Another great day for racing by sled dog standards albeit a little chilly for the humans involved as mushers, trail breakers, vets, checkers and of course the spectators. Until the mushers snuggled into their sled bags inside extra warm sleeping bags, the time spent around the blazing campfire at Yentna was enjoyed by everyone.
According to the race standings sheet and GPS tracker, the teams departed Yentna right on time after their 10 hour plus differential layover. Stanley Robinson was the first musher to depart at 0239. He hit the trail early and if it was bright, it was due to a clear sky and nearly full moon as the sun wouldn’t rise for another 6 hours. That moonlight would have made for a very spectacular run for all the inbound mushers.
Stanley was followed by Thale Randall at 0250 then Isaac Redington at 0307. After a break in the action of 37 minutes Mckena Hanson left Yentna at 0344 followed closely by Addy Pederson, Hazel Sutton, Rosemary Maixner and Keira Irish at 0412. Sam Perez, the 9th musher out this morning, pulled his snow hook ant 0451 and Torlief Bentzen followed at 0519.
Looking at these departure times tells the tale of how the teams arrived in Yentna on Saturday evening. There was less than a three hour spread between the first musher to arrive, Stanley Robinson at 1621 and the final musher to arrive, Torlief Bentzen at 1919.
As fast as the trail was for the outbound run, it’s expected that the trail will be equally fast for the inbound run. A key strategy for these young mushers is to have a flat run time. That means that they pace their dogs on the first day to have energy in the bank for day two. So ideally, today’s run time should be about the same as yesterday’s run time. Go ahead and compare the time it took each of the mushers to get from Knik to Yentna with the time it took each of them to get back today. That timing information is available at jriditarod.org in standings.
49th Jr. Iditarod Finish Order
Photos are provided by Julia Redington of Northern Wonders Photography and Whitney McLaren of Mushing Photos. Many thanks for their tireless efforts on the trail in capturing the nature of the race as well as the spirit of each musher and their incredible dogs. To see more of their Jr. Iditarod 2026 photos, please visit the Jr. Iditarod Facebook page.
Come back tomorrow for recap of the 2026 Jr. Iditarod banquet and awards.
