Alaska's Great Race - Trailblazer Checkpoint

" The trail ahead crackles with the preparation efforts of more than 2500 volunteers, at 24 separate checkpoints. Each spaced out at thirty to a 110 miles. Trail prep is the race before the race. The checkpoints provide a rest spot for dog sled teams and record the departure and arrival times of each musher to keep track of the race. Yetna is the first and most active checkpoint."

" My name is Dan Gabryszak and I'm the owner of Yetna Station which is in the middle no place. We start doing this like I say in January. Got a crew of about forty people here to help out. This is my daughter Danielle, one of seven kids. From first to last this is probably going to be about five hours. Volunteers came down here earlier and used a chain saw, cut out the hole till it was filled with water. We got an area for if they have injured dogs where we have veterinarians, communication people, we've got cooks. Just a lot of everything a lot of food and a lot of doin'."

" They start the race in Willow which is forty miles from here to the dogs. And they let them go every two minutes. We average dog teams here every three minutes. Now, if you go 32 miles up to the next checkpoint which is Squentna, they get them over a twelve hour period that's how much they get strung out. The further along the trail they can be as much as 2, 3 days behind the leaders."

" But the checkpoint volunteers aren't the only ones scrambling. The most critical prep work is done by the caretakers of the trail. The trail breakers."

" When you're a racer you need to have a reliably groomed, or hard trail and I gauged that the trail was going to be good for us. It's gonna be set up and hard and fast."

" These trail breakers are already a 130 miles up the Iditarod trail. They place four foot markers along the route to guide the sled dog teams. It's their duty to tame any wild obstacles Alaska can dish out. Some rookies have seen the trail before the grooming begins."

" What was really scary to me was in the bottom of those holes were willow branches where the snow had fallen and bent a willow over now the willow branches had snapped off and so in some of them it looks like there a little spikes at the bottom and I kept thinking I'm going to have a dog that's going to get impaled on one of these willows, you know- this is going to be going to be bad."

" But thanks to the trail breakers this year's racers will stand a chance."

" The dogs were fine nothing happened."

" These trail breakers do their job with the pride. And are the unsung heroes of the trail."