Mackey out of Nikolai, Garnie out of the race

Even after dropping one of his most famous dogs “Hobo” back in Rohn, and with a team who isn’t giving him the speed he is looking for, Lance Mackey decided his scheduled rest in Nikolai was going to be a little bit shorter than other mushers, as he was the first to leave at 4:17pm AKST this afternoon, leaving behind 21 others who all arrived within 6 hours of one another. While Lance and some others rushed right out of the previous checkpoint of Rohn, he (along with Jeff King, Hugh Neff, and Mitch Seavey) spent time in between the two camping out and feeding their dogs, so it wasn’t as vital for them to spend any longer than necessary at the checkpoint. It will continue to get harder to tell who is really leading this race until mushers take their manditory 24-hour layover, something that they don’t have to do all at the same spot… some will take this layover earlier, while some will put it off until later in the race. There will be a lot of action on the trail this evening and into the night as the top twenty all leave Nikolai and head onto McGrath where the first musher will recieve the “PenAir Spirit of Alaska” award. McGrath is one of the bigger communities on the trail and the last one until Unalakleet, so look for a handful of mushers to pickup new sleds at this checkpoint as freight is cheaper from Anchorage.

Joe Garnie decided to drop from the race this morning in Rainy Pass. Garnie, is from Teller Alaska which is a small village just outside of Nome, and one of the only places that you can drive to from Nome. This was Joe’s 17th Iditarod since 1978, he came in second place in 1986 (losing by just one hour) and over the following year he worked with Libby Riddles to become the first woman to win the Iditarod in 1987. There haven’t been a ton of Native Alaskan mushers in the Iditarod, and Garnie has always been one of the most famous. He sited declining health of his team as the reason for scratching from this years race….. we’re sad to see him go.