Iditapod: The dog days of Iditarod

Iditarod mushers are making decisions about where to stop for their mandatory 24-hour rests, some opting to take that break earlier than planned, as the teams continue to contend with warm weather. The village of Nikolai is also fully open to visitors for the first time in three years of COVID-19 restrictions, and that’s where some mushers were dealing with busted sleds and their own bruised bodies. In this episode, we also get into how the race shapes up after those 24-hour layovers and how the weather is expected to change for the cooler. Plus, we have a speedy Dog of the Day, Matt Failor’s Mach 10, who’s learning to slow down, plus a listener question, a musher answer and a follow-up to yesterday’s question about adopting retired sled dogs.

RELATED: After mud and moguls, Iditarod teams recover in Nikolai

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Casey Grove is the host of Alaska News Nightly and a general assignment reporter at Alaska Public Media with an emphasis on crime and courts. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org.