Teams head for McGrath in Iditarod 40

IDITAROD TRAIL — As of Tuesday afternoon, the top seven teams in the Iditarod had departed the checkpoint of Nikolai and were traversing the 48 miles to McGrath.

Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers was in the lead, but last year’s champion, John Baker of Kotzebue, left the checkpoint at the same time as Zirkle.

In the chase out of the checkpoint were a pack were former champions including four-time champion Jeff King of Denali and four-time winner Lance Mackey of Fairbanks as well as 2004 champion Mitch Seavey of Seward. Along with Hugh Neff of Tok, the four teams left Nikolai within minutes of each other an hour after Zirkle and Baker.

Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof left Nikolai a half hour later.

As of 4:40 p.m., the highest ranking Valley musher in this year’s race, Ray Redington Jr., of Knik was listed in eighth place just behind Gebhardt but was still in the Nikolai checkpoint, where he’d been since just before 10:30 that morning. Nikolai was apparently a crowded place with more than 20 other teams listed as resting there Tuesday afternoon. No teams had scratched.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.