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I would really like to know more about this story than what's been told so far. That section of the trail is run underneath a powerline that usually has tracked-vehicle ruts like mad. Last year I was furious that they ran us underneath the powerline, slamming around in those ruts and banging the dogs up, especially after I realized the trail just followed the road (which has next to zero traffic, great snow cover and no blind corners ) for five miles, knowing we could have run on the road and made things far safer for the dogs. Several veteran mushers told me they just get up on the road and stay out of the ruts. I assumed the race trail would peel off from the ditch at a point that would ultimately be inaccessible if you were on the road, since running on the road seemed so much more logical and dog-friendly. It turned out the trail leading off the ditch and over to Medicine Lake went right up to the road and all the mushers who knew better to be on the road just took a simple "haw" and were right on the trail. It was never made clear at any meetings that we absolutely had to stay in the ditch. An unwritten rule in dog racing is that you don't necessarily have to go EXACTLY where the markers are. The first consideration should be safety to the dogs, so if the ditch trail is full of nasty, rock-hard ruts and the road has good snow and little traffic it would seem okay to just jump on the road. So, my question is what was the condition of the ditch trail? If there were bad ruts (as I've seen them every time I've ever driven that road) then I think Hugh got royally screwed out of what's shaping up to be the race of his life. If the ditch was in good shape then there is some question as to Hugh's motives. I got the impression as a rookie last year that veterans had been running the road for years without any negative consequences, so giving him a two-hour penalty seems way excessive. I also don't buy what I heard about Hugh's actions causing potential danger to teams behind him. At that point in the race the dogs are pretty well under control and will go wherever the driver asks of them. We ran on the road coming into Central last year for a little bit, so I wouldn't understand any logic behind keeping teams off the roads for safety's sake, especially the hot springs road which is hardly used at all. If I were running down the Susitna River in the Iditarod and the marked trail was drifted but there was a paralleling trail that was broken there would be no question it would be okay to take the broken trail. I'm probably jumping the gun but this smells like someone had it out for Hugh.
Ken

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