Iditarod 2011: Favorites Rest In Takotna As Warm Weather, Sick Dogs Threatens Teams

Robert Nelson, running in just his fourth ever Iditarod, narrowly led a group of four mushers into Ophir late Wednesday morning to claim the lead in the 2011 Iditarod. For now, at least. Joining in him at the Ophir checkpoint, a ghost town leftover from the gold rush in the early 1900s a little more than a third of the way to Nome, are three other mushers: Trent Herbst, Cim Smyth and Kelley Griffin. But it’s a bit ceremonial, and certainly will be short-lived with a group roughly 30-miles behind in Takotna that will quickly make Nelson’s lead disappear.

Among the 31 teams who have checked in to Takotna -- a popular spot for teams to take their mandatory 24-hour layover because of its “incredible offerings of homecooked food, unrestricted access to pies and mountains of ice cream” -- are some of the sports’ best: Martin Buser, Lance Mackey and Sebastian Schnuelle. But as usual, it seems they will indeed be using Takotna for their 24-hour stop.

It’s clear that some if not all of the top 10 racers have declared their 24-hour layovers in Takotna. Neither Nelson nor Griffin have taken theirs, so even though they’re farther down the trail to Nome than the others, they’re nowhere near the “real” lead. Buser reached Takotna more than 12 hours than either of them did.

While trail conditions have been great for Buser -- soft snow, warm temperatures -- other teams cannot keep up. Paul Gebhardt has already scratched, the first time he’s had to quit in 15 attempts. The warmer weather is leading to dehydrated and overheated dogs, and on top of that, there’s fear of an outbreak of kennel cough -- a contagious upper respiratory infection -- forcing many mushers to drop dogs. Defending four-time champ Lance Mackey has already dropped four, including Maple, his lead:

Mackey, down to a dozen dogs, says his chances are “dampened” from Kyle Hopkins on Vimeo.

After Ophir it’s a run to the town of Iditarod that is officially described as “one of the emptiest legs on the entire race, a full 90 miles of lonely country and endless trail.” Fun! It also marks the first discrepancy between the northern route and this year’s southern route, and will bring teams around to the Yukon River.