Ryan Redington Recieves Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award (Photo: Siri Raitto)

When Nicolas Petit Arrived in Nikolai at 06:57 on Tuesday morning, he asked for a 24-hour parking spot (quiet) and then declared his 24-hour rest.  With bib #9, Nic will stay in Nikolai for 24 hours and 50 minutes to serve his start differential.  

Fifteen more mushers arrived in Nikolai within the next 6 hours.   Most stayed but Brent Sass, Jessie Holmes and Aaron Peck went on through to camp outside of McGrath.

Beadwork on Beaver Mitts (Photo: Iditarod Insider)

All teams have cleared out of Rohn.  Kelly Maixner didn’t paint a very pretty picture of the trail between Rohn and Nikolai.  Two words would sum it up – mud and moguls.  Just outside of Rohn there was mud on the uphill slopes then snow and ice on the down hill side for about 4 or 5 miles.  The moguls in the burn made for a rough ride.  Thankfully the final ten miles of trail into Nikolai was good.

Ryan Redington was the first musher to check into McGrath.  He received the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award.  Redington received a pair of handmade musher’s mitts with beaver and beaded leather by Loretta Maillelle of McGrath as well as a beaver hat handmade by Rosalie Egrass also of McGrath.

As Redington accepted these beautiful hand crafted gifts, his dogs stood with tails wagging and barking with excitement to move on.  After the vets checked his dogs over, that’s exactly what he did – headed up the trail to Takotna.  Will he take is 24 hour rest there or go on to Ophir as Brent Sass and Jessie Holmes intend to do?

As Ryan accepted the award, Jessie Holmes, Richie Diehl, Brent Sass and Peter Kaiser are all within a few miles of McGrath.  Fans who are at the checkpoint will get to see these high powered contenders arrive one right after the other.  It’s a pleasant evening for the residents of McGrath to enjoy the race.

Insider Analyst, Bruce Lee was in Rohn to see all of the teams come through late Monday and into Tuesday.  He said the front runners are in true race mode.  They took supplies and headed right out of Rohn to camp.  They moved efficiently and were in excellent spirits – that applies to both mushers and dogs.