Archive for the ‘Races’ Category

The Soggy Bottom

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

Last summer I heard about a 100 mile summer race, the Soggy Bottom, and followed it online. It looked like fun, so when the spring came I signed up. On a damp slightly morning, I lined up with about two dozen other bikers, and we were off.

The Soggy Bottom’s course is on the Resurrection Pass trail system (more details here, north and south). The route, in a nutshell, goes from Hope Alaska, over Resurrection Pass to Cooper Landing, then back to Hope with a side trip down and back on Devil’s Creek trail. It can be done solo, or as part of relay, with exchanges at Cooper Landing and Devil’s Creek. Apparently most people doing the race are from Anchorage, and have some sort of support crew in one form or another. The evening before the race, I talked a bit with the organizer, Carlos, who very kindly offered to take two drop bags to the exchanges for me, and I quickly filled two stuff sacks with snacks etc and handed them off.

The race started at a fairly mellow pace on several miles of road, with the fast guys and gals zooming off, and the rest of us tagging along at the rear.

Fortunately the section on the road was pretty short, and we were soon on the Resurrection Pass trail. The riding was fantastic single track in large trees and tall leafy green plants, including the ever popular Cow Parsnip.

At this point the riders had thinned out a fair bit, and I rode most of the way to cooper landing with two riders for Anchorage. Eventually I climbed up out of the green stuff and into the higher alpine terrain.

The trail continued to be pretty wonderful – fast and smooth riding single track.

Eventually I reached the top of the pass, and started heading down.

On one of the downhill sections I pinch flatted on a rock waterbar. Not a big deal, after a couple of minutes I was going again, but alas I had now used my only spare tube. While I was changing the flat three riders passed me. I caught up with two of them before Cooper Landing, the other guy stayed well ahead of me, and was to finish a hour or so before me.

Just before the flat I past a group of very classic looking hikers, including one guy hiking bare shirted in sweat pants with a mid sized boom box on his shoulder, playing old hair band rock. It was quite a scene, and made more so by the bare shirted man’s budda like physic.

About five miles or so before Cooper Landing I started running into the leaders heading back out. It was a nice twist to see most of them as I rode in, though it did require me to stay on my toes, as the trail was narrow in a couple of sections. Upon arriving at Cooper Landing I was a bit confused and had a bit of trouble locating water, but I eventually figured stuff out and got reloaded. I asked around for a spare tube, and one of the relay riders (Brian I think) from Anchorage set me up with two tubes and some CO2 cylinders, definitely adding to my peace of mind – thanks!. After fiddling around a bit too long I headed back out, heading back to Hope. The ride up to the pass was uneventful. I was caught by a relay rider, and I tried keeping up with her for a while, but eventually she pulled away. There was a brief bit of pushing up a short steep section, but otherwise it was all rideable, and very, very fun. Eventually I reached the Devil’s Creek trail, and headed back down. On the way down I passed some of the faster folks heading back up, but the really fast folks were already done with this section and on their way to Hope by the time I reached it. This section of trail was amazingly fun, with lots of fast riding with fairly long sight-lines so I could open it up and ride fast. There were periodic rocky sections that were wonderful at keeping me on my toes, and a bit of mud but nothing too bad.

The end of Devil’s creek trail ends in large parking lot, where there was a checkpoint with water and a lot of relay riders relaxing and having fun, having finished with their sections. I restocked and headed back out. The climb back up to the pass was almost as fun as riding down. Eventually I made it back up to the top, then enjoyed the 20 miles of mostly downhill riding back to Hope. I arrived in Hope just before dark, and was very happy to get a shower, a beer, and some pizza. The race ends just outside a bar, and there was live music playing, making for an interesting scene. After the beer I headed off to go to sleep, feeling a bit wiped.

I really was not sure what to expect from this race, but I was completely blown away by how fun it was. Fantastic single track, and a bit of mud, what more could someone ask for? I was pretty happy with my time, though I could have ridden a fair bit faster if I had done the trail before and knew what to expect. Running tubeless would have saved be a flat, as I pinched flatted on my rear while slamming over a rocky waterbar. It might have also saved me a spoke, as somewhere in the last 40 miles I broke a spoke on my rear wheel.

A major thanks to Carlos the organizer for putting on this wonderful event. Hopefully more Fairbanks folks will head down for the event next year, as it is well worth the drive. For folks interested in a fun but not super epic time, the relay looks like it would be a blast – the legs are all in the 35 mile range. My photos really don’t do the course justice, as they were taken on the move with a little point and shoot, but the trail system the race is on goes though some very beautiful territory. That area has some fantastic bike touring potential.

90 out of 350..

Monday, April 9th, 2012

As folks who know me are already well aware I ended up scratching out of the ITI fairly early in the event, at about mile 90. It was pretty sad, as I had spent most of the winter thinking, planning, and training for this race, but it was a good call. Hopefully I will get another chance at the race next year, as I really want to finish this one!

I am afraid this write-up is a bit wordy, so here is a short summary: I scratched, pushing a bike in Neos sucks, and my feet hurt. Next year’s to-dos – don’t scratch, practice pushing, try some less crappy footwear, and bring less stuff.

Moving on…

The race starts on the edge of a small lake near the old town of Knik, at a small bar known as Knik Bar. I arrived early enough to get all my stuff arranged and ready to go on the bike, then spent a bit of time checking out other folks’ setups and buzzing on last minute pre-race stress.

Eventually everyone lined up, and we were off. I grabbed the wheel of someone who looked like he knew what he was doing, Sean Grady and tagged along though a series of trails that eventually lead to Point Mackenzie Road.

Sean knew where to go, and soon were zooming down the road in little posse of obese bikes with too much stuff in tow.

After 10 minutes or so on the road the “fast” guys passed us in a tight pack.

I expected I would never see them again until after the race..
Eventually the road riding ended and there was an abrupt transition from biking to walking.

The snow kept coming down and as the traffic died off as evening arrived the snow piled up deeper and deeper.

We passed several groups of snowmachines either on their way home or stopped on the side of the trail to mess with their machines. One group asked us where we were going, and upon hearing “McGrath”, stared at us blankly. One of them, as if addressing someone simpleminded, started telling us that McGrath was a long way away… as if it was not abundantly clear to someone 20 miles into a 350 mile event, pushing a bike at a little more than 2 miles an hour, that this was going to take a very long time. We trudged along on the long straight trail leading to Flathorn Lake. At this point the crowd had thinned out and I was now in the company of Sven, a teacher from Anchorage, and Sean, though we could occasionally see flashes from the headlights of racers behind us. At about 8pm we passed Jeff Oatley leaning on his bike as he waited for a couple of folks right behind us to catch up, and he let us know that the leaders were about 15 minutes ahead of us. At this point it was pretty clear that this was not going to be a “normal” event, as the fast people are normally much, much faster than I am, and my only sign of them is their in and out times in the log books at the checkpoints. We arrived at the edge of Flathorn Lake and were greeted by Craig Medrid of the Alaska Dispatch sitting on a snowmachine texting (tweeting I believe he said) on a sat phone.

