"Pretty damn bumpy," Schnuelle said.

The 2009 Yukon Quest winner was first to arrive in Nikolai, where the shore transformed into a parking lot for sleds and snoozing dog teams Tuesday. The checkpoint is about 350 miles into the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, according to organizers, and the first village mushers encounter.

Here, snowmachines fill the snow-paved roads and stacks of firewood sit in front of Lincoln Log homes. The smell: wood smoke. The sounds: a banging village power generator and, on Tuesday, barking dogs eager to push ahead to McGrath, 54 miles down the trail.

Schnuelle appeared at 9:45 a.m., about an hour ahead of four-time champion Jeff King, despite losing his way for half an hour outside of Rohn and wandering circles around the river before spotting a trail marker and mushing on.

Volunteers stoked a barrel fire to heat steaming water for mushers like DeeDee Jonrowe, who made a stew of rice, fat and fish for her team after parking a short walk from the river. Rick Swenson pulled in, looking over his competitors' gear. Where did Jonrowe get those harnesses, he asked. Did Hans Gatt make those plastic sled runners himself?

Mushers described the trail so far as good-to-great -- especially given pre-race misgivings about the lack of snow -- except for a typically treacherous stretch leading into Nikolai.

Cim Smyth, who dropped a dog with shoulder injuries off at Finger Lake, said the broken tussocks left by Iron Dog snowmachines bounced along the bottom of his sled like frozen basketballs.

Elsewhere, he was drowsy, running low on sleep when a series of bumps sent him bouncing left, then right, then careening off the trail. "I ran into a tree, big time," he said.

Tok musher Hugh Neff raced much of the way from Rohn to Nikolai without plastic runners on his sled -- tussocks had popped one of them off -- to help it glide along the snow.

Neff was carrying one of his dogs that had already run the Yukon Quest, Zodiac, in the sled, he said. "It was a workout, dude."

The Farewell Burn, the stretch of trail between Rohn and Nikolai that was bare during the Iron Dog, improved by the time Iditarod mushers arrived.

"There was some snow," said Ray Redington Jr., of Wasilla, who stood talking with Schnuelle. "We had some tussocks out there and stuff like that for, what would you say, about four miles?"

"I must have had a different trail than you guys," Schnuelle replied. "Maybe with me going first."

Trail judge Rhodi Davidson, expecting to see broken sleds or hurt dogs, said most teams emerged unscathed. "The big surprise is the trail was so bad coming through the burn, the dogs are really looking good," she said.

Gerry Willomitzer, a Whitehorse musher running his fourth Iditarod, sat with a pair of pliers, replacing a sled runner with harder plastic to better to withstand the cold night. A few feet away, another dog team slept. One husky dozed on its haunches, occasionally nodding itself awake.

The trail was particularly smooth through Rainy Pass, Willomitzer said. "Whoever put that trail in along there deserves a Nobel Prize."

As for the pace? Not all that fast, said Gatt, another Whitehorse musher who set a record-breaking pace in this year's Yukon Quest.

Schnuelle, for example, stayed at the front by posting slower speeds but spending more time trotting than other teams.

"People are not resting as much as other years," said Gatt, pulling bricks of chocolate from a plastic bag. "I don't like it much myself. It's no fun to go that slow."

King, a four-time champion who says he may be running his last Iditarod, walked along his team. One of his dogs, Colonel, gave a series of deep barks. His sister, Cadet, squealed, straining against her harness.

"You guys ready?" King asked. Moments later, he was back on the Kuskokwim, headed for McGrath.

A few mushers said they plan to push through the checkpoint to take their 24-hour layovers in Takotna. There's better pie there, Schnuelle said.

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Follow Kyle Hopkins' reports from the Iditarod Trail on our Sled Blog, adn.com/sledblog. Tweets from the trail: twitter.com/iditarodlive.