The hour now is 1:30 a.m. Saturday, and Tollef Monson from Kotzebue is expected out front in 15 minutes. The young musher left Shageluk, a neighboring village 25 miles to the west at 10:32 p.m. in front of a train of 10 teams.

Here at the checkpoint, three men sitting around a plastic table talk sports and discuss the Iditarods they've seen. Though its warm inside, Mallard walks by wearing arctic coveralls. He is fully prepared to chase out the door into mushing madness at any moment.

"Bruce is bright eyed and bushy tailed," remarks veterinarian George Stroberg of Colorado, one of those at the table.

"What are you taking?" veterinarian Paul Pifer of Ohio asks Mallard.

"Motrin," jokes local Ken Chase, a top Iditarod musher from another era.

"Yeah, it's kinda busy this morning," Mallard says.

The door flies open.

"Musher!," someone yells.

It's Monson. He's four minutes early.

Mallard rushes out with his clipboard into the 10 degree air. Clouds have rolled in, covering the thousands of stars that had been twinkling in this clear air of the Alaska night.

Monson announces he isn't staying.

"We just had a smoking run," the 28-year-old says. "They're moving very well."

Past halfway in his third Iditarod, running a second-string team of dogs for Kotzebue's John Baker, Monson has just made the crossing from Shageluk in 3 hours, 9 minutes -- faster than four-time champs and race leaders Martin Buser from Big Lake and Jeff King from Denali Park, faster than Baker, the young man's mushing mentor in Kotzebue.

Monson might be running Baker's B team, but the still developing musher (53rd in 2005, 44th last year) is making it look like the A-team.

On pace for a top-20 finish, he's clearly in the running for the Iditarod's most improved musher award.

"Everyone is healthy and we're just trucking along," Monson says as he passes out frozen chunks of meats for the dogs. "We're just going and seeing where the chips fall."

Monson doesn't know what's wrong with Baker's A-team dogs now lagging behind him. The 46-year-old veteran is in danger of finishing out of the top 10 for the first time since 2000 and just the fourth time since 1996.

He dropped four dogs when he took his mandatory 24-hour rest in McGrath. The dogs were stiff in the hindquarters, he said.

"He's having a few problems," Monson said. "He dropped two more tonight."

A headlamp moves toward Monson. It's Ed Iten of Kotzebue.

Iten is ready to leave. He's been here since 7:50 p.m., Friday and is an hour from finishing a mandatory 8-hour, Yukon River break.

"Hey stranger," Monson says.

"Hey stranger," replies Iten.

Monson was Iten's handler for about five years in Kotzebue. Iten provided the entry into the world of sled dogs for a young man who grew up in urban Minnesota, far from any mushing circle. Iten welcomed the city boy into his remote ranch miles north of Kotzebue, where his family raises both dogs and Icelandic horses.

Now Monson has Iten, a four-time top 10 Iditarod finisher, and Baker, an eight-time top 10 Iditarod finisher, as supporters.

"OK, gotta go. Let's go boys," Monson says as he pulls his snow hook. He has stayed in Anvik only six minutes. "Take er' easy."

Iten continues with his chores outside the bingo hall as Monson drives into the darkness. He walks into the community washroom to fill a galvanized bucket with hot water. It's time to fuel his dogs with hot stew before the battle with brutal 20-25 mph headwinds on the Yukon River.

The 54-year-old Iten pauses from his chores only long enough to discuss Monson.

"He's doing a nice job," Iten says. "He's just a hard working kid that's really good at driving dogs.

"And I think he's really enjoying it and really paying attention to what it takes to put it all together. He's just taking care of his dogs. He's trying to run and rest as equal as he can, but at this point his speed is one of the fastest.

"I expect he will (keep it up)."

Iten turns on his tan and brown camouflaged headlamp -- the one he uses for dog chores -- and walks to the dog yard where his team sleeps on thick beds of straw. They're doing great.

He darts back into the bingo hall to scarf down one more bowl of soup himself before heading out. Considering his dogs struggled with diarrhea from Day 2 of the Iditarod all the way to his 24-hour stop in the ghost town of Iditarod, he's pleased.

"I saw my first turd today," he said. "That's a good sign."

As Iten leaves at 2:57 a.m., Mallard clicks on his e-mail and notes the new list of mushers expected to pass through town -- Robert Sorlie of Norway (3:45), Baker (4:15) and Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers, a former Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race champs (4:20).

He writes down the estimated times of arrival on a chalkboard where all the men sitting around the table can see it.

"Who's making the coffee?," he asks.

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Daily News reporter Kevin Klott can be reached at kklott@adn.com or 257-4335.