Archive for the ‘trip reports’ Category

The Alaska Wilderness Classic 2023 – Little Tok River to McCarthy

Sunday, July 30th, 2023

Warning: I asked my daughter Molly to edit this post, and was told afterward that I would have gotten a D if I had turned this in as an assignment in her English class. I was told my writing is simplistic and childish. So you have been warned 🤣

Last year when the new Alaska Summer Wilderness Classic course was announced, going from the Little Tok River bridge to McCarthy I really wanted to do it.  Unfortunately, a bunch of things contrived to make it so I couldn’t make it, so this year I was committed!    After searching around, I eventually found my friend Peter was interested, and it was a go! 

The evening before we drove to the start, having dinner at Fast Eddies in Tok, then hung out with everyone before hitting the stack.  I joked a bit with someone parked near me about moving my car so it was behind his to absorb the bullets, as we were in a gravel pit that looked like it was a shooting range sometimes.  In the morning someone drove by really early, and in the morning there was a sign left up, facing outwards.  I walked around and was amused to see my joke had come true – it said: “4th of July Trap Shoot No Parking”.  
So after moving our cars, everyone headed out. 

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Peter and I zoomed along on the ATV trails at the start.  I was full of nervous energy and talked a bit too much to folks nearby.  The ATV trails eventually ended (or really, we lost them) in a river floodplain. After several hours of crossing back and forth, we found the ATV trail again, and we followed it up to the first pass, and we camped at the base of the second pass, with great views of Noyes Mountain. 

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Peter is a big appreciator of mountains and thus began the first of many brief mountain enjoyment stops where Peter would stop, look around and say “Mountain!” and point at a new mountain.  Or a mountain seen from a different angle or side.. The next day we zoomed up and over the pass, then headed down Platnum Creek to enjoy the great walking.  Some folks right ahead Peter and I, Caleb and Nate, put in right away, but I suggested waiting a while to see if it was actually worth floating.. A few miles later the group passed us, so we put in.  Platinum Creek was a bit of a mess – it wasn’t challenging but there was lots of wood with very few eddies, so there was quite a bit of panicked jumping in and out of the boat.  I tried to use my whistle to signal to Peter when to get out, but like an idiot, mine was rigged such I couldn’t keep it in my mouth without using a hand or bending down – a mistake.  Fortunately, we were just far enough behind Nate and Caleb that we could often tell there was something coming up when we could see them out of their boats.  Apparently at the pre-race gathering in Anchorage everyone (that is everyone but Jay and Peter from Fairbanks, hah) had been warned that Platnum Creek was a woody mess, but no one had mentioned it to us.  They also said at that same gathering that everyone should have a dry suit.  I almost didn’t bring mine.  Those Anchorage people, hah!  

 Near the confluence with the Nebesna River, we came around a corner and a very large lynx was looking downstream.  Just after that Christof stuck his head out of the woods and said he had flipped avoiding a sweeper and lost his paddle.  Fortunately, he found it in a strainer and had given up on floating.   He seemed a bit shaken up, but ok, so we kept on.  The creek widened out a bunch and then we came out on the big, wide Nebesna.  We worked our way across the Nebesna, taking out at Cooper Creek, then starting our walk up to the next pass. 

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Cooper is a wide flood plane that necks down to a narrow valley, with many crossings. 

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Eventually, we turned off into a smaller creek, then up and over to Blue Lake where we spent the night. 

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Best campsite ever – Blue Lake!

The next day it was down to Notch Creek, over the beautiful Cooper Pass, then down Notch. 

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Again I voted to just walk as Notch looked like pretty marginal floating, but after walking half the creek we put in, floating to near Cross Creek, where we hiked over to the Chisana River,  stopping to inflate to cross.  There was a set of fancy Gossamer Gear poles someone left there on the bank which I grabbed in case we caught up with whoever dropped them.  So light, so fancy, I was sure someone was missing them!   I also apparently left a few things including the fuel on the bank which Peter rescued (thanks Peter!).   At Chisana we caught up with Christof again and chatted a bit, then walked a few more miles before hitting the sack. 

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In the morning we headed up Geohenda to the Solo Flats, then over and down to the White River.  Such a beautiful area!  

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We enjoyed a few miles of ATV trails just before the White River, and the Solo Creek Guides had some fun with their signage. They even had an Iron Dog lath marker, which was super funny, given two mountain ranges separate us from the Iron Dog route.

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The weather had been sunny and hot, so the White River was raging.  We could have inflated and crossed, but the current was moving fast, so we went downstream to find a more braided section, and crossed with Caleb and Nate, then camped on a little clear creek.  In the morning it was up and across Flood Creek, which looked raging but wasn’t too bad, then along the old glacier remnants, then into Skoli, and onto the Goat Trail. 

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Crossing Flood Creek

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The Goat trail was a bit less trail-like than I remember, but the walking was mostly good.  There was still a fair bit of snow up there though! 

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We pressed on, eventually camping right before the steep part of the Goat Trail. In the morning we did the iconic scree slopes of the Goat Trail, then headed down to the Chitistone.  

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The Chitistone was really moving, and while we could have blown up and crossed it, it would be been a bummer to miss the eddy on the other side, so we walked up in hopes it was possible to ford it where it braided out a bit where the glacier and creek came together.

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No dice, it was still raging, and much too deep to cross.  So we wasted several hours inflating, crossing, and then crossing the glacial river, then finally getting all the way across and packed up.   Next up hiking down the Chitistone to Glacier Creek.  I remember this being a mess of alder swacking from my last visit but the walking was mostly great.  There were two big landslides I didn’t remember.  They are less landslides and more like the side of the mountain exploded. 

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Eventually, we reached Toby Creek, where we found Nate and Caleb waiting for the water to drop.  The water was too high to cross, but we all expected it to drop overnight, so we went to bed. 

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A few hours later there was the cry of “BEAR, BEAR” and I shot out of the tent fully awake, just to realize there was a small black bear across the creek that also couldn’t cross, and it quickly moved on.  From all the cries of “BEAR” I was expecting it to be in camp, trying to eat my food, hah!  Shortly after that Luc, Alan, and Lee arrived, set up their mid, and went to sleep.  The consensus from everyone was that instead of dropping Toby Creek was going up. Odd, I thought and went back to bed.  I wasn’t too worried – if it was still high we could just inflate and take out at the next eddy, it would be fine. A few hours later Peter woke me up, saying the channel that everyone had been looking at was going up, but that was because the creek had rerouted itself, the rest of the channels were all a lot lower.  So we packed up and the whole group of us crossed the creek and hiked down to Glacier Creek, where we put in and floated to May Creek Road.  

