Jessica Klejka arriving in Iditarod
Iditarod Veteran, Jim Lanier, has authored a book called “Beyond Ophir.” The title of his book describes exactly where the mushers are on Friday afternoon of Iditarod XLVII. While Lanier isn’t participating in Iditarod this year, he completed his rookie run in the Yukon Quest a few weeks back. At 78 years young, Jim is an inspiration to us all! Okay, getting back to “Beyond Ophir.”
Ophir marks the turning point of the trail. In even years the mushers take a right to follow the northern route to Cripple and beyond. In odd years the mushers take a left to follow the southern route to Iditarod and beyond. Eventually the trail meets back up at Kaltag on the Yukon River. Because the race hadn’t taken the southern route in five years, the 2018 race went south too.
The back of the pack mushers, Michael Baker, Cindy Abbott, Victoria Hardwick, Cindy Gallea, Jeremy Keller and Alison Lifka, are all resting in Ophir. They arrived between 10:54 and 13:55. Michael Baker had the fastest run time of 3 hours flat. Abbott, Gallea and Lifka were within a couple of minutes of the 3 hour mark. Hardwick and Keller covered the distance in 3 hours 43 and 45 minutes respectively.
Nine teams are on the trail between Ophir and Iditarod. Marcelle Fressineau leads the pack, departing Ophir at 22:53 on Thursday. Kristin Bacon is the final musher of the pack, leaving Ophir at 09:42 Friday morning.
Jessica Kejka is the newest musher to make Iditarod checkpoint. She arrived at the old mining town at 13:01 on Friday after a 17 hour run from Ophir. Teams in Iditarod with Jessica include Martin Buser, Lance Mackey, Richie Beattie, Robert Redington, and Ed Hopkins. Buser is finishing his 24-hour layover.
There’s a whole batch of teams on the trail between Iditarod and Shageluk. Aaron Peck is leading that pack and Jeff Deeter is bringing up the rear. The Beringtons twins are running about a minute apart. Jeff King and Ramey Smith are also part of the batch.
Jason Campeau is running in 19th place at the moment. He’s just arrived in Shageluk where seven other mushers including Matthew Hall, Jessie Holms, Mats Pettersson and Travis Beals, Linwood Fiedler, Lev Shvarts and Michi Kono are parked.
Richie Diehl is leading the mushers on the trail between Shageluk and Anvik. Ryan Redington, Matthew Failor, Paige Drobny and Aaron Burmeister are following Diehl. Diehl is currently running in 7th place.
Leading the race is Nicolas Petit who is in Grayling. Petit arrived at 11:48. Joar Leifseth Ulsom followed at 13:48. Jessie Royer came into Grayling at 14:06 followed by Peter Kaiser at 14:43 and Mitch Seavey at 15:03. Currently, Aliy Zirkle is running in 6th place on her way to Grayling.
As the mushers reach Shageluk, they are eligible to take the required Yukon River 8-hour rest. There’s a bit more strategy to play out in that choice. Checking stats on this, Joar Leifseth Ulsom, Richie Diehl, Ryan Redington, Matt Failor and Paige Drobny have completed the require Yukon rest.
