The Willow restart brought a large crowd of spectators to the lake to enjoy an easily accessible view of the iconic sled dog race across Alaska. Only a few miles beyond Willow the road system and trail separate. Beyond Willow, spectators use either snow machine or plane to get to Yentna, Skwentna, Finger Lake or Rainy Pass to see the action.
Wearing bib #2, rookie Adam Lindenmuth lead the mushers onto the trail for the 54th running of the Last Great Race. A rookie musher is probably experiencing some butterflies and then being the first musher to take the trail would undoubtedly contribute a few more. Having hiked the Continental Divide Trail, the Arizona Trail and the Pacific Quest Trail, Adam will feel right at home on the National Historic Iditarod Trail. Adam says he went to work as an engineer but wanted to get back into guiding. At that time he took a kennel job and fell in love with the mushing life and has never looked back. He and his wife, Meri operate Sojourn Kennel in Willow. Adam says running his first Iditarod is like seeing a far off horizon and knowing the dogs and I are heading there. Then looking back and seeing how far we’ve come. By the time Adam gets to Yentna, he and his dogs will have settled into the race to enjoy their journey across Alaska to that far off horizon.
Wearing bib #37 Grayson Bruton was the final musher competing in the 54th Iditarod to leave Willow. Bruton was born and raised in Alaska and if a veteran. Grayson and his father, Jim, operate The Cure Racing Kennel in Tok. Their mission is to promote the thrilling sport a sled dog racing while raising awareness for multiple sclerosis. While growing up in Willow, Grayson watched dog teams pass by his home while doing training runs. Sledding was always on his radar but it was an Iditarod volunteer experience at the restart in Willow that hooked him on mushing. Grayson’s father was a long time Iditarod volunteer and one year invited Grayson to help with parking teams. Watching mushers prepare their dogs and then head out on the trail proved to be more than he could resist. He worked for Mitch Seavey and Lance Mackey to hone his skills with dogs and learn how to build a successful racing team. In his rookie Iditarod in 2020 on the Gold Trail Loop, Grayson finished the abbreviated course in 23rd place. This year he hopes to experience the entire trail including the mighty Yukon River and the Bering Sea Coast.
The final musher of the day, wearing bib # 38 was Expedition musher Steve Curtis.
Just a few hours and 42 miles into the race, teams will arrive at Yentna Station Roadhouse, the first of 22 northern route checkpoints. The late Dan Gabryszak and his wife Jean established the Roadhouse in 1981 and a few years later, the Iditarod route shifted to run the Yentna River and Yentna became an official checkpoint of the race. The Gabryszak family graciously hosts the checkpoint, opening the lodge to house the communications equipment and serving meals to the small army of volunteers who descend upon Yentna for the first day and night of the race. They do the same for the Jr. Iditarod.
On the river in front of the lodge, chutes will be set up for checkers to handle the tightly packed field of mushers as they descend upon the checkpoint. Inside, the comms team will be reporting dog traffic, in times and out times back to Anchorage. Back in Anchorage, comms workers will be receiving the information and uploading it to race stats for fans, friends and family to track the race. Bibs are collected at Yentna for safe keeping and returned to the mushers outside of Nome.
Another few hours and 30 miles further into the race, teams will arrive at Skwentna. Having worked comms at Skwentna for a number of years, I can vouch for how thrilling it is to see the headlamp of the first musher way up river. It’s the trigger for several hours of intense activity in the checkpoint. So when might the Skwentna River Crew see the headlamp of the first musher to come around the bend? Looking back at 2020, Robert Redington arrived in Skwentna at 23:40. That was a slow run through deep newly fallen snow. We can’t look at 2021 because the race started at Deshka Landing rather than Willow. In 2022, the first four mushers, led by Ryan Redington arrived in Skwentna between 21:23 and 21:45. In 2023, Ryan Redington was again first into Skwentna at 20:51. In 2024, Mille Porsild made Skwentna at 21:03 followed by Ryan Redington at 21:15. Of course in 2025, the race started in Fairbanks. Based on the five most recent races, I think a safe bet would be a shortly after 21:00. Okay, so I’ll pick 21:18.
Something to watch tonight and into tomorrow is who moves up toward the front of the pack. Teams depart the start in two-minute intervals. Veteran Grayson Bruton wearing bib #37 will depart 70 minutes after Adam Lindenmuth in bib #2. This start differential is added to the 24-hour required layover. So for tonight and up through the 24-hour rest, the leader isn’t the first team charging down the trail. But watch to see who’s moving up toward the front from the teams that drew the higher bib numbers.
Beginning this evening the mushers will try to set up a run/rest schedule to avoid the “heat” of the day, we’re likely to see some mushers camping between checkpoints tonight. They may choose to do a 5 to 6 hour run of 50 to 60 miles this afternoon then set the snow hook and put straw down for the dogs to sleep on. They’ll rest for 4 to 6 hours then stop briefly at Skwentna for drop bags and vet check then head to Finger Lake, not an actual checkpoint this year, arriving to rest during the heat of the day on Monday after two 60-ish mile runs. Watch how that 50-60 mile run schedule plays out going further down the trail.
While we wait for race stats to come out of Yentna, here are a few stats about the 2026 race. The field of 37 mushers is made up of 8 international mushers, 3 lower 48 Mushers and 26 Alaska mushers. There are 14 rookies and 23 veterans. Twelve women will run alongside 25 men. Three of the rookies are re-rookies. Ritchie Beattie ran a full race in 2019 but was forced to withdraw under rule 42 after reaching Nome. Syndie Bahl withdrew in 2025 at Grayling northbound under rule 36. Re-re-rookie Brenda Mackey scratched in Nikolai in 2021 and in Tanana in 2025. Foreign contenders include Jesse Terry of Canada, Hanna Lyrek of Norway, Michelle Phillips of Canada and Mille Porsild of Denmark. Three champions – Pete Kaiser 2019, Ryan Redington in 2023 and Jessie Holmes in 2025, collectively have 3 wins.
Three of the 37 mushers are associated with the Expedition Class, Steve Curtis from Canada and Kjell Rokke from Switzerland who will be accompanied by Thomas Waerner of Norway. The expedition class is not competing with the rest of the field for prize money or awards.
The field for 2026 might have been larger but five mushers who signed up for the race chose to withdraw prior to starting. Joshua Robbins made the decision for personal reasons, Deke Naaktgeboren for the best interest of his team and Josh McNeal, Nicolas Petit and Connor McMahon all withdrew on account of personal injuries.