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The Chitistone seemed really high and had at least 5x times the volume than when I was here last time.  Rocks were bouncing along the bottom and you could hear the near-constant sound of rocks bouncing off rocks in the upper sections.   I led the group for the first section and ran the only section with any real white water, which looked fine, but as I moved through it, I realized they were way bigger than expected. Not a big deal, with nice clean eddy lines, so move around in it, just lots of water, and a mistake would be painful.  So I hopped out and re-directed everyone to a  cowardly side channel.  After that, we stuck to all the lower-volume side channels and reached May Creek Road uneventfully.   On the Nizna Luke, Lee, and Alan floated by in another channel, a mile or so before we took out.   Nate and Caleb took off, and we didn’t see them again. 

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We finished after the 9 miles or so of road walking with a scenic walk through McCarthy and were met by Peter’s son Sam and his friend Jack – Yay.  They soon had burritos cooking for us, and after that we walked back to town for ice cream, double yay! 

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I was so excited for ice cream that the lady serving it said to the other person staffing the store something about me being a little kid in Spanish, then in English told me I was just like a little kid because I was so excited.  So I did a little dance for them to show my excitement, which caused them to break up laughing.  The next day we drove to my car at the start, where I was excited to see it didn’t have any bullet holes in it, and made our separate ways back to Fairbanks. 

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Thanks for the company Peter, and for the ride Sam and Jack! 

Julian C. has a great video here:

Christof T also has a great video:

Ben A has a great one too:


A few things I would do differently  – 

  • I need to rig my whistle so I have to keep it in my mouth so I can signal hands-free.  I had it setup way too short, so I had to either bend my head down or use my hand to hold it – a huge mistake. 
  • I need to get a bit more serious about getting better at packrafting.
  • As a spur-of-the-last-minute gear choice, I had brought little mini gaters. Alas, they worked just well enough to show that gaters were a good idea, but not all that well.  Next time I will bring mini-gaiters that actually stay on. 
  • I brought my really old, and lightish paddle with a floppy connector.  I really regretted that on the chitistone – I need to not take that paddle on trips with actual white waters, it is either going to break, fall apart, or do both at the same time. 
  • I really, really should have brought a helmet. Listening to the rocks bang around under us on the Nizina and the Chitistone was pretty terrifying.  Next time I need to bring a  helmet!!
  • I need to spend a lot more time in class III water to get comfortable.  I need to find some white water friends in anchorage I can float with more often. 
  • My packrafts cargo fly’s zipper is really having trouble closing.  I need to figure out what is wrong or get it replaced, it is a huge pain and takes forever.  I have cleaned and lubed the daylight out of it, and it still is a pain in the butt, with lots of separation issues. 

A few things that worked really well: 

  • We had a hot freeze-dried meal every night.  That rocked, I would totally do that again.  Maybe also have one mid-day. 
  • I bought a lightish dry suit from REI using a coupon – the best $500 I have ever spent.  It is well under 2 lbs and adds a large comfort and safety factor.  Love it! 
  • I brought an extra day’s worth of food and ate most of it.  Including two nearly inedible Range Bars. One I had picked up in McGrath and took it to Nome with me.  They were like eating coffee grounds combined with dirt and chocolate.  Not enjoyable, but space efficient.  Otherwise, I was pretty happy with my food choices.  Peter less so, he had stomach issues most of the way. 
  • We used a tent of Peters, an MSR Hubba Hubba 2. It was surprisingly light for a “normal” tent, and while we could have saved some weight with something specialized, it was pretty roomy and convenient. 
  • Taking May Creek Road, while boring, is faster.  We walked pretty slowly and did a bit of dinking around and still finished within 4 minutes of Luc, Alan, and Lee who took the Nizina.  If we had hustled we would have beat them. 
  • I got an old Osprey Exos pack off REIs used gear site as a spur-of-the-moment replacement for my HMG pack after it became clear that a Seek Outside pack would take too long to get to me.  I am super happy with that pack and am now questioning these small niche brands now.  I like the design of my HMG, but I don’t like how floppy it is, and how hard it is to get it loaded so it isn’t moving around a lot.  On really long days it takes a toll on the stabilizing mussels in my upper body.  The Osprey pack was much, much nicer to carry – the best $110 I have ever spent!   I wish Osprey would make packs out of XPac or something similar that is waterproof or at least didn’t absorb water rather than the same fabric they used 30 years ago.  I might still try getting a Seek Outside flight or some other pack, but I am less convinced at this point that the normal options are not better. In particular, the side pockets are great – I was taking my water bottle in and out constantly, and never had any issues. 

I will likely add more to this when I get a chance. 

Our route can be found here: https://caltopo.com/m/EVJ7K

The Iditarod Trail, 2023

Saturday, July 29th, 2023

After riding and pushing our bikes from Ophir we finally arrived at Moose Creek cabin just as the drizzle started. Miron welcomed us in, and we tucked our bikes under the eaves to keep them dry. The day had been beautiful, warm with blue skies and sun, but much too warm for the new trail put in by the Iditarod Trail breakers to set up. As we dried off in the cabin and cleaned up the nests squirrels had made on the bunks, the drizzle turned up a notch into intermittent rain. Miron was planning on heading out at 2 am, but Jamie, Bill, and I agreed to get up at 7 am then head out – but to go back to bed if it was still raining. Morning came, and I could hear the rain on the metal roof of the cabin. I stuck my head outside, and it was raining. Not hard rain, but enough to be pretty miserable. Back to bed, we went, tucked back into our -40f bags.. The glorious life on the Iditarod trail!  

Like everyone, Covid had cramped my adventure time the last few years.  After riding my bike to Nome in 2018 I had thought I was done with the Iditarod trail.   I signed up in 2022 to go to McGrath as a spur-of-the-moment thing and really had a wonderful experience.  When signup time came up again I was feeling like I hadn’t had any “real adventures” lately, so signed up for Nome – if nothing else it would be a good, long adventure and I was sure to have fun at least! 

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And so on a warm, sunny mid-afternoon, I found myself at Knik Lake with nearly a hundred other people.  The first part of the race is a bit of a maze, with so many options that mostly all look not very good, so after texting (aka bothering)  Andy P. of Seeing Double Sled Dog Racing about the best route (as he lives in trains in the area), I just decided to follow him.  He threatened to make me sign a waiver in case he got us all lost, but I escaped without any paperwork as Andy led a group of us to the first checkpoint.  As we neared the first checkpoint I noticed there was only one set of tire tracks ahead of us, and they were an unusual tread design – odd!  We arrived at the first checkpoint only to discover we were in the lead, with the fast guys Miron and Tyson right behind us.  I felt a bit bad being ahead of the fast guys, as they had taken a much longer and hillier route and ended up behind, alas.   Local knowledge for the win, thanks for getting us there Andy! 

