Iditarod Trail Official Trail Report from Bruce Lee

The Iditarod "Insiders" crew finally got a flight out of the ghost town of Iditarod and flew up the Trail to Kaltag, which is the next checkpoint after the grueling mush up the Yukon River.  Here is what Bruce Lee (Iditarod Veteran - best finish 10th in 1993) has to say about the sights from up high:

As we flew over to Kaltag a few hours ago I was surprised to actually see a clearly defined trail along the Yukon River as we passed over the trail from Iditarod. With all the snow and wind we have been getting in this part of Alaska I expected the trail to be totally blown in. I met up with the Iditarod trailbreakers on snowmachines here in Kaltag and they reported that the trail was drifted and soft but that the mushers shouldn’t have trouble finding the actual trail. They did think it was going to be slow going for the teams as they make their way up the Yukon River. The trailbreakers also reported were a few portions of the trail on the river that had wind blowing in their faces as they made their way to Kaltag.
Of course the big change on this section of the trail is going to be the lack of food drops at Eagle Island and the added weight the mushers are going to have to carry in their sleds in dog food from the checkpoint of Grayling. All in all this is going to be a one of the toughest runs of the entire trail this year. The Yukon is always a challenge for mushers on many levels but with this added snow and wind storms moving one after another through the area this trail is going to be a lot of work for every team headed to Nome.

As of 9 am eastern standard time, the GPS tracker looks like this:

Nic Petit running at 7.4 mph/mile 584
Mitch Seavey running at 7.7 mph/mile 581
Joar Ulsom running at 6.8 mph/mile 580

Chase Pack out of Grayling:

Ray Redington at mile 535
Pete Kaiser at mile 534
Richie Diehl at mile 534
Aaron Burmeister at mile 532

Everyone else is still resting at Grayling, mile 530.  Kaltag, where Bruce Lee flew and where the Teams come off the Yukon is a mile 652.