With the first teams in Nikolai, folks in McGrath are excited.  Likely the front-runners will be here early evening.  Why, there may even be enough daylight for some nice photos. Village people will turn out to welcome the first teams to climb off the river into the checkpoint.  Of course news media will be here to broadcast the event and folks from Alaska Air Transit will be on hand to present the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award.

For the moment, I’m watching the race as most of you are via the standings and GPS tracker at Iditarod.com. Bandwidth in most checkpoints is insufficient for me to view Insider videos to access the great work and information provided by Greg Heister and the Insider crew.  

Nikolai Checkpoint in 2006

Currently, three teams are in Nikolai.  They are resting in the checkpoint adjacent to the Kuskokwim River.  Joar Leifseth Ulsom arrived at 06:36 with 13 dogs. Peter Kaiser parked his team at 07:54 with 14 dogs.  Jessie Royer was not far behind at 08:10 with 14 dogs.  Average speeds from Rohn were 6.26 mph, 7.05 mph and 6.19 mph respectively. Kaiser had the fastest run time of 10 hours 38 minutes. 

The trail out of Rohn travels through the Buffalo Tunnels, past Egypt Mountain and then out across the Farewell Burn.  From the air, the trail through the burn looks like it goes on for miles and miles.

Trail in the Farewell Burn that goes on and on and on…

Nicolas Petit lead a large group of mushers out of Rohn, thirty-three to be exact.  Again, what a sight that would be from the air when all those teams are traversing the Farwell Burn.  Thirty-three caterpillars making steady progress along the trail. I hope Jeff Schultz is up there in a plane to capture that one.

Nicolas Petit departed Rohn at 18:12 on Monday evening.  He was followed by Ryan Redington, Aliy Zirkle, Matt Hall, Mitch Seavey, Richie Deal and Travis Beals.  Beals is wearing bib number 51 and is running in 10th place right now but technically, you really have to consider the start differential in all of that. 

On the other end of the train out of Rohn is Richie Beattie, Lance Mackey and Jessica Klejka.  Lance is sandwiched between the pair of rookies. Beattie departed with 14 dogs at 07:12 after resting in Rohn for 5 hours 1 minute.  Lance pulled the hook at 07:14 with 14 dogs after a rest of 5 hours and 15 minutes.  Klejka departed at 08:12 with 14 dogs after resting 4 hours 54 minutes.  Check the standings or GPS tracker for information on the other teams in this train.

Teams Look Like Caterpillars From the Air

At the back of the pack, Victoria Hardwick remains as the lone team resting in Rainy Pass.  She has the Alaska Range in sight.  Seven teams are tackling Rainy Pass and the Gorge as I write.  Kristin Bacon is leading that train and Cindy Gallea is the caboose.  Kristin departed for Rohn at 01:03 and Gallea departed at 06:40. The Don Bowers Trail Notes say the climb and descent is doable in daylight or darkness.  Would expect Bacon into Rohn anytime now.

As mushers get to McGrath they’ll be thinking about taking the mandatory 24-hour rest.  Most of the forerunners will just check in at McGrath and move up the trail to perhaps stop at Takotna for the layover or even go further as Joar Leifseth Ulsom did in 2018 when he pressed onto Iditarod.  The 2018 runner-up, Nicolas Petit took his 24 in McGrath.  There’s no best practice for selecting the 24 hour spot, it’s all about what works for the musher, the dogs and what conditions dictate.

The start differential is added to the 24-hour layover.  Travis Beals will only have 4 minutes of additional time to serve where as Joar Leifseth Ulsom will need to serve an additional 50 minutes, Nicolas Petit will have 1 hour 6 minutes and Peter Kaiser will serve an additional 1 hour 28 minutes.  AFTER everyone has completed the 24 plus differential rest, we’ll know who’s really leading the race.