Crazy Monday on the Iditarod Trail


The Race restarted Sunday afternoon at 2 PM Alaska Standard Time (AST) in Willow on the frozen lakebed with another throng of people waving, hollering, and wishing well their favorite musher on to Nome.

They ran through the night and into the bright sun of an Alaskan spring morning as the leaders headed into the Alaska Range and climbed their way to Rainy Pass. 

Several of the mushers are on a blistering pace to Rohn checkpoint an abandoned cabin which is about 200 miles into the 1,150 mile race to Nome.  Robert Bundtzen with his 16 dogs arrived in Rohn at 5:17 PM with defending champion Lance Mackey arriving just 18 minutes later but after his time check was off again and back on the trail headed to the Farewell Burn.

Other events of the day . . . 5 time Iditarod champion Rick Swenson crashed on the Happy Valley River steps leading into Rainy Pass and is considering his options after it was confirmed he appears to have a broken collarbone.  He should decide shortly if he will continue or scratch from the race.

Martin Buser arrived in Rainy Pass with only 11 dogs after five got loose on the trail from Finger Lake.  He and Jamaican musher Newton Marshall tangled on a narrow portion of the trail and when they stopped to untangle the dogs Buser’s ran off.  Officials could not check Buser into the check point until his missing dogs arrived and when they did a little later, Buser checked in and out in a hurry heading back out into the wilderness.

Earlier this morning Dee Dee Jonrowe’s team veered off the trail after leaving the Finger Lake checkpoint at 6:29 AM and ran some extra miles as she turned her team around and returned to the checkpoint to rest her dogs and left the second time at 10:55 AM.

Crazy day on the trail under clear skies and mild temperatures around 27 degrees after a start on Saturday at minus 5 and Sunday’s start at zero.  There is high pressure over the state so it will be interesting to see how the rest cycles play out and if most of the mushers will run during the night times as much as possible to keep the dogs cooler resting in the high sun of the day.

Tomorrow should see the leaders passing through Nikolai, McGrath, Takotna, Ophir and into Iditarod close to the halfway point in the race.

Ice

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