Koyuk - Elim
Start/Finish
Checkpoint
Dogdrop
This leg always seems longer than it is. The mushers plan on five to seven hours, more if the wind is blowing. The trail follows the main snowmachine trail to Elim and is usually well marked. However, the wind can blow hard in the Moses Point area and the trail can drift over very quickly. From Koyuk, the trail runs southwest just offshore on the sea ice for about 12 miles and then cuts inland to the west across the wooded peninsula behind Bald Head, a prominent cape.
Ten miles later the trail crosses the mouth of the Kwik River, makes a three mile overland run along the dune line, and then jumps two miles across Kwiniuk Inlet to Moses Point. It then runs along a narrow spit and across some tidelands for about 11 miles to the old Moses Point FAA station, now abandoned. From there, the trail usually follows a nine-mile unplowed state highway up and over the heavily forested bluffs and down into Elim. An alternate route has been followed in the past along the sea ice from Moses Point to Elim.
