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The route from Dawson City to Pelly Crossing is the longest section of trail, running about 210 miles. Depending on which source you use, the distances can add up to as little as 206 miles, or as much as 232 miles. In any case, this stretch is very, very long, so mushers leave the Dawson City Checkpoint with heavily-laden sleds.


Fortunately the dogs will be rested after their 36-hour mandatory layover; however, they will be heading into the Black Hills – where there are many climbs and switchback trails – so they will have to work hard with those heavy loads.

At the end of the 36-hour mandatory layover, the teams check out through a specified exit from the campground – usually the end of the campground that is farthest from the road access. This exit adds a few hundred yards to the trail but is safer than navigating the main road down to the river.

Each team actually has a different mandatory layover as times will be adjusted for the staggered start. Only the last team out of the starting gate will actually stay in Dawson for exactly 36 hours; all the other teams will have layovers that range from 36hr 02min to 36hr 44min (assuming that 22 teams go to the start line). In 2006, the total difference will not be that long, since there is a small field of entrants.

After leaving the checkpoint, teams cross the Yukon River, and travel briefly along the Klondike River valley before starting a long ascent to King Solomon Dome. After the Dome, the trail climbs and winds through the Black Hills, wending towards the Stewart River and Scroggie Creek. From there the trail follows an old mining road, Scroggie Creek Road, towards the Pelly River, where there is an unofficial resting point, Stepping Stone. From this homestead, the trail follows the farm road along the Pelly River into the small community of Pelly Crossing.

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When the teams leave their campsites in the campground in West Dawson, they will go down onto the river and then cross over to the shore by the main townsite. There they turn and run upriver just below the town. Unfortunately it is difficult to see the teams along here, as the view of the river is blocked by the dyke built to protect Dawson from the recurring flooding of the Klondike River.

Once past the downtown area, they run parallel to the highway, for a few hundred yards, and then turn left onto the Klondike River and head up towards Bonanza Creek. When the river turns east, the teams go up onto the ditch beside the Klondike Highway, for a short stretch, until they reach the Bonanza Creek Road. They drive right on that road for several miles, all the way up into the foothills.

From there the trail leads out of the Klondike valley, for over 20 miles up towards King Solomon Dome. This is a long, slow climb – from and elevation of just over 1,000 feet to the summit at 4,048 feet – done with a fully loaded sled! Once at the top of the Dome, the trail breaks out of the sub-arctic forest. The dome is often windswept, and the trail is often hampered by drifting and sidehills. Teams pass by several large radio towers – the main communications beacons for the town – before heading downhill. The long, steady descent leads to a mining area known as Sulphur, where the trail crosses the Sulphur Creek Valley.

A few miles further along, the trail passes through another mining area, Dominion, and Granville, a Gold Rush era city that has long been abandoned. The trail over the dome and down into Granville is little under 20 miles.

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Usually, however, the abandoned town simply provides a bit of shelter for mushers, after their first run out of Dawson City and before they tackle the challenge of the Black Hills. Given the length of the trail between Dawson and Pelly, mushers are usually careful to pace themselves and take plenty of rest before and after the arduous and infamous Black Hills.

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From the Dominion and Granville area, the trail follows a cat road down the Indian River valley through several more mining areas. There is often bad ice and overflow from side creeks, especially in areas that have been recently mined.

Just 12 miles after the teams leave Granville, they will head up into the most difficult section of trail in the last half of the race: the Black Hills. Notorious for switchbacks and narrow, winding trails, the Black Hills are strenuous for both the dogs and their mushers.

For over 20 miles, teams travel along the top ridges, where they have a grand view of the Black Hills area. However, the trail climbs up and down rolling hills high up on the ridge. The trail is also very windy through much of this area. In some sections, there are fairly tight turns on the tree-lined trail, causing occasional damage to sleds and mushers, and posing a risk of shoulder injury for the canine and human athletes.

Dogs and mushers alike must work very hard through the Black Hills. On the last part of the trail through the Black Hills, there are about 8 long switchbacks, over an 8-mile section of trail, which leads the teams down out of the hills into a summer mining area.

