Unalakleet Day 1

This morning I did not have to wake up to do a live shot for the Morning Edition (thank goodness) so I got a solid night’s sleep -- even though it was only for about 6 hours. We took our time getting ready to leave because our cargo plane to Unalakleet was scheduled for 10am. I am really looking forward to seeing the other checkpoints!



Exhausted from loading our gear... Haha!


The plane ride to Unalakleet was only about an hour and a half. McGrath, for the most part, was cloudy and snowy but flying to Unalakleet, the clouds parted and out popped the sun. As we got closer to the village, we could see it down below.


We landed safely!

Shirley & Me


Some parts of Western Alaska have had a lot of snow this year -- a lot more than usual, anyway. Unalakleet is no different. I've never seen such tall snow drifts (piled up from the snow plow coming through).




Scouting out where we're going Live...



The snow drifts were too high to set up shop at the Iditarod checkpoint -- which was actually the post office. So instead, we used the Erickson family's house. Channel 2ers have stayed with them before.

We invaded their living room and set up our equipment...





Since we spent today traveling / setting up in Unalakleet, Carolyn & I shot our story for today yesterday in McGrath. We caught up with another rookie musher, Harry Alexie, who is representing the Army National Guard in this year's race. He was trained by two time Iditarod winner Lance Mackey and has an amazing story to tell.



After our 6 o'clock live shot today, I wandered around the neighborhood. The backyard at the Erickson's home overlooks the Bering Sea!