Alaska

Fan Packages at Winter Lake Lodge available in 2012

2011-12-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

Winter Lake Lodge is offering fan packages at special rates for race fans for the 2012 Iditarod Trail Invitational. Fly out to this remote lodge and check point of the Invitational race and watch the racers come through. Check out dog mushing with Carl and enjoy Kirsten Dixon's award-winning cuisine. Contact WithinTheWild directly at:
info@withinthewild.com

Winter has arrived in Alaska

2011-11-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

Winter has arrived in Alaska. While Alaska's coastal villages got pounded with winds and storm surges in the last few days,Southcentral received a significant amount of snow recently.Temperatures have been well below freezing at night and the rivers are starting to freeze up. Lakes are freezing over and Alaskans are getting excited about winter travel.

" Ice on the large lakes means that winter has come to Alaska. Ponds become meadows, lakes are landing strips and our rivers return to being highways." I am quoting John Schandelmeier, longtime Alaskan here in a recent article in the ADN.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/11/07/2159580/ice-on-lakes-means-winter-is-truly.html

And he is right. Winter time is the time to travel to places in Alaska otherwise out of reach in the summer months.

It is also the time we have our race on the Iditarod Trail. And with the arrival of winter we are getting excited about the race. For about two months of the year this imaginary line in the Alaskan landscape comes alive with mushers, racers,bikers, skiers, runners,dogs and snowmobiles on the trail. We are looking forward to this time of year.

The race roster has been full with a long list of qualified racers.

We still hava spaces left in our winter training camp from January 23-27, 2012.
Upon completion participants receive approval to enter the 2013 Iditarod Trail Invitational.

See you in Alaska this winter.

Kathi Merchant

September 2 Iditarod Trail Invitational updates

2011-09-03T16:22:00.001-07:00

Hello All,

Kathi and I have just finished our summer guiding season here in Alaska with back to back trips, rafting the Marsh Fork of the Canning River on the north slope of the Brooks Range and paddling the Savonoski Loop in Katmai National Park. Seems like summer was gone in a flash. Now we go south for a fall MTB guiding season in Utah. Before we know it it will be time to switch from dust and slickrock to ice and snow back in Alaska.

After two years of near perfect conditions I wonder what surprises the Trail holds for 2012. This is year 15 on the Trail for me either competing or breaking trail on a machine. I have been asked why I don't get tired of the same trail. I probably couldn't explain it to someone who has to ask. I have never seen the same Trail twice anyway and that includeds years I rode machines from Knik to McGrath and back to Knik. Something for racers who have only experienced the smiling face of the Iditarod Trail to keep in mind when trimming gear etc. for this years race is ," It ain't always that way!" You never know when we will be wading knee deep river wide over flow at -30 ( had to throw that one in for you Mr.O) pushing bikes over half the way to McGrath in soft snow, rain turning to wet snow with temps dropping to -35 overnight, I could go on and on but I am sure all of you have done your homework and read the reports from past years. Being prepared for a "What if???" can save fingers and toes or even your life. All that said the best stories come out of overcoming adversity not relaxing on blue bird days. Here's hoping this year's race leaves us with a lot of stories to tell and on the right side of the grass to tell them afterwards. We look forward to seeing all of you on the Iditarod Trail.

Bill and Kathi

The 2012 race roster is full! 2012 dates for winter training camps

2011-05-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

The 2012 race roster is full! There is a long waiting list for racers that didn't receive a spot. The race will start Sunday, February 26th @ 2:00 PM. Bill and I are spending some time in Southern Utah currently mountain biking and getting ready for our guiding season in Alaska. We will answer racer's e-mails and questions about the race between trips whenever we are near a computer.

We have set three dates for our winter training camps since there has been a lot of interest this year.
Those are designed to prepare athletes without previous cold weather experience for the conditions during the 350 mile race on the Iditarod Trail, in order to finish the race safely and sucessful. The sucess rate among the participants of our camps is very high. Participants that complete the camp successfully will receive a spot in the race the following year.

