By Joe Runyan
Ophir is the center of a small placer gold mining area. Usually only a few people, if any, stay here in the winter. The checkpoint is a small log cabin with barely enough room for the checkpoint officials and the veterinarians. The mushers are lucky to find a place to lay down and take a nap. One of the best places is under the table. The trail leaves Takotna and starts climbing immediately to the summit of a small range. It is a pretty good grunt for the dogs, and most mushers get off the runners and run as much as possible. The 25 miles or so after this is basically all downhill on an old mining road. The trail parallels a creek, which is loaded with moose. When the dogs get a rich, heavy whiff of moose wafting on the damp air, hold on to your handlebars for a good ride. The teams, especially the ones that have a 24 in Takotna, really make good time on this trail. It is possible to take a 24 in Ophir but most people find it easier to do it in Takotna.
The trail separates into northern and southern routes just past Ophir. This was done to accommodate the villages on the Yukon, who wanted to be included on the trail at least every other year. Since this is an odd-year race, mushers will be careful to head toward Iditarod. The trailblazers are always overly precautious about marking the trail with stakes of reflective wood lath. In my personal experience I have never known about a musher taking the wrong trail - but if they did, it would be history-making, like running the wrong way for a touchdown. Unless a trapper is using the northern trail and has left marks in the snow, mushers won’t even realize they have passed the fork in the trail.
As a spectator, I really become interested in the race at this juncture because the teams are beginning to reveal themselves, and the front-runners have usually separated from the pack. By this point, even the most athletic teams will have settled into a steady trot of about 10 to 12 miles per hour on the even going. If the trail is icy or wind-packed or downhill, the dogs will transition into a slow lope, which impresses even the most jaded observers.
Generally speaking, the competitive mushers will have put their dogs into a rhythm of traveling six to eight hours and resting six to eight hours. Herds of caribou frequent this area and are sometimes close to the trail, adding another diversion for the dogs and a good reason to run and bark.