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The trail from Circle City to Eagle is about 160 miles, mostly along the Yukon River. This section of the trail, can be slow going, partly because it is on a wide portion of the Yukon River. There is not alot of other travel along the river here, so crews must put in a trail and pack it down. Trail conditions depend greatly on how the freeze up went – the ice can be extremely flat, snow-covered or wind-blown glare ice; or it can be massively jumbled, to the point where trail breakers must use a chainsaw to cut a path through the roughly heaped chunks of ice.

On the way to Eagle, teams will pass a number of cabins which may offer shelter – Dill's Cabin, Slaven's, Biederman's and Trout Creek. The first section of the river is relatively sheltered, winding gently through the woods. About 40 miles out of Circle, the river widens out and straightens, in the Yukon-Charley River National Preserve. Beyond Biederman's cabin, the river becomes gradually more exposed to wind, especially near the Kandik River. When the trail leaves the side channels, it is more hard packed. The ice may be bare and wind scoured. In some places the trail will be drifted in and difficult to navigate, and markers may be blown down.

Once the trail passes the Nation River, there tends to be a little more snow. From Biederman's cabin, it is a little over 40 miles to Trout Creek, and another 45 miles into Eagle.

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From Dill's, the trial continues to follow the river for the most part, with a few occasional portages, through the Yukon-Charley Rivers Preserve. Conditions vary greatly from year to year, but this section is often challenging. Some years the river trail will be flat and smooth, with clear markings. Other years there have been stretches of glare ice with no markers, and other years the ice has been badly jumbled and rough. With glare ice, the dogs find it difficult to follow a trail and to get any traction. With jumbled ice, they may have difficulty with footing – so wrist and shoulder injuries become a serious risk. All along this stretch of the Yukon, there are many creeks flowing into the river.

Forty miles out of Circle there is another cabin, on the left, which may be open for the mushers. But 20 miles further along – 60 miles out of Circle City – is Slaven's Cabin, set on the right-hand bank of the river, by Coal Creek. Slaven's is located in an area where there are a number of cabins, several mining operations and at least three airstrips.

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Above, you can see Slaven's as it is today, and to the right, Slaven's when it was a roadhouse in the 1930s. Dog teams have always taken refuge in this historic spot.

And here you can see Slaven's from the air, with a couple of teams resting. In the foreground, you can see the Quest trial running along the river.

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You can see the smaller cabin at Biederman's above. And on the right is a picture of Charlie Biederman's dog team on the river ice near Eagle. He used his dogs to deliver the mail in the 1930s. You can see that his "sled-dogs" were large freight-pulling dogs, quite different from the dogs following that trail today.

From Biederman's the trail passes along a side channel and then rejoins the main channel of the Yukon River. To the north, mushers can see Snowy Peak, with an elevation of 4,200 feet. Shortly after, the trail passes the Kandik River, a large river that flows in from the northeast. Kathul Mountain rises up dramatically on the north shore, just past the Kandik River. The south shore is interrupted frequently by creeks, many with historic names: Washington, Glenn, Dewey, Logan, Independence, Fourth of July, and Michigan.

About 35 miles past Biederman's, the trail goes past the Nation Reef, to the south, and the Nation River, flowing in from the northeast, almost parallel to the Kandik River. Five miles further along, the trail passes Trout Creek, there is another cabin that is usually open to the mushers.

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The cabin at Trout Creek is about 40 miles out of Eagle. Teams that stopped at Slaven's will likely stop here for a rest. The cabin is set back from the main channel of the river, and teams sometimes miss the trail off to the cabin. Depending on the weather and trail conditions, this rest point can be very important for the mushers. When teams leave Trout Creek, they will back onto the river for another 25 miles. After that, the trail turns into the forest on the south side of the river, for a long portage on a bush trail through the woods. This part of the trail crosses a couple of small lakes before emerging back out onto the river, just below Boulder Creek. From this point, it is just about five miles into Eagle. Teams will know they are close to Eagle when they pass below Eagle Bluff, a striking large bluff just before the trail into town.

The checkpoint in Eagle is set up in the 80-year-old schoolhouse, and the teams are parked in a nearby field. The room is crowded and noisy, so it is not the best place to rest. In Eagle, there is plaque commemorating Roald Amundson and his arctic expedition, so the community has a long association with distance mushing. Perhaps because of this historic connection, most of the residents will help or come out to see the teams ? it's a major event for them at this time of year. Incidentally, Susan Amundson, a granddaughter of Roald, has often entered the Quest, the last time in 2002.

A very small, extremely remote community, close to the Yukon/Alaska border, Eagle has no winter access except by air. Officials, vets and media fly into the community, but team handlers do not get into Eagle. They have little time for such a trip in any case, since they must drive from Circle back to Fairbanks, then to Whitehorse, and up to Dawson City. And they must get to Dawson well ahead of the teams in order to prepare a camp for their musher.