New trail on the Norton Ice

The trail breakers lay out a different trail for the Iditarod sled dog race every year, and the 2010 race is no excpetion to that. The trail accross the Norton Bay ice is a prime example of that given the differentiation in the way the ice freezes over the bay, and the prevailing tracks left by local snowmobiles. By following the GPS trackers each team has on it's sled, it has now become apparent that the trail heads in a markedly different northwest direction about halfway across the Norton Bay. The result is that once the trail hits land again, the direction into the checkpoint in the town of Koyuk is mostly in an easterly direction instead of the typical north direction. This is the 21st race for Jeff King, and he is heard telling the Iditarod Insider reporting team that he was most confused coming into Koyuk this year. Another peculiarity of this route is that the inbound trail to Koyuk may in fact actually be the same as the outbound trail. If it weren't for the fact that a musher has to check into each and every checkpoint, it would be possible for a team to make a substantial shortcut. It remains to be seen however if some team doesn't actually take this shortcut by mistake. Lance Mackey has now departed Koyuk and as he makes his way to Elim, he has a firm grasp on first place in this race, however we don't expect Jeff King and Hans Gatt who are in Koyuk resting now to let him get to big of a jump at this juncture in the race if their dogs are up to it.

The following is courtesy of Chris Waigl at this link