8+ days on the Iditarod Trail: Part Five

Another full day on the trail after a crazy night!

Finger Lake to Puntilla Lake: ~148 miles, ~4 days 1 hour

Even before my watch alarm had time to sound off I was wide awake. I could have easily hit snooze and fallen deeply asleep but for the parade of athletes pouring into, at this point, the all too cozy tent. While I'd slept, just about all the floor space had been taken up and occupied; clothing hung from every available inch of clothes line and more than a few improvised hangup points. It was crowded already and even more dead tired racers were stumbling in out of the cold night. That was definitely my cue to leave. Luckily that was already my plan and I was pretty much ready to go within 10 minutes of waking up.  I quickly packed away my sleeping bag and inflatable ground pad, donned my dried out clothing and was out of the bustling tent. I'd forgotten to mention it, but somebody had placed an old sofa just outside the tent on the "patio" portion of the wood tent platform. I kinda thought it was a bit of a joke, but there was a racer curled up in a thick sleeping bag snoring happily away on it! Ha!

I buckled my sled bag onto my sled along with my snowshoes (yeah, I was still optimistic) and hiked up to the checkpoint for some breakfast. I didn't linger long as I was actually pretty excited to get going. I wanted to see some Northern Lights and this was to be a pretty clear night so anything was possible. There had been some discussion at the ITI pre-race meeting about seeing the Aurora. There was a guy there who whipped out his phone to show us an app that was forecasting high probability of seeing the Aurora around this very night I was headed out.  The only downside I could foresee was that the moon was majorly waxing it was so bright! I didn't know if that effected Aurora visibility but I can't imagine it wouldn't; it was difficult enough to see the stars in the general direction of the moon.  Anyhow, I ate some oatmeal, drank a few cups of coffee and was back out into the cold and surprisingly still night. No wind. Odd.

Anticipating the inevitable I go ahead and put on my snowshoes and then head on out the well packed trail knowing trail conditions will probably change shortly once I get away from the high use area. I knew from studying Lars's GPX track that this next section to Puntilla Lake would be mostly an uphill slog. Today's journey would take me most of the way uphill, out of the river valleys and on up into the Alaska Range. By comparison the final hike to the highest point of the course, Rainy Pass, which would come on the following section to Rohn, would be a mere foothill compared to today's elevation gain. Still, I was excited by the changing terrain and the overnight hike to knock most of it out.

Very soon after hiking out of camp I encountered already very different terrain from what I'd been accustomed too. Steep downhills followed by even steeper uphills! Until now the terrain had mostly been flat with the exception of the bobsled climb before Shell Lake. I was initially worried that my rope pulling sled harness system would prove to be a real headache with the steep hills. This proved to not be the case. For the most part when the sled would start to take up slack and catch up to me the caribiner that connected the sled tether to the backpack harness would get run over by the sled and act as a "brake" slowing or stopping the sled. So the sled would almost never nip my heels. Over the days to come and more hills encountered I began to be able to judge which steep down hills would potentially cause me problems and which I could safely hike or run down.  The really steep ones were the most fun because I'd just sit on my sled and slide down! Whooooo!  I'm pretty sure I must've hit 15-20 mph on a few short and steep bobsled runs. There was no danger of flying off the trail as the side walls of the trail were always at least a few feet tall.

Anyhow, on this night I was still figuring out the steep hills and so I carefully followed my sled down the hills careful to keep the beast under control.  It was amazingly bright out. For the most part I wasn't even using my lights as the moon was so bright! After a few steep hills I found myself out on the banks of a river; wide open all around me under the moonlight. It was an epic sight! And oh so still and quiet. Unbelievable. But also the trail began to disappear. I'd been following fairly reliable tracks and finding reflective lathing but even the lathing was getting harder to spot as the trail had undoubtedly begun to get blown in from the winds earlier that day. While hiking along the "bank" of the river I lost the track completely. The moon was bright that attempting to use my small LED lights proved fruitless to try and pick up any reflective markers in the area. Instead I sort of "felt" around in my snowshoes to where the trail became soft and I'd be almost post-holing. Then I'd know I was off trail; that the firm portion had to be the trail. This seemed to work and after a short bit of wandering around I believed I'd found the trail again and set off marching across the frozen river. Not long later I began to discover reflective lathing that confirmed I was on trail. Ironically, it wasn't until I was nearly on the other side of the river did I think to look at my GPS track. It too confirmed I was a least following the correct electronic bread crumbs.

Once on the other side of the river I encountered what I called the first of the Happy Steps. Not sure if they technically start this soon, but they were definitely STEEP.  I'm not kidding, I was having to crawl at times on hands and knees just to have enough friction traction to end up sliding right back downhill! And the trail was also virtually non-existent. It didn't matter though as about all one could do was climb as the route was taking me through some steep-walled gullies where there weren't many navigational options. Still, it was hard work and I was soon having to remove layers in order to avoid sweating out. I was postholing so often it was unbelievable; can't even imagine trying to tackle this kind of terrain without them!  This was definitely going to be a climbing day as I encountered steep uphill after steep uphill without hardly any downhill in between; just a bit of a break out of the dark woods while I crossed a moon soaked meadow.  I kept staring at the skies during these rest intervals hoping to spot any sign of an aurora but never ended up seeing any this night! Drat!

It was during one of these meadow crossings, as I continued to steadily climb the foothills of the Alaska Range, that the winds returned with a vengeance! I thought I'd experienced some pretty fierce winds earlier but those were nothing compared to what I was instantly getting slammed with! At first I'd simply duck my head and adjust my fleece buff over my mouth and nose and be fine. But as the temperature also steadily dropped as I climbed I could feel my face getting cold and the Buff icing up. So I stopped and dug out my thicker fleece balaclava, neoprene face mask and ski-goggles. With my back to the wind I swapped out head gear and put on the balaclava.  That allowed me to endure the wind blasts for a while longer.  I began to look forward the next climbing section as those were typically in the thicker woods where the trees acted as a pretty effective windblock. But soon it was even windy in the woods! I've no idea what the windchill was but even with the thick face mask and layering up with full Goretex ski jacket I could feel the penetrating cold. Didn't feel dangerously cold but it was enough to convince me I needed to keep moving! My nose and mouth felt cold again so I put on the neoprene mask directly on my face with the balaclava over everything and that finally did the trick. Toasty!

With the bright moon I'd mostly been limiting the usage of my lights as the trail was mostly easy to follow now that I'd gotten the hang at "reading" various tells. It was a thin white line but it was there. I also began to get concerned that perhaps my choice of regular alkaline batteries was a mistake. My lights, even in power saving mode were dimming. Fast! So now I was using the bright mode only when I was attempting to spot a reflective trail marker and otherwise just keeping them off.  This made the going mostly 2D; no depth perception at all; the level and smooth seeming trail definitely wasn't and I'd stumble periodically in a hole or soft section. Still, I persisted like this for a while until, to my amazement the trenched out, single track trail emptied out onto a road? WTF??!! I thought for sure I was lost now. There shouldn't be a ROAD out here should there be? I checked my GPS and, sure enough I was still on track. So, for whatever reason, there was a nice, wide and well plowed out road right here in the middle of the wilderness. So I turned to the right and continued to follow the GPS track of Lars.  He'd come this way in the past so it must be the right way to go.  Even with the surface now being somewhat firm I kept the snowshoes on fearing it wouldn't last. I also largely kept my lights off as the moonlight was definitely ample to continue following something as wide as this road! That was my first mistake.

