Thursday, day four of the 53rd Iditarod, started with Paige Drobny being the first musher to reach Galena and thus receive the Feast on the Yukon, a gourmet meal prepared by Top Chefs of Locally Grown Restaurants. Paige told Insider that to get to Galena, she was just running the dogs to their ability. Paige divided the run from Tanana to Ruby into two segments then took a three hour rest in Ruby before coming to Galena knowing she would spend 24 hours. Resting in Galena will put her back on the trail in cooler weather.
As the day wore on and more teams reached Ruby from Tanana, trail conditions for not just that 117 mile run but the entire race were often mentioned. While most called is sugar snow, Rookie Emily Ford called it boxed mashed potatoes. It doesn’t take much to get the picture. The trail was soft and granular, anything BUT the expected hard and fast river trail all had hoped for.
Up at the front of the pack, there’s much speculation about where mushers will decide to park their dogs and take the long rest. Paige Drobny has chosen Galena. Jessie Holmes and Michelle Phillips are out of Galena heading to Nulato. Holmes is resting 30 miles short of Nulato and that would set him up for a sixty mile run to Kaltag and his long rest – at least that’s the rumor of what he’s planning.
Michelle Phillips talked about training in rougher conditions with Bruce Lee. Phillips, Jessie Holmes and Paige Drobny train where the conditions are sometimes fast and hard but also snow covered and slower. Phillips thinks that the more dogs are exposed to the better they will handle a diverse race trail.
Ryan Redington is taking his 24 hour rest in Galena as this is where he had more dogs food. Quigley and Rivet have led Ryan Redington for the entire race so far. He praised them saying they are two little females who did a great job in the deep sugar snow and in the sand storm.
At the back half of the pack, Anna Berington, rookie Samantha LaLonde and rookie Jenny Roddewig are in Ruby. The rest of the rookies, except for Emily Ford who is on the trail to Galena are approaching Ruby. Two veterans Matthew Failor and Jeff Deeter are in that pack heading to Ruby.
For some interesting math, compare a checkpoint on this trail to a like mile checkpoint on either the northern or southern route. Ruby at mile 319 and McGrath at mile 311, similar distances into the race, are very different because of the miles left to Nome. From Ruby the mushers have 809 miles remaining of the 2025 race. From McGrath they’d have 687 on the normal southern route. On a normal northern route Ruby would be at mile 495 with 480 miles to Nome. What veterans are used to is very different to the reality of 2025. Veteran Nicolas Petit said, “Everyone is a rookie this year.” That’s the truth!
Looking at the drop swap list might give some insight as to where mushers will take the long rest. On a normal southern route mushers would likely rest at McGrath, Takotna, Ophir or Iditarod. How does that line out in 2025? The Takotna bags went to Galena, McGrath to Nulato, Ophir to Kaltag 1 and Iditarod to Eagle Island. This will begin to play out in the near future.
Going back to 1925 and the Great Race of Mercy, Billy McCarty carried the serum 28 miles from Ruby to Whiskey Creek. Edgar Nollner secured the precious cargo to his sled and travelled 24 miles to Galena. Billy Honea, the acting checker in Ruby talked to Insider Greg Heister about the 100 year anniversary of the Serum Run. McCarty is Honea grandfather.
A second musher has scratched from Iditarod 2025. Rookie Charmayne Morrison scratched this morning at the Tanana checkpoint. Her decision was made for the wellbeing of her team. Morrison, a Jr Iditarod veteran calls Bozeman, Montana home.
