The Iditarod is on the Yukon

Jessie Holmes at the Ceremonial Start of Iditarod 54.
March 7, 2026. Anchorage, Alaska. 

For a race that started off a little on the slow side, it's picking up speed as we enter the second leg of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Teams are now into Ruby with the top two teams currently running toward Galena on the mighty Yukon.

Jessie Holmes was first to the Yukon and the checkpoint of Ruby at 4:55am AKDST Friday, winning the First to the Yukon award of a five course meal that he shared with Ruby elder Billy Honea as well as offered part of the meal with Paige Drobny who came into the checkpoint a little over two hours behind Holmes.

Drobny and Holmes have been playing leapfrog since coming off of their 24 hour rest, but Drobny has reported she's having a bit of trouble that has cost her time. "Everything is breaking," the musher told Insider early Friday morning in Ruby. Her alarm clock, she said, isn't working and her phone has died because both of her chargers have snapped due to the extreme temps the teams have faced for nearly a week now. Paige said she had no way to tell time until Ryan Redington who was camped near her on the run into Ruby offered her a watch. She rested thirty minutes longer on the trail than she had planned and is now trying to figure out how to catch up to the current race leader.

Both Holmes and Drobny had not originally planned to take their mandatory 8 hour rest on the Yukon in Ruby, but Holmes carried a 70lbs dog all the way from Cripple and decided the dogs needed the longer rest. Drobny decided to take her 8, she said, because she needed to get back on track to running at night and not during the heat of the day. Holmes left at 12:55pm AKDST Friday, Drobny gave chase at 3:01pm.

As the chase pack continue to make their way to Ruby, the back of the pack are closing in on Cripple. The big talk of this year's race is how big the teams are this far into the race. The colder temps have kept the trail quite nicely for the teams and things are going well for most everyone.

The pace should speed up as teams hit the Yukon. Think of it like a mushing freeway as they run on a solid flat stretch for the next day or so before making the portage from Kaltag to Unalakleet where the race will really shake out and we'll have a really good idea of which teams have the gas left in the tank to make the push for the win.