This morning, Nicolas Petit lost the trail just north of Bethel as he approached the halfway checkpoint. He reported that he came upon a section of trail that had been poorly marked and followed what looked like dog tracks. This led him on a divergent route that clearly cost him time. Earlier, Race Organizers had received a call from Richie Diehl on the trail, who was in the lead approaching Bethel. Diehl reported that there was a poorly marked section of trail and that while he was able to find his way because of his familiarity with the area, it might cause trouble for teams following behind him. A trail marker was dispatched immediately to find and repair problematic section of trail. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get there before Petit came through. Because Petit was the only musher to be negatively impacted race officials met to determine if any corrective action was justified. A call was made to the tracking company handling the K300 and they determined that as much as 15-16 minutes may have been lost by the detour.
The race committee accepted responsibility for the error and deducted 10 minutes from Petit’s remaining mandatory rest to be taken on his final stop at Tuluksak. Three other racers left the trail in other locations but officials determined that those situations didn't meet the narrow criteria for an adjustment, primarily because all other racers successfully navigated those areas.
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