We're hitting the part of the race where mushers must start taking their manditory 24 hour rests. It doesn't feel like it's time yet for them to be hitting Takotna and Ophir, but apparently the mushers disagree with that idea.
Jeff King was awarded with Penair's "Spirit of Alaska" award last night after he ran into McGrath - though he didn't stay much longer than the presentation before heading onto Takotna where it's reported that he will take his 24 hour layover.
Hans Gatt and Cim Smyth blew through Takotna during the night and are sitting in Ophir. Both are down to 14 dogs, while King is still holding on to 16. This is around the time that mushers drop dogs maybe not due to illness or injury but simply because they don't need that much dog power. Many of the teams are running at 14 dogs. Click here to read adn.com's article on Gatt's run into the Ophir checkpoint.
Seems John Baker doesn't want to take advantage of all the hospitality Takotna has to offer, either, though he did stay for almost six hours (no doubt eating their wonderful pie offerings) he's on the trail headed up to Ophir. John's team is looking REALLY strong this year. Here's hoping he can finally make that win happen.
Dallas Seavey is somewhere between McGrath and Takotna running in 25th place according to the musher standings on Iditarod.com - the GPS tracker page won't come up for me this morning, drat!
Buser's team seems to be lagging back in 28th place, there's still a slim chance he can make up the time, but at this point I think we're just going to see a top 10 finish from him once again. At least teh dogs are having fun, and that's really all that matters (especially to Martin).
I have another stint at the Iditarod HQ tonight so this will probably be teh only update I can squeeze in. Keep watch at Iditarod.com, AlaskanDispatch.com and ADN.com
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