We hope everyone has a great summer full of adventures and look forward to seeing everyone next February.

Kathi Merchant

2012 race roster published today.

2011-04-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

The 2012 race roster was published today. A waiting list will be kept.

Entries for the 2012 race

2011-04-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

We have received many applications by race veterans and race rookies over the last week. Bill and I are evaluating the rookie entries and choose the most qualified rookies for the 2012 race. We will publish the 2012 race roster next week.

On the Iditarod Blog and Iditarod Insider this year

2011-03-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Another amazing year on the Iditarod Trail.
New records, phantastic trails and amazing athletes!

Jay Petervary from Idaho sets a new Southern Route record of 17 days and 6 hours!

Aidan Harding finishes second in the 1000 mile race and is the first person ever to finish the entire route in a single speed bike in 17 days 9 hours and 15 minutes. Both are over 4 days faster than the previous Southern Route record.

Tracey Petervary( the only woman on the course to Nome this year) is on her last 75 miles today to become the first woman to finish both routes(North and South) in record time in back-to-back years.

Congratulations!!

Tracey and Jay Petervary were mentioned in the Iditarod Blog

Billy Koitzsch on the Iditarod Insider Video

Final report 350 mile race

2011-03-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Jimmy Haigh arrived in McGrath yesterday wrapping up another successful 350 mile ITI. Congratulations to all the racers who finished. We had several amazing performances this year. Pete Basinger nearly broke his own record to win for his 5th time. Lou Cobin shattered the women's 350 bike record by more than 20 hours with her 3 day 22 hour 20 minute finish in 4th place over all. Loreen Hewitt broke her women's foot record for the second time in 6 days 23hours 30 miinutes. Ausillia Vistarini became the first female to finish on a single speed establishing a new record for that discipline of 5 days 5 hours 50 minutes. Rookie Lance Andre who finished in 8th place 4 days 2 hours 10 minutes was given the tough guy award by our official trail reporter from the Alaska Dispatch Craig Medred after he talked to Lance by phone in the hospital post race. Seems he finished with a displaced fracture in his leg, a mild concussion and an arm he broke in a fall on the Post River Glacier. Here's to a speedy recovery Lance!

Thanks to Greg Matyas for the pre race party at Speedway Cycles and Ann Ver Hoef and Michael Schoder for the pre race dinner. Thanks Irene for receiving all the drop bags and mothering some of our racers at Alaskan European B&B. Thanks to Rob Kehrer who was the driving force behind the great trail over the Pass as our head trailbreaker and for his always stellar job as our Rohn checker and to OE an Iditarod checker who teamed up with us for the second year to break trail and help out in Rohn. Thanks to all the checkpoints : Dan and Jean Gabryszak and Rich Crain at Yentna Station, Mark and Cindi at Skwentna Roadhouse, Zoe at Shell Lake, Carl and Kirsten and the crew at Winter Lake lodge, Mike and Ingrid at Finn Bear lake, Steve Perrins Jr. and crew atRainy Pass lodge, Nick, Olene, and Stephanie Petruska in Nikolai and to Peter and Tracy Schneiderheinze our wonderful hosts in McGrath. Thanks to all the folks in town, on the trail and in the villages not mentioned who give their time and hospitality to make the race the great event it has become.

Good luck to the 6 racers (5 officially) who are headed up the Yukon, over the Portage and up the coast to Nome.

A huge thanks to all of you who lined up at the start in Knik. We hope to see you back with us for another race on the Iditarod Trail in 2012.

Entries for next year begin with veteran finisher registration April 1st - 7th. Rookie registration begins on April 8th. Even with a full roster of 50 we have never had more than 45 racers start the race due to late withdrawals, injuries, jobs, family etc. Because of this and all the increased interest in the race I have relented and will sign up 55 racers for 2012 to give more qualified racers a chance to join the ITI family for our annual reunion on the Idtarod Trail.