He had apparently gone across the lake, was not able to find where the trail exited the lake, was soon stuck, and had a hard time extracting himself. He was strongly discouraging folks from heading out across the lake due to poor visibility from the blowing snow, though the two lead bikers had headed across. I took a peek out onto the lake, and all signs of any trail besides Craig’s snowmachine tracks were completely wiped clean by the wind and fresh snow. Sean and Sven decided to bivy and wait for morning. I decided to hang out for a couple of minutes, waiting for more folks to arrive, as it was only a little after 8pm, and I was way too excited to sleep anytime soon. In ten minutes or so Jeff, Heather Best, and Tim Stern arrived, and undetered by Craig’s statements of doom, headed out with me tagging along.

We soon caught up with the lead bikers, Pete Basinger and Tim Berntson, and begin a long, slow slog across the rest of Flathorn and Dismal Swamp. Soon more bikers and eventually walkers started catching up with us sharing in the trail breaking. This section of trail is very wide and it was fairly hard to locate the firm trail under two feet of fresh snow. When we got off the main trail we would start postholing up to our waists, making for really fun bike pushing. At this point I was starting to get pretty whooped, and was having a hard time lifting the front of my bike to push it though the fresh snow. Fortunately the “fast” guys were happy to charge away though the snow, and I just pushed along in their wake. The walkers were having a bit easier time and soon were a ways ahead of us, but their headlights were still visible flashing back and forth as they searched for the trail under the snow. Gradually the pack was thinning out, with bikers dropping off here and there to bivy under welcoming trees. Eventually we reached the bank of the Susitna River, which locals call the “Wall of Death” named for the 10 foot or so drop from the top of the bank to the river. All the walkers apparently responding to some sort of hidden signal peeled off to bivy under trees.

The lead bikers started building a fire to melt water, and since it looked like no one was going to be leaving anytime soon, I set up my bivy and went to sleep. I woke up a little before dawn as a walker, Tim Hewit, passed by. The leaders had left while I was sleeping, and were now long gone, probably off enjoying a long hard slog through the deep snow. I packed up and started pushing my bike down the trail, and after several minutes was surprised to see him again heading back towards me. Apparently this trail led to the cabin near the river, and not to the main trail. The lead bikers had apparently headed out this way, wandered around for a while, and gave up, headed back and found the right trail about 10 feet from where I bivied. Tim was very cheerful, and surprisingly bubbly as we chatted for a moment as I got off the trail to let him by, and then I followed him back up the trail to the turnoff for the main trail onto the river.

The Susitna river was covered in fresh snow, with a single “push” track the bikers and walkers had broken winding up the river.

This was quite a contrast to the last time I was on this section of river, when the trail was rock hard and about 100 feet wide.

I continued pushing my bike up river, mostly by myself at this point, occasionally getting passed by a walker or passing a biker. At about noon Craig zipped by on his snowmachine. I was hoping that the motorized traffic would pick up a bit when I reached the confluence with the Yenta River, which is the main route for most of the traffic. Alas, Craig was to be the only motorized traffic I was to encounter until late in the afternoon.

Eventually I was passed by several walkers and two skiers as I slowly made my way to Luce’s, a lodge on the Yentna River.

Just before Luce’s several snow machines passed by hauling sleds and waved as they zoomed by. I reached the lodge, where two walkers and the lead bikers were enjoying burgers, fries, and snacks. I ordered food, several pops, and booked a room, as I was pretty wiped. As I was enjoying my burger Jeff, Heather, Tim, and several more bikers arrived. It is hard to describe how surreal it was to be with the lead bikers at this point. I am not a fast biker, and normally I never see the fast guys more more than a minute or two once the race starts. Seeing the lead guys snarfing burgers while talking about how wiped they were really drove home this race was going to be a long slow slog. Two of the bikers left after eating and headed out for the official checkpoint, Yenta Station, which is 6 miles or so up river. Most of the rest of the bikers decided to get some sleep and head out in the morning at various versions of ungodly early.

In the not tremendously early a.m. I headed out with Jeff, Heather, and Tim. The trail firmed up a bit overnight, but not enough to be consistently rideable. It was rideable in short stretches, but not for any significant distance. It did appear the Tim, Phil, and Pete who left earlier than us road a fair bit more than we did. We arrived at Yenta Station, had some breakfast, and headed out again.

The trail upstream of Yenta Station was quite a bit softer, and it was back to pushing. Not show-stopping by any means, but I was starting to get worried about how much pushing I could actually pull off.

The temperatures remained much too warm for the trail to harden up, so the pushing continued for the rest of the day.

By this time my feet were starting to take a bit of a beating as the footwear I was using, Neos overboots with sorel liners and superfeet insoles, did not provide the sort of support and protection that my feet apparently need for this amount of pushing.

I was starting to get blisters on the ends of most of my toes, and was getting periodic sharp pains in the arch of my left foot, probably due to the soft soles of the Neos.

We ended up pushing all the way to Cindy Abbot’s place, also known as Slims. Cindy apparently enjoys the company of the racers enough to open her house to them, and lets folks crash on the floor of her guest cabins. By the time we reached it was a very welcome sight. After having some wonderful soup I spent a couple of hours sleeping on the floor of one of her guest cabins, then took off in the late evening for Skwentna. I will be forever grateful to Cindy and her husband-to-be Andy’s hospitality.

The trail had hardened up a bit and was semi rideable now. Jeff zoomed off, floating away, and was soon followed by Tim and Heather. They had a much easier time due to either their elite snow riding skills, or some other magic I have yet to posses. I ended up riding a bit, but there was still a lot of pushing. I arrived at Skwentna a bit beat, and a half hour behind them.

Upon arriving I learned that the lead bikers had left for Shell Lake 5 hours before. There was some talk that the trail might firm up, so I grabbed a bunk and snoozed until the morning.

In the morning the owner of Skwentna Roadhouse called the next place up the trail that folks would stop at, Shell Lake to how long it had taken Pete and Phil, and learned that they had yet to arrive. This was bad news, as it means they had taken about 12 hours to travel the 15 miles, meaning lots of slow pushing. At this point my feet where starting to show the mileage, and I was not sure that I could handle another 100 miles of pushing. I was to later learn the winner of the race, Pete Basinger, figured he rode about 40% of the 300-350 miles to McGrath.

After some talking with the other racers, and being told that from that point onward getting flown out was going to be increasing difficult, getting more expensive and possibly involving a fairly long wait, I decided to scratch and hopped on a plane to Anchorage. It was pretty sad, as it was clear I could have gone onward, and my feet might have held up for the rest of the pushing, but probably a good call. It definitely would have been a long, long slog, and I was not tremendously excited by the prospect of pushing my bike for another 5 or 6 days (or longer!). I ended up taking a flight out with Lue and Eric.

And so ended my attempt at the ITI. I learned a fair bit, and really want to come back next year and make another go at it, hopefully this time making it the full way.

