Alaska News

Mackey reaches Eagle Island firmly in charge

On the river and back on course, two-time defending champion Lance Mackey pulled into the remote outpost of Eagle Island this morning, still firmly in charge of the 37th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Mackey on Friday fell asleep on his sled during a 25-mile run from Shageluk to the Yukon River town of Anvik, took a wrong turn and cost his team a couple of hours, briefly sapping its spirit.

But by Saturday morning Mackey's 16-dog freight train was rolling again. He reached Eagle Island at 8:33 a.m., and an hour later he was still alone there.

A trio of chasers -- Sebastian Schnuelle of Whitehorse, Hugh Neff of Skagway and Aaron Burmeister of Nenana -- left Grayling, the checkpoint 60 miles downriver, in a pack just after 3 a.m.

Of that group, only Neff had taken the mandatory eight-hour rest all mushers must take somewhere on the Yukon River. Mackey has already completed his, too.

More than two hours behind that trio was Mitch Seavey of Seward, the 2004 champion whose team has impressed many racers and Iditarod watchers. And not just the 14 dogs Seavey still has in harness.

Back in 14th place, son Dallas is trying to guide another Seavey team to a top-10 finish.

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"He's got an awesome outfit as usual," Mackey said of Seavey. "I think more impressive is his boy who's running around 10th right now. That's depth."

Seavey blew through the hometown of Anvik's Ken Chase, a veteran of 16 Iditarods including a fourth-place finish in 1978.

"That's the winning team," Chase said. "You watch."

Earlier this year, Mitch Seavey came from behind to capture the world's richest mid-distance race, the Kuskokwim 300, and he did the same thing late last March in winning the $100,000 winner-take-all All-Alaska Sweepstakes.

But he's got work to do now.

Seavey left the Grayling checkpoint more than six hours behind Mackey, who seldom gives up leads late in races -- especially with a team of 16 pedigree dogs still charging towards Nome.

For his part, Mackey considers Denali Park musher Jeff King, against whom he staged a fierce battle all the way to Nome last year, his chief rival.

"We're just sizing each other up a bit," Mackey said. "He knows I have a fast team. They didn't show that last year, but I've got it back.

"We ain't gonna let each other out of our sights. I'm the defending champion, but he's still the team to beat."

From Eagle Island, mushers face another long 70-mile run upriver to Kaltag, where the trail heads inland for the Norton Sound Coast. National Weather Service forecasters were calling for northwest winds to 20 mph with snow flurries and lows reaching minus-25 tonight, perhaps the chilliest conditions yet in this Iditarod.

That's close to ideal weather for a Fairbanks musher like Mackey.

"(Thursday) was beautiful," he said. "When I passed Aaron, I requested (my team to speed up) and I gave them another mile per hour. With this kind of snow it's easier on the dogs. There's minimal injuries; that's one of the reasons I did what I did."

While Mackey clearly owns the lead, Neff, who's also taken his eight-hour rest on the Yukon, is second. Neither Schnuelle nor Burmeister have yet completed their eight-hour stops yet.

Farther back, but steadily making up ground, is veteran Sonny Lindner of Fairbanks. Lindner posted an impressive average speed of 8.18 mph on the Yukon River run up to Grayling, faster than the other Mackey chasers ahead of him.

Mackey on Friday dozed off while riding his sled after leaving the Shageluk checkpoint on the way to Anvik, about 500 miles from Nome. When he awoke, he was up a slough without a trail marker in sight.

"I couldn't believe it," Mackey said. "It very well could have cost me the race right there."

Mackey was forced to do something every musher hates -- turn the dog team around.

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"When I turned them around they didn't dig that," he said. "It really demoralizes their attitude when you spin them around in the trail like that."

Mackey said the dogs showed their displeasure with him when he finally got them back on the Iditarod trail.

Mackey still pulled into Anvik hours ahead of his closest competitor.

"It is all about gambling at times," Mackey said of his speedy 115-mile run from Takotna to Iditarod. He did it in 12 hours and 34 minutes.

His run from Iditarod to Anvik wasn't as spectacular, but that was where he dozed off, got lost and had to turn around. Mackey may have lost two hours.

"The dogs were just cruising along at a nice clip. It was going so good it was scary and now I know why," Mackey said. "That was just a self-inflicted body blow."

Mackey estimates that since the 1,100-mile race began on Sunday he has slept no more than a dozen hours.

Fatigue can do funny things to long-distance mushers, Mackey said. On Thursday night, he was riding the sled and saw a girl sitting by the side of the trail doing something, probably knitting.

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"She laughed at me, waved, and I went by her and she was gone," Mackey said of his hallucination. "You just laugh."

In Anvik, Mackey sat down to what looked like a mirage, but wasn't -- an eight-course meal where $3,500 was on display in a large gold miner's pan -- his winnings for being the first musher to reach the Yukon River.

"That is definitely worth the wait," Mackey said as he bit into an appetizer of braised pork belly.

After a few more courses, including the main entree of rib-eye steak with a blueberry demi-glaze and a dessert of strawberries finished in Grand Marnier liqueur, Mackey left the hall to get some sleep.

Norwegian musher Bjornar Andersen was reunited with his dog team Friday after withdrawing from the race the previous day. Andersen scratched after a nasty accident but race spokesman Chas St. George said he had been released from the hospital and was preparing to return home to Norway.

"He's doing good," St. George said.

Live standings: Musher leaderboard

By MIKE CAMPBELL

mcampbell@adn.com

Mike Campbell

Mike Campbell was a longtime editor for Alaska Dispatch News, and before that, the Anchorage Daily News.

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