All the Best in the coming year!!!!!!!

Bill & Kathi Merchant

Alaska Ultra Sport

How to follow the race in 2001

2011-02-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

Following this years race

Race fans, friends,family and co-workers can stay informed during the race on this website on latest news, leaderboard ourFacebook page on Twitter.We will also have the message board up again where folks can post messages for the racers.

We encourage folks that come out to the start next Sunday and people along the trail, if you have pictures or video of the racers coming htrough to post on our facebook page or on our FLICKR Photo page.

Mike Curiak's self supported journey to Nome 2010 part III

2011-01-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

This is Mike Curiak's part III of his self supported ride to Nome last year.

Mike Curiak's self supported journey to Nome 2010

2011-01-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

Mike Curiak icon of the Human Powered Iditarod has put his 15 years of experience on the Iditarod Trail to good use producing a video of his unprecedented 2010 self-supported journey to Nome.
Using nothing but his bicycle and a point and shoot camera Mike does a wonderful job taking us along on his expedition from the warmth and security of our living rooms.

Enjoy The Ride

part one
part two
Bill Merchant
Iditarod Trail Invitational

current conditions along Iditarod Trail

2010-12-26T11:28:00.000-08:00

So far there hasn't been a lot of snow. Early December had a lot of rain and warm temps all over the state. Temps have been cold for a while now. The wind has been blowing and the snow has blown away a lot of places. Below is a short report by Invitational volunteer, trail groomer, Rohn& Shell Lake checker Michael Schoder.

" If the race was today it would be the fastest ever between Swentna and Fingerlake. Trail is hard, wide, smooth and not very brushy. There is almost zero snow at Fingerlake, .the wind blew it away. I will be trying to punch up to Puntilla on Wednesdy or Thursday. Trail broke to Happy steps now."
M. Schoder
current conditions along Iditarod Trail

Iditarod Trail Invitational face book page is online

2010-12-23T13:24:00.000-08:00

Iditarod Trail Invitational facebook page

2012 is our 10th annual event

New York Times video about our winter training camp

2010-12-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

An Iditarod highway

2010-11-29T10:20:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

I just read an article http://alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/news/7631-an-iditarod-highway by Craig Medred .
It makes me feel like I was just kicked in the belly by a horse and thought I would share it with all of you. I understand the Iditarod trail I first saw in 1998 was a far cry from the one that the first Iditarod mushers faced on stretches of the trail resurrected from decades of little or no use.
What I did see though was an adventure for human powered racers worth preserving that has become a passion for me. I have been on the trail for the last 13 years either as a racer or trail breaker. I have made bad decisions, wrong turns, been disoriented in blizzards and had my ass kicked badly as a trail breaker on Rainy Pass but never once have I felt the need for an "improved" Iditarod Trail.
I have held my ground all these years against the "gentle folk" who would have me change our race to make it more visible, more suited to the average "adventure tourist" and more profitable but I have lost every time I tried to prevent more urbanization of the trail by the powers that be ie: more markings, shelter cabins etc.
In the trail user meetings organized by the BLM and attended by Alaska Ultra Sport, Iditarod, Iron Dog and the Serum Run I am known as an anti-progressive when it comes to sanitizing the Trail and when decisions about improvements are announced they just look at me, smile and say, "I know this won't make you happy Bill but---."

When you compare the measly few thousand dollars our race brings to Alaska to the bone Donlin can toss the state I guess the writing is on the wall.
Hello Iditarod Highway. I am really not looking forward to going to McGrath on a pipeline pad.
Hope you're getting out and having some fun.
Bill M.

