I have been looking at the material from the past Serum Run in terms of figuring out how we might cut down on some of the shipping involving the straw. We probably will need to rake up clean straw in order to make sure there is enough for day three. The bales are not the huge ones. Here is my suggestion:

Nenana: we need 12 bales (2 per musher) going out of Nenana. Best way to handle this is to have somebody bring 12 bales down from Fairbanks (Cold Spot Feeds) in the back of a pickup. If Marla’s handler can do that, this would be awesome. Those bales would be used for Old Minto, Beaver Point Lodge, and Manley.

Manley: we need 12 bales again (2 per musher) to cover Tanana, Bone Yard, and Trapper Cabin. If Marla’s handler can deliver the straw to Manley AND haul the drop bags (the latter is questionable), we can cover his gas and save the cost of an airdrop in Tanana. If he can just haul the straw, then we at least save something in terms of shipping the straw out to Tanana. The reason why the drop bag part may be questionable is that each person is going to have 3 days food (and, more importantly, 3 days of dog food in drop bags so basically 3 drop bags x 8 = 24 drop bags. So, I think the only way that works is if he also hauls something that has the drop bags in it (U-Haul trailer?)

Bottom line is that if things are hauled to Manley, we save on not having things air dropped.

Ruby: once again we need 12 bales of straw to cover Ruby, Galena, and Nulato. Historically, the Serum Run would stay two days in Galena, which is about half way down the trail. Galena has the Interior Learning Center and nice lodgings. There’s a terrific cafeteria and the beauty school will give facials, haircuts, and manicures at low cost. This is a nice way to take it easy for one day on the trip and walk around town etc.

Kaltag: again, 12 bales of straw to cover Kaltag, Old Woman Cabin, and Unalakleet.

Assuming everything gets hauled into Manley, this would just be two air drops (Ruby and Kaltag).

THE COAST: It is my understanding that the Nome crew is checking on how much it will cost to get the straw to NOme and then fly it to the two remaining airdrops — Shaktoolik (covering Shaktoolik, Koyuk, and Elim) and White Mountain (covering White Mountain and Safety) so this would be 24 bales (12 for Shak and 12 for White Mountain).

We should also each have a bale in Nome while we are waiting for the dogs to be flown out, so that would be an additional 6 bales for Nome that would be waiting in Nome.

Nome crew would, therefore, need to figure out the price of: (shipping 30 bales of straw out to Nome) and then shipping 12 of those bales to Shaktoolik and 12 to White Mountain.

I am going to assume that we can figure out how to make the Manley drop work by truck to save some money. If Michele also has a truck, she may be able to bring the drop bags while Marla’s handler brings the straw.

I’m hoping to get the comparative pricing tomorrow from the carriers and will put that together with the costs I’ve gotten from Cold Spot and AK Mill and Feed. This would cover us from Nenana to through Unalakleet. The NOme crew would then figure out the rest from their end.