The snow around the lake is deep and soft. While most of the Iditarod trail has been packed down by snowmobiles, including those used by competitors of the Tesoro Iron Dog snowmobile race two weeks earlier, the trail around the lake is cut fresh for the Iditarod. "You really don't want the dogs falling through these nasty, punchy soft trails. It doesn't take very long before the teams break through and they're wallowing in sugar out there," says Plettner, "but it's the same for everyone, and that's the way it is." Both she and Mackey shrug off the extra challenge. It's not easy going, but "anytime you have snow that time of year and an abundance of it, no less, you have to be pretty happy with it. There are times when there's minimal snow, and it's miserable," says Mackey, who is racing his fifth Iditarod.

To those watching from the checkpoint, it seems that the teams across the lake are moving in slow motion. Piles of snow hide their feet. They look like they're floating forward. The dogs' excitement over hitting a checkpoint overtakes them as they get closer.­ "They can smell them for miles, smell the smoke, and they know when they're almost there," says Plettner. "They speed right up. Even if your team looks slow, they speed up before they get to a checkpoint." They're all forward motion. At the checkpoint, the mushers dig the metal brake on their sled into the snow - it has more in common with the anchor of a small boat than with the brakes on any other land vehicle.

"Whoa!"