So I continue on down the road for the better part of a mile and I'm moving faster than I have in a while as the road is trending flat to downhill now. I'm still checking the GPS track but probably not as closely as I should or certainly not with the map zoomed in near enough. Most of the time I kept the map zoomed out so I could see major weigh points ahead; the big picture. Well I should've had that map zoomed in much more and been more concerned about navigation.  For I soon found myself heading fairly steeply downhill and all of a sudden the road is nearly completely blown in with snow. In front of me is a berm nearly 4 feet high!  I can tell the road continues on the other side so I make my way to the edge of the berm where it's a bit lower and clamber up the soft wall along the edge of the road and post hole my way across the soft snow to the other side.  Back on the road it makes a steep bend downhill to the right and it's wide open for the better part of a 1/4 mile or so as best I can tell; to the left the view is overlooking the Skwetna River lit up by the blazing moon. Another Christmas card moment, no photograph could do justice to that view! It was simply amazing! It was bobsled time, I believe I removed my snowshoes as it was clear I *thought* I was going to be on this road for awhile more.  I then sat on my sled and zoomed down the straight road all the way down to river level. Back on my feet I started to get the impression that perhaps I'd messed up. The road was starting to deteriorate as I approached the shoreline. There was a collection of conex boxes here too; probably storing equipment of some sort. That's when I paused and really looked at my GPS map closely; finally zooming in. That's when I audibly exclaimed, Ah *uck! My current position was well off of Lars's track. Not only off, but well below in elevation.  I realized then that I must've missed a trail intersection that left the road some miles back. Damn! Right about this time I get a text message on the Inreach. It's Kathy and she says I'm off course! No *hit! I zoom in on my location and I see on the topo map that there is *supposed* to be a winter trail or old road near my position that looks like it re-connects to Lars's track.  Well, I wandered back and forth several times right in the exact area of the ghost road and never found/saw anything. There was simply way TOO MUCH SNOW to truly tell if there was anything there or not. Didn't matter, even if there was it was buried so deep to be impassable.

The "Youngren Bypass" a.k.a. just a wee bit off course!

I then considered my options. The obvious thing to do in any other race would be to simply backtrack to the missed intersection and hopefully find where I was supposed to go. Remember, that since I was travelling overnight, the night after heavy wind (that had by now thankfully abated) I literally had nobody else's tracks to follow on the ground.  So it's no wonder I had no other cues to find the the obscure intersection I'd missed. Then I remembered, this was the ITI and there was no requirement to follow a set course; the only rule was we had to check-in and out of all required checkpoints; route choice was optional! Up to now there really hadn't been any route options but stay in the trench!  I looked at where I was on my GPS; on the shore of the Skwetna River. I then looked at where Lars's track was heading after my missed intersection. Holy smokes! It looked like it was clearly heading down to the Skwetna River! And it looked like his track passed near the river about a mile or so away directly upriver from me. Boom! I was going to simply navigate my way along the shore of the river until my track came close enough to Lars's that I'd cut cross-country if I had to to get back on trail. So that's what I did. Almost immediately I donned my snowshoes once again because I knew this next mile could be very arduous. It was. The first half mile or so was on top of a punchy snow. I was just light enough that if I moved slowly I managed to not break through the eggshell thin hard layer and posthole up to my knees. It was a bit scary because it was still dark, my lights were failing and the moon had gone down. These were the witching hours before dawn.  But slowly but surely I drew closer to the little slough where the Happy River drains into the Skwetna River.  Near here there was quite a few open spots and water ran free and unfrozen.  So I began to get a bit paranoid that I was on a thin ice bridge rather than solid ground. Still felt fairly firm but I wanted to be off the Skwetna as soon as possible! I reached the confluence with the Happy River and found several deep tracks in the snow. Had somebody else on foot been this way and gotten off trail as well? I was not less than 200m or so from Lars's track so that was a possibility right? So I began to follow the deep, fresh looking snowshoe tracks.

But, they weren't snowshoe tracks at all! There were very fresh moose tracks! Judging by the fresh piles of moose scat they'd just been through here! What to do? I was committed now, there was no other way to get back on track. I was so close! So, breathing heavily and sweating from the effort, I continued to post hole through the deep snow following the moose tracks (no not the ice cream; I could only wish!). Thankfully I never saw any moose but I'm certain they saw me and were saying, "What a dumb SOB!". At last I emerged out of the deep snow and onto a well beaten down path right at the woodline of the Happy River; right at the beginning of the true Happy Steps! Unbelievable! I was back on course! I think, but for the milling about looking for the ghost road, this *might* have been a time-wise shortcut to the Happy Steps. Certainly more entertaining I imagine, but also very, very sketchy; especially for a bike or without snowshoes. But on a more normal snow year??? Who can say.  Perhaps somebody will use my GPX track in the future: The Youngren Bypass.

I took a breather and sat on my sled. It was well into morning twilight by now; still no moose in sight or could be heard.  I'd really dodged a bullet there; moose tracks all around me. Fresh. I took a long pull from my water bottle and eat a few handfuls of my trail mix concoction. I'd really burned some calories over the past hour.  I could now tell for sure I was back on trail; I could see a clear path and Iditarod trail markers. Yes! I sent a message back to Kathy and then I was on my way once again. I've no idea how much time I'd lost; if any? The track led to a narrow ice bridge over a bit of some exposed Happy River flow.  Only a little bit scary compared to where I'd just journeyed; probably quite a bit on top of the Skwetna River itself near shore where the ice probably wasn't as solid judging by the pools of overflow I'd passed by along the way.  Across the ice bridge the trail turned extremely steeply straight up. Thus I'd now arrived a the actual Happy Steps!

Honestly, compared to what I'd struggled through overnight, the Happy Steps were a bit of a let down. Sure they were wicked steep, but with snow shoes and sticky packed snow I made slow but sure work of this short section. In all this time I'd not seen another soul; not even any animal. It was quite lonely but the scenery was incredibly breath taking. It was a very cold and clear morning and a wonderful time to be alive! I'd never been so happy to see the sun!

After the Happy Steps the trail began a pattern of long lake crossings followed by very steep uphill grinds then a long swamp crossing followed by more back breaking uphill. On and on all morning long. At least the views of the surrounding mountains were amazing to behold. So still and quiet I easily felt like it was just me out there as I hadn't seen anybody else on trail for so long! While crossing one particularly long lake I happened to look behind me to see the same biker who'd stopped at Finger Lake for over a day. Very quickly we figured out how I'd gotten off course. He said he'd been following my tracks that early morning, some hours after I'd left, and wound up right down at the Skwetna River just like I had! However, he decided to back track up the hill and eventually found the obscure turn off the road onto the Iditarod trail.  There were reflectors there but they were very dull and covered with snow. He said He placed some alder branches down at the intersection to aid other racers coming along as to the proper direction to go.

The biker was on his way quickly after that. I recall he claimed he wanted to make it to McGrath within a couple more days I believe? I think he said something like he hoped to make it to Rohn by that night and then basically all the way to McGrath in one huge push! I might have the details wrong, it has been a minute, but I do recall being shocked at how far he wanted to go to finish up in time to make a flight home. I wished him luck and that was the last I saw of him. The biker in black fled across that frozen lake and I followed...