Lessons Learned:

  • My footwear needs to be up for extended pushing. I had tested my setup by going for 6 mile walks and it worked great for that length of time, and had done overnight bike-packing trips with a fair bit of intermittent pushing, but it just was not up to extended bike pushing. The soles were a little too soft and all the pushing in the soft snow put some unusual stress on my feet causing some of the connective tissue on the bottom of my feet to start to hurt (perhaps hurt is an understatement – sharp stabbing pains would be a more apt description – yeah, yeah, HTFU). The other problem was the fit was too loose allowing my feet to move about a bit too much, giving me blisters. When I got back home I ended up spending a fair bit of time treating my blisters, leading my daughters to start playing blister treatment games. They even made a song in honor of one of the less happy toes, called “Pus-y Toe” – the meaning of which should be fairly obvious. I need to work on a footwear system that is good to -40f, and that I can push the bike in for extended periods.. It took about a two weeks before my feet were back to normal, without random pains when putting pressure on the arches of my feet. Next year I think will go on some overnight bike trips were I take the chain off my bike and just push it the whole way..
  • I need to pack a lot less stuff. A lighter bike would have been much easier to push through the soft snow. At several points my upper body was completely trashed from lifting my bike through deep snow and drifts. I never opened my stuff sack of extra clothing, so I think I could have pared it down a fair bit, though it was fairly warm. My bike looked obese when compared to some of the other setups at the race start.
  • I packed way too much food. I figured that I would need 4 days of food with me between drop bags worst case, and packed accordingly with 4k calories per day, plus some extra food. This turns out to be way too much even at my glacial pace, as there were ample places to resupply. When I scratched at Skwentna I still had two days or more of food. Eventually folks started to make fun of me for still having so much food..
  • I suck at soft snow riding. I just don’t get enough time practicing riding in soft snow with the hard trails we have here in Fairbanks, apparently.

A big thanks to Sean for leading me through the maze of trails in first 10 miles, and for Jeff, Heather, and Tim for letting me tag along in their wake, and the wonderful people at the checkpoints. A huge thank you to the folks who organize the race – Bill and Kathi Merchant. While I didn’t make it all that far, this event is nothing like anything I have ever done before, and is truly unique. I can see why folks seem to get addicted to it – a big thank you to Bill and Kathi for putting it on. And of course a big thanks to the twins and Nancy for being so supportive.

One final thank you to the wonderful folks at Speedway Cycles – they replaced my bike frame due to a cracked seat tube two days before the race, and were very tolerant of my last minute panicking. Amazing folks.. I can’t say how nice it was of them to make time for me durring all the pre-ITI hubbub.

Hopefully next year the weather will be more cooperative. Hmmm, next year..

A few more photos can be found here.

The Summer 100 (non) race

Sunday, July 17th, 2011

For the last year or so there have been plans afoot to have a local 100-mile running or biking race. This summer one of the organizers of the White Mountains 100, Ann, got things going and set up a trial run of the non-race. “Non-race” as i, it was not an official, organized race, but more of a mass-start individual time trial. As soon as I heard about the idea I immediately knew I wanted to do it. We don’t have very many local off-road or trail-bike bike events. There is a 12 hour race on the Ester Dome single track, though that was canceled this year, and a mountain bike stage race, but that’s about all. Even more exciting was the fact the start was only four miles from my house, so I could bike to the start – wahoo! In the two months before the race, folks did informal Tuesday runs and ran most of the course in sections. I am not much of a runner these days. Biking has been my main focus, and its hard for me to get enough mental momentum to regularly bike and run in a semi-serious manner. I joined in for a handful of the runs and survived, but barely – running 8-12 miles at once is not a recipe for a happy run. It was pretty social, and it was interesting to talk to folks and meet some folks from the non-winter sports crowd. In the weeks leading up to the race I biked most of the course in a couple of sections to make sure I had an idea about what I was getting into and could prepare mentally for some of the tricky bits. Biking the course was a wonderful experience and exposed me to trails I would not know about otherwise, including some wonderful sections that are amazingly good biking. The course is a mix of dirt roads, single track, ATV trails, a brief section of the Alaska pipeline, a short bit of pavement, and several sections of tricky bits.

So, the “tricky bits”.. The course has several sections that are tricky biking for “normal” people (normal being not trials superstars like Danny MacAskill), and one section that could not be biked even by super-humans. The difficult sections consist of several shortish bits that have tight spaced roots, have lots of rocks, are very steep, or all three at once. I can, for the most part, bike these sections while fresh, but when tired it becomes a bit difficult – not the end of the world, just start pushing! There is one section that involves crossing Goldstream Creek, and is truly unbikable, though perhaps it could be done by winged monkeys. This section involves crossing Goldstream Creek, then crossing a swamp with a short deep section (deep as in more than chest, possibly over my head deep), then brush whacking though some alder for a mile or so. This is perhaps a bit different from what most folks might expect from a bike race, as the course will have fair bit of pushing, but in order to have a long course on trails, some sections of difficult or impossible biking are to be expected. Otherwise to link pieces of nice trail would require lots of sections (possibly pretty long ones) on paved or dirt roads. While these sections would zoom by on a bike, they would be miserably boring for the runners.

Hopefully this race becomes an annual event – it was a wonderful experience and a great fit for Fairbanks. Ann put a tremendous amount of work getting the trial run of the race going and deserves major credit for putting everything together – Go Ann!

Maps of the course of various sorts can be found here.

The rest of this involves my experience in the race – probably quite uninteresting to everyone but me so feel free to stop reading now, and go turn on the TV. Or go play outside!

On the day of the race I got up at 5:45, got dressed, had breakfast, drank several cups of coffee and left the house on the bike heading off to the race start. Just as I was leaving the sky opened up and started dumping epic quantities of rain. Hard rain, with big drops, and a stiff wind – a wonderful day for an epic bike ride! I had put aside two sets of rain gear the night before, and with the hard rain I grabbed the full-on waterproof jacket and pants, put them on, and headed out. The four miles to the starting point was mostly downhill and very wet. At one point the tracks worn in the road by studded tires were running with water like a small stream. I arrived about 20 minutes before the race started and ducked under an eve of one of the entrances to the UAF Patty Center, which was alas, not open, and watched the rain. It was showing no sign of letting up, and thunder could be heard in the distance – it was going to be an interesting day.



Twenty minutes early was apparently a bit too early, as no one else seemed to be around. Eventually other folks arrived and started splashing around in the rain getting ready to go.




