Iditarod

The teams that have been lurking behind the front runners in the spotlight are about to come out of the woodwork. Leading teams are done with their 24-hour layovers (or soon will be) and head to the flat expanses of the Yukon River, where a new race opens up to the Bering Sea coast.

When he came into Ruby Friday morning, race officials informed Ken Anderson that they would add two hours to his mandatory eight-hour layover. The penalty comes after Anderson violated rule 38 and ran more than two dogs abreast.

Iditarod veteran Aliy Zirkle was the second musher out of Ruby early this morning, but she overtook Brent Sass a short ways down the trail. Both are on the move toward Galena - a 50-mile run down the Yukon River - with 15 dogs in harness.

Near the first Iditarod checkpoint on the Yukon River, the Ruby Bible Church was selling a soup and sandwich lunch special for $5. When I arrived, there were three options to pick from, and I went with the "Seven Bean and Black Bear" offering.

Halfway to Nome, the real racing has begun as Iditarod dog teams make their way to Ruby, the first stop along the Yukon River. Somewhere in the next 134 miles, teams must take a mandatory eight-hour layover, but gaps are starting to open up in the field. The challenge for mushers now is how and when they will decide to make their big moves.

Spirits in Takotna were high Thursday morning, with a cluster of well-fed and rested mushers getting set to end their 24-hour rests. The front-runners who rested here like Mitch Seavey and Pete Kaiser roared back onto the trail late last night. The mushers camped out now, like Ryne Olson, are on a different pace. Download Audio

The first dog team in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has reached the midway point of of Ruby on the Yukon River, 495 miles along the Iditarod trail. Jeff King’s team was not only the first team to arrive, but is the only team to travel this far without taking 24 hours rest. Download Audio

Iditarod officials are adding 50 minutes to Wasilla musher Robert Redington’s Yukon River layover after he was inadvertently allowed to leave the Nikolai checkpoint...

Iditarod is far more than dog racing. Small Alaska communities celebrate the arrival of longer days and the people in the community. McGrath hosts an auction fundraiser each year when the Iditarod rolls through to raise money for a local organization and a family in need. KNOM’s Emily Schwing stopped into the bar Tuesday night to get a first hand look at what the auction is all about. Download Audio

Charley Bejna has scratched from the 2016 Iditarod. The veteran from Addison, IL pulled out of the race at 11:50 a.m. Thursday at the...

Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King has arrived at the Yukon River checkpoint of Ruby. He pulled in just after 1:00 Thursday afternoon. He told...

Eureka musher Brent Sass has made it to the Cripple. Sass checked in shortly after noon Thursday, making him the first musher who has taken the mandatory 24-hour layover.

Halfway to Nome, teams’ locations on the map are just dots, or perhaps more appropriately, asterisks. The question this morning is not “where are...

Mushers seem to be pushing their dogs a little farther down the trail this year before they opt to take their mandatory 24-hour rest. It’s a move Jeff King predicted at the ceremonial start of the race in Anchorage.

Denali musher Jeff King, so far, is the lone musher to push through Cripple toward the Ruby. The 4-time Iditarod champion spent four hours in the Cripple checkpoint, before heading down the trail at 3:05 a.m. today.

Long before the race ever starts, mushers pack their drop bags with gear and food to so that they have options for where and when to take their 24-hour mandatory rest along the Iditarod Trail. This year, some of them tried something new, while others are doing what they know. It’s only a matter of time before it becomes clear who has the winning strategy now that dog teams are starting to come off their long rest.

Trail Mix is Alaska Public Media's trail reporters inside look at covering the Iditarod sled dog race. Emily Schwing knows a lot more than I...

It’s the fourth day of the Iditarod, and dozens of teams are in the middle of their mandatory 24 hour rests. Mitch Seavey was the first to declare his rest in Takotna, and is cleared to leave just before 11 o’clock Wednesday. The elder Seavey is a regular in Takotna, and says there are plenty of reasons for that. Download Audio

Dallas Seavey has pushed his team at the front of Iditarod pack into the old gold mining settlement of Cripple. 400 miles into the race, the three-time champion is joined by seven others out of Ophir, including Jeff King, Norwegian Robert Sorlie, and Noah Burmeister. With 14 dogs in harness, Dallas Seavey wins the Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award: $3,000 in gold nuggets. Download Audio

There's really not a lot of "planning" for this. I'm only two days in, and I feel like more attention goes towards tracking flights, coordinating deadlines, and finding Internet than it does to figuring out who's at the front of the race and why.