Iditarod Trail Invitational Part 3 of ????

Anchorage Singletrack! Photo Credit Kate Ginsbach

Exciting racing consists of a few principles in my opinion.

• Enough participants with differing approaches and strengths/weaknesses. Some folks ride quickly between checkpoints with longer breaks. Some ride at a more slower pace to ride with shorter breaks. 
• Ebb and flow. This can be described how the race begins to oscillate. This sets the table for things to come, so to speak.
• The timing of movements. IE:  when the participants attack and respond, hang back etc. 

Student:  But teacher, what do you do when you can't ride?

Teacher:  You walk...

I was really enjoying my trip across the flats before the Shell Hills. Hard trails, sun and a slight breeze in my face (hahahahahahahahahahaha.) I've really started to develop my pacing at this point and am feeling really good after my rest in Skwentna! I got to Shell Lake and I realized that the wind was really starting to pick up. I stopped to chat with the volunteers at Shell Lake and they were so friendly! They gave me the news of wind blown trail in the most positive way possible. 😅

I moved out of Shell Lake and started to make my way out of the wooded areas that surround it. I had a feeling that as soon as I hit the first swamp that I was going to have some walking to accomplish.

The green is wooded areas. The lighter color brown is the Skwentna River and the dark colored brown patches/spots are swampy open areas. Satellite image Google

Here's another view of the terrain we're covering. Image from Trackleaders website

The above image shows the area we traverse to get from Shell Lake to Finger Lake on the far left of the image. As you can see, it's not particularly steep or technical. What it is though, is exposed. The winds in the Alaska Range are no joke. Not long after Shell Lake, I found myself occasionally walking on the wind blown Iditarod Trail. I was able to ride occasionally and if there is one thing that I know is that you ride when you can, walk when you can't. That's the only way to approach tougher conditions. Eventually I caught Kurt, and not long after that we caught Tyson. We were basically crawling at this point. The wind was whipping, the trail was gone in spots. Tyson, Kurt and I were not racing at this point. We were working together to find and break trail.

Tyson, Kurt and I on our first date. He went to Jared! Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

It took us over 8 hours to get from Shell Lake to Finger Lake checkpoint. We were now over 30 hours into the race. The great checkpoint worker set us up with our choice of chicken or veggie burritos, donuts, and other baked goods. They also grabbed our drop bags for us. All three of us were a little thrashed from the wind and slow trail at this point. We had our food then headed down to the wall tent on the lake where surprisingly enough it was warm. Might I even say comfortable!

I set my alarm for a couple hours, the guys asked me and I said I was gonna get up in a couple hours. Tyson kind of gave me a look and Kurt straight up said he was going to get a decent nights sleep. Haha I thought to myself Ok, I guess I can put my head down for the night.

Many hours later there was a rustle outside the wall tent and in walks Pete Basinger. He made a comment about how tough the conditions were! Anybody who knows Pete knows he's been through just about every kind of conditions. When he made a comment about the wind I knew that we had been through some tough stuff.

Not much later we started packing up our gear, loaded up our food and supplies from our drop bags and one by one we left the checkpoint. I took a moment to chat with Aaron Thrasher who looked a little thrashed (haha I know I'm funny) and the first place woman competitor KT Coward (holy cow that lady is a bad ass, yet also looked a little thrashed.) They each had quite a night getting to the checkpoint. KT had lost her GPS. Crazy!

The wind had died down and the trail is also mostly protected until you're just outside of Puntilla Lake/Rainy Pass Lodge so I was hopeful that the trail would be in decent condition. I was hopeful that we would find the SnowCat road and sure enough we found it! I started down it and not long after I saw one set of tire tracks continue on the SnowCat trail and one hopped back onto the traditional Iditarod route. I stopped for a moment, and realized I didn't really have anything to lose by going on the SnowCat trail. I had done some homework on that route in it's previous iterations and knew that if popped onto the Skwentna River and would tie into the Gorge on the other side of the Happy River. About 5 or so minutes going down the SnowCat trail I was a little bummed to run into Kurt coming back up the trail. He mentioned that there was some Open water and that the trail went down the Skwentna river versus up. I hit the reset button and headed back to the intersection with the traditional Iditarod Trail.

Happy River Steps! WHOA COWBOY!😲 Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

Starting the Happy River Gorge. This is always a pleasant push.💓Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

Getting to Happy River always feels like a milestone for me. It's like taking the first big step into the Alaska Range. Although we had a good blast of wind the night before, I consider the weather much more intense usually after crossing the Happy River.