It appeared there were going to be 18 or so people enjoying the fun. My friend Tom arrived pushing his bike up to the Patty Center – he apparently had massive chain-suck issues on the way to the start and his chain was wrapped around the bottom bracket in a difficult to extract manner. Several of the bikers attempted to extract the chain to no avail – eventually one of the runners, Rick, pulled the crank off, got the chain unstuck, and put things back to together for Tom. Just before the start two of the bikers headed back home to get more warm clothes and real rain gear. One of them was up from Anchorage and was pretty bemused by the rain, say something like “Isn’t it supposed to be sunny and dry here – this is Anchorage weather!” 7am came upon us and the non-racers lined up in the field outside the Patty, someone gave a count down, and we were off. The course starts on a similar route to the Equinox Marathon, and immediately heads up a small hill. The rain had turned the trail up the hill into a bit of a slippery mess – some of the bikers were already pushing and it was only a quarter of a mile in. The first miles of the course were on a mix of UAF trails and the Equinox, then onto the Sheep Creek bike path, and over to St Patrick’s. I was surprised to see Tom just before the Sheep Creek bike path – apparently he had a return of his chain suck issues on the muddy first hill and decided that was a sign to call it quits. That was a good call, as the mud was quite a bit worse later on. The rest of the morning was spent riding over to Ester, climbing Ester Dome, and riding down the back side of the dome to Goldstream Creek. Two guys had started several hours early in an attempt to get to mile 50 or so before one of them had to make a wedding in the afternoon, and for most of the morning I followed their footprints in the mud and rain-softened trails. Surprisingly, I was in the lead, and would stay in the lead for the rest of the race. When I reached the top of Ester Dome the place had an unearthly feel to it – it was very foggy and socked in with perhaps 50ft visibility at a couple of points, with the wind blowing though the transmission towers on top of the dome making some freaky howling noises. It was a strange experience.. On the ride down to the creek I passed a cheerful man working away on the road with a fairly large bulldozer. He seemed fairly surprised to see me but waved me by in a friendly manner. I bet he was amused and perplexed by the rest of the crew passing him thoughout the day.. The mud on the ride down was pretty intense, but my wheels and gears kept going, and I kept moving.



Crossing the creek was a bit tricky – the log across the creek was wet and slippery, but it was uneventful, though a bit nerve racking. I would later hear that one of the participants dropped his bike in the creek and had to fish it out.



(Photo is not from race day, but a pre-ride. Note the sunny weather..)

It was probably better to drop your bike than to fall in – getting out would have been a pain! After the creek crossing came the swamp, which was a bit of an adventure. There was a path marked though the swamp, and I stuck to it, but alas, I think the path was more intended for the runners as it moved in and out of the brush and though some pretty tight sections that were hard to carry a bike through. Not the end of the world, but there was a fair bit of chest-deep water, and lots of waist-deep water, and a short section separated by floating mats where I could not touch bottom. The short deep section I just left the bike on the floating mats, swam/flopped across, then grabbed the bike and yanked it across the open section. No one appeared to be near me which was good, as there was quite a bit of yelling and swearing as I floundered around. Soon after the marshes I hit the first checkpoint, and my drop bag of clean clothes. I grabbed my stuff, changed into dry clothing, and hopped back on the bike and was off. Later when I was washing my gear from this section I was really surprised to see that everything smelled like swamp – no sweat, no dirt, no mud, just swamp. The folks manning the checkpoint were very cheerful and happy, and understanding of my manic stripping and dressing while (very) partially concealed by some parked cars.



I should probably point out now that photo taking and racing don’t really fit together all that well. Stopping to get the camera out slows things down and slowing down is not how one goes fast. I am not very fast though, so I bring a camera and take pictures, figuring if I am too busy to take pictures and enjoy my self I should just go home as its not worth it. Alas, for lots of reasons I didn’t take the camera out all that much, but I did attempt to get pictures of all the checkpoints and the checkpoint staffers. The checkpoints are like little bubbles of joy in longer races like this one, filled with friendly people, food, and water. Sometimes nirvana is as simple as a can of coke and handful of potato chips.. Anyway, since checkpoints in winter races photograph poorly (because its dark, cameras coming in from the cold fog up instantly, among other reasons) and this was the first long summer bike race I have done, I made an attempt to get photos of them.

Just after leaving the checkpoint I passed the runner Mark, who was cheerfully running along.




The next section was on dirt roads of various sorts and sped by on the bike. Soon after the first checkpoint I had my first bike problem and broke a spoke on my rear wheel and soon things were a bit more wobbly and loose than I would have liked. After riding another half an hour I grabbed my cell phone, called Tom, unfortunately waking him up, and he amiably agreed to pick up a wheel I had on my porch and bring it by Ivory Jacks. I eventually passed Steve the runner, the second person to start early. He seemed to be having a wonderful time and had a huge smile on his face when I rode past. There is a brief out-and-back section where I passed a biker (Andi I think) headed the other way who seemed be having a good time and had a huge grin on his face. Soon I was riding on dirt roads which made for fairly fast but uninteresting biking. Eventually I reached the second checkpoint, an unofficial one staffed by a former co-worker of mine, Jen, and a fellow I had met once before but alas forget his name.



They were cheerfully enjoying a calm afternoon under a nice dry tent and seemed to be having a great time. I refilled my water and took off. The next section to Ivory Jack’s was very, very fun, with lots of fun biking on a mix of narrow dirt roads, ATV trails, and some single track. I really enjoyed this section, though alas someone had taken down the course markings here – bummer. This section features a wonderful downhill bit with lots of water bars that are ever so fun to hop over and a very steep, straight downhill though some birch trees – pure fun! I arrived at Ivory Jacks a bit later than I anticipated but was greeted by Nancy and the twins, and Tom with my replacement wheel – Thanks Tom!


I had a bit to eat, refilled my water, swapped out my wheel with the broken spoke, and was off.



Now with life like hand foo action!

Before I left Lizzy said to Nancy, “When is Daddy going to start biking again?” Obviously I was being a big slacker and should get my butt in gear! The next section was a mix of tricky biking (so more pushing than biking) and some wonderfully fun riding. At one point while on Cranberry Ridge I encountered a lady running who stopped to give me a lecture on how bikes damage trails. She might have had a point, but at the time I was pushing my bike though a rooty section after deciding that the constant pounding and effort required to ride the roots was making my neck and head hurt. She continued her run and I continued pushing my bike though the roots. Alas, at this point my neck was killing me, and my feet were numb and getting a bit sore. My shoes are regular mt bike clipless Shimano bike shoes. They are a bit short on grip, and the cushioning is nonexistent. After the event I had nice and tender forefeet for several days. Once I was past the roots the trail transformed into fun riding and I started to enjoy myself again. Just before reaching Hilltop the course follows the pipeline down a hill which provided some of the fastest biking of the course. At Hilltop I stopped briefly and chatted with the fellow at the checkpoint there, Andy, and snarfed down some snacks.



I had a bike bag blowout somewhere along the way and had lost my bike tools and my chain oil. Andy was super prepared and even had chain oil, ending the squeaking of my tortured chain. The riding from Hilltop to the final checkpoint was fantastic, though I had the funny encounter with someone who had a car breakdown. About halfway between Hilltop and the Skiland checkpoint someone started shouting from the bushes behind me. I stopped and waited a bit nervously for the fellow to catch up with me. It turns out he had driven his new VW Bug up to Pedro Dome Road, had hit a rock, and ruptured his oil pan, leaving him stranded. When I encountered him he was attempting to walk down to the Steese Highway – apparently his car’s GPS told him that it was close by, so he decided to just bush-whack down to it. It’s pretty close, as such things go, but a long steep drop down a brushy hillside. He apparently thought better of it, and was coming back to his car when he saw me and tried to get my attention. He borrowed my cell phone to call a friend to pick him up, and after making sure he was going to be ok, I took off.
A little while later, my phone rang. I dug it out of my backpack, and answered it – it turned out that his friend had gotten lost and needed directions. I guided him via phone to the right road and within sight of his lost friend, and I was back on my way. I made a brief stop at the Skiland checkpoint, getting a bite to eat, and said hi to the cheerful checkpoint staffers.




