Mackey still leads Iditarod

With less than 200 miles to go, Fairbanks musher Lance Mackey held a two-hour lead over his nearest competitor, Jeff King of Denali.

Mackey, of Fairbanks, left the checkpoint of Koyuk at 5:58 a.m. this morning with a team of 12 dogs. King left at 8:04 with 13 dogs. Whitehorse musher Hans Gatt followed out of the checkpoint at 9:17, also with 12 dogs.

The next two checkpoints are Elim and Golovin. From Golovin, the mushers head to White Mountain where they are required to take an eight-hour layover. After that stop, it’s just 77 miles to Nome. The first mushers should pass under the burled arch Tuesday.

King had the lead over Mackey going into Kaltag on Saturday and elected to take a four-hour rest. Mackey raced through the checkpoint, stopping for just seven minutes.

The Iditarod GPS tracking system shows Mackey is about halfway between Koyuk and Elim.

The weather forecast shows calm conditions for the rest of the race.