Iditarod Insider Analyst Bruce Lee is on his way to Rohn Alaska right now to be there when the first musher arrives.

As the sled dog teams head out on the Iditarod trail you might wonder how do you face a run of over 1000 miles to Nome?  The fact is you don’t.  If you leave the starting line thinking about the finish in Nome you’re doomed to failure.  To think of Nome is to create a huge psychological mountain to climb.  Mushers keep the big picture at bay and take it a mile at a time.  The mile behind you is over and the miles ahead aren’t here yet.  There’s just the area of trail you’re traveling at any given point. One mile at a time.  One hour at a time.

Looking at this first part of the trail, we will see a mixture of the excitement of the starting line and the task of getting safely over the Alaska Range.  For teams racing the Iditarod, leaving the starting shoot will propel them out onto some of the most challenging areas of trail they will face during the entire race.

Preparing to start, the mushers are busy packing their sleds, tending to last minute details, hoping they’ve picked the right dogs for the team and trying not to forget some important item they will need farther down the trail.  For long time veterans it’s a practice of muscle memory.  For rookies it’s overwhelming.  For all it is the feeling of “let’s just get out on the trail”.

Upon leaving the starting shoot the trail seems celebratory.  Generally travel is on wide well used established trails that are lined for miles and miles with race fans. Spectators turn out by snow machines, airplane, skis or any other winter mode of transportation that will get them a few miles out onto the trail to watch the teams pass by.  Bonfires and parties are the favor of this first day.

As night falls the rhythm of the trail begins to set in and the teams run up wide rivers to the checkpoints of Yenta and Skwentna.  It’s important for mushers to get set up on the right schedule for resting and running their teams.   Each musher does this based on how they’ve trained their particular team but for most they’ll be heading to their first rest stop that will allow them to rest in the middle of the night and then again in the heat of the day.  This is of course for the maximum benefit of the dogs. The mushers just have to adjust to the dog’s schedule.

Morning of the next day brings what will be some of the most difficult trail mushers will travel during the entire race.  For the next 24 hours they will take a ride that if it were a carnival ride would be a cross between bumper cars, a rollercoaster and getting shot out of a canon.  If there were a day for being in the moment, this is it.  It’s hard for most people who’ve never traveled cross-country by dog sled to truly comprehend how difficult the early part of the Iditarod trail is.  The teams are fresh and eager for the trail, full of speed and power.  Later the dogs will settle down into a steady rhythm of travel.  However, in these first days their power and speed make negotiating the rough trail conditions even more challenging.

Coming up are the places of legend; the Happy River Steps, the hill climb back up from the river and miles of side-hilling trail through the Happy River Gorge. Some years this section of trail is full of sloping ice into sled busting trees.  Then there’s the traverse of Rainy Pass through the Alaska Range where wind and weather rule. Down the other side with a drop down the Dallzel Gorge with steep trail, open ice and quick drops and turns down the twisting canyon.  Then, after Rohn checkpoint they’re shot out into the Buffalo tunnels where a lack of snow is the norm.  Travel is across frozen tundra, bare ice, up side sloping glaciers and openings in river ice. Most mushers feel this is one of the most intense runs of the race.

Let’s not forget the havoc these sections of trail have raised on the field of competitors in the past.   In 2007 seven teams scratched in this section alone.  Among those who called it quits were the highly competent and competitive Dee Dee Jonrowe with a broken finger and  four time past champion Doug Swingley with broken ribs and concern about his back.  This section of trail alone will create a shakedown that will pull some teams out of the competition.  It is a right of passage.

But as the teams travel this last section of highly difficult trail, there sets relief on the horizon.  To the north, standing alone in the middle of the valley, rises a pyramid shaped mountain that marks the end of these first trail challenges, Egypt Mountain.  Egypt Mountain is a major landmark for those traveling the Iditarod trail.  It signals the end to the first portions of race and a passage into the Alaskan interior.  It is a relief to reach it’s side.

Now comes the time of accessing how your team survived.  Do you still have a strong healthy team with all your major players?  Are you on a beneficial schedule and on your game plan?

Though the trail gets easier from this point, now sleep deprivation starts to set in and teams are racing towards their 24 hour layovers with hundreds of miles to go.