This is just so incredibly Alaskan. It's just so incredible. They sit atop lawn chairs, folding chairs, snowmachines and four-wheelers, with coolers and sacks of food nearby. They bring barbecues or build small campfires, and the more enterprising bring extra firewood to sell in bundles to the less prepared. Once at the Knik Bar, there's an abundance of fur hats, fur coats, fur everything.
Small planes fly low across the lake while kids zoom around on snowmachines and four-wheelers.
This is kind of the rustic Alaska,'' said Duaine Clark, who was helping out inside the crowded bar. Though hundreds of people line the snow fence outside the bar to watch mushers check in and out, the feel is far more intimate than at Saturday's start in Anchorage. Bass gave him a friendly wave and a laugh. The mushers are just part of the show, though. They and the dogs share center stage with the Knik Bar, where the scene inside is as Alaskan as the scene outside.