Freeing rain from Anchorage to Barrow

2010-11-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

Once again one of these warm weather patterns has hit Alaska. All the way from Anchorage to Barrow, there are reports of freezing rain. Roads and sidewalks are a solid sheet of ice. Schools were canceled in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. We have seen this before in previous years. I remember 2003. I found the best means of transportation is a bicycle and really good studded tires such as the Nokian studded tire.
This is an article in the ADN today.
Some of our friends in Anchorage and Palmer are finding ways of coping with this fluke of nature.
We hope this crazy weather pattern doesn't last much longer and we return to real winter and great trails.

Kathi

New winter bike race called Sheep Mountain 150

2010-10-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

This December the inaugural winter bike race Sheep Mountain 150 will get underway.
Sponsored by Arctic Cycles the race follows the dog mushing trails of the Sheep Mountain 150 race.
There will also be a shorter 100 mile race.
This will be another qualifying event to enter the Iditarod Trail Invitational race.
The race roster of the Invitational has been full since May, but there are still spots left in these other races to qualify for the 2012 event.

Susitna 100
Arrowhead 135
White Mountains 100 FULL wait list!

Kathi Merchant

Winter Bike Training School on the Iditarod Trail

2010-10-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

Join us for our winter bike training school on the Iditarod Trail. 6 spots left.
Dates: January 29- February 2.

Learn how to ride a snowbike and travel on the Iditarod Trail human powered multi day.

Winter Bike Schools Alaska

www.alaskaultrasport.com

Fall in Alaska

2010-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

The Fall colors here in Chickaloon are at their peak. A sure sign summer has come and gone. I guess the only way to explain what happened to our Alaskan summer is "Time flys when you are having fun!"
Kathi and I have had a great if a bit wet summer guiding season. Our guided trips took us from camping with the big brown bears of Katmai in southwest Alaska to watching the Caribou migration in Gates of the Arctic National Park north of the arctic circle and many places in between. We feel lucky to have Alaska as our playground and our workplace.
Now with cool mornings and a frosting of new snow up high it's time to get ready for what I hope will be a real Alaskan winter. Plenty of snow with a good mix of clear and really cold to set up the trails and keep it interesting. As all the vets know I will be sending out my by now infamous trail reports as soon as the trail grapevine sends them to me. There may be terms like "knee deep river wide overflow", open water and glare ice in the gorge", "they blew the trail up so bad you can hide a volkswagen in the craters" . The conditions reported from The Trail on any given day may or may not exist during the race but you never know. Before all of the "From the Trail" reports begin here is a link to the latest attempt to "urbanize / civilize" The Trail. http://www.alaskanewspapers.com/pdf/td.pdf
Just as every year around this time we begin looking forward to seeing all of you both local and from around the world, old friends and new. We have another good field of competitors for the 2011 race which includes a tough group of trail hardened veterans and a strong field of rookies. February seems a long way off right now but I suspect just like summer that time will fly by and race time will be here before we know it. I will be on the trail this year helping put in the trail over Rainy Pass and through the Dalzel Gorge. I should see most of you somewhere on the trail. Kathi will be race central keeping friends and fans up to date with your progress from a location yet to be decided. She will get to see all of you at the pre race and starting line and hopefully from somewhere on the trail.
As always if any of you have questions don't hesitate to ask.
We hope all of you have a colorful fall and even better winter.
Bill & Kathi

Graveyard of Dreams-Shattered Hopes and Aspirations on Alaska's Iditarod Trail -new book by Craig Medred

2010-07-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

We have finished the first two guided trips here in Alaska and are getting settled into our summer routine. Yesterday I took some relaxation time and read Craig Medred's book "Graveyard of Dreams, Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska's Iditarod Trail". I didn't close the book until I was finished. He did a great job presenting the history, geography, weather and the people that make the Trail what it is to all of us. The story is about the dog race but take away the dogs and it could have been written about all of us who come back year after year to enjoy life in its simplest form eating, drinking, sleeping, moving, facing and hopefully overcome the challenges the Trail throws our way. The book made me want to be back on the trail today! If any of you are interested you can find the book at Palmer Fireside Books
www.goodbooksbadcoffee.com or at
amazon.com

Bill Merchant

2011 race roster

2010-04-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

We published the 2011 race roster today. The race is limited to 50 racers.
We also established a waiting list.
2011 roster

2010 Racer's write-ups 2011 Entries

2010-03-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

We will start accepting entries for the 2011 race start date Sunday, February 27th, 2011 starting April 1-7, 2010 for race veterans (racers who have finished the race before)
April 8, 2010 for rookies (new racers).