I wanted to catch back up to Tyson, giving him any gap is pretty dangerous at this point. When the trail conditions are good you need to cover ground as efficiently as possible. I once again started to gap Kurt while attempting to chase down Tyson.

• Riding loaded fat tired bikes is hard work. It's particularly hard chasing after someone as fast as Tyson. I knew that putting out too much effort would cost me, but I gotta stay close to the leader at this point. This was a goal I aimed to accomplish this year. In prior years, I thought that you could save enough energy to cover gaps later in the race. And perhaps that works in regions of the world where the weather has less of an abrupt impact on trail conditions and speed. In 2018, I gave Neil too large of a gap and got hung up in a couple storms. In 2019 I banked that my speed would get me from Rohn to Nikolai faster than Tyson. I didn't count on freezing my boots. Both of these times it ended up biting me in the rear.

I didn't catch Tyson, and Kurt ended up catching me once we got out into the swamps and open areas just outside of Puntilla Lake. I wasn't so concerned with my speed, but more at the thought that we weren't going to be staying at the next checkpoint for too long. As the wind continued to blow I knew that we were going to be in for a long night with minimal rest. I allowed the sunlight to power my attitude and soul. I let the mild temps keep my mind at ease. I tried to stick with the game plan, eat, drink and conserve energy when possible.

Making our way to Puntilla Lake! Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

There was a lot of this happening. The winds affects are cumulative at times, not bad at a moment but difficult after hours and hours.  Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

My intuition was correct. When Kurt and I rolled into Rainy Pass Lodge, Tyson was hanging out and not sleeping. After competing with folks you start to understand or read their activity levels in checkpoints. I could tell that Tyson wasn't going to stick around for long. I think that Kurt knew this as well. I was mentally prepared for the difficulty of the Pass, but I knew that physically this was going to push me up to my limit.

I stuffed some food in my belly, hung up to dry some of my gear, if not completely at least a little bit. It's at this time that you've gotta put your game face on. The Pass is rarely gentle. I don't know much about the Alaska Range but I believe that it's usually windy. Boy was it ever windy this time. To give you an idea of what the Range can throw at you I suggest this article:  Emotional Atrophy in the Revelation Range

I haven't been pinned down yet in the five times I've left Puntilla Lake. But I've definitely pushed my abilities and my comfort levels. Not long after riding out of the depression that the lake sits in I found myself in a gnarly wind storm again. I got my wind gear on, setup my face system and kept riding. I don't know what the temperature was at this point. It's usually best that I don't know. 

Starting the windy run from Rainy Pass Lodge to Rohn. Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

I met up with Kurt once again, and we played some non competitive leap frog. We would do this a couple of times. I realized that this was not the time to be racing like this. There comes a point in this event where you work together. This became one of those times. We were on and off the bike. When we did ride, it was painstakingly slow. Most of the time I was riding in my easiest gear. The trail was rock hard across the valley floor, heck I could see a Johnny 5 track that Nicholas Carmen left a week prior yet we were still going very slow due to the speed of the wind!

At one point I took my hands out of my pogies. I realized that they were extremely cold after just accomplishing a short task and not long after putting them back in I was met with some Screaming Barfies. I could also tell that there was some wind leakage happening on my face system. I tried to seal up the cracks but there's only so much you can do at this point without causing more harm than good. I made it so I was somewhat comfortable and continued on.

Atop the Pass. Photo Credit:  Kurt Refsnider

Student:  How do you stay awake for so long? Don't you get tired?

Teacher:  Well, it's easy to make the decision to keep going when you don't have a comfortable sleeping system. 

Kurt is tough. Tyson is tough. I can only imagine what was going through Tyson's mind going over the pass on his own. It's a long time to be in one's own mind. I knew that he wasn't going to fly on the way up to the Pass, but I wasn't sure at this point what kind of gap there would be when we descended to the Dazell and Tatina Rivers. I pushed myself up towards the pass. I knew I was getting tired. I worked hard on remembering to eat and drink. But I was beginning to fail. My steps, although strong were unstable at times. I was having difficulty controlling my breathing rate. Occasionally, I would stop and put my head on the handlebars or seat. Getting shelled for days at this point was starting to take it's toll on my body and on my mind. It took Kurt and I almost seven hours to get from the lodge to the Pass.

Being Kurt's first time up the Pass I looked for the sign. Not knowing it was right there off the trail next to where I started my tromping around. I walked about a bit, went back to him after giving up. 😂He took a picture of me, I attempted to put a Fatback sticker on the post and failed cause it was so cold and the sticker part wasn't sticking. Kurt started making his way down from the Pass. I had mentioned to him earlier that there usually isn't much riding down the pass if it's been windy and this time was no different. I was struggling to hang with him now. In a bit of a "drunken" stumble I noticed he had stopped and his body language had changed from pushing a bike to one of heightened awareness. I looked in the general direction his head was pointed and saw a flash of green lasers point back at me. It was a wolf!!

