Aliy Zirkle was the first team to leave Huslia; she did not stay long, just long enough to grab more dog food and straw for another campout. Mitch Seavey has also left and now Jeff King too, who stayed for almost 6 hours. Aliy and Mitch have not taken their 8 hour layover yet. They most likely will do this in Kaltag. It is doubtful, that Jeff King will stay that long at any checkpoint, which technically will gain him a couple of hours advantage at that point. Of course we are all glued to the tracker now here in Koyukuk.
The trail over is outright beautiful. Hard packed, well defined and well marked. It will be very good traveling for the mushers. Here some shots of the run: