Nancy Yoshida, the rookie from Thompson, North Dakota, who crashed and burned yesterday in Happy River Gorge (see yesterday's post at 6:25 PM), was rescued by musher Lou Packer, who displayed more than normal patience in getting her back together. Packer spent three and a half hours helping Yoshida gather herself before he departed for the next checkpoint. The late, great basketball coach, Al Maguire, used to say: "the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores." To paraphrase Al, one might say: the best thing about rookies is they become veterans. That's a photo of Nancy's new best friend up there.
