On a clear day in good weather with the winter trail firm, the Kaltag Portage heading west overland from where the Yukon River makes its big bend south in the Alaska Interior crosses some of the prettiest country in Alaska, climbing first through thick spruce forest before emerging into great, white glades of snow between pockets of forest stretching away into low, rolling hills capped in white.This land is decidedly different, however, when the weather is brutal and the trail rotten. This is the way it was Saturday night. The battered looks of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race leaders stumbling into the coastal village of Unalakleet where it was still 30 degrees below zero come the morning told the tale. So, too, the times the teams took to struggle over the portage.Read more here: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/whats-tough-trail-iditarod-leaders
What’s a ‘Tough Trail’ for Iditarod Leaders?
