Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race differ by less than . The northern route first passes through Cripple, which is from Anchorage, and from Nome (ITC, "Northern"), making it the middlemost checkpoint. From Cripple, the route passes through Sulatna Crossing to Ruby, on the Yukon River. Ruby is another former gold-rush town which became an Athabaskan village. The southern route first passes through the ghost town of Iditarod, which is the alternate halfway mark, at from Anchorage, and from Nome (ITC, "Southern"). From Iditarod the route goes through the three neighboring Athabaskan villages of Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling, and then on to Eagle Island, Alaska. Ruby and
Iron Dog 10th annual race in 1994. The race route now follows parts of the Iditarod Trail, the route of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. It starts at Big Lake and follows the main trail and its connecting trails until it hits to the Yukon River at Ruby. It follows the river to Kaltag before it heads to the Norton Sound on the Bering Sea at Unalakleet and it follows the coast to Nome. Then it returns along the same path in the reverse order to Ruby, where it diverges off its original path by following the Yukon River and its