With this field of mushers we knew it was going to be an exciting race, but the story unfolding on the Kuskokwim River this morning exceeds all expectations. The first five teams into the Kalskag checkpoint arrived within 7 minutes of each other. Only 34 minutes separate King, the leader into Kalskag, and Nicolas Petit in 13th place. On the phone this morning, Race Marshal Andy Angstman described the scene as, "totally unbelievable". He said teams were coming in one after another, "like a train".
As of 6:50 AM, all mushers are into Kalskag and none have left.
Many race fans have noticed that King's tracker has not been working. There was a valiant effort by the crew working the Bogus Creek Checkpoint to get him a functional tracker but that attempt failed. We are told that volunteers in Kalskag were able to make the change so we should see King on the tracker from here on out.
Each team is required to take 6 hours of rest, which they can break up however they desire between the Kalskag outbound, Aniak and Kalskag inbound checkpoints. It's going to be interesting to see how this big group of leaders strategize in this middle stage of the race. The chess match has begun.
Check out the leaderboard for full details - LEADERBOARD

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