Virtual Tie Between Backen and Gebhardt

According to the Iditarod Tracker Kjetil Backen was the first into Nikolai. However, Paul Gebhardt checked in 54 minutes behind him. Gebhart's out time from Willow with bib 69 was 54min after Backen's bib 42 start. That time will be accounted for during the 24hour mandatory, so taking that into account, they are arrived at the Nikolai checkpoint in a virtual tie for 1st place. Both chose to rest in Nikolai. In looking at the GPS tracking, it appears that Martin Buser and Ed Iten may be resting a bit 10 miles shy of Nikolai. Buser likes to rest at s spot there called Salmon River, and it is certainly possible that his 18 year old son Rohn running his rookie Iditarod race has arrived to that point and is resting there as well, however Rohn is not wearing the tracking device so we don't know for sure.

CVIB trail reporters will not make it to McGrath after all. They had to turn back down the Kuskokwim and return to home base because of poor and deteriorating trail conditions in addition to the concern of rain in the forecast.