By Joe Runyan
The trail never remains the same nor the challenges equal. The ridge of mountains running east and west across Alaska separates the coast from the Interior and the Yukon River country. Just west of its most famous guardian, Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America, the Iditarod trail crosses the range at Rainy Pass. Most of the mushers will spend the afternoon resting their teams in the sun near Finger Lake. Finger Lake is not a town or a village, just a place. A few homesteaders have built cabins on the margin of the lake. Some spend the winter in this isolated spot, and a few will trap.
During the 1996 race, several geese owned by a local resident migrated down to the snow-covered beach and circulated amongst the resting dog teams. Most of the sled dogs had never encountered a domesticated goose, obviously causing some excitement and an unwanted diversion for the dogs, since the mushers wanted their huskies to lie down and rest. To further complicate things, the geese took their arrogance to another level and attacked Dee Dee Jonrowe’s leaders. Geese are one of the more bizarre dangers of the trail. With the increasing altitude, temperatures may be colder. Also, this country is more angular and steep, so that the trail cascades down steep mountainsides and then climbs back up again to progress toward the summit of the Alaska Range at Rainy Pass. One of the more notorious rifts is the trail’s descent off a ridge into the Happy River valley. Iditarod trailbreakers spend a lot of time grooming this section of steep trail. Still, the half-mile descent borders on an out-of-control free-fall. Wrecks on this section of trail are legendary, and it is a favorite place for TV cameramen, who arrive here at great expense by helicopter.
Fortunately, this is usually big snowfall country, and ten feet of snow cushions the occasional tumble. Many rookie mushers are quite surprised at themselves when they arrive at the bottom in one piece. The actual Rainy Pass checkpoint is a collection of outfitter cabins on Puntilla Lake, a mile or so short of the actual pass. At the lake, the musher is able to feed the dogs and prepare for the next leg, in the protection of small hills which blunt the wind. Just over the hill on the actual pass, the musher could encounter very stiff blows. In 1985, a huge snowfall paralyzed the race at Rainy Pass. A well-known Iditarod photograph shows the teams strung along the beach of Puntilla Lake. (Libby Riddles persisted, then stole the race by going through a storm at Shaktoolik to become the first woman to win the Iditarod.) After three days, the trailbreakers had still not been able to punch a trail over the pass, and many of the teams were out of food. As a result, the musher with a good memory always sends out a big cache of food to this checkpoint.