Unalakleet - Shaktoolik
Start/Finish
Checkpoint
Dogdrop
The actual distance on this leg is usually about 37 or 38 miles. (As with some other legs, the official distance sometimes reflects the longest possible routing, or old routings.) The race follows the main snowmachine trail to Shaktoolik; it is normally well traveled and well marked. The first 25 miles cross a mix of woods, taiga, open areas, and exposed ridge tops; the last 12 miles are completely in the open on the barren coastline. This leg usually takes four to six hours, but can be much longer if the weather is bad.
The trail leaves Unalakleet northbound and runs just in from the beach, turning inland after five miles to pass behind rocky 850-foot-high Blueberry Point. It comes almost back to the shore at the fishing camp of Egavik before climbing up the Blueberry Hills, reaching the thousand-foot summit at the 18-mile point. At the top the trail turns west and makes a three-mile drop back to the beach, then follows a slough and the dune line northwestward for the last 12 miles out to Shaktoolik.
The primary concern on this leg is the weather. Shaktoolik is windy even in good weather, but under some conditions the winds can blow from the north at more than hurricane force, with temperatures well below zero and chill factors worse than minus one hundred. If the winds are howling, the trail from Unalakleet to the top of the Blueberry Hills will be relatively sheltered (except on the ridge tops), but the last 12 miles out to Shaktoolik can be extremely difficult with drifts and ground blizzards.