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After chatting a bit, and having some snacks we left and headed to Yentna Station where I had a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of soup, and then on to  Bentalit Lodge the official second checkpoint. 

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I had never been to Bentalit before, and wow, that place is nice – and huge!  I got a room, a hamburger, and lots of other things to eat.  In the early hours of the morning, I headed out again, enjoying the fast firm trail to Skwenta, yay!  I said hi to Cindy at Skwenta, and lunch then moved on.  The trail stayed awesome, and I took a mix of the traditional route and the ice road, making a great time to Finger Lake.  Passing through Shell Lake was a bit sad, with a big empty hole where Shell Lake Lodge used to be.    

When I arrived at Finger Lake my insides were a bit unhappy, and I was very excited to go use the outhouse.  Yay for modern comforts, hah!    The very friendly volunteers were cleaning a very burned pan, it turns out they had only arrived recently, and had been delayed by the weather. 

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The leaders had passed through before they were there, missed their drop bags, and just had frozen burritos.  Fast people troubles, must be hard, hah! 

The trail was still awesome, so after restocking I headed out and had a great ride to Puntilla Lake with Tom M. and Peter D.   Puntilla was as nice as always, and the newish bunkhouse is so awesome.  As I arrived John “Faster than the dogs” L and Tim B were heading out and said something about staying ahead of the storm.  Hmm, “storm?” I thought, then I tried to get some sleep.   My insides didn’t cooperate, and I made lots and lots of visits to the outhouse.  My body was less than happy with something I ate, and that made it hard to sleep.  After one of the trips back from the outhouse it started to snow, and after noticing folks were awake, Justin, Spensor, Tom, Peter, and I headed out.  It was pretty calm, but I warned everyone it could be pretty windy up in the open area before Rainy Pass.  That turned out to be not true, the weather was great, warm, with a bit of wind.  The trail was a blown-in though.  My insides were still quite unhappy, and I spent most of the way to Rohn trying not to go the bathroom, though I had to twice in open areas in blowing snow which was super awkward.  Sigh.  Fortunately, the riding was pretty good as I was slow enough the rest of the group pulled away and disappeared into the distance, leaving me to ride in the nice trail they broke out for me.  And to jump off the trail when nature’s calls stopped going to voicemail and had to be answered. 

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I arrived in Rohn, where my insides and I finally came to an agreement on how happy we should be (happy!) and I crashed and got nearly 8 hours of sleep.  The rest of the group I had been riding with headed out after a few hours, pushed on by Justin.   I was amused to hear Justin rallying folks by saying “I haven’t suffered enough” and pointing out it was pretty warm out so biving wasn’t a problem. Which was a good point, as it was in the 20s, so warm!  I had the whole place to myself until Harm and Jamie H. showed up.  Jamie alas, had broken one of his boa laces on his fancy boots, confirming all my fears about those laces. 

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I left Rohn by myself, and had a wonderful ride, all invigorated by all the sleep I had gotten – so much sleep!  The trail was mostly good, though it was blown in sections, and I had been warned that the leaders were still not finished when I left Rohn, so obviously things were not fast.  

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I was enjoying things right up until I broke my seat post near Bear Creek Cabin.  I had been using a suspension seatpost that was oh-so comfortable, and on one of the deeper ruts left by Irondog I came down a bit too hard, and the post snapped. 

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There was a bit of cursing, but then I made peace with it – obviously, it must get slow at some point ahead of me, so I can just walk, no big deal, right?   I texted my wife Nancy who started tracking down a new seatpost for me. 

Shortly after that Adrien D. and his helper, John (maybe?) came by on their way to Rohn and gave me some Fireball, and we chatted for a bit. 

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After that, it was a long slow walk with a bit of riding to Nikolai.

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I stopped briefly to heat water and make dinner, but otherwise just kept moving.   I arrived in Nikolai just before Tom, Justin, Spenser, and Peter left.  I had the place to myself!  Since at this point, I was in no hurry, and not wanting to spend a week in McGrath I decided to get some sleep and head out in the evening.  I told myself since the checkpoint folks were saying it took Tyson (the winner of the short race) nearly 24 hours to get to the finish, it didn’t matter when I left, as I would be riding half it in the dark anyway.  

 **This turned out to be wrong, looking at the tracker now, Tyson left at 11 pm and arrived at 4 pm – way less than 24 hours11** 

After chatting a bunch with the folks staffing the Nikolai checkpoint, John and Brian (I think?), I crashed and got nearly 10 hours of sleep. 

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At 5 pm I headed out, and I arrived just before sunrise, riding and pushing mostly in the dark, hah!   The trail was a mix of ridable, and walking. It would have been much more ridable with a seatpost, but I wasn’t miserable and enjoyed the ride!

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McGrath was a bit of a madhouse. The finish is now at an old lodge, and it is big, but there are so many people doing it these days so it gets very crowded. I had been worried that I would get stuck for a long time in McGrath, as the southern route doesn’t see any traffic normally outside the dog race.    The forced break was good in some ways, as it allowed my new seatpost to arrive, thanks to Nancy, Jeff O, and the wonderful folks at Speedway Cycles.  Thanks, guys! 

Three days later, Myron G, Bill F, Jamie H, and I headed out mid-day, with some assurance there was going to be a trail at least as far as Ophir.   Just as we are leaving McGrath we saw Chet F. unloading a plane, and we chatted for a bit. Chet is a skier who has done the ITI several times and was headed to Ophir to help run the checkpoint.   He was heading there later today, and we left with an extra bounce in our pedaling knowing a friendly face awaited us. 
The ride to Ophir was fun, though things got a bit soft after the last house on the top of the hill after Takotna.  

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By 10 pm we were in Ophir, where we were welcomed in, fed, and enjoyed the heated wall tents set up for the mushers.  Alas, there was no trail after Ophir, so we spent the day helping the Iditarod checkpoint staff set things up.  It was great talking to everyone and getting a chance to catch up with Chet.  In the late afternoon, the Iditarod trail breakers passed though, and there was finally a trail! 

 In the evening they fed us again (BBQ, it was fantastic!), and the next morning we set out early.  Chet joined us for a brief ski, and we headed out into a warm morning, under clear skies and a bright moon.   Myron G zoomed off like the fast guy he is, and I didn’t expect to see him again.

