It was a little before midnight when Jessie Royer and Richie Diehl arrived at the Takotna checkpoint on the Iditarod trail and decided to rest. The group of 14 teams that followed them into Takotna also decided to stay put. That group included Bethel’s Pete Kaiser, who led the seventh team into the checkpoint.
Then Brent Sass, The reigning Yukon Quest champion, blasted through the Takotna checkpoint to drive his team another 23 miles to Ophir, arriving there at 5:40 a.m. on March 11 to rest his dogs. Travis Beals; Lance Mackey; Michelle Phillips; Paige Drobny; and Mitch Seavey; who all had followed Sass into Takotna; also followed him back out on the trail to Ophir.
Bethel’s Jessica Klejka is expected to arrive in McGrath this morning. And finally, Jim Lanier scratched at Rainy Pass leaving 56 teams on the Iditarod trail.