The final section is mostly downhill and was refreshingly nice riding, though by this time my legs were pretty hammered and I could barely bike up the hills. I rolled into the finish at 15 hours and 24 minutes, very happy to be off the bike. John Estle was at the finish line and did a quick video interview with me and I am afraid I was a bit incoherent and silly.




Soon after I arrived the two bikers who started late came in. They started about 20 minutes late and finished 10 minutes behind me and would have finished ahead of me if they had started with everyone else.

Hopefully this race will be an annual event – it was an amazing experience and a complete blast. With luck this race will be become a summer ritual! Thanks again to Ann and all the other volunteers – you guys made it possible and fun!

The finishing times for the finishers in the trial run of the race were:

  • Bikers
    • Jay Cable 15:24
    • John Shook 15:33
    • Chris Wrobel 15:33
    • Rocky Reifenstuhl 16:38
    • T. Herriott 16:38
    • Andy Sterns 19:43
  • Runners
    • Rork Peterson 21:47
    • Ann Farris 26:40
    • Rick Johnson 28:02
    • Anne VerHoef 28:08

There was also some coverage in the News Miner.

More photos from the race
Course pre-ride photos.

80 miles in 28 hours – a wonderful way to spend a weekend

Monday, June 6th, 2011

On a warm and sunny Saturday morning I found myself lining up with Tom in the Chena Hot Springs parking lot along with 25 or so other fellow competitors at the start of the “AlaskaCross Hot Springs 100”. The Hot Springs 100 is a human powered race from Chena hot springs to Circle hot springs. The rules are pretty simple – “No pack animals(except yourself), no caches of gear, carry all gear from start to finish, no sabotage”. It is a “wilderness” race, with no set route, so folks are free to choose their own path. The options include floating sections of Birch Creek, a wild and scenic river, and several possibilities for getting to and from the river. Some people take an entirely overland route and skip out on any floating. I had sounded out Ned and he had given me a bit of route advice. Our basic plan was to head up the Yukon Quest trail until it reached the higher country and then take a ridge down to the Harrington Fork a mile or so before it hits Birch Creek. We would then float down Birch Creek for 45 miles or so, until we reached Harrison Creek, where we would take out, hike up the creek until we encountered a road that leads to Circle Hot Springs. After a brief pre-race chat by the organizer Mark Ross, we were off! The eventual winner of the race, Gerry Hovda, took off running and that was the last we saw of him. He would eventually finish in a little over 21 hours by taking an entirely overland route. The rest of the pack headed out of the parking lot at a brisk walk.

For most people the first quarter mile was spent hiking on the road. The “standard” options involve taking the Yukon Quest trail, or the Far Mountain trail to start with, and both of these routes require a bit of walking on Chena Hotsprings Road before reaching their starting points. The first 15 minutes of the race were pretty interesting – folks were peeling off to the left or right as they sought various options for getting that extra “edge”. Or just took wrong turns – several people took side trails off the main road that don’t head anywhere useful. A little more than half of the racers seemed be heading up the Far Mountain route, which was fine with me, as it meant fewer people on our route. By the time I reached the start of the Quest Trail folks had spread out and I could no longer see anyone. The next several hours the only signs of the other racers were footprints.

The Yukon Quest trail was surprisingly pleasant. I had expected a boggy wet march of doom, but was surprised by how fast the walking was.

There were a fair number of shallow stream crossings..

As well as a number of bogs that needed to be crossed..

But nothing that was very difficult and for the most part it was pretty fast walking. Eventually we passed our first fellow competitor, Larry, who was using his paddle shaft as a walking stick in a very impressive, Galdalf-like manner.

Larry would be the first of three racers we would run into on the trail. It was pretty surprising how remote the race felt – besides the first several minutes of the race we rarely encountered any of the other racers.
We hiked up the Quest trail for 8 miles or so, then headed up a nearby ridge to hit the high country and start our hike down to Birch Creek. The hiking up high was pretty fantastic on beautiful hard and flat ridges that were superb for fast walking.

Shortly after hitting the ridge we passed the race organizer, Mark Ross, who appeared to be having fun, though said he was a bit dehydrated.

After hiking six miles or so on the ridges we started our decent to the river, and alas the hiking got a bit less idyllic, with about a mile of pounding though burned black spruce tussock fields. Eventually we made it to Birch Creek, just in time to see the eventual third place finishers Drew and Bob float by.

They had kept on the main quest trail, and Drew said he was three hours ahead of last year. We inflated and put in. In hindsight we should have walked to the main river, as this section was pretty shallow and pretty marginal for floating. Eventually we reached the main river and got the first surprise of the float – the water was moving pretty slowly. If we paddled hard we could sustain 3.5 mph – it was going to be a long float!

The next 14 hours or so were spent floating. My view for those hours looked pretty much like this:

This is a pretty long time to be in a packraft – after six hours or so my legs started cramping up and it was periodically a bit painful. We ended up stopping twice to stretch our legs and durring our final stop we were passed by Mark Ross.
This was my first all night pack rafting experience and it was pretty interesting. The light on the water was fantastic.

Durring the early morning it started getting cold enough that a small amount of ice had formed on my backpack.

At this point I started holding Tom back a bit, as my hands were starting to get cold enough it was difficult to paddle hard. I should have packed an additional layer – I had all my layers on and still had to paddle fairly hard to keep warm. Fortunately it was not too long before the sun came up, and brought with it warmer temperatures.

Eventually we reached our takeout on Harrison Creek, packed up our rafts, and started hiking to the finish line.

For the first 5 miles or so we followed Harrison Creek, going from gravel bar to gravel bar and occasionally taking game trails though the woods. Eventually we found a faint ATV trail along the creek and followed it to the start of the road that leads to Circle Hot Springs. The road provided fantastically fast hiking, but was a bit hard on the feet.

In the last 6 miles or so I started getting hotspots on the bottoms of my feet, but I pressed on, which in retrospect was a bad idea – if I had stopped to change socks I could have escaped without any blisters. Live and learn I guess.

We arrived at the finish line to learn that Mark Ross has beat us by 12 minutes – which is pretty amazing since we had been going for around 28 hours. We ended up in 8th and 9th place, which is not bad. The finish line is at Circle Hot Springs, which sadly is boarded up and not open. I have fond memories of soaking in the pool went it was still in operation – it was fantastic, with wonderful hot water without the “hot springs” odor that most hot springs in the interior have. We hung out in the parking lot for a while lolling about, drying our feet, and generally relaxing while waiting for our ride. Eventually Ms Marsh showed up and we headed back to Fairbanks.