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The trail was great, and we made good time to the first shelter cabin.. Then we were walking.  The temps had warmed up to near freezing, and the fresh trail was a soupy, unconsolidated mess.  So we walked, and for the rest of the day we rode a bit when the trail was in the trees, and sheltered from the sun, but in the open areas, it was soft and squishy.

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Mid-day Myron came by, apparently, he stopped at the first cabin hoping the trail would set up.   He was riding a lot more than we were, as we were pretty much not even trying when it was soft, and soon disappeared off into the distance.   We had several groups of snowmachiners pass by, including one couple on their way to Point Hope, which sounded like an amazing trip. 

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By evening it was lightly raining on and off, and we finally pulled into a very warm Moose Creek cabin and were welcomed by Myron.  After a bit of cleaning we settled in. I said we should get up at 7am and check to see if it was raining, as our weather forecasting friend, Ed Plumb, said rain was in the forecast.  Sure enough, just as I went to bed there was the sound of rain on the metal roof.. 

Myron took off in the early AM hours, and when we got up to check to see if it was raining, it was definitely raining, so we went back to bed.  It finally stopped raining mid-afternoon so we headed out for a bit of slog to Iditarod. 

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We arrived in the early evening, having enjoyed a long walk pushing our bikes with the occasional post hole into knee-deep snow in temperatures slightly above freezing.  

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The Iditarod folks were welcoming, and set us up in a small arctic oven tent complete with a propane-powered heater – so deluxe!!

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We resupplied, wading through the giant pile of huge trash bags the race organizers had left for us to find our stuff and hit the stack.  In the morning I had a cup of coffee from the Iditarod dog race staff, and we hit the road.  The trail was now an iron-hard sidewalk of fast riding – so hard, so fast! 

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All that wet snow had frozen super hard, and we had the best trail conditions I have ever seen – so firm, so fast! 

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We zoomed on to Shageluk, and were welcomed into town by Chevy Roach (https://www.facebook.com/roachfamilylbz/) and family, who opened their store where we got pizza, ice cream, and other stuff, then put us up in a small house, it was fantastic!  Later I learned they are famous, and have their own reality show as part of life below zero. In the morning we were on the trail again, heading through Anvik, Grayling, and eventually stopping for the night 20 miles down the trail past Grayling.   In Anvik I had pudding packs which Bill made fun of me for, but I love those things on the trail, and in Grayling there was a brief panic when I accidentally broke the Inreach app on my phone, requiring me to beg a wifi connection briefly.  We also stopped at Shirley Clarke’s and had lunch. Shirley is quite a character and an amazing cook! 

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In the morning we zoomed on to Eagle Island, where we saw Dan of Dewclaw stopped with his dogs and I said hi to some of my dog Eddy’s siblings. 

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Dan looked happy, more so than some of the other mushers we saw.  We were now in the mix with the mushers and saw mushers nearly constantly until we arrived in Nome.  After Eagle Island we rode on to Kaltag, doing the whole section of the Yukon river in 32 hours, which is amazing. The next day we rode to Unalakleet. 

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I love that section of the trail, as the transition from Interior Alaska to the coast is so stark, and it really feels like I have gone from one world to another.  The people on the trail change as well, with a lot more locals using the trail system.  I bumped into a young man with a seal skin hat at Old Woman cabin, and when I complimented him on his great hat he said his grandma made it for him. 

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Such a different world, and it is so neat to share it with the locals!  We spent the night at Peace on Earth pizza, crashing on the floor after eating lots of pizza, and then having more Pizza for dinner. 

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Brent at Peace on Earth is a wonderful person!  The next day we were texted by Jeff O warning us about a big storm system coming in, so we pressed on to Kaltag, hoping to arrive just before the storm hit, but instead the storm hit when we were still a ways out, slowing us down to a crawl at a few points.  Otherwise, the conditions were fantastic though – so firm, so fast! 

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When we arrived at Kaltag we were let into the school, where we crashed for nearly 12 hours.  The next day we rode from Kaltag to White Mountain, stopping in Elim and in Golvin. 

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We were met in Golvin by a small group who invited us into the school and served us dinner.  Grilled cheese sandwiches with moose – so yummy, and so welcoming!  I was really excited to meet folks from Golvin, as the other three times I have passed through there I have not seen anyone. 

The evening we spent with Jack and his family, with his son Liam cooking us a fantastic dinner.  Then the next day we rode into Nome, stopping briefly for burgers at Safety, then finished a few minutes before the musher Michael Williams Jr from Aniak.   

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Cute “dropped” dog at Safety who was living the best life, pets and hamburgers from a constant stream of Iditarod tour groups. He belongs to a Fairbanks musher, so it was great to see someone from home, ha!

We had a surprise encounter with Jeff O and Heather B in the hills outside Topkok  Jeff and Heather are friends from Fairbanks, and both current ITI record holders – Jeff for the northern route to Nome and Heather has the woman’s record to McGrath.   They are very good friends with Jamie and were super excited to see us.  And of course, us to see them. They had been planning to ride to Kaltag from Nome but the various storms had pinned them down, gradually reducing their goals to eventually Shagtoolik, where they flew back to Nome.   I thanked Jeff for helping me get a Seatpost, which he poh-pooped, but he was a huge help in Nancy getting me a new post.

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When we finished in Nome, Jodie Bailey of Dewclaw met us at the finish, handing me pizza, bananas, and a huge thing of M&Ms.  So appreciated!

Bill, Jamie, and I spent the next few days hanging out in Nome, enjoying the sights, and watching the last few mushers come in.  At that point, I was pretty worn out socially and needed some people free time, but I survived.  My friends Sue and Glen were out of town, but they generously allowed us to crash at their house with Egor “the very chatty” house sitter.  Sue is a very talkative person, so I was a bit worried about someone Sue would describe as ‘very chatty” but Egor turned out to be a very interested miner from the Lake Baikal region.   Thanks, Glen and Sue! 
I would like to thank my family Nancy, Molly, and Lizzy for letting me disappear on this adventure for nearly a month – you guys rock. Molly also edited this blog post, with lots of helpful and constructive criticism.  Better than Lizzy, at least, who told me I write in a very simplistic and childish manner -hah! 

I don’t think I am going to do the whole Nome route again – it is really time-consuming and only parts are worthwhile.  For segments I felt like I was holding the fast forward button, just burning time in the middle of no where with not much to gain. Spending life in “fast forward” spinning my wheels just to get to a place worth visiting doesn’t seem like a good use of my time… I might do sections again – Kaltag to Nome, and Ophir to Shageluk are really worth doing! 