You'd have to check with Kurt but I'm pretty sure this is what it looked like. Haha

This is one of the most super intense moments of my adventure on the Iditarod Trail!!! The wolf had popped out of the den not more than 150 feet away from us! A moment later Kurt started walking again and I followed, we stopped maybe 25 feet from the den and looked towards the entry. There were a couple of small holes and surrounding the den were dark yellow stains were they wolves had marked their territory. How amazing is this!??!?!! For a moment I had forgotten just how tired I was and how windy it had been.

But, even the intensity of being that close to a wolf wore off quickly. Kurt and I started back down the trail and not long after the sleep monster hit me hard. I could tell that Kurt was slowing down as well. In years past I've moved quickly through here when the conditions allowed. Not this time. I was starting to have mental difficulties. Every time I made a turn, every time I pedaled with any authority I felt immediate fatigue throughout my whole body. My core wouldn't stabilize. My breathing out of control, I quit eating and drinking. I felt my eyes crossing what felt like every 5-10 feet.

Student:  What's it feel like? Being that tired?

Teacher:  Imagine losing most of your eyesight, but just a needle of light is all that's let in. The only thing you can do is focus on the little sliver of a vision. That's all you're holding onto. You're soooo tired but you don't dare let go of that hope. 

12 hours total time from Puntilla to Rohn. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bummed when we rolled into Rohn that morning. I thought the gap would be too large to overcome if the conditions were good. (muahahahahaha!!! This is why you gotta keep fightin'! You never know what's coming next!)

Photo Credit:  Mike Morganson (2014 or '15?)

I was pretty beat now. I just wanted to stuff some food in my face and make my way into my sleeping bag. When we made it to the checkpoint I noticed Tyson's highlighter yellow 9:ZERO:7 and when we walked into the tent there he sat, looking just about as dazed and confused as I was.

Well well well, looks like we got a race here boys and girls!!😎

Yay Racing! Photo Credit:  Kate Ginsbach

Iditarod Trail Invitational Part Duex-over

First things first. Thanks to Geri, Dad, Sachi (RIP pup), Revolution Racing, Speedway Cycles, Longevity Lab for helping fix my shoulder, Fatback Bikes and Ariel the Mermaid for all the support. Each of you have been helpful and selfless. I appreciate the heck outta you guys. We really kicked butt this year. 💖

I don't know about you guys but sometimes my mind is racing a thousand miles an hour! One positive of this Coronavirus reality is that I've had time to be mindful. About everything...😏

Blank Stare Really GIF from Blankstare GIFs

I guess I should start the actual race report now. 😜

Imagine, a class room setting.

Teacher:  The Iditarod Trail is.... (what do you think reader? Don't worry, I'll wait.)

Rando student:  It's a route that dog sled teams blah blah blah virus blah blah blah vaccine blah blah blah Nome blah blah blah

Another Rando kid:  Balto is such a cute dog!

Aaron Thrasher and myself at the start. PC Geri Hodges

• Ten years ago today (April 5th, 2010) I bought my first nice bike. Just some useless trivia info that no one will ever ask you or that you will ever need to remember. 😆

Teacher:  Anybody else? 

Whatever you thought about the Iditarod Trail is wrong. But also right. You're probably wondering what the heck I am talking about. It's the reason why we adventure. Whatever your preconceived notions of what this race is, or is going to be, is right and wrong.

• It must have been the toughest year? This was the hardest Iditarod you've done right? How many miles did you guys walk? Sufferfest, slog, frostbite, heartbreaking, windy, snow...... 
• Yes, it was hard. Yes, it was tough. I walked about 35 or so miles. Yes, it was windy sometimes. Yes it was really cold in the interior. 

Switching gears, I felt like the buzz was a little thick at the start this year, amongst racer, organizer and fan alike. I think there was excitement regarding the racer field but this time there was a "weather" buzz that I had not quite experienced in years past. I think many athletes seemed to be ignoring the impending snowfall and began about their usual pre-weekend race prep. But the excitement seemed to be a little less from some. (Nothing personal, just my general observation.)

