Behind 12 tough and speedy dogs, Yukon musher William Kleedehn on Saturday maintained the sizeable lead he carved out earlier this week in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.
Kleedehn, of Carcross, arrived at Slavin's Dog Drop at 10:08 a.m., more than two hours ahead of Hugh Neff, who checked in at 12:45 p.m., and Jon Little, who pulled in at 1:30 p.m.
The Fairbanks finish line was less than 470 miles away in the 1,000-mile marathon, and the Canadian was hoping to make his 12th Yukon Quest his luckiest.
Before leaving Eagle, the previous checkpoint, racers wondered how Kleedehn, who uses a wooden prosthetic left leg that limits his mobility, would handle the jumble ice of the Yukon River on that portion of the trail.
"I'm not looking forward to the next section ... but if I make it through the jumble ice and still have a good lead, I may be in good shape," Kleedehn told the Fairbanks News-Miner on Friday afternoon before departing Eagle 212 hours before Neff.
Kleedehn was challenged by some minor jumble ice earlier Friday.
"There was a little taste of jumble ice, nothing that anybody else called serious, but I was on my (rear end) several times," he said with a laugh.
Gerry Willomitzer traveled with Kleedehn through rough ice on the Yukon two years ago and said in a post on the race's Web site that Kleedehn is facing his biggest challenge.
"He can't run. That guy's hopping on one leg. I've seen it," wrote Willomitzer, who raced the shorter Quest 300 this week. "He doesn't have that mobility. He falls off, gets dragged and beat up."
A few inches of fresh snowfall on Friday helped improve the river running, filling in some uneven trail sections between Eagle and Circle. While blowing snow can obscure the trail and the tracks of teams in front of mushers, the benefit sometimes outweighs any downsides.
Behind the top three, five other mushers were out of Eagle led by Sebastian Schnuelle and Brent Sass at 1:43 a.m. Rookie Warren Palfrey was in the back of that group, leaving at 8:50 a.m.
Little, the Kasilof musher who was the early race leader, is dealing with diarrhea among six dogs in his team.
Neff, who is having his best run since placing third in 2005, told the News-Miner that Kleedehn is too strong for him.
"Basically, I don't think I can really catch William. He's got too much power," Neff said. "So this is his race to win or lose. I'm hoping the best for him."
Staff and wire reports