KALTAG, Alaska -- Martin Buser popped B.B. King into his CD player and left Kaltag for Unalakleet on Saturday afternoon, maintaining a solid lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The Swiss-born Buser, now of Big Lake, departed the Yukon River village at 1:58 p.m. behind 12 dogs after resting for a little more than five hours.

He stretched his lead to 3 hours over Ramy Brooks of Healy, the only other musher out of Kaltag as of 7 p.m. Brooks arrived at 11:35 a.m., rested for five hours, 40 minutes, and got back on the runners behind nine dogs at 5:05 p.m.

Still in Kaltag were John Baker of Kotzebue, who arrived at 12:44 with 13 dogs, and DeeDee Jonrowe of Willow, who arrived with eight dogs at 1:58 just as Buser was leaving.

Jonrowe could leave in third place. Baker had not yet taken a mandatory 8-hour layover along the Yukon River.

Out of Nulato and on their way to Kaltag were Jon Little of Kasilof, Vern Halter of Willow, Charlie Boulding of Manley, and Harald Tunheim of Norway, the only musher not from Alaska in the top eight.

Buser was the first musher to the Yukon River, America's third longest behind the Mississippi and the Missouri, on Friday. He reached the village of Ruby at 3:58 a.m. and announced his 8-hour mandatory rest.

After Ruby, mushers travel over the frozen Yukon for 146 miles.

Buser reached Nulato at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. He paused for two minutes, just long enough to drop a dog at the checkpoint, and reached Kaltag at 8:45 a.m.

Kaltag, with 230 mostly Koyukon Athabaskan Indian residents, is 335 miles west of Fairbanks.

After staking his dogs outside the roughhewn log community hall, Buser went to sleep in the town's teen center, converted into a bunkhouse for the race.

Local traffic keeps the river trail hard and fast and it's well-marked because wind and snow can cover it quickly. Buser had a strong tail wind at his back for much of the trip. Wind of 5-to-20 mph was reported with gusts up to 45 mph.

Buser said the push the tail wind gave was not worth it.

"It's drifting pretty hard," he said after his nap. "It was probably a little harder on the dogs. But since I don't have the key to the wind machine, I've got to take it as it comes."

From Kaltag, it's a 90-mile run to Unalakleet on the Bering Sea. The trail leaves the river and runs through spruce forest and open areas along the Kaltag River. Closer to the coast, the trail follows gently rolling hills. Little or no vegetation can be seen along the trail near the coast.

A high pressure system has kept daytime skies brilliant blue for the entire race. Temperatures in the region are predicted to range from 10 below zero to 10 above Saturday night and Sunday, with strong northeast winds.

Baker was more appreciative than Buser of the tail wind, for its cooling effect rather than its pushing power.

"The wind was actually helpful," he said at Kaltag. "It was kind of warm for the dogs, but the tail wind helped. We didn't have to work so hard."

Baker said that unless Buser falters, no team will catch the three-time champion.

"Every once in awhile everything comes together for a team," Baker said, and this year might be Buser's.