After a almost sleepless night, we dismanteled our " Yukon Hotel " and left towards Ruby at 11 am. It stopped snowing and luckily we could still find the tracks of a snow machine going our direction. But when we arrived at Fox Island we stopped because in front of us to the right and to the left tere were two enormous open water lids on the River. Beth took her sno machine, without the sled and zig zaging in the intermediate section covered by ice and snow, found a passage to keep on going forward as Joseph Huntington in Tanana told us to do.. I cannot hide you that I was really scared at that point when I saw those enormous steaming open water lids on the river's ice.
The trail was very soft and the speed slow. Travelling always on the left side of the River and Islands, we arrived in Ruby after 4 hours of hard travel. The Indian Athabaskan friend Bill Honea was waiting for us and very kindly has assisted us in all the routine work for the dogs and us. We could stay at the local Community Center, from where I am writing to you, thanks to the kindness of the Mayor of this small village. In the evening I met the father of Bill, Don Honea a Iditarod and other Races Veteran, nephew and son in law of two of the mail carriers who delivered the medicines from Kokrines to Ruby ( like us today )Harry Pitka and Bill Mc Carthy( from here to Whiskey Creek - 28 miles ). He told me nice stories and showed me the gold medal that his uncle and all the other 19 mail carriers, had after a month from the historical relay.
Vs. ARARAD K