After the trail drops down out of the Black Hills, it follows an old bush trail for about 20 miles. This part of the trail meanders through many old placer operations and mining claims along the Black Hills Creek. There is often a lot of stream glaciation and overflow in this area. Eventually, the trail comes out onto the Stewart River, and runs along the river for about six miles, then goes up on the left bank at Scroggie Creek.

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At Scroggie Creek, race organizers set up an official dog drop – and it is literally in the middle of nowhere. Volunteers build a large camp, with sleeping tents, shelters for the dogs, along with shelter for vets and officials. The volunteers prepare meals and host the mushers at this remote site.

The crew at Scroggie Creek will have a Global Star satellite phone, so we should get update from the dog drop crews. This camp is roughly half way between Dawson City and Pelly Crossing. In the past, front running teams took about 20 hours to travel from Scroggie Creek to Pelly Crossing. But when conditions are bad, teams will take much longer than that.

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Taking a team and sled (with plastic runners) along the Scroggie Creek road was very hard on the dogs, the sleds and the mushers – to understand how hard, just imagine jogging in socks along a packed gravel road!

Crews no longer "open" the road, so the conditions are not as severe. However, it is still a difficult stretch. Part of the difficulty is psychological, as the road is not very interesting for the dogs – and it’s long! From the camp, teams follow the wide relatively straight trail as the road gradually climbs Valhalla summit, about thirty-eight miles out of Scroggie Creek. Valhalla is a long steady climb – not as difficult as some other summits, but certainly tiring. Then the road gradually descends the hill on the other side, and the trail remains wide and relatively straight. Along this gradual climb, the trail rises and drops from one creek bed to the next, and side creeks often generate overflow ice on the trail.

This 70-mile stretch is one of the least interesting for the dogs, and mushers often refer to it as "a long 70". Remember, dogs are very much like people, and they enjoy variety on the trail. They much prefer a trail with corners and trees and changing scenery, and the perk up considerably once they leave a "boring" stretch of trail. At the end of that "long 70", teams will be rewarded with the fabulous warmth and hospitality of Stepping Stone.

Several families settled here years ago, so there are two or three buildings. Every year, volunteers drive in on snow machines to help out the people who live at Stepping Stone, providing hospitality to the mushers and their dogs. While the cabins are very remote, with no hydro, phone or running water, the services offered there often rival those provided at a regular checkpoint, with good food on the table and hot water at the ready.

Some mushers will rest only briefly here, as they will want to push on into Pelly. But few mushers can pass up the food and warmth of this unofficial rest point. As there are no communications at Stepping Stone, there will be no updates from there unless some of the media travel in by snow machine.

The trail from Stepping Stone into Pelly is usually on the river much of the way. Last year trailbreakers could not put the trail in on the river ? a consequence of unseasonably warm weather in the Yukon. This year, they may again be unable to use the river trail. If so, mushers will have to drive approximately 36 miles along the Farm Road to Pelly Crossing. The Farm Road is a true "back road" that runs from the community of Pelly Crossing alongside the Pelly River to the Pelly Farm, the oldest operating farm in the territory. Stepping Stone is just four miles further out from the farm.

The difficulty of driving along any road is the quality of the trail surface. Any trail put in on a road will always be harder than trails on the river or through the bush, since equipment and vehicles pack down the snow; and the hard trail can cause problems for feet and wrists. As a result, 36 miles on a road is harder on the team than 36 miles on a bush or river trail.

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Pelly Crossing is a small community located on the banks of the Pelly River and along the Klondike Highway, 282 kilometers northwest of Whitehorse and 254 kilometers southeast of Dawson City. Originally a ferry crossing, Pelly Crossing was a construction camp for workers building the Klondike Highway. When highway construction ended in the 1950s, the community's economic base disappeared. The tiny community gained a new lease on life as the home of the Selkirk First Nation.

The people of Selkirk First Nation had settled near the old territorial capital of Fort Selkirk on the Yukon River. But the highway passed Fort Selkirk by, so the townsite was virtually abandoned. The Selkirk First Nation people were relocated to Pelly Crossing to centralize services and make administration easier. Selkirk First Nation is part of the Northern Tutchone cultural and language group and a participant in the Northern Tutchone Council. Northern Tutchone is a member of the Athapaskan language family.