Arctic Recreation Blog

Iditarod Trail Prep Update

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:02:12 -0900

This past weekend added another 8 hours for a 20 hour week. This was the last long, hard session prior to the Iditarod Trail 1,000 mile race start on February 24.

This event will take the better part of three weeks as it crosses southwest Alaska, passing through 15 or so tiny Alaska Native villages and even smaller checkpoints.

This journey explores Alaska’s Interior as well as the interior of the athlete. Each will include a myriad of twists and turns, and most are unexpected. Iditarod Trail racing is never about a support team and predictability, it’s strictly about self reliance, adaptability, sense of humor, and oh yeah, physical strength, to some degree.

That’s why I was poundin’ the pedals for 5 hours at minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday. I’m testing equipment, systems, and, oh yeah, developing fitness. I know my physical hardware works pretty well, but my questions generally query my own software. I question my sanity, after more than 20 years of racing the Iditarod Trail. Yeah, I know this is crazy. It has totally consumed my life: purchasing, packing, shipping, training, testing, chasing sponsors, setting up a website… and then: exhaustion, fear, intimidation, and riding at -45 F for 5 days last week. But I’m goin’ to Nome anyway.

IF the weather is decent and the trails decent it will be a good adventure. But one never knows. And there is always the nagging fear. Fear of the unknown is what stifles most everyone in life. The race will be one long, powerful, soul-wrenching saga of my cob-webbed interior space. I may not like what I see. But in the end, I will soon find out who is driving this boat. So here’s hoping for a psychologically safe, non-demonic driver, good trails, consistent perseverance, intelligent application of tenacity, and no 40 below. See you on the trails.

The results of the race will be posted here: http://www.alaskaultrasport.com/results.html

Packing.

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:56:11 -0900

I should have people for this. I’m packing and planning all my drops of food for the race. Finally got the 29’er wheels from Simon on Friday. Got them assembled and everything I needed to do done on Saturday and rode them on Sunday. Pretty happy with the way it all rolls.

It’s starting to warm up a little. My office is scorching hot, at 75*f when compared to my house, which is a full 25*f cooler.

Cold? It’s Fairbanks!

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 18:51:57 -0900

It hit -47 F at my house last night, and even lower in some low spots. That is just bone-chilling frightful.

Riding is damn hard work.

My 7 hour trail ride last Saturday was only -25F, for a high, and -30 for a low. I had to let a lot of air out of my 2.55 Weirwolf LT fatboys for traction and float on the dogsled and snow machine trail, probably down to 12-15 psi, or as the Euro dogs say, ‘one atmosphere’. We see many tires shred at very low temperatures and tire pressures, but the WTB have a very supple, flexible and strong sidewall. Still, soft tires makes for tough pedaling. The good news is that the wind chill is very low at these speeds, so frostbite is not so much of a problem.

I ended up riding for several miles on top of, or next to the Alaska Oil Pipeline. Some of it is buried where the permafrost is not prevalent. All in all, the 7 hour ride, and the 4 hour ride the next day at -30 F, builds confidence that my bike, tires, and clothing will work during my 1,000 mile Iditarod Trail race in 2 1/2 weeks. As far as winter and ground hog day goes, I am pretty sure we have 6 weeks more of winter! Or, as many here say about Fairbanks cold, ’9 months of winter and 3 months of tough sledding’. Feel free to send warm thoughts.

Camping trip in the White Mountains

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:30:58 -0900

The temperature is -15 as I head out on the snow and ice covered road to the trail head in the White Mtns, where Tom and Malcolm will park and ride the 12 mile sled dog and snow machine trail into a USBLM cabin I’ve rented for Friday night. North winds wail, air temperature is sinking and the January bloodless sun is scraping across the top of the Alaska Range, 100 miles to the south, providing only psychological warmth. The road part of this 9 hour freeze fest is one of snow packed or ice covered surfaces, but after 5-plus hours of crossing snow choked Tanana Uplands hills, Boreal forest, the ice-locked Chatanika River and climbing the Eliot Highway to Wickersham Dome I pull into the trailhead. Two mushers with their sleds and 20 or so dogs are returning from a romp on the trail.

The spell of darkness is upon me, along with an oppressive -20 F or less as I deflate my WTB Weirwolf LT 2.55s. These fat badboys are the super in dicey conditions. Unless you want to go for a fatbike, Weirwolf 2.55s are the best 26 or 29er tire: it’s directionally stable, floats well, and has strong, supple sidewalls. I’m going to need all the float I can get on these trails. The next 12 miles takes 3 plus hours, but to my thrill: I’m ridin’ it!

The red moon is slowly rising and the temperature is slowly dropping. Hoar frost glistens in my headlight as I alternate in awe between the absolute desolate, white indifference and the deafening silence of this black spruce-covered permafrost country. Tires crackle out a report that tells me that this snow is COLD.

I make the cutoff to the cabin, pushing the steep, barely broken trial to Eliazar’s cabin. I haven’t seen any sign of people for nearly 4 hours, only two sets of bike tracks laid down on the Wickersham Trail on sled tracks.

Tom and Malcolm have a fine fire crackling, invite me in for a hot drink and we while away the night telling trail lies and watch the scarlet moon carve a path.

Riding the 12 miles out in the morning light is an entirely different world from the dark eerie isolation of 12 hours earlier. Rolling is tough at -25 to -30 F, but because of these frigid conditions we see not a soul.

Once at the trailhead I have enough sense to ride home in the truck. My brain isn’t completely frozen.

Fireweed 400

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:56:52 -0800

The Fireweed is the largest bicycle race in Alaska with so many classes everyone has a chance to do well. Besides the 50mi, 100mi, 200mi & 400mi distances, there are male, female, and mixed divisions along with solo entrants & various size teams. To top it off, there are drafting & non-drafting categories, though you are pretty much on the honor system for that. Then everyone has a different concept on how to make the most out of the extended daylight hours and gorgeous scenery. Entrants are all ages and range from the very serious to the rather portly and costumed. The race begins at Sheep Mountain (which you might guess is at some elevation) & finishes at the port of Valdez so the overall course is downhill. For those covering the 200 or 400 mi courses, however, there is Thompson Pass over the Chugach mountains which presented quite a challenge for the TransAlaska Pipeline. The 400 milers begin the night before all others & get to turn around in Valdez and ascend the pass a 2nd time in the wee hours of the morning. The Fireweed 400 is a qualifier for RAAM in case you are into real long-term suffering.