This race was a pretty interesting and rewarding experience. Surprisingly it was mostly fairly fun and free of any death slogs or doom of any sort. We didn’t have any interesting wildlife encounters, though Tom was buzzed by an eagle, and we had a wolf howl nearby. The banks of the river were lined with lots of wolf tracks. In the late evening a small helicopter spent several hours following the river and flying back and forth overhead. Initially we were a bit worried that something had gone wrong and they were searching for someone. If anyone knows the story on the helicopter it would be great to know what it was doing.

There are a number of things I would do differently next time:

  • Have a pack setup that I could run with. The last 12 miles of the race and the first 5 miles and a number of other sections could be jogged without too much effort. My pack setup was a bit too bouncy for running. A setup that allowed me to jog would be a major improvement.
  • Too much food – I brought 5 lbs of food, and that was much too much. I ate a little less than 2lbs, so next time I will take a bit less food
  • Change those socks – I could have spared myself blisters by changing my socks as soon as we hit the dirt road.
  • Trim the pack weight a bit. A slightly lighter pack would have made the hiking a bit faster. As it was my pack was 25lbs with water. I think with a bit of thinking and less food I could have gotten the weight down to 20lbs.
  • Plan other route options – we had lined out three options for getting to Birch Creek, but only one from the creek to the road system. If we had spent a bit of time figuring out different options for getting to the road system leading to Circle Hot Springs, we could have taken out earlier and improved our time considerably due to the slow floating on Birch Creek.

A few things worked particularly well durring the race. One of them was the Steripen – once we figured out we could treat water while walking it was amazing time saver – just fill your bottle, zap, and drink, all while walking! This great for staying hydrated without having to carry a lot of water.

I would (and will) do it again, in a heart beat.

Here is a map of our route – click to bring up the large version in its readable glory.

A super big thanks to Ms Marsh – thank you ever so much for picking us up at Circle Hot Springs. It was truely delightful to nap in the truck while you drove us back to town – Thank You! And an additional thank you to Mike for driving us out to Chena Hot Springs – thanks!

The 2011 Whites 100

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011


“Let’s take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won’t you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!”
– Electric Car, They Might Be Giants

I am not sure why folks need music players on long races. I am so busy keeping the bike on a fast line, eating, thinking about the trail ahead (checkpoints, huge hills, etc), and generally “being there” that I have never had need of music to keep my mind occupied. I have now done three “ultras”, all with a music player of some sort stuffed into that mp3 player pocket jackets seem to come with these days and have never turned it on. Perhaps someday the player will be required, as I am pretty new to long races, so I will, I expect, keep taking a player along. I am not sure it will ever be required though, as after several hours have gone by music just starts to randomly play in my head, and fortunately I always seem to like the songs. During the last hours of my Whites 100 I had several They Might Be Giants songs stuck in my head from albums I have been listening to with the Twins. Somewhere between the final checkpoint and the trail shelter the “Electric Car” started playing in my head, keeping me entertained while I pushed up the Wickersham Wall and a short while later finished the 100.

The race started on a Sunday morning, so on Saturday I packed up the bike and got everything ready to go. I took a short test ride around the local trails and bumped into the eventual fourth place finisher who was on a similar quick jaunt to make sure the wheels still spun and other bike bits all still worked. Everything seemed in order, so I loaded the bike into the truck, and spent the rest of the day with the twins and Nancy. In the evening I headed to bed early, but soon found I was much too excited to actually sleep, and so I kept Nancy up with my tossing and turning.

Eventually the morning arrived and we headed out after leaving the Twins still sleeping away in their beds with a friend. We headed out of town after picking up Tom, and in a little less than a hour we arrived at the start of the race. The trailhead was full of excitement and activity, with folks unloading their bikes, skis, and sleds. Eventually everyone lined up at the start, and after a count down everyone was off. The start of the race was a bit of a mad house – lots of skiers and bikers heading up hill on a narrow trail. I ended up pushing for the first quarter mile or so before things thinned out enough that the folks were actually moving fast enough to warrant riding. The trail was very, very fast – wonderfully hard and good riding.

My goal for this race was to push my self a bit more than I normally do – the last two 100 mile races I have done I did in a pretty mellow conservative style and didn’t push to hard in order to make sure I didn’t completely collapse before the end. The end result was I finished with quite a bit of energy left and the feeling that perhaps I should have gone a bit harder, so for this race the idea was to push a bit harder and see how things go. I hoped to reach the high point of the race, the Cache Mt divide, before the afternoon when I expected things to get pretty soft and warm. Once over the divide the trail is sheltered by mountains and trees, so I expected it would remain pretty firm even durring mid day, so the riding would still be good durring the warm part of the day. Or so I hoped anyway. I reached the first checkpoint fairly quickly and past a number of skiers on the way. The skiers were really hauling, but the firm snow definitely gave bikers the edge.

After about two hours I reached the first checkpoint, where I signed in and out right away, and headed back out. Soon after the checkpoint I dropped my camera after passing a skier and that was the end of the photos. I passed several skiers and one biker before reaching the next checkpoint around noon. Checkpoint number two, Cache Mt cabin, was staffed by several happy souls, including one fellow, Bob, who had skied the race the year prior. I did a quick check in, topped off with water, grabbed a foil wrapped baked potato, and headed back out. The next 10 miles of the course are gradually uphill and eventually lead to the highest point on the race, Cache Mt divide. This section of trail always seems to take forever on skis, but zoomed by on a bike in the race. I had pretty much assumed I would be pushing up this hill, and was very, very surprised it could be almostly completely ridden. It appears from the tracks that the leading bikers rode the entire way up – alas I was a bit to wimpy for that and pushed in a couple of spots. Amazingly at least one skier skied the whole way up, and appeared to have double poled up several steep sections where the trail was narrow. Just before I reached the divide I was passed by a skier, Cory Smith, who was slowly skating up the divide. Slowly skating, but going quite a bit faster than I was pushing.. The divide was marked by a snow sculpture this year, which I assume was put up by some of the race staff. Just before the divide there is a little tiny windswept tree with a single marten set in it – when ever I pass it I always wonder what the trapper was thinking, as all the marten are safely back down the hill a mile or so back in the trees.

The ride down the divide to the ice lakes was a exciting exercise in punchy snow riding, with several crashes and lots of flailing. Just before the ice lakes started I was passed by three skiers going full bore. It would be another two hours or so before I would catch up with them again. The trail at this point was fairly soft and marginal for riding. A biker caught up with me and suggested I air down while passing me, and taking his advice let some air out. I probably should have aired down right after heading down the divide, as it made riding much easier, and before I knew it I was back in the shade of the trees and the riding sped up again. I made a brief stop at checkpoint three, Windy Gap cabin, getting more water and a bowl of meatball soup and then headed back down the trail.

