News from McGrath – Shortly after 20:00 on Tuesday evening, Jessie Holmes was the first 2026 musher to arrive in the Athabaskan village at the confluence of the Kuskokwim and Takotna Rivers. Holmes had 16 dogs in harness. As the First team to arrive, Holmes received the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award. Holmes was presented with a pair of beaver fur musher mitts with Athabaskan beadwork on moose hide handcrafted by Loretta Maillelle of McGrath along with a beaver fur hat made by Rosalie Egrass of McGrath. The award was presented by Jessica Beans-Vaeao who serves as Charter Coordinator for Alaska Air Transit.
Alaska Air Transit has been a race sponsor for eight years and has presented the Spirit of Iditarod Award for the past seven years. AAT offers crucial flight support statewide via air charter and provides scheduled service to the upper Kuskokwim communities of Nikolai, McGrath, Takotna and Tatlina as well as the Prince William Sound communities of Tatitlek and Chenega.
Before arriving in McGrath, Jessie shared his immediate race plans with the insider guys. He mentioned two Iditarod icons, Susan Butcher and Lance Mackey. Susan and Lance are the only two mushers to claim a second win immediately following their first. Butcher’s first win came in 1986 followed by her second in 1987. Mackey earned his first win in 2007 and claimed his second in 2008. Jessie would like to join their club. His plan is to read Mother Nature and read the trail then make necessary adjustments. He’s at the front of the pack, in the position he wants to be in. From there he says he can dictate the pace of the race. Jessie praised a new leader, Bronco. Bronco and partner Zeus are taking the lead at times to rest his tried and true pair, Polar and Hercules.
Earlier in the race, Jessie’s plan after resting at Finger Lake was to pass through Puntilla Lake and rest up in Rainy Pass. He had to re-evaluate as the wind was creating havoc, swirling into every usually quiet sheltered camping spot. Holmes wanted his team to get good rest so decided to extend the run and rest in Rohn. During training runs over the winter, they’ve done many 8 hour runs. His dogs are used to it and respond well to the longer run followed by a four hours rest. With the exception of coming into Rohn, Holmes plans to save those longer runs for further into the race.
Before turning our focus to mushers toward the back of the pack, Riley Dyche has checked into Ophir. He sent supplies there for his 24-hour rest. At this point of the race, teams are all approaching their chosen rest stop. Takotna is a favorite as mushers know the food is spectacular and the area offers quiet places for dogs and mushers to recharge. Going further down the trail to Ophir is a good move too. Few teams will go that far so it offers even more solitude. The other preferred spot for the 24-hour rest is McGrath. Many back of the packers will choose to camp there.
Rookie Joey Sabin of Two Rivers has departed Nikolai with 15 dogs in harness. Sabin’s run from Rohn to Nikolai which included the Buffalo Tunnels and the Farewell Burn took 12 hours and 57 minutes. It’s a 75 mile run so his average speed was 5.79 mph. Joey has been an animal lover for as long as he can remember but didn’t start running dogs until 2017. He’s worked for Sven Haltman and Dallas Seavey. His resume of races includes Copper Basin 300, Yukon Quest Alaska 300 and Yukon quest Alaska 550.
Rookie Sydnie Bahl of Wasilla is on the trail to McGrath with 14 dogs in harness. Bahl’s run from Rohn to Nikolai took 12 hours and 12 minutes for an average speed of 6.15 MPH. Professionally, Bahl practices as a Physical Therapist. With that background, one can only imaging the specialized care her dogs receive during the rest part of the run/rest schedule – massages focused on triceps and shoulders and plenty of gentle stretching. Ah, doesn’t that sound wonderful. Truthfully though, all mushers attend their athletes with massage and stretching. Bahl is running dogs out of Dream a Dream Dog Farm in Willow where she’s been mentored by Vern Halter, Susan Whiton – DVM, and Cindy Abbott. All three are Iditarod veterans. Bahl attempted the Idita-river Iditarod in 2025 but scratched at Grayling-2.
Rookie Brenda Mackey of Two Rivers is back in Iditarod attending to unfinished business from 2021 and 2025. Brenda scratch from both of those races. Currently she’s checked out of Nikolai and is in route to McGrath. Brenda’s run from Rohn to Nikolai took 14 hours and 4 minutes for an average speed of 5.33 mph. Mackey has 14 dogs in harness. Brenda Mackey is a third generation musher and the only (so far) woman in the Mackey family to take to the runners for Iditarod. She started her mushing career at the age of three, running one-dog kid’s sprint races. Brenda at the age of 19, entered and finished the 1,000 mile Yukon Quest. To say the least, the Mackey family has a very storied Iditarod history. Since the beginning of the race in 1973, 54 years ago, there has been at least one Mackey racing in 48 of those 54 races. Between grandfather Dick, father Rick and uncle Lance, the Mackeys own 6 Iditarod championships. Brenda says that while on the trail she is awed knowing that she is covering the same ground as her Father (Rick) and two uncles (Lance and Bill) have covered in previous races. All have since passed but she enjoys sharing the race with her grandfather, Dick, and her uncle Jason. Having previously scratched at Nikolai and Tanana, she’s looking forward to seeing more than the first 300 miles of the race.
Veteran Jason Mackey, uncle to Brenda, is a few miles behind Brenda on the run to McGrath. Jason has 14 dogs in harness. Jason’s run from Rohn to Nikolai took 14 hours and 41 minutes for an average speed of 5.11 mph. Jason has completed 9 of his 10 Iditarod attempts. His best finishes in 16th came recently in ’24 and ’25. He has yet to break into the top 10. Along with his son Patrick, Mackey operates Mackey’s TopNotch Comeback Kennel in Fox, AK. Mackey says that he’s had great pleasure working with his Dad (Dick) and his three late brothers (Rick, Lance and Bill). Jason and Patrick both completed the inaugural Yukon Quest Alaska 750 in the very cold early part of February. In 2023 Jason received Iditarod’s Most Inspirational Musher award. He carried Lance’s and their Mother’s ashes on the trail and adjusted his race to get his five dogs to the finish in Nome. Back in 2015, Jason received the Musher’s Choice Award. It was a cold race and Lance suffered from Raynaud’s Disease. At one point during the frigid temperatures, Lance’s hands were such that taking care of his dogs was very difficult and painful. Lance knew he should scratch but instead, Jason proved that blood runs thicker than water. Jason put his own dreams aside for the 2015 race to help Lance make it to the finish. They made a deal, Jason would stick with Lance and help with his dogs as long as Lance would show Jason how to come from behind.
Thanks to Siri Raitto, Iditarod Race Photographer for capturing these awesome scenes from the trail.