The uphill grind continued. But now I could begin to tell that I'd gained quite a bit of elevation. Every now and then I'd catch a glimpse of the huge, surrounding mountains through gaps in the trees. This was clearly the Alaska Range; I'd seen so many photographs from this portion of the course; unmistakable! I tried to guess where Rainy Pass Lodge was; how far away and which gap in the mountains might be Rainy Pass itself.  It was getting well past midday as the expansive views of the Alaska Range emerged as I continued a steady uphill hike. I was getting very tired by this point and just when I thought things couldn't get any slower; the wind started to pick up yet again; fierce katabatic winds right in my face! The uphill grade was just enough to feel but visually it just seemed like another long swamp crossing. My body ached I was falling asleep on my feet; I just needed to get there!  I'd planned a long rest at the next checkpoint at Rainy Pass Lodge on Puntilla Lake. This would be my last opportunity to get some quality rest for over 100 miles!  Between Puntilla Lake and Nikolai there was only a small tent checkpoint awaiting racers just on the other side of the Alaska Range. After that we had to travel at least 75 miles (most likely much more) to the tiny habitation of Nikolai.  Yeah, a very LONG way to go just to have another 50-54 miles to go after that! I tried not to think about it. Just focused on getting to the next checkpoint and taking some serious down time to reset.

-Finally to Puntilla late afternoon, the kiwis and some light humor/antics but all I care about is hanging my gear out to dry and wolfing down my allotted can of warm soup in a caldren and whatever I can lay my hands on! Then earplugs in and lights out for nearly 8 hours!!!! Mistake? Not this time. Need the full reset after over 36 hours of pushing with not much downtime at Finger Lake

Eventually the uphill slog abates and now I'm back into the woods; no more long swamp crossings! The trail now features some frequent steep downhills that are super fun to bobsled down! From checking my GPS track and maps this is a good sign that I'm getting close to Puntilla Lake.  Other good signs include more frequent air traffic passing overhead. I'd seen several planes fly close by over the past hour; low and slow. And then, in the very late afternoon I finally see Puntilla Lake and several structures in the near distance. Yes! It's been a long night and pretty full day and I'm just ready to eat and lie down and sleep until the following morning! But first I navigate my way along the shore of the lake and soon reach the small village of cabins, buildings and a flurry of snowmobile traffic. I pass by the old cabin that used to serve as the ITI checkpoint. Man that thing really IS small! This year's ITI checkpoint is much more swanky (check out the photos below). After wandering around the the structures for a bit I finally stop and ask some folks loading up a snowmobile trailer with firewood where the ITI checkpoint cabin is. They point the way to the cabin with the "crooked stove pipe" and soon I'm there.

I quickly park my sled and unload the gear I need to dry out, empty water bottles to fill and whatever stuff I just don't want to leave outside and step into a pretty nice and nearly empty bunkhouse. The only person there is Ryan Wanless and I believe he was still napping when I arrived.  So I had my pick of bunks. I chose an upper bunk near the door as it had the most space to hang up stuff. Thanks to Jeff Rock's race report and Ten Junk Miles podcast, I'd brought along some parachute cord which I used to make an instant clothes drying line! I hung up my wet gear on the line and set my soaked through boots by the stove to dry out overnight. On top of the oil barrel stove was a large cauldron full of water and very warm cans of various types of soup; none of them had labels.  However there was a color coded key available so one could identify what was what. I retrieved my allotted one can of soup and devoured it. It was some kind of thick pea soup. Delicious! Pro-tip, always go for the pop top cans! There were several traditional cans that required a can opener; the provided can opener either required Mensa status to figure out or, more likely, it was just broken. All I know is none of us could figure the damn thing out! I was fading fast which I deeply regret.  The Kiwis and some other trail friends had arrived and were joking up a storm and preparing to head over to the main lodge for a large meal. I really wanted to join them but I simply did not have the energy. I'd been pretty much on the go for over 36 hours but for a rough short rest at Finger Lake in a noisy tent. I could barely keep my eyes open any longer. While the others discussed their dinner plans, I set out to eat all the free stuff available. From Ramen and cookies to hot Tang (yes they still make the stuff and it soon became my staple along the remaining miles of the course!). While my Ramen steeped, I unfroze a sachet of tuna on the oil barrel stove. Yum!

But I was lights out shortly there after. I climbed up to the top bunk, put in my ear plugs and covered my eyes with my warm balclava. I was dead to the world and never heard or woke up as the bunkhouse slowly filled up over night. No idea!  All I know was that this full reset was necessary for me to have any chance at pushing through all the way to Nikolai which was still well over 100 miles away! But I pushed those thoughts aside as I lied there. Tomorrow early I'd be heading out and up the highest point on the course: Rainy Pass. To me this was the most symbolic location on all of the Iditarod trail that I'd see and wanted to visit for well over 20 years. And finally I'd be there! I could hardly wait!

If only I knew that I was headed for some wild and dangerous experiences that next day... That's the Iditarod trail for you; always keeps you on your toes!

8+ days on the Iditarod Trail: Part Four

Balmy bluebird day on the Iditarod trail. Another nameless frozen swamp between Shell and Finger Lakes.

Shell Lake to Finger Lake: ~122 miles, ~3 days 2 hours 

I ended up sleeping pretty good that night in my plush double sized bed.  I do recall snapping awake at some point because the fire had all but gone out and I sort of automatically got up, grabbed a log, put it in the stove and stoked it enough to get it burning again. Really fuzzy on that.  I think some other racer snuck in too in the night and was occupying the only bunk left.  I think they might have also gone through the fire stoking business at some point too as I vaguely remember it getting cold at some other point. Yeah there was the person that stumbled in to find no open bunks and then accidentally left the door not completely closed. That kinda sucked because as I was getting dressed I realized my boots were still damp and actually frozen in parts! Doh! Still, I put on fresh socks and layered up really good. I wasn't leaving right away, was going to get some breakfast in the lodge before I headed out; time to try drying my boots a bit. I was partially successful in that regard. I ambled into the lodge which was probably even more lively than the night before. Seemed like everybody was getting ready to leave at the same time!  I had a nice breakfast while eavesdropping on a number of conversations.

The most incredible story I heard was from Greg Mills who was skiing this year to honor his friend Rob who was the long time Rohn checkpoint captain who'd died tragically in an accident.  Greg was a couple miles out from Shell Lake following a different trail around the mountain that was longer but bypassed the big climb most of us had taken.  He came upon a lone moose in the trail that just about instantly charged at him and struck him! But the moose wasn't done. After it had knocked Greg off the trail into the deep snow it continued to stomp on him.  Greg was completely unharmed only because each powerful stomp on his chest just pushed him deeper into the snow! Greg was finally able to get behind a tree and keep the moose at bay.  Then, during a very long stand-off Greg started to get very cold as the temperatures dropped so he began to make short dashes from behind the tree to collect his scattered gear and back to the relative safety of the tree. It was a fight or flight situation, he felt like he was going to either freeze to death or get killed by the moose so he had to at least try to get his puffy jacket on to warm himself. Eventually, after he'd collected all his gear and had his skis on and ready to go, while the moose was distracted by eating something, Greg made a run for it and got away and sprinted the final distance to Shell Lake lodge.

I was completely floored as were the others who were there to hear the story. Unbelievable! However, after hearing Greg's story I no longer felt quite as safe in the deep woods as I once had. Every reflector I'd see at night was sure to be moose eyes! Sure I'd seen a ton of fresh moose tracks; tracks right over the top of snowmobiles that had just passed me by (several times) but I hadn't seen any moose up close; but I'm SURE they'd seen me!

