THE LAST LEG

It is 6:08 a.m. and 48.2 degrees F. Patrick is still in bed. We're supposed to get a near record high temperature today, in the 70's, then back to the last week of winter.

Lance Mackey is first into White Mountain, one of the last checkpoints on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. He left the previous checkpoint with an almost two hour lead on his nearest competitor Paul Gephardt.

White Mountain is a mandatory eight hour layover, so if his two hour lead holds, he will be in good position to make a run to win the race. All that's left is a 50 plus mile run to Safety, then twenty odd miles into Front Street and glory. The thing is, this White Mountain to Safety leg is one of the most treacherous of the race. It makes or breaks mushers due to the weather and perpetual brutal winds off the coast. Some teams have stopped here and quit. In bad weather teams have been standed for days and mushers injured with frostbite and hypothermia...

You remember I told you Mackey's father and brother both won the Iditarod on their sixth try with Bib #13. This is Lance's sixth try and he is wearing Bib #13!!! There are no coincidences. We will see!

(Pic is Patrick and me geocaching in the wide open spaces of Indiana's glacial till plain...)