By Joe Runyan
Cripple Creek to Ruby The trail from Ophir to Ruby is broken out just once a year. This is remote country. After Cripple Creek, the trail goes through spruce and birch and becomes more difficult as it steadily works through a range of mountains (the Ruby Hills) running parallel to the Yukon. This area is known as “big snow country,” and can feature some extremely cold weather. Doug Swingley and I encountered temperatures of 55 below in 1992 while attempting to reach the Yukon ahead of the pack. Ask Doug about this experience and he will just roll his eyes.
At this point I really look for one of the mushers to break schedule, put on a display of power by the team, and take command of the race. Susan Butcher and Martin Buser are famous for making a push into Ruby and gaining a couple of hours on the other racers. This seems like esoteric strategy, but it is simple to explain. After Cripple Creek, the country is very remote and the mushers rarely if ever encounter anybody on the trail. In addition, only a few selected spots are suitable for landing, so the press in airplanes or even a helicopter cannot set down along the trail. That means that there is no good intelligence. The mushers do not know the whereabouts of their competitors.
This a good time to play some head games and cause some mischief. Let me give you an example of how this works. Suppose the first four mushers have been traveling more or less together for the past 300 miles. They make the run to the next checkpoint within 10 minutes of each other, sometimes one team being faster, and then another. All four teams follow the rule of “equal rest for equal running time.” Therefore, if the run from Finger Lake to Rainy Pass is four hours, all the mushers will predictably make sure their teams get four hours of rest. Most important, the mushers will be able to read the official list of checkpoint times and quietly ask questions about the whereabouts of their competitors. They each know what the others are doing. Visualize, however, that the intelligence network vaporizes in the remote track between Cripple Creek and Ruby. Unless the musher has a Martian connection, it is almost impossible to know the position of the other teams. Should a musher decide to break with the pack, it can be done in secrecy, usually at night. Until the other competitors arrive at the south bank of the Yukon at Ruby, they can only guess how much time a front-runner has gained.
Rules require that the musher give the dogs an eight-hour rest at one of the Yukon checkpoints, and most choose to do it at Ruby. Most mushers and teams are ready for a good rest anyway, after two days of bivouacking in the snow, and take advantage of the opportunity to sleep in the warmth of the community hall. Also, this is a good time to really go through the dogs with a race veterinarian and properly medicate for any problems such as nicks in the pads, sore wrists, pulled muscles and so on. The people of Ruby are dedicated and knowledgeable race fans as well as good mushers.
Emmit “The Yukon Fox” Peters is an Iditarod winner and was a front-runner in the ’70s. In 1996, Emmit rode into the lot at the community hall on his snowmachine, and announced to the crowd that Martin Buser was a half-hour out, moving toward the village at an amazing 14 miles per hour, and was standing on the runners using ski poles to push the sled. Martin is from Switzerland, a good skier, and in excellent physical condition. The crowd was impressed and so was I.