Great race stories by these racers about the 2010 race which just finished.

Dave Pramann cyclist from Minnesota, USA
Sean Grady cyclist from Palmer, Alaska, USA
Louise Kobin, cyclist from California, USA
Glenn Mackie, runner from Texas, USA

AK Dispatch links & APRN Radio, MTB Podcasts

2010-03-07T12:15:00.000-08:00

what-mushers-will-face-on-iditarod-trail

new-record-set-in-human-powered-iditarod

defending-champ-defeated-in-iditarod-trail-invitational

human-powered-iditarod-reaches-rainy-pass

Alaska nightly news on APRN bikers-bike-the-iditarod-trail

mtbcast.com podcasts

Follow the 9th annual Iditarod Trail Invitational...starts Feb. 28th, 2010 at 2:00 PM

2010-02-28T00:44:00.000-08:00

Latest News twice daily
Leaderboard
Facebook

Updates daily here as well:

http://twitter.com/craigmedred

The call of the wild by Craig Medred, Feb. 27th, 2010

The drop bags made it out on the trail today.

2010-02-21T16:29:00.000-08:00

Today was the day to fly the drop bags to Fingerlake and Rohn, as well as our tent, food into Rohn and food into Puntilla.
Bill called me from Willow from where we fly with Denali Flying Service at 3:00 PM that they made it in and out of the checkpoint locations on the trail.
This is great news. We are always sweating this every year if the weather cooperates for flying in the week before the start of the race for flying.
It is still warm out there on the trail, it was 42 F in Willow today.
The Irondog snowmobile race started today in Big Lake.
They go to Nome and then to Fairbanks.
More trail reports when Bill gets back this evening.

trail update February 19th

2010-02-19T11:53:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

We just got back from a 5 day winter bike school based out of Flathorn Lake. Trails were a little soft during the day and with the warm temperatures all the normal places were starting to overflow on the lakes and rivers. With temperatures up to 40 degrees and rain in the Susitna valley things are getting a bit soggy. Word from Shell Lake they got 17 inches of fresh wet snow. Olene Petruska said her grandson had been moose hunting from Nikolai to Farewell Lake and that there was not enough snow to see a moose track. There is a fresh burn between Rohn and Egypt Mountain that has left deadfall all over the trail. The Iron Dog has punched a trail around it and back up the Post river . Not sure yet if it will work for us so don't forget to pack your saws.

There is a production crew making a reality show for television about the Perrins boys at Rainy Pass Lodge. They will be there when we go through and ask about filming all of you. I told them they could not bother any of you but if you wanted to be a star I had no problem with it. If you don't want to be bothered do not hesitate to say no thank you. You will have to sign a release to be on TV.

Craig Medred will be reporting from the trail so don't get caught doing anything you don't want someone to read about. He doesn't need a release. He has also said he will pitch in and help with trail breaking chores if needed. Journalist/Trailbreaker are not 2 words you would expect to see together. We are glad to have Craig back on the trail with us.

Phrase of the day, "waterproof to the knees"

More after I fly the drops

Bill Merchant
Race Director

trail update February 1, 2010

2010-02-01T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

In just 4 weeks many of us will be at the starting line for the 9th annual Iditarod Trail Invitational. The trails are hard and fast here around Chickaloon and so it seems everywhere else too.

