Part 3: Rohn to Iditarod
After an 8 hour break in Rohn, which was filled with horror stories from the previous 200 miles, we were back on the trail again. I dropped Galway in Rohn for a sore shoulder which I had been nursing along since Skwentna. She had been doing great, but Nikolai was a long 80 miles from Rohn, and I didn’t want to take any chances. Thus, I was left with 14 dogs leaving the Rohn checkpoint. I decided not to bootie before leaving because of reports of overflow several hundred yards down the trail. Overflow is water that seeps up through craps in the ice; the result is free water on top of ice. Thicknesses of overflow can vary from mere inches to several feet.
True to the reports, as soon as we got back onto the river we were met with a hundred yards of 6 to 8 inch deep overflow. The dogs stopped dead in their tracks and depended on me to lead them through the water. Once we got through the water, we had a mile of completely bare ice directly into the wind before we re-entered the woods. The dogs did amazingly well and followed my verbal commands perfectly. The only trail there was to follow were brake scratch marks in the ice from previous teams. Once we entered the woods it was 40 miles of twists, turns, hills, and bumps (very little snow on this section) to Buffalo Camp.
There are several sections of Alaska that are home to Wood Bison; between Rohn and Nikolai is one of them. A hunter has a camp set up about half way between Rohn and Nikolai and he opens it to mushers who wish to camp along the way. I arrived at the camp around midnight and after melting snow for a nice warm meal for the dogs, I crashed in the wall tent for a little nap. It turned out to be a long nap than I planned, however, because when I woke it was light out and I was the only musher left at the camp. Oops! I quickly watered the dogs and headed out of camp.
The last 40 miles to Nikolia cover the notorious Farewell Burn, a large section of woodland that burned many years ago. The result is a tussock and stump littered trail. And this year there was 10+ miles with absolutely no snow on the trail. But we bumped along in the sunshine and arrived in Nikolia around 12:00 PM. Nikolia is the first of many native villages along the Iditarod trail and the hospitality shows that they are trying to be the best. Home cooked chili, a nice room to sleep in, and a wakeup call to beat were all part of the deal.
I packed up and headed out around 8:00 PM for the 52 mile run to McGrath. It was a fairly straightforward and finally easy run. Much of it is on the river, which was nice for a change. I arrived in McGrath around 2:30 AM, and even at this time of the morning I was met by a pack of onlookers! It was great! Among them were my whole family, who spent the entire week in the village of McGrath helping out with the race. It was great to see them out on the trail, and because I knew they were going to be there, I decided ahead of time to take my 24 hour layover at this location.
So, for the next 24 hours I slept, ate, fed the dogs, and repeated many times over. I even took a shower as well! I also got the chance to visit with my family and the other volunteers at the checkpoint, which there wasn’t much time for at the other checkpoints.
I rolled out of McGrath with screaming dogs at 3:30 AM the next morning (Saturday). Although this is an early time for us humans, the dogs love running in the cold of the night and they were moving well. We pulled through Takotna and arrived in Ophir around 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning. It was a cool -27 degrees in Ophir and the sun felt good as its heat warmed us in the checkpoint.
Chaco got to stay behind in Ophir. I had noticed a sore shoulder that he had gotten while running over the tussocks in the Farewell Burn and had been nursing it since, but it was clear he was better off to stay in Ophir and watch the rest of the race from home. I left Ophir with 13 surging dogs around 4:00 PM in surprisingly warm weather. The next section to Iditarod is the longest in the entire race at around 90 miles. Halfway to Iditarod is a little cabin called Don’s Cabin, where most mushers stop for at least a short break.
The first 20 miles were absolutely beautiful: through the woods with good snow, sunshine, and happy dogs. After the first 20, the trail went downhill… fast. Within a stretch of only a few miles the snow pack went from several feet to virtually none at all. From then on, it was a hell ride all the way to Iditarod. The trail was poorly marked and since there was no snow, it was like trying to follow footprints through well-worn grass.
None-the-less, the dogs did excellent and never seemed discouraged by the lack of snow. In fact, they seemed to enjoy rolling in the grass whenever we stopped. We stopped for a good 8 hour break at Don’s Cabin along with many other mushers I was traveling with. I took off from Don’s Cabin around 5:00 AM and the last 40 miles to Iditarod took me over 7 hours.
My sled, which was the sled Jeff King won the Iditarod on last year, finally met its last challenge. Everything fell apart, literally. At one point everything fell out of my back compartment on my sled without me realizing it. I didn’t realize something was up until my cooker fell out and made a crashing noise on impact. I got most of my gear back, but some now belongs to the ghosts of the trail.
By the end of the run all that was still together on my sled was my brake (luckily), my brushbow, and one stanchion of my handlebar. It got many looks and laughs from fellow mushers, but the seriousness was clear. I could not continue out of Iditarod with this sled. Many mushers send second sleds out on the trail was just these occasions. Jeff and I sent ours to McGrath. The issue was I was in Iditarod; the sled was in McGrath.
As a supreme example of the amazing abilities and commitment of the Iditarod volunteers, I explained my issue to the officials at the Iditarod checkpoint and they had my second sled in Iditarod within 7 hours of my arrival. And that was all free of charge.
