Ruby, Alaska is reporting in at minus 7 degrees under fair skies, and our top five mushers are clustered around the Galena checkpoint.
Mitch Seavey, Alliy Zirkle, and Dallas Seavey have all checked out of Galena, while John Baker and Aaron Burmeister have checked in there. All five have completed all of their required rest stops, and are running flat out for Nome, a mere 10 checkpoints away.
Mitch Seavey is down to 13 dogs, and Aaron Burmeister still has 15. The remainder of the top five are currently running 14 dogs.
Lance Mackey has dropped to 20th place, and has left Ruby heading for Galena.
Bringing up the tail end of the race, Kirk Barnum, Matt Failor, and Dan Seavey have checked out of Ophir, while Jan Steves and Bob Chlupach are still there.
Now that it’s the weekend, sit back, relax, and check out all of the resources on the official Iditarod website. There are maps, musher profiles, GPS tracking, videos, and more to help you feel like you’re actually there. (Without the minus 7 temps, of course.)
I’ll try to check back in later in the day with an update.
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!