I have done the section from the ice lakes to Windy Gap cabin several times before, but only in the dark, and was very, very impressed by the wonderful views. I will have to get back this way again some time in the daylight again. The next twenty miles of trail were super fast. I caught up with the three skiers who passed me and eventually got by them and on to the final checkpoint, Borealis Cabin. I checked my GPS just before I passed the final skier and was amazed to see them going a little under 15 miles an hour, on an ever so slight downhill – amazing! I ducked into Borealis, signed in, drank some Coke, had some chips, and headed out again, just in time to see two of the skiers arrive. They were making quite good time – I think they averaged almost 10 miles an hour from Windy Gap to Borealis, which is pretty darn fast. I think I have skied this in section in around 5 hours before, and they had just did it in around 2 – mind numbingly fast!

The next section of trail was a bit harder for me, as my legs were starting to feel the effort, but it was not too bad. I stopped at the Trail Shelter, an “unofficial checkpoint”, chatted a bit with the Kat the volunteer staffing it, and then headed out. I finally passed the “let more air out” biker at this point, and soon caught up and passed another biker just before the final big climb, the Wickersham Wall. She was the last racer I was to see until I finished.. The last miles of the race were a bit of a slog – it started to snow a bit and the trail got to be pretty soft, making for slow, uncertain riding. Eventually I reached the parking lot a little after 9pm and I was done. Alas, I didn’t get to hang out that much as I was in a hurry to get home and take over Twin care, but I did say hi to the racers hanging out watching folks come in. After a couple of minutes of hanging out I packed the bike up, and drove home find to the Twins snorting away and relieved Amy of her child care duties.

I was super happy with my race – I felt good the entire time, with no energy or stomache troubles of any kind. I attribute this mainly to my race mantra of “When In Doubt Drink, Eat!” If I started feeling even a little bit low energy I chugged down more water and gobbled up some food in an attempt to stave off the monsters of dehydration and bonk. This appeared to work pretty well. I could have gone a bit harder in a couple of sections, but all in all I think I did a fairly good job of pushing myself, so I was pretty happy. I got to bed at 12pm or so, and made it up in time to take the Twins to school the next morning. In the afternoon we headed back out to the start and end of the race to wait for Nancy.

Nancy was very surprised to see the whole family waiting for her. She had a great race and I think enjoyed herself immensely – go Nancy go! You can read her account here.

This race is very fun, and highly recommended! The folks running it really understand how these sort of races should be put together, and it shows. Hopefully they keep at it, as this race is sure to be a major hit in the coming years.

The Susitna 100

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

I biked the Susitna 100 last weekend and had an amazingly good time. I didn’t finish in all that impressive of a time (17hours or so, which is nothing compared with the 11 hours times the leaders posted ) but it was sufficiently fast to make me happy.

The Susitna 100 is super well organized, but alas with all this organization comes at a bit of a cost. The race requires you to carry 15lbs of gear, including a -20f sleeping bag, a foam pad, 64oz of water storage, a bivy, and you need to leave the last checkpoint with 3000 calories of food. These rules are enforced with a required gear check two days before the race, were the race officials fondle your sleeping bag to check that its actually -20f and check the other required items, and weigh your stuff, making sure you are over the 15lbs that is required. I ended up with 17lbs of stuff, which seemed like a lot, but I talked to a skier who had over 30lbs of stuff, so its all relative I guess. My 17lbs of stuff included a fair bit of extra bike junk (two tubes, multi tool, extra chain, tire levers), a change of long underwear, a heavy long underwear top, extra socks, first aid supplies, a light insulated jacket, and random extras. And food of course.

I also brought a small hydration pack, with a 100oz hydrobak hydraytion bladder. The hydropak bladders are really quite nice – easy to clean, fill, and are very leak free. I passed the gear check without any trouble, and after the gear check attended the pre-race meeting. The pre-race meeting was best described in one word – DOOOOOMMMM! Pictures of frozen feet were displayed, tales of woe were related. The skiers were told to walk down the steep hills. A weather forecast was issued with the prediction of 4″ to 12″ of fresh snow, and the predicted trail conditions were listed as “challenging to extremely challenging”. The race director said that the last time the conditions were like this half the field scratched. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned. I drove to my folks house were I was staying after the gear check and pre race meeting were over, thinking that this whole thing might have been a mistake – pushing my bike 100 miles was not something I was all that excited about. The next day I had nothing planned, so I visited the trail head were the race starts to check out the trail. There was some fresh snow, but not a lot – about 3″ of snow on the trail, with a very hard base under that – not too big of a deal for biking. I had brought skis on the off chance things got too soft to bike, and the evening before the race I waxed them up and tossed them into the truck just incase. This turned out to be unneeded. I headed out to the race start a little early to check out the trail and was pretty happy with what I saw – it had quite a bit of traffic after the snowfall, and was fairly hard. I parked the truck and got my bike out, then talked to several of the racers who were parked nearby.

Rumor had it that a lodge that serves as a checkpoint for the race had called the race director and related no snow at all had fell recently, and since it was below 0f, the trail was fast and hard. I was quite relieved, and kept the skis in the truck, and soon enough I was lined up at the start line with all the others, and then we were off! The first several miles were complete madness – lots of skaters and bikers flailing around on a narrow punchy trail with small rolling hills. I let two skaters by, then instantly regretted it as they slowed down to a crawl while climbing the several short hills. Eventually I clued in and just started passing folks as soon as they slowed down, which made things much faster. After three miles or so the course turned onto a hard packed road for several miles, and there I kicked into high gear to get passed as many of the skaters as possible, in hopes of not getting stuck behind them again. They appeared to be moving along at a fast clip, and I tried to give a positive word each time I passed one of them. That got me several stink eyes and one flabbergasted look. For the most part attempting to talk to folks was a bad idea – I have a nervous caffeine driven motor mouth, and it was out in full force. The trail turned off the road onto what appeared to be a very wide survey cut or road of some sort, and then eventually though some swamps and narrowish trails before dumping onto a slue connected to Flathorn lake.

Up to this point the trail had been very ridable for the most part – it was occasionally a bit punchy, but otherwise was pretty nice. The first several miles were pretty soft, but since everyone was going so slow, it didn’t make a difference – if I bogged down I just jumped off and started pushing. I could apparently push my bike faster than the folks in front of me were riding, so it was not a big deal. One I hit flathorn lake things really sped up – the trail on the lake was rock hard and with all the bikers in front of me, it was easy to follow the most productive lines.

I made it to the first checkpoint, then checked in and out, and was back on the trail as fast as was possible. The next bit of trail was pretty scenic, but a bit boring.

It was completely flat, except for one short drop onto the susitna river.

