A tall fellow was jogging with a handsome Siberian around the McGrath Checkpoint. It was Mike Ellis who was taking his 24-hour rest and having a little fun with his canine companions. Ellis looked good but his dog, Eliza looked great. Ellis has the fastest ever Siberian time for the Yukon Quest and hopes to be making the same claim for Iditarod when he reaches Nome. Currently, Blake Frekking’s Siberians of Minnesota hold the Iditarod record. Frekking’s handsome dogs covered the northern route to Nome in 11 days, 20 hours and 39 minutes for 42nd place. Most of the dogs on the Ellis team are from two litters and Eliza, their mother is running lead. Mike finds himself living his dream of running the Iditarod largely through receiving the Seppala Heritage Grant. The grant was founded by the Seppala Family to help mushers who aspire to run the Iditarod for the first time. Eliza will be leading Ellis and the rest of the team out of McGrath at 07:43 on Thursday morning following their 24-hour rest and differential adjustment.

Parked just around the corner from the checkpoint’s front door is Rudy Demoski. It’s been 28 years since Rudy last stood on the runners for and Iditarod. He’s experienced three very different eras of Iditarod. In the late 70’s Iditarod was a camping trip compared to the race we know today. He ran in 1985 when Libby Riddels won the race initiating dominance by women for the last half of the 1980’s. Now he’s running in a very high tech Iditarod complete with GPS tracker. He’s enjoying this run very much. He’s commented on how the trail has improved since his last run. He wasn’t looking forward to the Happy River Steps or the Dalzell Gorge on his return to the trail. Actually he put it this way, “I didn’t want to see the steps or the gorge so I ran them at night. I couldn’t see too far ahead so I just reacted to what was right in front of me. The steps were in great condition and the gorge was no problem at all.” Looking back at the records, Rudy’s best finish was 4th place in his 1974 rookie Iditarod. Demoski’s best time was in his most recent 1985 finish of 16 days, 9 hours and 35 minutes. Currently Rudy is taking his 24-hour layover at McGrath at mile 280. Seems to be a good bet that he’ll set a new personal best time in the 41st Iditarod.

Thirteen mushers are taking their twenty-four hour layover at McGrath and are scheduled to depart throughout the day on Thursday. A handful of teams are between Nikolai and McGrath and two teams are still resting at Nikolai. The race is moving down the trail faster than anyone expected.