Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race leader John Baker departed Shaktoolik at 5:40 PM with 11 dogs in the direction of Koyuk across the sea ice. Playing a careful game of strategy, he rested for three hours in the village armory, rejuvenating his dogs for what should be a 6-hour hop to the next checkpoint. Much of the advertised 40-mile distance is straight across the sea ice of Norton Bay.
Weather is reported calm, temperatures barely below freezing. This is uncharacteristic for a vulnerable village situated on a long, unprotected spit exposed to the vengeful Bering Sea. Shaktoolik is known for howling winds, blowing snow, and white-outs that make confusing the featureless trail that runs across an unending vista of white sea ice.
Norton Bay crossing beautiful, treacherous
This crossing to Koyuk is, however, a challenge even without bad weather. The trip can be beautiful beneath expansive skies, but numbing in the monotony of the sea ice, and the white. The temptation to doze as the sled rocks like a cradle over windblown hard pack on a generally straight-arrow trail is a constant struggle.
At night, the musher must keep his headlight scanning the trail to be absolutely sure the lead dogs do not wander onto an errant snowmachine track. The trail is well marked but occasionally a blast of wind can take out a section of the carrot-topped, reflectorized Iditarod markers; or the ice can shift to break the thread of the trail. Then the musher must move cautiously from marker to marker, using his or her headlight to scan for a reflection in the dark. The dog driver best look back, too, just to make sure he hasn't wandered.
In short, one cannot lead the race and be inattentive here.
About 30 miles shy of Koyuk, the lights of that village finally become visible, but they are like stars. The dogs trot for hours still and the village on a hill overlooking Norton Bay never seems to get much closer. "When will we get there?" is the thought that goes through a musher's mind as he fights to stay alert in the dark and the white.
This will be Baker's night as two mushers chase him toward the next checkpoint.
An hour after the Shaktoolik departure of Kotzebue's Baker, Ramey Smyth from Wasilla and Hans Gatt from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, arrived in the village practically holding hands. Their travel times from Unalakleet were identical to Baker's at five and a half hours.
Smyth, Gatt blow through Shak
Had they followed Baker's plan, they would have rested in "Shak" -- as mushers call it -- for three hours. Instead they blew through the checkpoint and put their dogs on Baker's scent, now only about 45 minutes ahead.
What does this very interesting turn of events mean? Well, for one thing, Baker better be careful with his lead and not make a mistake in Koyuk. If he can arrive in Koyuk and maintain a 45-minute lead, he will retain some very good leverage.
Since the teams of Smyth and Gatt do not have the advantage of Baker's three-hour rest in Shaktoolik, the two mushers will almost certainly have to shut the teams down for a fairly long break in Koyuk, maybe five or six hours. Gatt, needing rest, might even stop at a shelter cabin that sits on a small hill just before the Shaktoolik-Koyuk trail leaves the last beach for the ice. Baker, on the other hand, has some rest in reserve, and could apply pressure by resting as little as four hours in Koyuk.
Rest time here is as important as run speed. Rest is an asset; it's money in the bank for the race leader. Baker is making it very difficult for his two pursuers to make up his two- to three-hour time advantage built back on the Yukon River.
The Smyth, Gatt and Baker teams are neither gaining nor losing on each other. All three are running about the same speed, notwithstanding the reputations Smyth and Gatt have for running behind the sled to assist the dogs. Baker is not known as an extra "team dog" working behind the sled.
Nome nears
Historically, my contacts and I agree, it is possible for a musher to rest only four hours in Koyuk and than successfully make the next run to White Mountain in 10 hours. Once landed in White Mountain, the mandatory eight-hour rest will easily set up the 80-mile run to the Nome finish. By this stage in the race, the dogs are so trail hardened and conditioned that you don't normally see any big surprises in change of traveling speed.
The changes that shake up the standings are usually giant human screw ups -- dozing, missing a trail, misjudging trail distances, oversleeping in a checkpoint or whatever else mushers can do to mess up a perfectly nice day. Four-time champ Jeff King overslept in the Elim checkpoint, about 95 miles from Nome, in 2008, and Lance Mackey sneaked out to grab his second victory on the way to four in a row.
Mackey is out of contention this year, but pivotal decisions again approach along the coast. How will the front of the pack, now winnowed down to three key competitors, play their run-rest strategy to White Mountain? Baker is leveraging three hours in rest against the attacks of Smyth and Gatt, but he's confessed to having problems staying awake.
Can he hold on down the stretch?
Joe Runyan, champion of the 1985 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and 1989 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, worked with former Iditarod champion Jeff King on his book, "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" as well as with defending Iditarod champion Lance Mackey on his autobiography, "The Lance Mackey Story", and is providing commentary and analysis of Iditarod 39 for Alaska Dispatch.