The Iditarod Trail Invitational 2022

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

(This blog post is way late, from late February of 2022, I am just way behind on writing anything.)

In 2021 it seemed like I didn’t do anything interesting.  Living in a mixed-generational setting made COVID more high risk for those around me… limiting travel and lots of other fun things.  It wasn’t a huge deal in the scheme of things – I was healthy, my family was healthy, and I was employed, but I was feeling “under adventured”.   In the late spring of 2021 the Iditarod Trail Invitational (ITI) signups opened up, and on a lark, I signed up for McGrath.  The ride to McGrath is simple, with minimal logistics, and if nothing else happened all winter fun-wise it would give me something to focus on and an adventure of a sort.    And so, on a late February afternoon, I found myself at Knik lake again getting ready to ride to McGrath.  

I have mixed thoughts about the ITI these days.  Perhaps I am getting a bit old and becoming an old fart, grumpily muttering about things that are not the way they used to be.  I was not excited to see the organizers had added a stop at “Butterfly Lake” in the first 30 miles of the race – it really seems to me that the ITI is pretty uninteresting until after Skwentna – otherwise it is just river and swamp on fairly well-traveled trails, but now with some extra mileage though the outskirts of Big Lake.   It wasn’t a lot of mileage though, so I figured it would just be a few extra hours and it would be over – no big deal.  

Zooming an hour in

Zooming along with Aaron W a few hours in…

In the weeks before the race started the organizers sent out an “athletes’ guide” as they call it – and I
was pleasantly surprised.  There were lots of small changes in how the Nome-bound part was presented that I really appreciated and were, from my POV, very well done.   The Nome-bound race after McGrath, to me, is mostly an unsupported bike, walking, or skiing trip.   Besides the flown-in drop the ITI provides, mostly they are providing a list of contacts for the stops along the way, and it is up to the racers to do their own logistics and to behave themselves.  The “behave themselves“ part has been historically a bit problematic. These communities are small, disadvantaged, and pretty isolated.  The ITI racers passing through really stick out, and I think the guide does a much better job of pointing out to the racers that how they interact with the communities will affect how the racers behind them are treated, possibly for years to come.  I am still quite impressed by how much time and thought they put into the guide. 

The start was chaotic as usual, with people taking off in all kinds of directions across the lake, then folks riding too fast and too slow on the narrow trails just after crossing Knik Lake.  

The first few miles zoomed by, and soon I was at the turn I normally took to a road, but instead I went straight and boom, I was on new trails – yay! 

Still zooming


The new trails were quite a change – neat, narrowish, and well-used, with little rolling hills.  A nice change from the road I normally took.  Eventually, I hit the railroad bed, and slowly spun along on some softer trail. Just as the trail was firming up, there was a loud crack and my bike suddenly got all floppy.  

Ugh.

Much to my sadness I soon realized that I had cracked the seatpost, and my seat was now in a mostly reclined position. Yuck.  My bike had been making creaking noises, and I guess I just finally figured out where they were coming from.  I texted my brother John who lives in Wasilla, and a musher friend, Andy P, who lives nearby, but no one had a seatpost that would fit.  Double sigh.  I texted my wife Nancy who would see about getting me a post sent to one of the checkpoints and posted a photo with a note to Facebook in the off chance someone in the greater neighborhood had a post. 

I decided to push to the next road crossing, where I ran into a friend of a friend who let me raid their toolbox to strap random tools to the post in hopes of splinting it up.  

Attempting a repair..

Helper dog helps

Helper Dog helps..

That got me a bit further, but the post eventually was so floppy it was just riding on my sleeping bag roll on top of my rear rack.  Eventually, I was forced to just walk my bike whenever there was anything soft, and stand up and pedal everywhere else.  I was so slow it felt like everyone had passed me.  Eventually, even a skier passed me! 

Chet the skier catches up

One eternity later I made it to Butterfly Lake, where the owner of Fatback cycles, Greg Matyas, was helping run the checkpoint.  He whittled a piece of firewood, while I was talking too much and probably sounding like a lunatic, telling me it wouldn’t be a problem, I could ride to McGrath with the fix!  He also got my wife Nancy in touch with someone from his bike shop who would see about getting a post sent out to one of the checkpoints.   Thanks, Greg!

Another, slightly better fix

another use for firewood..

I was in a bit of an odd frame of mind. While breaking the seatpost was bad, I was feeling a bit like it was very much a “first world problem”.  The war in Ukraine had just started and was very much on my mind.   Europe had always seemed to me to be a very civilized place, and it was hard to imagine there was a big land war happening right there.  While Ukraine is far away, it is near too – there is a sizable Ukrainian immigrant population in my hometown of Fairbanks.  On most mornings I pass a Ukraine immigrant janitor busily cleaning the entryway as I enter my work building.  The nearby town of Delta has a large Ukrainian immigrant population (ironically referred to as the “Russians” by most people), and the grocery store (the IGA) has a neat selection of unusual eastern European food my family always stops to check out when we pass through.  Growing up in rural Alaska in the 80s the threat of the Russians invading was this sort of an ever-present thing in a small but vocal minority.  In 2017 when riding to Nome I stayed with a local teacher who ended a lot of his rants about things going downhill, not working, or just being not quite right with “And then we will all speak Russian!”  So while my seat post was broken, at least I wasn’t being bombed. 
I left Butterfly Lake, and a few miles later the seatpost repair failed, and the post snapped completely, and that was that.  From then on I rode standing up, which was an interesting experience.  It was super fast, but my legs and knees hurt so much.  By the time I made it to the second checkpoint Nancy had let me know I was getting a post on the “mail plane” to Skwenta the following morning, so I just had to make it there, and things would be fine.  I arrived in Skwentna in the evening, had a ton to eat, then slept through the night, and in the morning I had a post! 

Yay! I swapped out the seat, and was back in business – hurrah!  At this point, I should give a huge thank you to Cindy at Skweena, Nancy, Cynthia from the ITI who took the post from the bike shop to the plane, and Pete Baysinger who told Nancy about the mail plane.  Thanks, everyone! 

The nice folks at Skwentna

The rest of the ride to McGrath was fun, with great weather, mostly a really fast trail, and my legs kept feeling better and better each day.  It was odd – after riding so much standing up my legs and knees actually started feeling a bit better each day rather than feeling worse like they had in the past.  I took a bit of the new ice road from Shell to Finger Lake, and a bit more of it to the steps, and was sad to find out I could have taken it the whole way from Skwenta to Helicopter Lake.   And even more sad to see the trail up off the Happy River steps was now a road.