There's some heavy hitters here. PC Corrie Smith

Starting our adventure across Knik Lake. PC Andy Pohl

Aaron Thrasher on the road to McGrath and fat bike greatness! Haha

More Thrashing about! LOL

I spoke with Aaron Thrasher a little bit on the road. I enjoyed chatting with him, I was a little envious of him as a rookie because I have such fond memories of my first time on the trail. :end proud dad moment:

It's important at this time to just get into your natural position of the race but don't let yourself get bogged down in less than ideal conditions. I don't want to be too far down the field as the trail conditions go from rideable to difficult and you don't want to squander an opportunity either. I noticed Tyson and Kurt were making their way towards Ayeshire in a hurried fashion and moved on my way after them.

 I'm always happy to see a crowd gather along the course. I miss high fives. 😞PC Julie Saddoris

More friends on the trail! PC Sean Grady

Making our way to Flathorn Lake. PC Kurt Refsnider

We made our way into the snow. It became apparent to me quickly that we were gonna have a slow first day. Tyson, Kurt and I were riding but with a decent amount of effort and not very quickly. My attention quickly turned to body temperature. The slower conditions, warmth and snow could cause some issues with sweating my gear out too much. Because of that I decide to just keep those two guys in sight. It sounds like the three of us made it through this first part of the race in much better shape than others.

Teacher:  This is the first opportunity that I invite you to think about what the Iditarod Trail means to you. Are you ready to walk your bike? 

Teacher's Pet to class:  When was the last time you dropped the tire pressure down to "wrinkle?" You ever run out of water on the trail? 

Smart ass at the back of the class under their breathe while putting gum under the desk:  "shut up teacher's pet, bet you brush off teacher's car when it snows..." 😏

In the past four years that I've started this event, the lead pack made it to Yentna Station in anywhere from 630PM in 2016 to 1AM this year! After crossing Flathorn Lake very slowly the three of us found ourselves walking. By the time we hit the Wall of Death we were together in a pack. The three of us wondered if Pete Basinger and the folks that went down another trail were ahead of us. When we hit Susitna Station we saw no visible trail which calmed our nerves and we went back about our business. We traded spots a few times while riding on occasional sprinkles of harder trail but we were mostly walking all the way to Scary Tree (Yentna and Susitna confluence.) I knew that at this point we were going to be turning our lights on, pumping tires back up, dealing with water supplies, and back to riding again. Kurt took some time to boil water while Tyson and I motored on up the river. When we got to Yentna Station, we were drying out, having cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup and a couple cokes while chatting nicely. Tyson and I have spent time talking together but this was the first time that the three of us were together in close quarters and we took this time to just talk and enjoy what the trail was at this point. About an hour after showing up we each made our way out the door and back on the trail.

Now I don't want to mis-represent what it means to race. We were evaluating each other, much like a poker game. I think the three of us were comfortable and confident with ourselves and were looking forward to the trail. We were starting to get the "feel" for it and how fast we could do the event in.

In 2016 we arrived at Skewentna at 9PM. We were almost 12 hours behind that time already.

I wasn't trying to reel anyone in but I wanted to just focus on my pace. Thus I caught and passed Kurt and caught Tyson within a few miles of the checkpoint. Together we rode for the remainder of the night until just before the checkpoint with Kurt not far behind us.

• Tyson is somewhat a known quantity to me. I have raced him before and I've seen just how fast he can go. I felt like at this point Kurt had turned on the cruise control and was just managing his energy output. I think I had even told Tyson that I felt Kurt was "throttling back." 

We each had a nice meal and drinks while in Skwentna Roadhouse. (That makes it sound like we had dinner together like it was a date. Haha) It was neat to see the Census workers in the lodge doing their thing. I decided to get a bed at the lodge. I know that my each year my back is really tight after the first 90 miles so I decided to get a nap and to put my legs up on the wall. Those guys kind of gave me a weird look when I said I was going to sleep, but again, I was feeling comfortable and confident and felt like prioritizing my body was the right thing to do at this point for my race.

I didn't need a long sleep, just about 20-30 minutes then about 15 minutes to put my feet up and get some of the kankle action to subside. This felt great! I paid my bill, hopped on the bike and proceeded to make my way towards Finger Lake.

Grizzled ITI competitor. Hahahaha Just outside of Skwentna on the SnowCat track. Notice my legit Bend, OR SingleSpeed World Championship Buff.

The trail was in really good shape outside of Skwentna! I've never seen the Shell Hills in the daylight. There is a contractor that built a snowcat trail that you could probably drive a large tired vehicle on! That's been a common theme this year on the trail from multiple competitors. Seeing sections of the trail in the daylight is one of those side stories that develop each year on the trail. For sure slow conditions are hard, but it comes with its own set of positives. Again, the trail is everything you think it is and not. Thanks Teach.

What was going to happen next was just the beginning of our true adventure. This was just the appetizer...