Iditarod mushers are marking day four on the 1,000-mile race to Nome. The lead mushers have passed the Kuskokwim headwaters and are heading towards the lower Yukon River checkpoints. Two Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta mushers are competing in the race: Aniak’s Richie Diehl and Bethel’s Pete Kaiser.
Diehl is currently resting his team in the Ophir checkpoint at mile 352 on the trail. He was the sixth musher to arrive to Ophir, arriving at the checkpoint at 1:23 a.m. on March 9. He’s dropped two dogs so far, leaving him with a 12-dog team.
Meanwhile, Pete Kaiser is resting his team one checkpoint further back on the trail at mile 311. He checked into McGrath at 11:16 p.m. on March 8. Kaiser still has all 14 dogs that he started the race with. Both Kaiser and Diehl are likely taking their mandatory 24-hour rests.
The community of Takotna sits between McGrath and Ophir. It chose not to serve as an Iditarod checkpoint this year to avoid the possibility of the race bringing COVID-19 to the village. The Iditarod has instated many COVID-19 precautions, including requiring all mushers to be vaccinated and requiring testing before the race and along the early part of the trail.
Leading the race in first position is last year’s third-place finisher, Brent Sass, followed by five-time Iditarod champion and last year’s winner Dallas Seavey. Neither have taken their mandatory 24-hour rests. They’re both headed to the Cripple checkpoint at mile 425.
So far, no mushers have scratched. All 49 teams that started the race are still on the Iditarod trail.