Michael Schoder sent word that Iron Dog racers have made it to McGrath and said there is very little snow on the Burn.
Kathi has contacted the village schools beyond McGrath and it has been a low snow year so far all the way to Nome with gravel bars showing on the Yukon.
Nick and Olene Petruska have just told me they will be our checkpoint again in Nikolai despite Nick still being weak from his fight with bladder cancer. They have opened their home to us since the race began welcoming trail weary, smelly racers like they are family. Thanks Nick, Olene and Stephanie. It wouldn't be the same without you!

Craig Medred the Outdoors Editor for the Anchorage Daily News for many years is now writing for the Alaska Dispatch. If everything comes together he will be on the Trail covering our race and Iditarod. He will be using a sat phone and data link to Tweet and Peep and whatever else modern journalists and networking buffs do. Craig has written dozens of articles about the race and even helped break trail one year. He should be able to do better than most covering the race from the trail. Craig asked me to pass this on to all of you: "but as a test-run, i'm trying to get AlaskaDispatch.com to go for full on coverage of the invitational. along those lines, it would help if you all sent the racers an emailing saying we're hoping to cover and Twitter the race from on the course, and if any of them have any contacts at publications or websites -- especially in Europe or Outside -- that would be interested in coverage, send them to cmedred@gmail.com".

For the third year Greg Matyas and the gang at Speedway Cycles are hosting a pre race party for all racers. It will be held at Speedway Cycles (Home of the Fatback snow bike) on Friday, February 26th at 6:00 PM.
Thanks Greg for getting everyone together before we hit the trail.

Drops are due at Alaska European B&B by noon on Saturday, February 20th.

The Pre Race meeting will be at 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 27th at the Golden Lion Best Western.

We will begin loading bikes at 10:30 AM and the bus loads for Knik Lake at 11:00 AM at the Golden Lion. Just a reminder GPS trackers such as spot,etc are not allowed in the race. Racers may use Sat phones and or emergency locator beacons as well as gps devices designed for navigation not tracking.
Enjoy your last few training runs, rides, skis.

Bill and Kathi

Trail report by Michael Schoder

2010-01-29T11:10:00.000-08:00

"Was out to Shell and did some trail work last weekend. The irondoggers have made it to McGrath. Several teams. Lots of IronDog training going on now. Word is that there is very little snow west of Hells Gate. Burn is pretty much bare.

I went up to near Finger Lake and did grooming and cutting. Just took some nippers, and a drag. Things are really grooving for human power right now. You hardly make a print in the snow on the trail, it is HARD. So things are looking pretty darn good at this point. That is scary as we all know what the weather can do.
But the trail base up to Puntilla and around is good, so that is a good thing."

Willow backcountry winterbike class

2010-01-25T12:05:00.000-08:00

The one day winter backcountry snowbike event in Willow this past weekend was a great success. The weather was sunny, but stayed at a chilly zero degrees.We did two rides after the inital interduction to winter biking. Thanks to Billy with Arctic Cycles there were plenty of fattired bikes available. At one time we counted 30 fat wheeled bikes outside the Willow community Center. Thanks to Pat Owens with Vmbah for organising such a great event.

Thanks to the Willow community for the use of their comunity center and WTC for awesome trails!
Everyone had a great smile in this winter wonderland and good winter riding. More pictures here on Facebook

Riding a frozen river in Alaska

2010-01-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

A few days ago Bill, our friend Dan and I rode a frozen river near our cabin.

In the summertime this river is a Class III whitewater stream.
Only in Alaska I thought can you ride a fast flowing river like this one.
You have to pick your time of year when to go on this river and of course you need a snowmachine trail to follow. Just because a snowmachine or severalsnowmachines had been up and down this river doesn't mean it is safe on your bike as well. They move a lot faster even though they are heavier than you on your bike, but we move along much slower.
There were several places of overflow that were still wet and still growing that we had to wade through with our Neos overboots. Neos overboots seem to be the choice of boot for many Alaskan winter cyclist.
They are warm, waterproof and have gaitors attached in case you step into deep snow.

