Here is the update on the straw report. Please note that I am only doing this from the ANchorage end of things since we have others working on this from the Nome end of it. So, my straw coverage area is Nenana through Old Woman and possibly Unalakleet (more on that later).

Straw Drops: Nenana (truck), Manley (truck), Ruby (air), Tanana (air).

Logistics: We will need somebody to truck down 12 bales of straw from Fairbanks to Nenana for the start of the Serum Run. We also need somebody to truck down 12 bales of straw from Fairbanks to Manley. We would cover the gas of the person doing this. Marla has volunteered her handler for the Manley gig. WE STILL NEED SOMEBODY FOR THE NENANA GIG. The bales are currently $14.99 each so it would be $359.76 for 24 bales (12 for Nenana and 12 for Manley). If they put them in a burlap bag, add an additional $7.00 per bale but I suspect if we use a tarp. to cover the straw on the trip, we wouldn’t need that.

Ruby and Tanana: Now it starts to get complicated. There are two ways to ship things out — by air freight or through by-pass mail (post office). Wright’s Air Service covers Ruby and Tanana. The cost is very high for bales, which are considered oversized by the carrier. Anything oversized costs a lot more to ship. They have estimated that the straw will Airfreight to Ruby is $1.35 per pound PLUS a 6% surcharge or $1.43 per pound. Kaltage is even higher. It is $2.05 per pound PLUS a 6% surcharge, which is $2.17 per pound. We must have somebody in each location to pick up and store the straw. Each drop is 12 bales of straw, so figure 24 bales total. We are looking at (approximately, since the stuff gets weighed) about $860 to get the 12 bales of straw to Ruby and $1,306.86 to get the 12 bales of straw to Kaltag. Very costly for sure as we are now looking at $359 to purchase the 24 bales PLUS an additional $7.00 for those 24 bales (i.e., total cost of bales will be $597 including the bagging and handling fee of $70.00 for delivering it to the airport and palletizing it) PLUS about $2200 in shipping costs . So, the remaining bales are going to cost for a total of approximately $600 for the straw alone + $2200 for the shipping (estimate) for a total of $2800.

Adding it altogether, we now have $359 for the first six days of straw (Nenana to Tanana) plus the gas costs to drive it there (figure about $120) = $597 + $2727 for six more days of straw (Ruby to Unalakleet). That’s a whopping $3700 (or about $614 per musher) for 2/3rds of the straw as we still need straw (coming out of Nome) from Shaktoolik to Nome. The NOme folks will need to tell us what the prices would be from there to Shaktoolik or Unalakleet (see below). So, straw is going to be an expensive part of this trek.

Possible Ways to cut costs: If Bering Air will not charge us for delivery, one way to reduce costs would be to rejigger this and get a straw drop in Unalakleet thus lightening the load a bit to expensive Kaltag.

By-Pass Mail: I am told this would probably be cheaper. Certainly, that is what the Serum Run used in the past. Calling ANYTHING in the federal government is a nightmare and this is no exception. Post offices do not answer their phones. Eventually I got somebody in Ester, Alaska to pick up the phone. She referred me to a person who was assigned to handle this in Alaska in Anchorage; her mailbox is always full. The lady in Ester sent her a text to call me; I haven’t heard from her yet. According to Cold Spot, they will no longer do by-pass mail because the rules have changed and have gotten complicated. So, if we did bypass mail out of Fairbanks, somebody else (and we are talking Marla and her handler) would need to pick up the straw from Cold Spot and deliver it to the postal facility by the airport.

I have no idea if it would be the same cost to get it out of Anchorage but then there’s a different cost calculation as Alaska Mill and feed charges more for each part of the process. More on that in next e-mail. I obviously can’t calculate the savings without talking to somebody at the post office. I’ll keep trying, but it is a thankless task. If the Nome Crew has any information or contacts regarding bypass mail, please let me know.