Napa American Legion/Junior Legion baseball tryouts today weather permitting

The Rasmusen Painting Riverdogs American Legion and the Riverhogs Junior Legion baseball clubs will be conducting a tryout for all players interested in playing summer baseball. The tryout will be held at Vintage High School today from 12:30 to 4 p.m., weather permitting. A prospective player must be between the ages of 15 to 19 years old and enrolled or graduated from Calistoga, Justin-Siena, Napa, St. Helena or Vintage High Schools. All returning players are expected to be in attendance except for those enrolled in a four-year college or university. For additional information, e-mail Billy Smith at napalegion@sbcglobal.net or go to www.eteamz.active.com/napariverdogs. Prospective players are asked to check the web site for a weather/tryout update. If it’s canceled, the tryout will be moved to March 19 at 12:30 p.m.

Iditarod mushers reach the Yukon River

RUBY, Alaska — Iditarod musher Paul Gebhardt ate and drank lightly on Friday during the seven-course gourmet meal he earned for arriving first on the shores of the Yukon, the longest river in Alaska, before heading to the next checkpoint of Galena.

Gebhardt’s dog team pulled into the village of Ruby near midnight as several other mushers leading the 75-team field took their mandatory 24-hour breaks at the halfway point of Cripple, a remote tent checkpoint about 70 miles back.

The Kasilof musher has not yet taken the 24-hour rest, meaning many teams will likely catch him further down the Yukon as they race more than 1,100 miles from Anchorage to Nome.

Gebhardt left Ruby after taking one of the other mandatory rests — eight hours in one of the four checkpoints on the Yukon — and arrived in Galena, about 50 miles downriver, at about 3:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., three-time winner and St. Helena High School graduate Jeff King followed Gebhardt’s sled tracks down the Yukon as the sun shone on the nearby Kilbuck-Kuskokwim Mountains. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race follows a busy snowmobile trail on the wide snowy river, which is the only way to commute between villages in the roadless region.