Up to this point I was wondering about the hills of doom they warned us about at the pre-race meeting. There had been several little drops but nothing scary on a bike, and only one would have been anything to think about on skis. The drop onto the Su is called the “wall of death”, so I expected something pretty spectacular. Alas, I was disappointed – it was a very short (perhaps 20ft or so) , moderately steep decent with a huge runout at the bottom. It was no problem on a bike and would have been fun on skis. Perhaps it is different other years – I didn’t ask anyone as I was not sure how to politely ask if this was the hill everyone was all excited about. After the Wall Of Death the I continued up the Susitna River, until the confluence of the Yentna River, then headed up the Yentna to Luce’s. Riding on the river was a bit strange – very, very, flat, a bit windy, and super bright. I had never biked on anything quite like this before, so I was a new experience for me. The trail was very hard and fast during this section, making for nice and fast riding. Just before the hitting the Yentna, another biker from Fairbanks, Kevin B, blew past me speeding away. For rest of the race I would see his tracks, as he was one of two racers on narrowed tired bikes. Upon reaching Luce’s I headed up the bank, ducked into the lodge, and bought two Dr Peppers. I chugged them down, then headed back to get on down the trail. I was actively attempting to keep my time at checkpoints down to as little as possible – last year in the Whites 100 I spent a ton of time malingering at the checkpoints and I am not sure it was all that productive. The other major thing I learned from the Whites 100 was “Eat, Drink, Eat!” – I got fairly dehydrated in that race and it really took a toll on me, so while doing the Su I made a effort to drink a lot, and eat when ever possible. When it doubt – Eat, Drink! It seemed to work pretty well – I felt really good the whole race, and never suffered from energy problems. After leaving Luce’s the trail continues up the Yentna, then turns off and heads up into some swampy spruce forests to Alexander Lake. The trail on the Yentna past Luce’s was quite a bit softer but still quite rideable. Once the trail turned off the river things got pretty soft and punchy.

This was not helped by the several packs of large snow machines on the trail that kept the trail pretty churned up. I ended up pushing quite a bit in this section, which was slow but not the end of the world. It felt pretty slow, and I kept thinking that everyone would pass me by, however no one passed me. In fact, on the way in I only saw racers coming out. The lead racers, a trio of bikers, were in a tight pack with determined expressions on their faces – they looked pretty intent. I said something along the lines of “Wow – you guys are zooming!” to the last of the three and got a “ARRRGGGG!!!” out of him in response. They did not look like they were having fun.. I however was having a blast – the trail was pretty soft and it was a bit windy, but it was nice and sunny, with great views of Denali in the distance.

Eventually I made it to Alexander Lake, but not before encountering Sean Grady heading out. I read Sean’s blog, but had not meet him in person Sean appeared to be in touring mode due to the his upcoming trip to Nome during the ITI. Alexander Lake was very windy but very scenic. I hit the lake just as some riders were heading out, and seeing them ride across the lake though the blowing snow was pretty epic.


(This is the last picture as it was soon dark and I finished before dawn. )
I ducked into the cabin at the checkpoint, drank several cups of cocoa, a cup of soup, filled up my hydration bladder, and headed back out. I spent about 25 minutes or so at the checkpoint. The ride back out to the Yentna River was much more fun than the ride in – the wind was at my back and it had gotten a bit colder, letting the trail firm up a bit, and it was now largely ridable. On the way out I past lots and lots of racers heading the other way. I tried to give a friendly word to most of them but alas, I am not sure it was all that appreciated that much – I got off the trail to let the lead skier by and as he passed congratulated him on making good time and got a loud groan in response. The skiers looked miserable – the first pack were attempting to skate and it appeared to be a bit of a slog due to punchy trails and hard, cold snow. Eventually I reached the Yentna and there I encountered my first runner (or walker as was in his case). The Yentna was much more firm than on the way in, and with the super nice tailwind I zoomed downriver to Luce’s, were I ducked in for spaghetti and two more Dr Peppers – yum, yum! Luce’s had some folks in it, but it was not as busy as I expected – there were a handful of skiers and several non-race related snowmachiners hanging around. I talked to several skiers who appeared to be having a good time. After eating I headed back out, and started back down the trail. This point of the race was pretty sureal – the race course was now illuminated by all the racer’s headlights heading up river – it looked like stream of little fire flies. The trail was now pretty hard hard and fast. I should have stopped to add air to my tires, as it was getting a bit colder, but didn’t. I checked my thermometer while on the river, and I think the coldest I saw was -10f or so – really not all that bad. Before I knew it I was back at the Flathorn lake checkpoint. As I headed up to the checkpoint, which as on the bank above the lake, I past a house next to the checkpoint that appeared to have a disco going on inside – the Talking Heads were blaring and lights were flashing away. The checkpoint was pretty welcome – at this point my legs were starting to feel the effort and I was really looking forward to the jambalaya that was suposed to be served here. I dashed inside, were I was surprised to see Sean Grady again. He was relaxing in a chair talking bike stuff with the checkpoint staff and hanging out while his stuff dried. I plopped down, had two or three bowls of jambalaya, two cokes, and after a little over a hour of malingering, I headed back out to the finish line. I probably should have spent less time at this checkpoint, and perhaps eaten a bit less, as I was so full I could hardly bike. The next three hours were pretty boring – a brief ride on the lake followed by some long sections though black spruce on wide road like trails. I kept looking for northern lights but didn’t see any, alas. Eventually I stopped to air up my tires and make a less than pleasent discovery – as I bent down over the bike water started spraying all over my chest and bike, due to the bit value on my hydration bladder falling off. Yikes! I got the flow stopped and but when I bent down again to start airing up the tires again the water started spraying again, this time on my chest. As I fumbled around attempting to stop the spraying water I realized my jacket was froze shut and wasted quite a bit of time attempting to get the zipper moving before bailing and just yanking my jacket and pack off over my head without unzipping. At this point I was pretty annoyed and was starting to get a bit cold, and since I was pretty well hydrated I just stood on my pack to squish all the water out then tossed on an additional layer and got back on the bike, leaving the tires as is. The remainder of the ride went by pretty fast. A mile or so before the finish i pulled off the trail to pee and was passed by a speeding racer. I got back on the bike and followed him to the finish line, were I had a fantastic burger!

I learned some interesting lessons during this race. First of all, I need a lot more practice riding in soft-ish trail conditions. When on the Yentna past the checkpoint at Luce’s I was keeping pace with a rider, only to have him zoom away when the conditions got soft – he was just a lot better at riding in the soft conditions than I was, and thus was a lot faster. Definitely something to work on. I also learned that I should probably ramp up the effort during races – I did this race at a fairly conservative pace – I should probably have ramped things up quite a bit. Much like the White Mountains 100 last year I ended the race not very tired – my legs were still pretty strong and I was not sore at all. Some things I did worked out pretty well – I tried to keep the time in checkpoints down, and that appeared to work great. I drank a lot, and didn’t have stomach issues of any sort.

I would really like to do this race again next year, though I think I will ski it classic style – if its is warm with fast snow I think it would a lot of fun.

This race was very fun for me, and is something I would love to do again. The riding was great, I had wonderful clear weather with lots of sun, and it was not very cold. Others might have disagreed about the “not too cold” part, but really lows of -10f at night is not a big deal, and it was pretty nice and warm during the day. One of the only bummers of the race is the pre-race meeting and gear check – it’s on a Thursday night, and required me to come down a day in order to make it. Too bad they don’t do it the night before – that would have made my life a lot easier, but such is life, and it was not that big of a deal in the scheme of things.