Editor’s note: Richland Source is posting daily updates on Mansfield native Matthew Failor’s efforts at the 2024 Iditarod Sled Dog Race, which began March 3. Updates post daily at 8 a.m. and may be updated during the day.
ON THE IDITAROD TRAIL, Alaska — Matt Failor has put himself into position to perhaps chase that Top 5 finish in the 2024 Iditarod Sled Dog Race.
The Mansfield native pulled into a frosty Galena checkpoint just after midnight on Friday, the eighth musher to reach the site that is 545 miles into the nearly 1,000 mile race across Alaska.
The 2000 Mansfield St. Peter’s graduate arrived in Galena at 12:10 a.m. AKST, just three hours behind current fifth-place musher Jesse Holmes and immediately announced he was taking his mandatory eight-hour break, the final long rest period of the race.
“It’s cold out there,” he told the checkpoint worker before announcing his decision to take the extended break, more than five days into a journey that began Sunday afternoon.
According to race rules, all mushers must take an eight-hour break at a checkpoint along the Yukon River section of the trail from Anchorage to Nome.
The 15 dogs remaining on his team seemed to disagree with the idea of resting.
The huskies nearly “popped” Failor’s snow hook as he was getting checked in. The race veteran rode the brake on his sled as the dogs eagerly charged to their parking spot.
During an interview at the checkpoint with Iditarod.com Insider, Failor said he has used various dogs in the front of his team during the stretch.
“There was a lot of wind and drifted snow. And so I switched around some leaders to try to figure out how to get through some of those snow drifts. And there was a good side wind and so I must have switched around three or four times,” Failor said.
“There is the trail and a long snow drift and some of the dogs will go through the deep snow drift to stay on the original trail. Others will naturally want to go around the drift because they think it’s easier, but then they step off the trail and struggle,” he said.
He said he again enjoyed watching the dancing Northern Lights over the Yukon.
“It was like a double rainbow. There were two ribbons of green, literally from one side over the mountains to the other. The Yukon, this direction, usually the wind is either at your side or at your back, so that’s nice. The villages on the river here are nice. It’s just beautiful country,” Failor said.
Interviewed after he got his dogs settled and fed, Failor was asked about his plans after the eight-hour break.
“I’m thinking about four hours of sleep. That sounds pretty good to me,” he said with a laugh.
“Just move down to the next checkpoint. I don’t know if we’re going to be blowing through any checkpoints. We’ll just try to move down the trail and kind of assess accordingly,” Failor said.
Failor, who achieved his first Top-10 finish last year, said before this year’s race he wanted to improve on that finish in 2024, perhaps a Top 5, in the 38-team field.
It took Failor six hours and 32 minutes to make the trek from the checkpoint in Ruby into Galena, a distance of 50 miles. He averaged 7.65 miles per hour.
Galena, population 527, derived its name from lead sulfate ore found in the area, known chemically as galena.
The town was found in 1920 when Natives moved down river from the old town site of Louden because of the availability of firewood.
A man could cut 250 cords of wood a winter and sell it for $8 per cord to the sternwheelers that worked the rivers in the summer.
Once his eight-hour break ends, Failor will begin a 37-mile trek to the next checkpoint of Nulato.
With a population of 359, Nulato was founded in 1838 at the confluence of the Nulato and Yukon Rivers. Nulato was originally a Russian trading post. Without a stockade, the Indians promptly burned it down.
In 1841, the Russian American Company rebuilt the trading post consisting of seven log buildings, but again without a stockade. In 1851, the Koyukan Indians again burned it down and killed most of the inhabitants.
In 1853, the trading post was rebuilt at the present town site, two miles upriver from the old site. The checkpoint is the community hall.
(Below is Matthew Failor’s analytics report after he reached the Galena checkpoint just after midnight on Friday night.)
Travis Beals, another veteran musher seeking his first Iditarod win, was leading the race Saturday morning. He arrived in Galena on Friday at 3:24 p.m. AKST and took his eight-hour rest period before departing at 11:24 p.m.
Beals is in his 10th Iditarod and has three Top-10 finishes to his credit. His best finish was in 2019 when he crossed the line fifth.
He was being chased by five-time winner Dallas Seavey, who arrived in Galena at 8:06 p.m. and left four hours later. Seavey, however, still must take his eight-hour rest period at one of the remaining checkpoints on the trail.
As of 3 a.m. AKST, Seavey was still running four miles behind Beals.
The weather will play its normal big factor as mushers near the west coast and begin the run down to Nome. Bitter cold is expected to continue and winds will howl off the water.
Iditarod insiders on Saturday morning said a Top-5 finish for Failor was still a distinct possibility.
“Anyone in the (Top 10) can win, given weather and the odd things that happen out there,” said one.
Another said, “The final 1/3 of the race is when the mental race begins.”
“The fat lady hasn’t sung yet … don’t rule him out of top 5,” said a third.
The Top 10 on Saturday morning was littered with Iditarod royalty. In addition to Beals and Seavey, Matt Hall was third, Pete Kaiser was fourth and Holmes was fifth. Defending champion Ryan Redington was seventh into Galena, about an hour ahead of Failor.
Scenes from the Iditarod trail
(Below: A huskie in a sled dog team appears to be fighting sleep with his teammates on Friday at the Ruby checkpoint. Credit: Iditarod.com Insider)
