ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Iditarod dog teams headed toward a cabin on Finger Lake on the second day of the 1,100-mile race to Nome.

After starting Sunday in Willow, about 60 miles north of Anchorage, many teams competing in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race passed overnight through the first two checkpoints of Yentna and Skwentna.

Many mushers most likely will stop later Monday at or near Finger Lake, one of 24 checkpoints along the trail. The cabin is about 120 miles up the trail from Willow.

Rookie Bryan Bearrs of Anchorage was the leader, followed by Ramy Brooks of Healy and Melanie Gould of Talkeetna.

The race, in its 34th year, will take mushers and dog teams over two mountain ranges, across frozen seas and rivers and through a treacherous gorge, where an avalanche in February killed an Iditarod volunteer grooming the trail.

Competitors in the world’s longest sled dog race will drive through checkpoints in wilderness cabins and in some of Alaska’s tiniest villages before heading up the windy western coast to the old gold mining town of Nome.

Top finishers usually arrive in Nome in nine to 10 days. The fastest time was set in 2002 by four-time winner Martin Buser of Big Lake, who pulled into Nome in eight days, 22 hours, 46 minutes.

The field also includes four-time winner Doug Swingley of Lincoln, Mont., and the Iditarod’s only five-time champ, Rick Swenson of Two Rivers.

Jeff King of Denali is looking for his fourth win.

The reigning champion, Robert Sorlie of Norway, is not competing. He is rotating Iditarod runs with another Norwegian and his nephew, Bjornar Andersen, whose fourth-place finish last year was the highest for a rookie.

A $795,000 purse awaits this year’s top 30 finishers. Another $40,000 will be divvied up among the remaining arrivals to Nome. The winner will earn $69,000 and receive a new pickup valued at almost $45,000.

The race commemorates a dogsled relay in 1925 that carried serum 674 miles from Nenana to Nome to stop a diphtheria outbreak.

AP-ES-03-06-06 1051EST