I was getting ready to finally leave, my boots were a bit more dried out (or at least thawed out), when I overheard some discussion about cutoff times. A volunteer was reading from a piece of paper and they claimed that the cutoff to Puntilla Lake was 4 days which had me a bit concerned. That kind of blew up my race plan. Now it looked like I was going to have to suck it up and travel all this day and through the night to get to Puntilla, about 50 miles away, in enough time to get some rest before pushing on before the final cutoff!! Well, I admit I must not have been fully awake because that shocked me. I knew I was moving pretty slow but not THAT slow. What it did though was light a fire in me and not a good one. I rushed to gather my gear, donned my outer layers and stepped out into the deep cold. I'd heard it was -25F but honestly it didn't feel any more cold than any of the other cold mornings I'd experienced. I just kinda shrugged it off; growing numb and oblivious to the cold at this point in the race! Not sure if that was a good or a bad thing?

I was kinda in a deep funk when I headed out that morning. Again in snowshoes! I honestly thought I was already chasing cutoffs and that's not at all where I wanted to be at this point in the race; not even half way! I was angry with myself and the world and cursed the slow conditions. I grinded out a pretty healthy pace on up the hillside to reach a fairly exposed ridge right at dawn.  There was some wind but it wasn't overly bad.  It was going to be a bluebird day I could tell. Clear and cold. I hiked strongly for the next little while as the sun slowly climbed from behind the trees at my back and the huge moon hung in the sky in front of me. The trail was soft, again big surprise, but I suppose I'd grown numb that that too by now. When it was light enough to finally see around the surrounding landscape I could see another high mountain ridge to my right and nothing but open swamp land ahead with an evergreen tree line in the distance.  This would be the pattern of the day. Swamp crossing to distant tree line, cut through the narrow band of trees, turn slightly in one direction or another then repeat. I would lose count of how many swamps I crossed soon enough.  However, I noticed on the ridge line next to me, high up, there was a blinking red light. As it got lighter out I could finally make out that it looked like a tower. A cell tower! Without thinking or hesitating I dug out my phone and called home; not even thinking about the fact that the windchill was probably 40 below! I didn't care. My wife Kathy answered almost immediately. I explained my situation and honestly, at the time I didn't know how far it was to Puntilla Lake. So I asked her to see if she could figure out how far out I was and try and text me (to my Garmin InReach device) every now and then so I could work out how fast (slow) I was going and if I was on track to make it to Puntilla in time. God I was awful?! Seriously? I still don't know why I did that; I typically relish a challenge but for some reason that punch in the mouth that morning really stung and exposed a weakness. I was practically crying on the phone! Ugly. It was a quick call because fairly quickly my phone buzzed to tell me power was almost gone! It was about to brick up in the cold!  I got off the phone, powered it down and buried it away in an insulated pocked on a mid layer I was wearing.

So I started getting texts to inform me about my pace (which was actually a healthy 2.5 mph) and how far out I was from Puntilla. I did the math and realized I had plenty of time as long as I kept my stop at Finger Lake fairly short; just long enough to grab my drop bag and move on. Damn! What about all the poor folks behind me? They'd have even slimmer margins!

So I kind of forgot about this crisis and just marched on; that's all I could control so that's what I did. At some point the French skier, Mathieu caught up to me and we exchanged a few words. In the wind I couldn't quite make out what he was saying, but it sounded like he was in a funk as well and didn't want to push too hard that morning; that I was setting a comfortable pace and he was fine just staying behind me. Nothing against Mathieu but I don't like being shadowed. It's an uncomfortable feeling. So I after only a short while, I pretended I needed to stop to food or water and waved him on. Sorry Mathieu! I was in a powerful funk myself and just needed to be alone. He was soon out of sight anyhow so he was definitely holding back; although I understand the first few days at least were tough on the skiers as well even with all the snow.

The morning wore on as my heading never changed overly much except as I'd pass through each, infrequent band of trees that delimited one swap from another.  The sun climbed higher in the sky and it was clear this was a Spring sun as I honestly felt it was providing heat rather than just lighting. The winds seem to die down as well; only the occasional cold gust. Soon I was starting to sweat in all my deep cold layers. So I began to unzip things to allow ventilation. That worked for awhile but it became clear that it was going to be a warm day in this area. I removed almost all my layers and was just down to my wool base layer and full zip wind pants. I wasn't even wearing any gloves or a hat most of the time! I had to be high in the high 20s Fahrenheit (or warmer). I actually welcomed the random cold gusts to help cool me off. I didn't dare strip off any more layers although I was wishing I didn't have the wind pants on.  But I just didn't want to stop anymore than I had to.

By this point of the race I'd pretty much dialed in my fueling routine. Everything that I'd need over the coming half day or so I'd have crammed in one jacket pocket or another. Bags of trail mix, candy, etc... So I didn't have to stop all that much except to take a quick drink from a bottle. That is something I'd definitely do differently next time; perhaps just one insulated container with water in my sled and carry the balance on my back in a small pack that would fit under all my layers. Having to stop to drink was tedious and time consuming.

Around mid day I heard the unmistakable whine of snowmobiles ahead of me. Was it going to be a Good or Bad cop? I was already in snow shoes so the trail couldn't be made any worse. Sure enough it was a Good cop in the form of Kyle the race director and another volunteer. They were putting out some course marking lathe (sticks with painted tops and reflective tape to be visible even at night) and otherwise just checking on racers and moving supplies around between checkpoints. So I asked Kyle about the cutoff situation and was told that I was in error, that the actual cutoff time to Puntilla was FIVE days NOT FOUR. I was ecstatic! I was basically a full day ahead of the cutoff and not riding the line! Phew! Don't get me wrong, I was still moving pretty slow but I at least had some buffer so that as long as I could continue to do what I've been doing with respect to sleep-hike cycles I'd be just fine. But, I had the idea that my race plan still needed to change somewhat as my best opportunity for rest wouldn't be until Puntilla. The reason is the Finger Lake checkpoint is very minimal. It's just a wall tent out on the shore of a cold lake; totally exposed to the wind. Most years it's either unheated or ended up being so by the time slower racers like me arrive there.  I had an inkling that there were a lot of racers near me or would catch up to me if I stayed at Finger Lake very long. That meant the little tent would get very packed in short order and it'd be impossible to get any good rest; sleep would be impossible with folks fiddling with gear and stepping over you to do so.

So I hatched a plan to only stay in Finger Lake a relatively short amount of time and travel through the night and not stop until I reached Puntilla Lake. There I'd take a long rest; a full reset as I'd need it because I'd have very little opportunity for a good rest for the next 100++ miles! It was only 22 miles or so from Shell Lake to Finger Lake; a relatively short day even at my slow pace; it just made sense to keep moving and not stop so soon and so long.


The warm conditions persisted a little while longer but I knew it wouldn't (couldn't) last.  As I was approaching yet another tree wind break having crossed yet another long swamp I noticed something different.  I could actually hear something different. Although I couldn't feel it, I could hear the wind blowing strongly just on the other side of the tree line! Crazy! That wind sounded pretty angry and I was about to pass into its domain! So I proactively layered back up with the anticipation that things were about to get a bit crazy for awhile.  Sure enough I was struck by the gale force gusts as soon as I stepped from the relative protection of the thin tree band. Also almost immediately I realized the trail had almost completely disappeared! The picture below shows how the blowing snow had completely buried the trail!

Wow, what a difference one thin line of trees made! I was now caught up in a full blown gale! Luckily it was more of a quartering wind for the most part; blowing me sideways; but there were plenty of gusts right in my face. The trail had all but disappeared. My only indication that there was a trail ahead and underneath me was the fact that I wasn't postholing up to my knees.  I'd follow what I thought was the thin white line only to suddenly punch through, snowshoe and all, up to my knees! Ugh! I began to realize that if I looked carefully at the ground ahead of me I could see the telltale signs of snowshoe footprints so I'd aim to try and step right on them. That worked. I began to follow a trail of what I started calling "snowshoe sastrugi".  I'd never seen anything like this; wish I could've snapped some more photos but it was too cold and windy to try and stop and get my phone out.  Basically the snowshoe tracks I was following compressed the snow enough to keep that column of snow together and strong enough to resist the corrosive force of the wind. So, over the course of several hours I followed this snowshoe sastrugi path. Overtime, such was the abrasive nature of the wind on loose snow that those snowshoe sastrugi became vertical columns; 3D snowshoe prints! The wind had gradually blown away the loose snow around the compacted footprints. Weird and wild stuff! While it did eventually provide a pretty good indication of the route to follow, much like rock cairns along trails above treeline, it made passage extremely difficult. The trail was no longer smooth but very rough with trenches, steps and cornices everywhere; tough enough to just snowshoe through but pulling a 50lb sled made the effort extremely arduous.

Finally though, I could sense I was getting close to the Finger Lake checkpoint. I started seeing low flying airplanes shuttling Iditarod gear and supplies into and out of Finger Lake. You see just about every checkpoint the ITI utilized was now shared by the dogsled race as well. So they were very active spots now as the dog sled race start was just a few days away.  The trail of snowshoe sastrugi eventually lead me out onto a large clearing that was definitely Finger Lake and not just another swamp. I could see small cabins and several larger buildings on the far "shore". I could also see a medium sized canvas wall tent set up a noticeable distance away from any of the other structures.  Apparently the Finger Lake folks only sort of tolerate our existence here.  I don't blame them, folks pay a hefty premium to stay at this swanky winter lodge and here are a bunch of stinky athletes funking everything up! So, yeah that explains why our ITI checkpoint tent was so far removed!  I'm only sort of kidding. I think because there is so much activity at this small location we'd all do well to keep some separation between our racers, the Iditarod volunteers and dog teams and the patrons and staff of the lodge.

Anyhow, I dutifully followed the markers indicating "Stay on path" so I avoided the airstrip and found my way over to the wall tent. I looked empty from a distance and sure enough it was. I poked my head in and there was nobody there. I could see Mathieu's sled and gear there but otherwise the place was empty. Nice! It was also HEATED! There was a wood burning stove at the front and a propane stove at the back. The place was toasty, even despite strong wind gusts rocking the tent pretty good! Being set up on the exposed lake didn't seem like the ideal spot, but the place was warm enough and there was even a portable toilet outside the back of the tent.  Pretty plush digs if you ask me!  Since I had my choice of spots, I quickly unhooked my sled bag from my sled and dragged it to the very back next to the gas stove.  I quickly laid out my sleeping bag and pad to claim my spot and headed back outside as I heard someone arrive. It was Mathieu who'd just come from the actual checkpoint with his drop bag and some food. I hadn't studied much about this checkpoint so wasn't sure where to go to formally check in and get my stuff and hopefully some grub. He pointed the way and I so I walked towards the main encampment in the late afternoon sun; already dipping below the trees. It was a strange sensation to walk freely after so many days of encumbered hiking. It was wonderful! I hiked up a steep and slippery hill and quickly found the ITI checkpoint, a small bunkhouse amid many and right across from the main lodge and Iditarod checkpoint.  The area was fairly active with snowmobiles gliding by and a lot of trail markings indicating the route for the dogsled teams to travel into and out of the checkpoint.

I entered the small cabin to find Lars and a couple other racers inside amid a sea of drop bags; both discarded and those yet to be retrieved. At the ITI once a racer scratches (drops out) their drop bag instantly becomes fair game to be pilfered. ITI volunteers or other racers in the area at the time help sort discarded drop bags into semi-coherent piles of similar items, batteries, hand warmers, breakfast foods, canned meats / jerky, candy, energy gels, etc...  It was like Christmas! So interesting to see what other racers, especially from other countries, packed in their drop bags. Things I would never have thought of but should have. The biggie was lithium batteries. They were like gold out here on the trail. That's the first time I had the sinking feeling that I might be in trouble later on as I didn't pack lithium batteries; just regular old alkaline. Still, they'd worked pretty well so far, but it hadn't been very cold yet; at least when I was travelling in the pre-dawn, post-sunset twilight. As I was chomping down on a warm burrito, complements of the Finger Lake Lodge kitchen, I noticed Lars was looking for batteries among the myriad of piles. I'd gone through my drop bag and realized I had extra batteries so I offered Lars my extras. He asked if they were lithium? Nope. Whoops! Well at least I had plenty, or so I thought. This would be another foreshadowing moment...

I hung out for a bit, discarded some of my drop bag items and collected some new ones.  Of all things, Lars wanted to know more about the Barkley Marathons (he'd been to my neck of the woods to do the Barkley Fall Classic) and other difficult races I'd done. It was a fun few moments to relax and just talk about far away places and ignore the current reality of just how far I had to go! I'd get a chill of fright every time that thought would creep into my mind. So far to go and how difficult it was just to make it this far!  Lars asked about my race plan. He recalled our conversation outside Skwetna and I told him that my plan was still fairly intact. I said I was going to try and get a few hours of sleep then head out by midnight that night. I figured I wouldn't be able to get any more sleep than that as racers would soon be arriving for the night. He sounded pretty tired and said he'd plan to rest a bit more and leave in the morning. A biker that was hanging out with us felt the same way as Lars. He'd been in the lead (or near) pack coming into this check point almost 24 hours ago. Conditions then he said were frightful. Deep cold, howling winds and very soft, unrideable, snow. He'd gotten pretty shaken up from the experience and decided to stop for awhile and rest. He said he'd start again in the morning hoping the trail would have "set up" overnight a bit more to be more rideable. I hoped so too as I was already pretty done with snowshoeing. Little did I know that I wouldn't be snowshoe-free for a LONG while yet!

So I made my goodbyes and walked back downhill to the wall tent to rest. As I was leaving the cabin, the Kiwis had just arrived as well as some other folks who I can't remember now. Anyhow, back at the tent nobody new had arrived there; it was just the Frenchman who was already laid out trying to sleep. So I quietly went through my sled bag and rearranged items and hung other damp stuff out to dry on the many lines strong across the tent.

I set my watch alarm for 11:30 p.m. with the goal to be headed out on the trail by midnight. I was actually looking forward to travelling overnight for some reason. It was a clear night so there was a chance I could see the Aurora Borealis; something I'd dreamed about seeing as I never have! The moon was also nearly full and so bright! It looked like it was going to be a magical night! Best of all the wind had completely stopped; the tent no longer rattled and I was instantly asleep!

I had no idea then what a tough night and very full day I had ahead! If I knew I probably wouldn't have changed my race plan; I probably just wouldn't have slept as well those few hours!

8+ days on the Iditarod Trail: Part Three

Alabama Bumble Snow Monster.

McDougalls to Shell Lake: ~101 miles, 2 days 16 hours

I awoke to my phone alarm after a few hours of blissful and deep sleep. I was all warm and happy but hungry! I wish I could lie there several more hours but I needed to get moving. It was getting close to first light and I'd planned for a big push all the way to Shell Lake, some 30+ miles away. This could take well over 15 hours if all I could do was to continue plugging away at 2 mph moving pace.  I also planned to make a quick stop about half way at the Skwetna Roadhouse where I'd finally be leaving river travelling behind for a while. So, I had to get going if I wanted to make it to Shell Lake at a reasonable hour without having to travel completely through the night.

So I quickly collected my now dry gear and packed it away as quietly as I could as the two others upstairs with me were still asleep (or nearly so). I then re-donned most of my base layers, finally changing into clean and dry socks for the first time! Ahhh! Nothing like a fresh pair of socks even though they'd be wet soon enough! More on this topic later... this would be a constant struggle! I crept downstairs with my arms full and quickly shuffled out the door and the short distance back to the main lodge.  It was a beehive of activity inside. I think everybody had the same idea; winter race logic. Time to move on! Several bikers and foot racers; some who'd been ahead of me and several others who'd slipped in behind me in the night. The hostesses were amazing! Serving up yet another hot meal and coffee! COFFEE! But before breakfast I had to use the facilities and to my amazement when I asked where they were, expecting to be directed back outside to an unheated outhouse, instead they said oh you can use the portable toilet upstairs! Not quite a flush toilet but, real TP in a warm space? Wow! To my great regret, I didn't realize until far too late, that showers were fair game! Doh! That would've been amazing!  Anyhow I went back downstairs and stuffed my belly yet again with some good grub right along with half a dozen or so other racers.

Nobody seemed in any particular hurry to get back out there, myself included. But, I'd had an epiphany that morning (see sleeping a bit more does have it's benefits!) that perhaps the way I'd always been loading up my sled was flawed. That the load was unbalanced in such a way to cause me great angst!  Sure enough, now that I finally actually STUDIED how my sled was typically packed up I was way to forward heavy; I was causing my sled to dig more into the snow as I pulled. No wonder I'd been having issues. Issues not only at this race but in ALL my previous winter races when I used a sled! I'd not been storing all my water containers at the very front of the sled, this typically amounted to at least 3-4 liters inside HydroFlasks or other heavy insulated containers. I also had most of my foot upfront. The middle portion of the sled was typically all my clothing with the most likely to be needed stuff towards the top and the lesser likely stuff in various strata below all the way to the bottom. Back end of the sled was pretty much one giant packed down dry bag containing my entire bivy system: MSR waterproof bivy sack -> Klymit insulated inflatable pad -> Mountain Hardware Lumina -30F bag. Yeah, pretty dumb right? Easily the heaviest stuff was right in the forward 1/3 to 1/4 of my sled! So I was in no rush to get out of there, instead I put on a bunch of layers (over dressed) and went out to my sled with all my dried out gear and basically dumped my entire sled bag out onto the covered porch. I then carefully re-packed the sled bag with the heavier items toward the middle 1/3, i.e. my insulated bottles and insulated soft ice-chest along with all my food. The big dry bag still stayed in back but now my extra layers of stuff moved more forward but the heavier, bigger items found a place in other nooks and crannies further away from the front.  Once I was finished I could tell a big difference just picking my entire sled up from either end. It felt more balanced, that the center of gravity was definitely in the middle now! Damn I'm dumb! I've got a Ph.D. and it's taken me how long to figure this out? Well, that is one of the downsides of doing these winter ultras coming from Alabama, I don't have many opportunities to test gear or gear setups! No excuses though, I should've figured this one out a long time ago!

Now I was actually excited to get going. Not that I wanted to leave The McDougall but I couldn't wait to see if my sled re-balancing actually worked.  In short. Yes it did. Amazingly so!  Anyhow, I ended up heading out just ahead of the other racers I'm pretty sure; some might have slipped away without me noticing, it's honestly a bit of a blur at this point. I'm trying to document what I remember! It was pretty cold that morning and respectable headwind to boot. But after just a few miles out it began to get lighter and lighter out with the rising sun. Still very cloudy, but not near as socked in as it had been the last couple of days. The trail was firm enough to go without snowshoes so I took advantage. That is possibly, in my mind, the only real benefit of travelling overnight is that the colder it gets the more likely what soft trail you had will at least "set up" or firm up enough to allow easier travel. It's a fine line though, too cold and the snow can obtain a gritty texture like sandpaper that makes dragging a sled much more difficult.  But just being out of snow shoes would be a huge plus; almost enough to convince me to try going through the night some more. Naw, just kidding. Night time is for sleeping!

The other big reason to travel over night is the lack of "civilian" traffic to mess up the trail, i.e. snow mobiles. Note: I honestly have nothing against snowmobiles or snowmobilers; I've spent a healthy amount of time snowmobiling myself in Colorado; it's good fun and an essential tool for survival in the Alaska Wilderness. What follows is more of rant about things one cannot control in a shared use space. Please no hate mail! This is just an observation from the point of view of a human powered athlete along a winter trail. You see, snowmobiles are the Good Cop - Bad Cops of winter ultras. When there is NO TRAIL to speak of, passing snowmobiles are the Good Cops, "here buddy, let me pack down the snow for you, is that better? Great!". In this case it makes your progress easier; instead of having to break trail and post hole like crazy, suddenly you have a trail! Yippee! Now, unfortunately there is a Bad Cop side of snowmobiles. Yes, sometimes you're rocking along at 3-4 mph on a nice firm trail, snowshoes all packed away, High Plains Drifter blasting in your ear buds when all of a sudden you hear that distinctive engine whine from behind, or you see the twinkling of a headlamp far ahead of you. And then, you think to yourself or downright curse out loud, "Aw *uck!!!" So you carefully step aside to let the snowmobile(s) (there's always more than one) by; hopefully it's not too deep on the side of trail but it usually is and you end up post holed up to your waist.  You fake a smile and wave or even flash a thumbs up, even when you'd prefer to flash a different finger.  That beautiful trail is now a soft, chewed up mess. Bad Cops. "You think you're something special? Hiking out here on our turf? "Ididiots!" Now let's see how fast you can hike!" And away they go... Early on during the ITI I still had a lot of optimism. Perhaps the trail won't be too soft and chewed up? Maybe it won't be bad? So I'd try and hike it some more and end up cursing some more and stopping to put on my snowshoes. Well before halfway through the ITI I didn't even bother, I'd just put on the snowshoes almost as the snowmobiles passed by, or at the very least put on my over-boots (more on that later). Let's just say there were plenty of Good Cops and Bad Cops out there. Stay tuned, there is an incredible Good Cop story coming...

Typical soft mushy snow track. Bad Cop.

But traveling during the early morning hours is often just as good as travelling overnight. I at least would typically have several hours before there would be any snowmobile traffic. The further I went in the race the less and less traffic I'd see all day long. The would come a time when I wouldn't see another human being all day!  But this morning I made pretty good time but was definitely fighting some headwind. Early on I spotted another moose and this time I had my phone out ready for the photo. You'll have to trust me on this, but that is a moose dead center in the photo below.

Dead center, resting moose at a "safe" distance away.

This moose was resting; sitting in the snow. They had the right idea!  I can fully relate how tiring it is trying to move through deep snow! Finally got my first views of if not the Alaska Range itself, at least the foothills leading to them. This meant my time on the Yetna river was drawing to a close!

First glimpse of mountains in the distance, along last bit of Yetna River.

As the morning went on and the wind really picked up, I was again finding blown in trail to enough of a degree that I eventually succumbed and put snowshoes on.  The trail was softening some as well and snowmobile traffic picking up just made it more obvious to keep the snowshoes on; probably for a long while yet!  But this is typical for winter river travel on foot; the snow tends to not ever really pack in super well as it can endure a lot of cycles of heating/cooling day/night cycles as well as fresh snow blowing in.  Many more reasons for wanting to get off the river! But the biggest was to finally get back into the woods for a little more wind protection!  As I drew closer to the foothills, I got rocked several times by some pretty strong sustained wind gusts. No telling what those windchills were! At least it was daytime, but wow I was almost knocked off my feet a few times! Finally, off of the main branch of the Yetna I snowshoed right on up to a sign indicating Skwetna Roadhouse was only 4 miles away.

Getting close to the next checkpoint! Sure felt like further than 4 miles however!

Just past the sign I dropped onto the river again, this time it was probably the end of the Skwetna River itself where it joins the Yetna. Turning to follow the trail markers put me right into the ugly teeth of some pretty remarkably strong wind! Luckily I got through this stretch fairly quickly and was now winding around some narrow but majorly ox-bowing river sloughs that ultimately led me off the rivers for good and on a well broken in snowmobile trail (road) leading straight to the road house. Just as I was about to leave the river I heard plane engines roar to life and I just had enough time to dig my phone out and catch a video as the small plane flew right over me.

Plane taking off from Skwetna Roadhouse.

About a mile later I arrived at the Skwetna Roadhouse. There was still a lot of daylight left as it was about mid day or so. I pulled my sled right up to the front porch and joined a few racers inside including Lars Danner who was attempting to ski to McGrath after having successfully covered the same ground in prior years on both foot and bike. If he made it to McGrath this year he'd be the first person to have completed the ITI 350 A'trois (finish in all three disciplines). His was also the GPX route a lot of us were using to navigate the course. I'd communicated many times with Lars in the weeks leading up to the ITI; he was always super helpful and more than willing to share his vast knowledge of the course and winter adventuring. Thank you Lars!  We chatted a bit while we both eat big lunches. I noticed I had cell service and 3G so took the opportunity to upload some photos I'd taken and to call my wife at home. Was so good to hear her voice!  I kept the call short as I really needed to be going. So after my meal and settling up my bill I was back outside loading my gear back up, harnessing in and was off!

Skwetna Roadhouse at last!

I had little difficulty finding the correct way out of Skwetna and back onto the Iditarod Trail; others weren't so lucky.  Turns out we actually left the Iditarod trail for a brief time to cut over to the roadhouse and had to follow another connector trail back to the Iditarod trail. Some folks ended up back tracking or following some other entirely different route. I think I just got lucky or ended up following somebody else's tracks. As I walked along, trying to allow my stomach time to process, I started to think about my plan ahead.

Leaving Skwetna in the afternoon.

I was now in a good position to finish the race easily within 9 days. The cutoff is 10 days and each check point along the way had some intermediate cutoff as well, some number of days. Even as slow as I was going I had a lot of time, even if I had to take A LOT of down time. When you consider the foot record is just over 4 days you wonder why 10 days are allowed at all? They've had years at ITI where they had a 100% finish rate! When's the last time you heard about an ultramarathon having a 100% finish rate? Well those were in good years when the trail was completely snow covered and firm and no snow storms during the race and it didn't get brutally cold. So everybody was pretty fast across the board. This was not going to be a year like that. In fact there were already many racers who'd dropped out and some who'd be fighting to make it to McGrath within the 10 day cutoff! So yeah, I get it now!  Anyhow my plan was try and spend each night at a checkpoint from now on with the exception of the long leg between Rohn and Nikolai which is at least 75 miles (could be a lot more...) in that stretch I'd most likely have to bivy or make it to a small shelter cabin about half way.  This would set me up for one final push from Nikolai to McGrath which is at least 50 miles; a long way but it would be the LAST 50 miles and worth pushing through in one shot. I was a bit over 2 days into the race so, literally counting the race days out on my fingers I came up with the super conservative plan. Day 2.5 Shell Lake, Day 3.5 Puntilla Lake, Day 4.5 Rainy Pass Lodge, Day 5.5 Rohn, Day 6.5 The Burn Bivy or Shelter Cabin, Day 7.5 Nikolai, Day 8.5 McGrath. That left me a full day and half of buffer ahead of the finally cutoff.  As I was working this out, counting fingers in front of my face, Lars came skiing up and chatted with me. I explained to him my plan and he said it sounded pretty good to him as it pretty much matched up with what he was planning. Cool! Lars steadily glided away from me on the long straight, well plowed snow road.

The "road" out of Skwetna, finally some firm ground (temporary).

-Late afternoon on the swamp, audio book and tricky intersection, steep uphill!
The snow road was nice. I was almost even able to run (I'd left the snowshoes strapped to my sled) a bit (well, I had to try!). But soon enough the road petered out and I could hear the wind ahead of me picking up steam. It was an odd experience just standing there at the very end of the snow road; still protected by the thick tree cover on either side. On the verge. As soon as I would walk not even 20 feet out of the treeline I would be whipped by the katabatic winds racing down from the nearby mountain range. I could see (in the picture and video below) the wind literally working its best to bury the trail by blowing loose snow onto it a process typically called "blowing in" or after the fact "blown in". This would happen quite a lot over the remainder of the race. With the hard winds and loose snow abounding trails would frequently disappear almost right before my eyes! In fact after I'd paused to add a wind layer and strode confidently into the gale, I could barely see Lars's ski tracks right underneath me even though I could still see him in the distance. Crazy!

The beginning of the endless swampland after Skwetna.

That wind!

I'd spend the next several miles crossing from one end of this frozen swamp to the other. I only was passed by a couple of bikers (who were at The McDougall that morning) right as I began across but they unexpectedly turned back around and passed me back. The said they weren't sure about continuing on as it looked like they were going to have to push for a really long stretch ahead.  It's got to be demoralizing to be a biker this year when you're only way forward is to push this big heavy beast! I'm not sure I could do it! Kudos for them for trying. I'm pretty sure they both were multi-time finishers of not only the 350 but possible the full 1000 as well. Yeah, the trail really started to get blown in after I continued on. You guessed it, soon enough I was right back into snow shoes. I had not choice this stretch of trail was now buried under several inches of snow. And, yeah, not long later there was enough snow mobile traffic to at least re-open the trail but now it was a soft, churned up mess.  So yeah, snowshoes for the win!  Still, with views like the following series; a Christmas card photo everywhere I looked who could complain?

As I steadily worked my way across the long expanse, soaking in the beauty of the late afternoon lighting, I decided to finish up an audio book.  With no navigational difficulties for a while and wide open enough terrain with which to spot oncoming snowmobiles it was as good a time as any.  Also, my heading had changed to put the fierce wind at my back so it was now just a pleasant snowshoe stroll with the pre-Spring sun still seemingly providing some warmth on my face. 

