RUBY, Alaska — Village bells rang as a very tired Lance Mackey and his 14 dogs were the first team to pull into this Yukon River checkpoint in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
“Don’t count me out just yet,” Mackey said as his dogs yelped at the outpost about 500 miles from the race’s finish in Nome.
Ruby will recharge Mackey with a seven-course gourmet feast, the village’s traditional honor for the first musher into town. He’ll also receive $5,000 in $1 bills.
Mackey, who has already taken his mandatory 24-hour rest, plans to take one of the two required eight-hour breaks at Ruby.
He had some issues early in the race with his team, including warm weather zapping their strength and bickering among the lead dogs. The 24-hour rest seemed to revive the team.
“They’re coming around,” he said.
The 37-year-old Fairbanks, Alaska, musher was the first to leave the race’s halfway point, the Cripple checkpoint, late Thursday. He took off nearly two-and-a-half hours ahead of Hans Gatt of Whitehorse, Yukon.
Thirteen other mushers were en route to Ruby, including four-time winner Jeff King of Denali Park, Alaska, and Rick Swenson of Two Rivers, Alaska, the race’s only five-time winner.
Mackey last year became the first to record back-to-back wins in the 1,100-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and the Iditarod. He also won the Yukon Quest last month with many of the same dogs with him on the Iditarod.
His menu in Ruby, prepared by a chef flown in from Anchorage, includes chicken and wild mushroom terrine, Yukon potato bisque with shrimp ravioli, halibut with peach chutney, beef fillet stuffed with Alaskan King crab, asparagus and bleu cheese, and raspberry crepes.
Each plate is served with a fresh glass of fine wine.
Rookie musher Kim Franklin of Britain was withdrawn from the race Thursday after two dogs became separated from her team. Franklin reported that one of her dogs chewed through the gangline and race officials said Franklin couldn’t find the dogs and continued to Rohn. It’s against Iditarod rules to arrive at a checkpoint without the same number of dogs.
Officials said the two dogs were found and released to their handler in Anchorage.
Also on Thursday, Jason Barron of Lincoln, Mont., scratched in McGrath, citing ill dogs. Six mushers have scratched since the start of the race. A record field of 89 mushers remains on the trail.
In its 36th running, the Iditarod commemorates a run by sled dogs in 1925 to deliver lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome.
The modern-day Iditarod trail crosses frozen rivers, dense woods and two mountain ranges, then goes along the dangerous sea ice up the Bering Sea shore to the finish line under Nome’s burled arch. Along the way, mushers can encounter blinding snow storms and temperatures far below zero.
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