielbold, ran down the trail after the ice fisherman had been shoed off, but had a dog or two step into the icy hole. The hole was filled in before other mushers passed through the area.North Pole is a Multi-use area, and interactions with snowmachines, ice fisherman and familes on outings, are all par for the course.Arleigh Reynolds raced this race 15 years ago as his first Alaskan race – winning for the first time this weekend! Congratulations to Arleigh and all of the mushers in this field.Full results can be viewed at: http://sleddog.org/races/2007-08/NorthPoleDay2.html