The "trail" up the Happy river steps

I could have driven my Impreza up it, it was so hard, flat, and firm.  A bit of a bummer, as while it was easier, it was way less scenic, with a neat single track through the trees replaced with a wide open road.  I feel bad for the Winter Lake Lodge operators, as the ice road is visible from the deck of their lodge. Quite a treat for the guests…

The trail after Finger lake

It wasn’t all happiness – there was a tiny bit of pushing my bike.

Heading to Rainy Pass lodge

Almost to Rainy Pass Lodge!

On the upside, the checkpoint at Finger Lake now had unlimited burritos (I even took one with me – yay!!) and Rainy Pass Lodge had a wonderful new cabin for us, with lots of bunks – a new stove, power, and bright lights! Spacious luxury, no more drafty cabin cluttered with the heads of African game animals haphazardly decorating the walls. 

The ride from Rainy Pass lodge to Rohn was the most fun I have ever had on the Iditarod trail – it was clear, sunny, and calm, with amazing views.  The trail was chewed up with footprints, but semi-rideable, but that just gave me more time to enjoy the scenery.  So nice! 

Leaving Rainy Pass Lodge

Ptarmigan Pass

Ptarmigan Pass

Ptarmigan Pass

Ptarmigan Pass

Ptarmigan Pass

Ptarmigan Pass bike selfie

Ptarmigan on Ptarmigan Pass

Avalanche in the valley heading up to Rainy Pass

Heading up to Rainy Pass

Casey climbing Rainy Pass

Rainy Pass bike selfie

Avalanche detritus after Rainy Pass

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In Rohn, I enjoyed delicious soup and brats and kept everyone up chatting for way longer than I should have (sorry Petr!), then I left for Nikolia.

Wolf Tracks

Egypt Mountain

Fairwell Lakes

Petr napping in scenic splender

Petr sleeping on the trail. Alas, I woke him up, after keeping him up talking too much. I felt pretty bad about it afterwords..

Somewhere after the Fairwell lakes the bumps started.

Sand hills, looking south

 The Iron Dog racers use a race tactic that involves digging trenches with their tracks to slow down racers behind them.  I hadn’t really seen it besides in the treed sections from Ophir to Poorman, after McGrath.  This year it was really trenched up wherever the trail was in the trees and narrowish (so where the trenches would be hard to avoid for the Iron Dog racers and thus most effective for slowing down racers behind them) from the Fairwell area to 10 miles out of Nikolai.  So. Many. Bumps! 

Snowmachine ruts

Trench-tastic!

It must have been very warm when the Iron Dog racers passed through and then refrozen, as the trail was rock hard. Iron hard.  I could ride pretty fast so long as I stayed in the “ski” part of the track, and not the trench part, but I had a few hard crashes where branches caught me.  Riding in the trench was hard, with constant deep drops followed by steep climbs out. 

Snow machine parts lost on the trails Iron dog machine bits

Irondog leftovers… The bumps doing their job, slowing down the folks behind, ha!

At one point I walked around a moose in the trail and was able to go completely around it walking on top of a really firm crust on top of the snow.  Amazing!  I spent a bunch of time thinking about the mushers who were going to be traveling this in a few days – I hope they were warned! 

Mirages

Fata Morgana..

Sullivan Creek bike selfie

Manditory Sullivan Creek bike selfie!

Birch forest outside Nikolai

Birch forest outside Nikolai

Nikolai arrived, and I got a burger and a bit of sleep then headed out again to McGrath. 

Denali!

Looking back at Denali

I was crushed when I arrived in McGrath to see a biker I know from Fairbanks showered and fresh-looking when I was positive he was lying asleep under a table when I left Nikolai.  How could I be so slow and out of it that he passed me without me noticing and was so far ahead of me?  I was crushed!  Fortunately, it turned out I was confused, and it was someone else under the table, and he had left Nikolai hours ahead of me.   It was also great to finally catch up with Kevin B, whom I had ridden a lot with to Nome in 2018.  He’s a local Fairbanks super-biker.   He had an ORV accident in McGrath a year and a half ago, crushed one of his legs, and had a long slow recovery.  It was great to see him back on his feet and kicking butt!  He had an awesome ride, and finished a day ahead of me!   The finish was in a new location, a lodge that is slowly transitioning to an operating state.  It was quite a change from Tracy and Peter’s, and I missed their good cheer, but it had its advantages – it has a little coffee shop with actual good espresso!  I had a really good latte, hurrah!   After a bit of food etc, I was on a plane heading back to Anchorage, where I spent the night in a fancy hotel, back in civilization.  Yay! 

Flying out of Mcgrath Leaving McGrath

This year’s ITI really left me so much happier with the event – I had so much fun even with a broken seat post.  I think the event is evolving a bit for the better, which was great!   Even the new stop at Butterfly Lake is a bit of an improvement, with a bit less road, and less swamp.  I left much happier about life, with a good fun adventure under the belt, and a post-trip positive buzz that lasted for a solid month.  Yay! 

I would like to thank my family for letting me disappear for a week, Nancy for helping me get a new seat post (Nancy you rock!), and Cynthia and Kyle the organizers of the ITI for putting on an ever-improving event (your work is really appreciated!). Cynthia in particular took the time to pick up a seat post from Speedway and get it to the mail plane – that is way, way beyond anything I expected, and I really appreciate it!  I would also like to thank Cindy at Skwentna for helping Nancy connect with the folks running the mail plane, and Pete Baysinger for pointing out to Nancy that she could get me it that way.   Thanks, everyone!

A Postscript of sorts:
Roughly a year ago I broke a fancy carbon seat post on my commuter snow bike. Perhaps breaking it is an exaggeration, it was an older Easton post where the aluminum head is glued to the carbon post, and the glue gave out.

So I looked through my parts pile, found the heaviest aluminum alloy post I had, used that, and reused it on my new bike. Obviously, this didn’t work out. I have a tendency to just reuse stuff until it breaks, then I am surprised when it breaks. Nothing lasts forever, and I need to start replacing stuff. Hopefully, my lesson was learned, but it now feeling like all my bike stuff is falling apart from old age all at once. As I write this just discovered my brooks cambium seat I love is falling part. Sigh, I guess entropy never stops!

Beaver Creek & the Summit Trail with the family

Monday, August 22nd, 2022

Note – This trip was in June 11-13, 2022, but I am falling behind on my blog..

