The ghost town of Iditarod is in the middle of nowhere, but it’s where the race named after it may have been decided this year.
A large pack of mushers passed through the deserted Alaskan backcountry surrounding Iditarod overnight. Some took their 24-hour layovers there, others earlier. From Iditarod the trail goes through Shageluk to the Yukon River at Anvik — that’s 90 miles, then an 18-mile hop to Grayling, where APRN’s Ellen Lockyer is waiting to see who arrives first.
As of 7:08 a.m. this morning, Martin Buser was the first out of Shageluk, heading for Grayling.
While many teams took 17 hours or more to get down the 90 miles of rough trail into Iditarod, Martin Buser and Jeff King both managed to do it in about 10 hours. Buser left Iditarod almost four hours before Lance Mackey could come off his 24-hour layover, followed by Paul Gebhart. Jeff King, with 15 dogs now, was an hour and a half behind Buser. While Zack Steer was the first one out of Iditarod, he had stopped there only ten minutes.
Now coming off their 24’s are Ed Iten, Mitch Seavey, Tollef Monson and Cim Smyth. But many others came into Iditarod overnight with their 24’s taken earlier. John Baker got in at 3:27 this morning. Already there, along with the five mushers waiting out their 24’s, were Ramy Brooks, Jason Barron, Ken Anderson, Aaron Burmeister, Aliy Zirkle, Robert Sorlie, and Jim Lanier.
The top-running rookie, Sigrid Ekran, is in 19th place, but having a hard time with that 90-mile run from Ophir to Iditarod. She left Ophir at noon yesterday. Rookie Sylvia Willis is also on that leg, along with veterans Ryan and Ray Redington, Jr., Hugh Neff and Hans Gatt. The red lantern is in Rohn with Deborah Molberg Bicknell, who took the long way getting there.