Temperatures were cooling from highs in the 40 yesterday, but the sun still blazed down on the teams in the small community and the last checkpoint on the Yukon River.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race made its last stop on the Yukon River, at the village of Kaltag, mid-day Saturday with Martin Buser hanging on for dear life to a lead that had shrunk from five hours to maybe half an hour in the last half-day of racing.

On Friday, the leaders of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race gathered in Anvik, the first checkpoint on the mighty Yukon River after tough push from the abandoned gold-mining town of Iditarod.