A long time ago our whole family floated Beaver Creek, and hiked out the Summit Trail. Lizzy (daughter), Nancy (wife) both decided after that trip packrafting was “dumb”. A few years later Molly (other daughter) gave it another chance and had a blast. With a weekend (plus a day) free, Molly and I decided to do it again, floating Beaver Creek in packrafts and meeting up with Nancy and Lizzy half way out on the Summit Trail. This time we were joined by Ruby the loaner dog, who we were taking care of while her owner was off on the north slope. Our dogs Shiloh and Eddy are terrified of water, and are in no way packrafting dogs. It was a great float, the float was fantastic, the weather warm… just about perfect, though the water was a bit slower than ideal..

Ruby the dog on lookout beaver creek Mellow beaver creek floating
Lunch

Hot lunch – luxury!

Fellow travelers

We stopped briefly to check out an old cabin on the USGS topo maps, and found it – yay I love rusty old stuff!

Old Cabin

We spent the evening in Borealis Cabin, enjoying the clean (yay!!) and warm cabin as the temps dropped to near freezing overnight. Ruby enjoyed snuggling with me and found the cabin full of exciting smells.
In the morning we crossed the creek and started hiking after watching some beavers busily doing beaver things.

A Beaver on Beaver Creek! Ruby waiting with Molly for a ride

Ruby waiting for a ride across the creek..

Shuttling across Beaver Creek

Shuttling across the creek

Fording Wickersham Creek

Wading Wick Creek..

Footprints on Wickersham Creek

Busy banks!

We then hiked to the trail shelter, roughly 12 miles from the river. The trail was mostly great once off the winter trail (tussocky!), with marvelous colors and great views.

Tussocky Ruby The summit trail! PXL_20220612_195135432 PXL_20220612_195438110 Going under..

Under…

And under..

“I can make it!” – Molly

Eventually we made it to the trail shelter where we caught up with Lizzy and Nancy and spent the evening enjoying snacks, books, and games.

In the morning we headed out and hiked the rest of the way out..

Lizzy is preped for the bugs!

Lizzy, well bug proofed

A bit of spruce pollen

Pollen-licous!

Shiloh is unimpressed

Shiloh the dog is not excited about this hiking stuff.. 🙂

Lunching

Lunch!

BLM had installed new boardwalk on the really muddy section, and it was a fantastic addition – thanks BLM!

Eddy leading the way Eddy leading the way

The family dropped me off at Cleary Summit, and I biked to Nome Creek to fetch the car. The ride was great, but I didn’t bring enough food and bonked a bit.

The Davison Ditch! Nome Creek Road Almost done..

We are so lucky to have the Whites and Beaver Creek so accessible to us. It is amazing to go on a three day trip and to have the place completely to ourselves. Yay! Thanks again BLM for such a wonderful area! And of course thanks to Molly, Lizzy, Nancy, Ruby, Eddy, and Shiloh for the company. And Sinbad the cat for watching the house while we were away 🙂



A Family Tour of the White Mountains

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022

Leaving my office, I headed out into a dark -36f late afternoon to start my car and drive home. I started it up, then got out to unplug it*. Just after I unplugged it, I heard a “beep,beep” as it locked itself..
Crap.

After trying all the doors, I headed back inside. We have two keys to this car, and the other one is at my house, three miles away. After calling my wife Nancy who didn’t pick up, I started panicking and I called my daughter Lizzy, asking her (very optimistically!) if she could bring me the other keys.

Much to my surprise she said “Sure!”

30 minutes later Lizzy showed up on her fat bike, with the keys, and quickly unlocked it and headed out. We had to stop for gas, as it turned it was almost out. Wow.

Covid has been a bit rough on the twins. One year of online schooling, then it was back to school, with masks. First home made cloth masks, then N95s.. Limited social interactions, and so much fear. To top it off, the school bus was only running ever other week due to driver shortages. The twins decided this school year that they were just going to bike to school, as it is only three (ish) miles one way, mostly downhill in the morning on the way in. After finding out they could beat the school bus (the biking route is more direct) they were even more excited about biking. As the fall transitioned to winter they switched to snow bikes, with bright head tail lights lights, reflective vests, and warm clothing. A bit to my surprise they kept doing it even as it became honestly cold, close to the -40s. As far as I know, they have never been late. I tried to bike a few times a week with them for the ride in, but school starts early (7:30am!), and I am not as a consistent of a bike commuter as they are.

Cold biking Cold biking

Photos from a different, slightly warmer day where I biked in to school with the twins.

Fast forward half a year, and we were heading out on a family trip, heading around the White Mountains NRA “main loop”, stopping at Borealis, Windy Gap, Cache Mountain, and Moose Creek cabins. The twins had been to Moose Creek in the winter before, were I had to make the “no complaining while going up hill” rule as the twins (Lizzy in particular) would complain how miserable the biking was going up each of the hills, then would be perk up and continue on happily when it flattened out. They had also been to Borealis before too, but in the summer only. It would be their longest winter bike trip, and I was a bit worried they would be unhappy, warning them in the days leading up that they might have to walk up a lot if the conditions were really bad.

Yeah yeah, Dad.

The first day of the trip, three miles from the parking lot, after several crashes and one mini soft snow melt down, everyone had a break to snack and recover.

My bike is so heavy!” – Lizzy.

I was a bit worried that this was going to be a long, long trip.

Five days later, 90+ miles later we were back in the same spot, heading the other direction, everyone, tired, but happy and joyful.


First day went by quickly, with great trails besides a bit of soft snow.

Whites Loop with the Family

The ride was mostly uneventful, though at the top of the first decent Molly and I stopped a bit for her to take some photographs from the first scenic view stop.

Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family

Eventually Molly finished taking photographs and we rode down the final hill, only to see a group of people with several dogs teams making camp. I stopped and chatted then looked for Molly and Shiloh the dog. No Shiloh or Molly. A bit more chatting, and still no Molly or Shiloh the dog. It was starting to get awkward, as they were waiting for me to go by… so I turned around and headed back up the hill. Part way up Shiloh the dog and Molly showed up. Apparently she had dropped her sunglasses at the top of the hill, and had to go back. I grabbed Shiloh, and we passed the dog teams with lots of barking – apparently this is the most exciting thing that had happened to the dogs in the team all day.

We arrived at a pre-warmed Borealis cabin, with embers in the stove that were soon rekindled into a nice blazing fire. The evening was spent hanging out, cutting wood, and enjoying a mellow evening.

The morning it was -30f ish at the cabin, probably much colder on the river, so we waiting until 10am or so when the sun was hitting us before heading out. It was in the single digits but felt warmer in the wonderful sun.

Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family

The twins enjoyed the firm trails, and the great views. And hot lunch – since this was a “mellow” trip, I brought various dried or freeze dried meals that could be made with hot water from a thermos for lunch. It was a hit.

Whites Loop with the Family

Enjoying Heather Choice African Peanut Stew from the discount bin at REI. So fancy!

The twins had a blast and were handled the single digits in an occasionally brisk breeze. Nancy was also excited to be riding this outside the White Mountains 100 race, at a slower pace, and enjoying the trail.

Whites Loop with the Family

Shiloh and Eddy the dogs also had fun, though Shiloh likes to pretend he wasn’t..

Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family
Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family

Molly needed to take some panoramic photos (panoramas?) for school, and I told her about the new climb a few miles before Windy Gap cabin, where she stopped to get a bunch of photos. They turned out pretty well.
The twins handled all the biking and the hills pretty well – all those days riding to and from school had given them lots of biking base!

limestone jags panorama

Then it was a long downhill and a few flat miles to the cabin. Alas, the cabin hadn’t had any recent visitors and was much colder inside than out. Walking into it was like entering a freezer. Once the fire was going it started warming up, but Lizzy was quick to find the warmest spot, in the loft directly above the stove.

Whites Loop with the Family

It was still mid afternoon once the cabin warmed up, so I headed out with Eddy to go checkout Windy Arch, a few miles from the cabin. Eddy wasn’t having it though. He kept looking at me like, “What are you doing?” and once he figured out I was going for a ride he abandoned me and ran back to the cabin. I had a great ride though, even though not even the dogs wanted to join me.

Whites Loop with the Family

This was the first cabin that was totally new to the Twins, and they enjoyed hanging out in it, with lots of reading, snacking, and dog snuggling. And doing puzzles – someone had left a small puzzle that gave into a relentless attack by Nancy and Lizzy.

Whites Loop with the Family

The next day we headed up and over the divide to Cache Mt cabin.

Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family

We stopped briefly in at the “Ice Lakes”, a mile (ish) long section of ice for Molly to take another panorama and to have lunch.

ice lakes panorama-2

Photo taken by Molly

The trail was remarkably good, and we rode almost all the way up and over the divide, following some recent wolf tracks.

Whites Loop with the Family

Once over the divide it was a quick ride down to our next stop, Cache Mountain cabin. I had one over the bars crash right in front of Lizzy which she found endlessly funny.


The next morning we headed to our final cabin for the trip, Moose Creek cabin. I was a bit worried the trail would go downhill, but it stayed nice. The twins were troopers, riding up all the hills, including pushing up one really steep and rock hard hill that I almost couldn’t get my bike up.

Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family

Molly’s rear break did explode all over the trail at one point, but we were able to get it back into some assemblance of working. Apparently her pannier hand been banging on it all year, and eventually the outer park of her disk brake broke and shot off powered by the return spring.

Moose Creek cabin had a deck of Uno cards, and many, many games of Uno were played.

sleeping shiloh

Photo taken by Molly

The final day went by fast. It was much warmer, in the mid 20s which felt so balmy! Everyone in the family had done this last 17 miles of trail several times at least, and were well aware of the climbs and zooming fast downhills.

Whites Loop with the Family Whites Loop with the Family

Eddy caught doing a 180 to checkout a sniff. He did it so fast it looked like his nose had been glued to the ground yanking his body around..

Whites Loop with the Family

A happy family, almost out..

When we finally made it out I was happy the trip went so well, but sad it was done. I had been very worried the trail would be a mess with lots of walking, but everyone had a blast. The twins had enough biking base they were not super tired at the end of the days, but tired enough they didn’t get bored – perfect! 🙂 Nancy enjoyed doing the loop outside a race context, and I had fun spending time with the family. Eddy the dog just enjoyed being out, though he has all the cabins memorized at this point, as he had been around the loop three times this year, but I think enjoyed the slower pace, with more time to sniff things. Shiloh the dog I think thought the days should have been shorter, maybe eight to ten miles, with lots more stops to pee on things, and more snacks.

Sinbad the cat was very happy to see us on our return, even giving the dogs a few sniffs to say high, but probably thought our trip was way too long and had way too much time away from the cat who was surely going to expire from lack of attention! (Sinbad did have several caretakers who spend several hours with her, so she was not completely deprived.)

I do feel so lucky to have the White Mountain NRA – the trail and cabin system is top notch, and is one of the highlights of life in Fairbanks.

Yay for winter!

Editors Note: This post was edited and all the wrong details were corrected by the super amazing and very superb Molly!

Good think you have me to fix all your mistakes!” – Molly

2022 WM100

Tuesday, March 29th, 2022

As sort of a last minute thing I signed up for the White Mountains 100 last fall, in a last minute panic that another winter would go by and I wouldn’t do anything “fun”. I ended up being on the waitlist, and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward several months, and a few weeks out Stacy the organizer told me I was in, just as I got back from the Iditarod Trail Invitational. My motivation was a bit lacking, but I said yes, and thus found myself at the starting line at a wonderful 8am morning. I went out as hard as I could, and stayed riding as hard as I could. It was much hotter than I expected, and I was overheating right out of the start, and missed my tire pressure by a lot. When I finally stopped to put more air in just after the first checkpoint I put in 30 pumps, and it was noticeably faster. Duh! 45 ish miles in I tapered it back as my legs and body started objecting loudly. By Borealis I was pretty toast, and was having a hard time eating, and went pretty darn slow for the last 20 miles. Such is life. It was fun though, the second most fun I have ever had in this race (the first being 2019 when I rode it with my wife Nancy). I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, though better than I deserve for not getting in much high intensity riding this winter.

The weather was fantastic!

2022 WM100
2022 WM100

I didn’t plan my food very well, and ended up having trouble eating after the first 50 miles, but such is life. I had a blast though.

A few miles out from the finish I saw Tyson F riding towards me, and I stopped and congratulated him on his win. He said something about riding around the loop again, and I thought he was joking. It turned out he was serous, and he did another lap, finishing before the cut off. Wow!

When I finished I checked in with the headquarters to see how everything is working, as I provided the laptop, and a few other computer items for them, but alas, apparently I suck at it as I gave them the wrong charger cord and they had to round up another computer. Duh! Next year I will have to be a bit more organized about it I guess, I felt pretty bad to have messed that up. Fortunately they found something that worked out so it wasn’t the end of the world, but I should have screwed that up!

A huge thank you to everyone who makes this race happen, as always it is the most fun 100 mile snow race out there!

Photos:

Strava: