Iditarod

The top teams in this year’s Iditarod likely won’t be decided until they cross under the burled arch in Nome. That’s because teams have spent the last quarter of the race, if not the last 900 miles leap frogging each other as they travel down the trail.

Mitch Seavey is back in the Iditarod lead. He passed Jeff King halfway through the run from Koyuk to Elim along the Bering Sea Coast. King surprised everyone by speeding through the Koyuk checkpoint at 8:20 this morning, stopping less than six minutes. That put him out front for most of the day. Mitch Seavey left the checkpoint three hours after King. Aliy Zirkle, Ray Redding Jr and Aaron Burmeister followed a few hours later. APRN trail reporter Emily Schwing is in Koyuk. She says King’s dogs looked good when they passed through the checkpoint.

Former Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey was the first musher into Unalakleet, checking in at 10:13 a.m. Sunday. Aaron Burmeister is hot on Seavey's heels, riding into Unalakleet less that 15 minutes later.

With a climb through the Alaska Range and a run down the Yukon River now behind them, Iditarod mushers have only to tackle the Bering Sea coast before they cross the finish line in Nome. But there’s still a third of the race to go. Overnight, the front-runners left Kaltag for Unalakleet. It’s the longest run of the race. KUAC’s Emily Schwing caught up before they set off.

About three hours separate Martin Buser from Aliy Zirkle and the rest of the pack. Buser checked out of Eagle Island at 2:41 a.m. Saturday morning for his 60-mile run to Kaltag. Seven other mushers have departed Eagle Island, including Zirkle, Mitch Seavey, Jessie Royer and Aaron Burmeister.

Iditarod mushers running outside of this year’s top-20 are just as competitive as the front of the pack, but they have different reasons for travelling the trail.

Martin Buser has again regained the Iditarod lead, departing Grayling at 12:52 p.m., staying at the checkpoint for only 10 minutes. Aliy Zirkle, Aaron Burmeister, Jake Berkowitz and Sonny Lindner round out the top-5. Buser is the only competitor in the top-5 that has used both the mandatory 8-hour and 24-hour layovers.

Aliy Zirkle has taken the lead in the 2013 Iditarod. She checked into the Grayling checkpoint at 9:54 a.m. Friday. Aaron Burmeister and Jake Berkowitz arrived in Grayling about 30 minutes apart, at 11:06 a.m. and 11:37 a.m., respectively.

Iditarod, the namesake of the dogsled race to Nome, doesn't get a lot of visitors, and there is very little left standing that alludes to the gold rush-era importance the town once had, but it was once a bustling hub on the Historic Iditarod Trail that many prospectors journeyed through as they searched for the riches Alaska had to offer, In the summer of 2011, APRN's Josh Edge and KSKA's Kristin Spack had a chance to go out to the ghost towns of Iditarod and Flat, located about 10 miles apart, with Kevin Keeler, from the Bureau of Land Management. Here's a sneak peak inside Iditarod and once of it's focal points, the N.C. Store.

Lance Mackey was the first musher to reach the race's namesake checkpoint of Iditarod. He checked in at 8:36 p.m. Wednesday. Sonny Lindner arrived at the checkpoint shortly after 10:00 p.m. Wednesday.

Three days into the Iditarod, the race is still anyone’s game. And the mushers are keeping it interesting this year. Martin Buser completed his 24 hour layover early in the race. Lance Mackey and Sonny Linder appear to be embracing the opposite strategy... making their way down the trail to the Iditarod Checkpoint, which is also the official half way marker in the race. But many of the veteran mushers decided to stick to a plan they know, resting in the popular 24 layover village of Takotna.