Grayling, population 208, is the last village along the Iditarod Trail's Yukon River run before Kaltag. A winter storm moved into the area just as the race arrived.

Iditarod mushers often like taking their long breaks in Takotna because hundreds of miles of desolate trail devoid of human settlements lies ahead.

The Alaska ghost town of Ophir that serves as a race checkpoint in a remote portion of the Iditarod Trail used to be a bustling gold-mining area around the turn of the 20th century.

Two weeks each March, a 280-square-foot public use cabin deep in the Alaska wilderness transforms from forgotten outpost into vortex of wild-eyed and willful athletes out to conquer Alaska with sled dogs, snowmachines or Fatbikes.