No doubt spurred on by the presence of Sebastian Schnuelle, his closest pursuer (24 miles behind him at the moment), Lance Mackey is making his move to claim his third straight Iditarod championship. He was enjoying a comfortable lead as he approached the checkpoint at Shageluk. If this were a political referendum, CNN would already be calling it for Mackey. Schnuelle, though, who just won the 1,000 mile Yukkon Quest a couple weeks ago, is surely thinking about becoming the only musher (other than Mackey) to win both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod in the same year. Mackey skipped the Yukon Quest this year to concentrate on winning a third Iditarod. This should be very interesting. I just subscribed to the Iditarod Insider GPS Tracker, and can see that Mackey is already at the Shageluk checkpoint, having recorded the fastest time out of Iditarod. Here's some interesting information about Shageluk:
Course Distance 461 Mi
Latitude N 62°41.287'
Longitude W 159°34.375'
Population 139 -- The name is an Ingalik Indian name meaning .village of the dog people, and when the Iditarod hits town, that is especially true. Adolph Hamilton, who lives here, helped race organizers find the original trail to the town of Iditarod, even though he had only been over it once, many years before with his father, as a small boy. The checkpoint is in the community hall.
I've posted, above, another map of the Trail so you can follow the race even closer. Click on it to make it larger and find Shageluk. I'll post the Top 10 later tonight. It's still anybody's race, I guess.
