KALTAG, Alaska — Lance Mackey was in the lead Sunday but a pack of mushers, including two former champions, were trying to catch him as strategy and mind games came into play in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Mackey left the Kaltag checkpoint on the frozen Yukon River at about 4 a.m. Sunday and headed toward Unalakleet, 90 miles away. The run through gentle rolling hills and along a river is one of the longest in the 1,100-mile race to Nome.
Canadian musher Sebastian Schnuelle left Kaltag about two hours after Mackey but rested his team only a half-hour, far less than the eight hours Mackey was able to give his dogs.
Mushers at this point in the race are trying to figure out how much to rest their teams and when to make a move, if possible, in the quest to catch Mackey, the 2007 and 2008 champion.
“It looks like he is definitely running scared now but he is in a good position,” said four-time champion Jeff King, who was second to Mackey last year after Mackey pulled a fast one, sneaking out of a checkpoint ahead of King who was napping and heading toward victory.
King was in third place Sunday, leaving Kaltag more than five hours after Mackey.
From Kaltag, the last checkpoint on the Yukon River where it was 30 degrees below zero early Sunday morning, teams head toward the coastal community of Unalakleet, the largest town on the Iditarod trail between Anchorage and Nome.
From there, mushers drive their teams 261 miles along the coast to Nome, an area of trail where storms can quickly move in from the Bering Sea and either make or break a musher’s dream of being an Iditarod champion.
Mitch Seavey, the 2004 champion, pulled out of Kaltag 5 minutes after King.
“I would like my chances better if I made up some time last night, but there is still some racing to do,” Seavey said, as he pulled his snow hook and headed his team back on the trail.
Sixty-seven teams began the race Sunday in Willow about 50 miles north of Anchorage. Three teams scratched and one was withdrawn, leaving 63 teams on the trail to Nome.
Paul Gebhardt, who has twice been runner-up, said the 70-mile run from Eagle River to Kaltag was chilly, with the mercury dropping to 40 below, but it wasn’t windy. Two years ago, the teams were forced to drive into winds that were 50 mph on the Yukon.
Hugh Neff, who was second in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race this year, taking off less than two weeks before beginning the Iditarod, pulled out of Kaltag 5 minutes behind Seavey. Since 2000, Neff has competed in nine Quests and six Iditarods, wracking up 15,000 or more race miles.
“It’s just an honor to be hanging around these mushers,” said Neff, who has only once finished in the top 20 in the Iditarod.
Neff’s dogs appeared ready to go Sunday morning. Three of them began howling as Neff tucked the last of his things into his sled bag.
“All right, all right,” he told them as they answered back, before the musher and his dogs headed out of town.
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