Buser says snowless trail worse he has seen!

Not only is the dirt trail difficult on dogs, but on mushers and sleds too!  Martin pulled into Nikolai and after he got his dogs fed, watered and bedded, he sat down to take his sock off to find a very swollen ankle.  He commented that if he known the trail was going to be this difficult he would have sent his son instead of himself!  He then claimed he had a day to get it nursed back to health....so Martin has declared his 24 hour rest in Nikolai. Physically he is in first place, but he has a group of very competitive mushers about to join him in Nikolai.  Petit, Neff and Zirkle are approximately 30 miles back traversing the burn....all traveling about 7 to 8 mph.  They must stop and water their dogs constantly to avoid dehydration since the dogs can not "dip" for a bite of snow.  Martin who has completed 30 plus Iditarods says this is the toughest trail he has encountered on the race!  Hopefully for Martin that ankle heals in the next 24 hours.....because we have over 700 miles yet to go!  And hopefully from here on out there will be some snow to run on!