With his mandatory 36-hour layover in historic Dawson City completed, three-time Yukon Quest champion Hans Gatt pulled his team down onto the Yukon River at 6:35 a.m., headed south to Whitehorse, 451 miles away. He dropped one dog in Dawson City, but said "It's been going well, according to my race plan. Very much the running and resting times are what I wanted to do."

Still, he ran into some trouble on the trail into Dawson City, as he explained upon his arrival:

"There were very high winds that were still blowing when I went through, but they must have been blowing like hell the night before. The trail was completely gone. It was absolutely impossible to find. I was very disappointed about the marking. The marking was very, very poor. It took us four hours to go 18 miles. That was pretty frustrating for me because I was building up a pretty good lead there."

Gatt still has a bit of a lead on the mushers behind him: Hugh Neff, who finished in second place in last year's race, left two and a half hours after Gatt; and four-time Quest champion Lance Mackey was only half an hour behind Neff. The popular Yukon Quest page on Facebook noted Hans' departure this morning:

"Hans left with thirteen dogs. He had a single leader and when asked why he made this choice he said 'It is always tough for the dogs to leave Dawson. This way it is one dog, one decision and she will make the right one.' Hans' team looked professional and poised, leaning into their harnesses and looking to Hans to say go. When asked if this was the team to beat, he said, 'You bet!' with a confident smile."

The trail ahead takes the teams over the highest point on the trail, the 4,002-foot King Solomon's Dome, descending to Scroggie Creek Dog Drop, and then over mining roads to Pelly Crossing, home of the Selkirk First Nation of Northern Tutchone people, and near the original site of Fort Selkirk, the oldest known and perhaps most historically significant permanent settlement in the Yukon. Following the completion of the North Klondike Highway in 1942, most of the inhabitants of Fort Selkirk relocated to Pelly Crossing.

For the race leaderboard, frequent updates, photos, videos, trail maps, distance charts, musher profiles and much more, check out the Yukon Quest Web site.

Helen Hegener is an author and a documentary filmmaker specializing in long distance sled dog races and the men, women and dogs who run them. Learn more at Northern Light Media.