KOYUK -- Jeff King's Monday evening run here was challenging as his dogs struggled to run on the sugar-snow-covered trail heading into the coastal village.
But things got even crazier for King when he was charged by what he called a "rabid seal."
"Have I got a story for you," the four-time Iditarod champion told Alaska Dispatch News on Monday shortly after pulling into the checkpoint.
King insists the spotted seal -- which he estimated at more than 4 feet long -- charged his team about 15 miles from the checkpoint. Locals appeared less than convinced that such an event could occur, but didn't rule out the possibility. Even veteran musher Sebastian Schnuelle, who's reporting for the Iditarod Trail Committee on Iditarod Insider, said he encountered what looked like a pregnant spotted seal on his way to the checkpoint the same day and noted the seal appeared to charge at him.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says that spotted seals can weigh 200 pounds and reach 5 feet in length. Females typically give birth to a single pup in April or May.
King took some time to tell the whole story. He maintains that it wasn't a hallucination -- something he said he's never experienced on the trail. But he maintained it was something he had never seen in 25 years of Iditarod racing.
Fish and Game notes, "When spotted seals move across ice or land it is in a fashion that resembles an inchworm movement that is typical of true seals."