Don's 2000 Trail Notes
Foreword
Every musher who runs the Iditarod tries to find out as much as he or she can about the trail. Some veterans keep detailed written journals of the route, with blow-by-blow descriptions, and update them every year. Some keep everything in their heads. Regardless, most rookies will try to pick the minds of as many finishers as they can.
The reality of the Iditarod Trail is that there is so much of it, and so many different things to encounter--not to mention vastly different conditions from year to year--that no two veterans remember the trail exactly the same way. Everyone who has run the race has his or her own memories of miserable trail or smooth running, and trail notes (or war stories) from veterans quickly become very subjective.
The Trail Notes are presented basically in the manner a veteran would describe the trail to a rookie (without some of the more colorful language that inevitably accompanies any musher-to-musher discussion of the trail). The descriptions are divided into checkpoint-to-checkpoint legs and cover both the northern and southern routes as well as a few well-known alternate routes or detours. However, there still might be last-minute re-routings not covered, because that's just the way it is on the trail.
The 2000 Trail Notes have been updated to add the legs on the Iditarod Northern Route. Also, representative photos of individual legs will be included where available (photos may be added even after the initial text entries are posted, so keep checking). Some changes have been made to many legs based on information from the 1998 and 1999 races. Although the routing of much of the trail stays more or less the same from year to year, there are always surprises, ranging from lack of snow to landslides that obliterate half a mile of trail.
Please remember these trail notes are just one musher's view of the trail, with a minimum of dramatic license. If anything, descriptions of some parts of the trail are conservatively written because no one who's never done it would believe what's actually there. Of course, another musher might roll on the floor laughing at some parts, or wonder why something important to him was left out. And naturally the Iditarod Trail Committee takes no responsibility for the accuracy of what follows, nor does it necessarily agree with any of the author's opinions.