I arrived in Iditarod around 12:30 PM and after getting my second sled ready for action it was late and I decided to spend the night in the cozy mushers cabin in the ghost town of Iditarod.
To be continued soon!!!!
True to the reports, as soon as we got back onto the river we were met with a hundred yards of 6 to 8 inch deep overflow. The dogs stopped dead in their tracks and depended on me to lead them through the water. Once we got through the water, we had a mile of completely bare ice directly into the wind before we re-entered the woods. The dogs did amazingly well and followed my verbal commands perfectly. The only trail there was to follow were brake scratch marks in the ice from previous teams. Once we entered the woods it was 40 miles of twists, turns, hills, and bumps (very little snow on this section) to Buffalo Camp.
There are several sections of Alaska that are home to Wood Bison; between Rohn and Nikolai is one of them. A hunter has a camp set up about half way between Rohn and Nikolai and he opens it to mushers who wish to camp along the way. I arrived at the camp around midnight and after melting snow for a nice warm meal for the dogs, I crashed in the wall tent for a little nap. It turned out to be a long nap than I planned, however, because when I woke it was light out and I was the only musher left at the camp. Oops! I quickly watered the dogs and headed out of camp.
The last 40 miles to Nikolia cover the notorious Farewell Burn, a large section of woodland that burned many years ago. The result is a tussock and stump littered trail. And this year there was 10+ miles with absolutely no snow on the trail. But we bumped along in the sunshine and arrived in Nikolia around 12:00 PM. Nikolia is the first of many native villages along the Iditarod trail and the hospitality shows that they are trying to be the best. Home cooked chili, a nice room to sleep in, and a wakeup call to beat were all part of the deal.
I packed up and headed out around 8:00 PM for the 52 mile run to McGrath. It was a fairly straightforward and finally easy run. Much of it is on the river, which was nice for a change. I arrived in McGrath around 2:30 AM, and even at this time of the morning I was met by a pack of onlookers! It was great! Among them were my whole family, who spent the entire week in the village of McGrath helping out with the race. It was great to see them out on the trail, and because I knew they were going to be there, I decided ahead of time to take my 24 hour layover at this location.
So, for the next 24 hours I slept, ate, fed the dogs, and repeated many times over. I even took a shower as well! I also got the chance to visit with my family and the other volunteers at the checkpoint, which there wasn’t much time for at the other checkpoints.
I rolled out of McGrath with screaming dogs at 3:30 AM the next morning (Saturday). Although this is an early time for us humans, the dogs love running in the cold of the night and they were moving well. We pulled through Takotna and arrived in Ophir around 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning. It was a cool -27 degrees in Ophir and the sun felt good as its heat warmed us in the checkpoint.
Chaco got to stay behind in Ophir. I had noticed a sore shoulder that he had gotten while running over the tussocks in the Farewell Burn and had been nursing it since, but it was clear he was better off to stay in Ophir and watch the rest of the race from home. I left Ophir with 13 surging dogs around 4:00 PM in surprisingly warm weather. The next section to Iditarod is the longest in the entire race at around 90 miles. Halfway to Iditarod is a little cabin called Don’s Cabin, where most mushers stop for at least a short break.
The first 20 miles were absolutely beautiful: through the woods with good snow, sunshine, and happy dogs. After the first 20, the trail went downhill… fast. Within a stretch of only a few miles the snow pack went from several feet to virtually none at all. From then on, it was a hell ride all the way to Iditarod. The trail was poorly marked and since there was no snow, it was like trying to follow footprints through well-worn grass.
None-the-less, the dogs did excellent and never seemed discouraged by the lack of snow. In fact, they seemed to enjoy rolling in the grass whenever we stopped. We stopped for a good 8 hour break at Don’s Cabin along with many other mushers I was traveling with. I took off from Don’s Cabin around 5:00 AM and the last 40 miles to Iditarod took me over 7 hours.
My sled, which was the sled Jeff King won the Iditarod on last year, finally met its last challenge. Everything fell apart, literally. At one point everything fell out of my back compartment on my sled without me realizing it. I didn’t realize something was up until my cooker fell out and made a crashing noise on impact. I got most of my gear back, but some now belongs to the ghosts of the trail.
By the end of the run all that was still together on my sled was my brake (luckily), my brushbow, and one stanchion of my handlebar. It got many looks and laughs from fellow mushers, but the seriousness was clear. I could not continue out of Iditarod with this sled. Many mushers send second sleds out on the trail was just these occasions. Jeff and I sent ours to McGrath. The issue was I was in Iditarod; the sled was in McGrath.
As a supreme example of the amazing abilities and commitment of the Iditarod volunteers, I explained my issue to the officials at the Iditarod checkpoint and they had my second sled in Iditarod within 7 hours of my arrival. And that was all free of charge.
I arrived in Iditarod around 12:30 PM and after getting my second sled ready for action it was late and I decided to spend the night in the cozy mushers cabin in the ghost town of Iditarod.
To be continued soon!!!!
posted by Jeff Wells @ 11:13 PM
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