On this river there are sections of trail on a narrow ledge where the river stays open due to the fast current and you ride next to gushing cold water. In other places you have to detour around sections that have caved in since the last snowmachine rode over it.
During the course of the winter the water on rivers drops from underneath the ice and creates hollows under the ice and sometimes parts of the ice cave in.

In one place the route used by snowmachines didn't look good and we saw an ice bridge that a small fox had used. We followed it and it turned out it was a good route.
But we all thought light and it turned out the ice bridge was solid.

In other places the water keeps splashing up against the ice and forms ice chandelliers, they are really pretty.
In some places the river canyon is narrow and there are beautiful ice falls.

In many ways these river rides keep you on your toes, you are constantly trying to pick a safe route, watching splashing cold water run right alongside of your trail and watch fascinating ice formations and animal tracks.
That day we saw fox, river otter, wolf and moose tracks.

Trail report by Michael Schoder

2010-01-05T16:33:00.001-08:00

"Friday a friend of mine and I broke trail on our Snowmacines up to where the Irondoggers had been stopped about 1.5 miles short of Finger Lake. We cut some brush and pushed the trail through, then went on to Finger Lake and beyond a ways. Later on Friday Brad Helwig and Eric Qualm (IronDog Team) got part way down the steps to the Happy from where we left it. Yesterday (Jan 2, 2010) Brad and Eric finished the steps, and got a trail on up all the way to Rainy Pass Lodge on Puntilla Lake.

There was some rain a week or so ago, and it has really set up the snow good. There still is a lot of alders, but a big snow will really help. I expect the trail will stay in fine as there are Iron Dog teams, including Eric and Brad that will keep pushing up to Puntilla and beyond in the six weeks left before that start. This is early for a trail in to Puntilla, so that is a good sign.

There is quite a bit of overflow out there tough. Anne Ver Hoef (my wife) ran from our cabin at Shell Lake to Skwentna on Friday (this trail is the best anyone has ever seen due to the work by the Shell Lake trail grooming committee), and hardly left a tennis shoe print in the trail with no real overflow problems. On Saturday, she was running up to Finger, and postholed through our snowmachine trail and soaked her feet in overflow, and ended up turning around and coming back to Shell Lake as it was -10F. Most of the lakes around there have overflow lurking. But the trails are really set well with a base, biking or running is no problem out there now. More snow will come, but the trails have a great base right now."

Great video of the trail to McGrath

2010-01-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed Mike Curiak's video presentation of his trip to McGrath.
It is hosted on Vimeo here: video

Winter Bike Training Camp at Flathorn Lake

2010-01-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

Bill and I just returned from our training camp at Flathorn Lake on the Iditarod Trail. The trail from Point McKenzie to the Susitna River and on up the Yentna River were as good as it gets!
We had three great folks that had signed up for our December camp.
We started out on December 27 with temperatures near 30 degrees and finished up with 0 degrees the last night under the full blue moon when our students went to the end of Flathorn Lake to spend their last night out and away from our heated cabin. It was a great time riding the trails all the way up to the Yentna River and testing gear, changing tires and more. I feel that everyone learned a lot and I am confident sending them out on the race trail. All three of them are signed up for the Arrowhead 135 in Minesota Feb. 1 as a prelude to their winter racing.
I posted images from those 5 great days under the full moon over Flathorn Lake here at
Google Picasa

More snow in Southcentral Alaska

2009-12-18T18:27:00.000-08:00

This week has been amazing.
We received another foot of new snow. In some places in the Mat Su Valley even more than that.
It will take some grooming and snow machine traffic on our valley trails before we get to ride our fat tired winter bikes again.
Temperatures are supposed to drop to -20 F according to the Noaa weather service.
We snow shoed again up the trail behind our house which was plenty of workout since we had to basically brake the trail out again.
Last week I skied Archangel road at Hatcher Pass with beautiful sunny skies.

