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The skies were clearing at Finger Lake on Wednesday, and the once-fast, then-snowed-under Iditarod Trail was looking like it might turn fast again. "It's pretty nice here actually," said Kirsten Dixon at the Winter Lake Lodge. "It's almost blue skies ... about 30 degrees." Back in Anchorage, Jack Niggemeyer, trail manager for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, was glad to hear the snow that closed the trail earlier this week had stopped. But he wasn't predicting what the 81 mushers in this year's event might find after the race starts Saturday in Anchorage. "It changes daily," he said. About the only certainty with the Iditarod Trail, he added, is that "it's white and it's winding." A week ago, mushers were talking about a hard-packed and fast 1,100 miles of trail to Nome. A day ago - as mountain bikers in the Iditasport Extreme pushed their cycles through 18 inches to 2 feet of new snow between Skwentna and Rainy Pass - some were thinking that the early part of the Iditarod might turn into something of a slog. The fresh snow was deep enough to snare the snowmobile that Iditarod musher Anna Bonderanko and her husband, Jim Lanier, of Chugach were riding when they set out to preview the trail over the weekend. The duo ended up being rescued by an Alaska Air National Guard helicopter in Rainy Pass on Tuesday. By Wednesday night, though, Iditasport skier David Norona was able to report from Puntilla Lake on the south side of pass that conditions had changed radically. Several snowmobiles had been up the trail, he said, and in falling temperatures overnight Tuesday the snow set up in the track they packed. Some places, he said, the snow was firm enough for mountain bikers to ride. That should spell pretty good going for the dogs. North of the Alaska Range, all reports are that the trail just gets better. There was plenty of snow there early in the winter, and in the past weeks there have been mainly cold nights - down to 20 or 30 degrees below zero - and subfreezing days that left the well-traveled trails in good repair. Racers in the Iron Dog 2000 snowmobile race from Big Lake to Nome and on to Fairbanks last week reported that the only place north of the range that they found bad trail was between Kaltag on the Yukon River and Unalakleet on the Bering Sea coast. The Kaltag Portage was rough with moguls, they said, but then the snowmobiles were trying to travel at high speeds. Slower traveling dog sleds bounce around on moguled trail, but not as much as the snowmobiles. And along the Bering Sea coast on the way to Nome, veteran Iron Doggers were surprised to find an unusual amount of snow. That continues all the way into Nome. Where usually there are patches of windblown bare ground and tundra in this area, there is snow this year, they reported. Niggemeyer - who invariably takes the heat for bad trail even if the weather is under someone else's control - was hearing reports good enough to make even him guardedly optimistic about trail conditions. But mainly, he was happy to report that the Iditarod had supplies in place for all 19 remote checkpoints. That was not easy this year, he added, noting that the record field of 81 mushers meant the Iditarod had to ship out an extra 35 tons of dog food, hay and gear. It all awaits the mushers now. * Outdoors editor Craig Medred can be reached at cmedred@adn.com
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