I almost never run/hike with music or any distractions. I listen to mostly electronic/synth music all the time while at work as a computer scientist-analyst but there it helps keep me focused.  Out running is my chance to be free from the distractions of technology and electronic devices (for the most part); I relish the opportunity to hear water flowing in creeks, wind through the trees, birds chirping... But I was also getting a bit sleepy so having an audio book distraction was in order. And any audio book narrated by R.C. Bray is highly recommended! I highly recommend  the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson if you're into sci-fi like me (it's about all I've enjoyed reading and listening to since I was a teenager).  Anyhow the shadows grew longer and longer and soon enough I'd reached the far tree line and entered the shadows once again.

I snapped a quick photo looking back the way I'd come; marvelling at the peacefulness of the moment. Since Skwetna this was the longest stretch I'd gone without seeing anybody.  It was wonderful!

But now I was back into the woods so no more audio book! It was time to be on high alert as in these close quarters and in the evening twilight there could be moose roaming about.  Sure enough i was yet again seeing moose tracks on either side of and on the trail. They had to be fresh. I was starting up a rise in the trail when I heard the sound of several snowmobiles ahead of me.  I stopped and pulled my sled and myself off the trail as best I could. Even here the trail was still marvelously trenched out and it was difficult to leave enough room for a snowmobile to pass.  A large pack emerged from the dim forest trail moving relatively slowly. The leader held up a hand as he drew near me and they all slowed to a stop. As he pulled up next to me he stopped long enough to tell me that just up ahead was an intersection and that I should go to the RIGHT. I thanked him and he was back on his way along with the rest of the following group. They had Iditarod vests and gear on so perhaps they were trail breakers? Not sure. Anyhow at the top of the small rise I did indeed come to an intersection in the trail.  It was good I'd gotten that trail tip, even though I had a navigational device with me, I might not have checked it and just plodded on straight ahead as the route looked like it would bend around to the right which is exactly what the zoomed out version of my map looked like my track was supposed to do. Instead I turned right and began hiking up an extremely steep series of hills. The following picture doesn't do it justice but it was like I was climbing up a steep bobsled course. Relentless and the walls of the "chute" were sometimes almost head high! Unbelievable amount of snow! I was secretly hoping we'd have the same bobsled run on the far side of the hill so I could ride my sled down!

This was probably one of the only times I was happy to be in snowshoes as the tungsten spikes really dug in and provided ample traction. Not sure I could have dragged my 50lb sled up these steep hills as easily without them. Up and up I climbed. Every time I'd think I was near the top there would be more climbing. WTF? Just when I'd finally given up hope I hit the summit with barely enough light left to see.  Quick aside about available sunlight and available light this time of year. While sunrise was around 8 a.m. and sunset around 6:30 p.m., the really need thing was that at this high latitude the angle the sun made across the sky was very shallow; not straight up and down. So there was actually navigable light a full hour before sunrise and a full hour after sunset. So, even though it was Winter (barely) we had almost 12 1/2 hours of usable light every day to travel by. Kinda neat and something I didn't honestly figure out until I was Out There.

Before heading downhill I stopped to dig out my lighting system which I haven't talked about but were a couple Lumen 115 Clip Lights made by UltrAspire. I went with these because they only take a single AA battery each and use a magnetic clip system so they can be attached almost anywhere. I've grown to loath using a headlamp so instead I would clip both to the sternum strap of my backpack and just use one light at a time for normal usage or both if I really wanted a lot of light. For winter ultra travel on snow, and with the often abundant moon light it's not necessary to have a ton of battery killing lumens. The only thing I messed up with was not bringing Lithium batteries. Big mistake. While I would get decent battery life on the warmer nights (during the early days when it was in the 20s Farenheit) by the end of the race, past the Alaska Range, I was killing batteries quickly! Whoops! Luckily I had packed more than enough batteries!  Anyhow, as I was adding a layer and sorting out my lights, the Kiwi bikers caught up to me. George and Graham. Two of the nicest fellas you'll ever meet. They're joy and enthusiasm, in in extremely adverse conditions, is contagious! They were multi-time ITI veterans and were attempting the 1000 mile this year. They always took things in stride and never got bent out of shape. They'd ride or push until they got tired and took long rest breaks. All about pacing themselves and enjoying the full experience as much as possible. So, we woulds start to get in this pattern of me leaving out ahead of them every day only to get overtaken by them at some point. I never knew when I'd see the pair next, but I knew I'd always see them at some point that day.

George and Graham paused to chat. They confirmed that we were only a couple miles out from Shell Lake. Yippee! Unfortunately I wouldn't have the bobled run I was hoping. I'd climbed up to a high plateau so there'd be no wicked downhill but for a couple of fun stretches. That was the Iditarod trail for you, so full of hope and promise only to be left disappointed at times. Bait and switch all the time! At any rate soon enough the trail emerged out of the woods an onto a small lake, Shell Lake. The bitter cold and wind hit me nearly simultaneously.  In the woods I'd sort of thermally stabilized so dropping onto that exposed lake must've dropped 10 degrees or more in temperature not even counting the gusting head wind! But, I could see the blinking red light in the near distance; I was close! And after only a half mile more I was there. Shell Lake Lodge. Not an official checkpoint but a trail angel that the race utilizes by renting out small bunkhouses.

I pulled my sled up a very steep hill leading off the lake to the lodge then parked it next to a score of other sleds, bikes and skis. Damn, I think the entire race field was here! Sure enough the lodge was still a busy place, even after midnight. There was Beat, long time ITI veteran, about to head back out into the night. He was aiming to make it to Nome for I think the seventh time! Incredible! There were a bunch of my midwest winter ultra friends there as well. Faye and Jeff looked to be getting ready to head out again. This was also a recurrent pattern. I'd arrive at a check point just as they were about to head out. They were full on race mode!  I dropped my gear in a corner and ambled over to the bar and ordered a meal and Coke. It was a cozy little lodge. Was good to see so many folks. But I needed to get to a warm spot and sleep. I devoured my food and drink and asked about lodging. The caretaker said that there were 3-4 cabins not far that were rented out for the racers; I only had to find one that had a free bed.  I learned from the other racers in the lodge that first cabin had a couple bunks available.

So, I paid for my meal then headed back out into the wind and cold to find the bunkhouse. It was pretty easy to find and I was quickly inside out of the cold. It was a very rustic and tiny cabin; but practically a room at the Ritz Carlton as far as I was concerned. There was a bunk bed to the left, occupied by a single snorer, and right in front of me an unoccupied double bed! What unbelievable luck! I hung out my damp gear to dry and set my boots on the ground near the wood burning stove to dry. This turned out to be a rookie mistake as the ground level was still pretty much close to freezing so they never dried out!  You see, there was also a draft in the room from the door not closing all the way to begin with and after a racer looking for a place to sleep "accidentally" left the door partially open when they moved on, disappointed to not find an open bunk I'm sure. Didn't realize that at the time, only thought, damn it's getting cold in here and the stove is stoked up! So I would be very disappointed myself when I woke up the next morning and began to layer up only to find my boots nearly frozen! But, at the moment the stove was going pretty good but I'd have to remember to stoke it later on by adding another log. I laid out my sleeping bag (not wanting to disturb the bedding), plopped in my ear plugs (good pro-tip from some prior ITI veterans) and was soon fast asleep, visions of sugar plums dancing in my head! Just kidding, I don't even know what a sugar plum is? I don't think I dreamt at all during the ITI; these were hard, fast and deep, lights off, coma-like sleep sessions. Restorative but not restful.  I'd need to be restored because these next couple of stretches would prove to be a big test for me. I thought I'd had it tough so far? I'd seen NOTHING yet!