Snowfall in Southcentral

2009-12-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

There has been a significant amount of snowfall in the the Mat Su Valley and up the Iditarod Trail. According to reports Skwentna received about 2 feet in a 24 hour period this week. Shell Lake and further up the trail received 3 feet and more.
In the Anchorage area and also in the Mat Su Valley some came down in form of rain, but up here in Chickaloon and up the Iditarod Trail it came down in form of snow.
At times it was very wet snow and stuck to the trees, weighing down limbs with a heavy load, but it made for a beautiful wintery landscape.
This also meant we had a lot of chores around the house wind clearing the snow, packing our trails and cutting tree limbs that were now blocking our road and our trails.

Since we have been back to Alaska we have been snowshoeing once behind our house and it was a lot of work braking out a trail.
Hopefully soon we can start checking out the trails in the Mat Su Valley and on the Iditarod Trail to check on trail conditions first hand. We have our first winterbike training camp on the Iditarod Trail coming up shortly, December 27-31.Several new racers have signed up for the camp
and we still have some spots available.

Summer guiding season 2009

2009-08-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything since last year's race which finished officially after the last racers arived in Nome. Entries for the 2010 race opened on April 1, 2009.

The race filled up May 1 of 2009 ( all 50 spots) and there are about 20 racers on a waiting list.
For those interested in the race you may have to join us in 2011 if you are not signed up.
We will have two 5 day winter training camps again:

December 27-31, 2009
February 13-17, 2010

For more information visit our website at:
www.alaskaultrasport.com

Bill and I have been guiding and paddling our kayaks all summer long all over Alaska since May of this year and will be out paddling some more in Alaska and biking and kayaking in Utah and Florida this fall.

For those of you wondering what Bill and I have been up to this summer, check out our picture gallery on Google Picasa here:

Guided Trips and Adventures throughout Alaska

Great write-up by skier Cory Smith and Phil Hofstetter

2009-03-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

Cory Smith's write-up of the 2009 race part one:

2009-iditarod-trail-invitational-report-knik-to-finger-lake

Phil Hofstetter's race report part one:
www.nomemisadventures.blogspot.com/ITI 2009 Knik Lake to Rainy Pass

350 mile race results 2009

2009-03-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here are the final results for the 2009 race to McGrath in the 350.

Out of 45 racers that started with 25 rookies among them, 28 arrived in McGrath.
Looking at the race stats I just noticed that we had the exact number of starters and finishers in the last two years:45/28 that's a 62 % finishing rate.
Amazing, considering last year was possibly the best year as far as conditions and temperatures to McGrath and this year we had some of the worst conditions ever.

That really says something about the athletes that showed up for the race this year.
I think it is possibly the hardest year ever as far as the trail conditions to McGrath since the 350 mile race started in 1997.
But I wasn't out there on the trail until 2003 and have completed the race in 2005 and 2006 to McGrath and 2008 to Nome.
Bill has been on the trail every year in one form or another and finished 8 times to McGrath and once to Nome since 1998 and agrees that this year was definitely a tough one. Congrats to all of this year's racers that finished and made it over Rainy Pass in those conditions.
I will set up links to racers trail reports, Lou Kobin has already posted one on her blog spot www.larutalou.blogspot.com

2009 results 350 mile

Jeff Oatley bike 5 days 19 hrs 34 min Winner

Tracey Petervary bike 6 days 5 hrs 28 min 2nd place, first woman

Jay Petervary bike 6 days 5 hours 28 min 2nd place

John Ross bike 6 days 5 hours 55 min 4th place

Peter Basinger ski 6 days 6 hours 15 min 5th place

Cory Smith ski 6 days 6 hours 55 min 6th place

Phil Hofstetter bike 6 days 7 hours 45 min 7th place

Alec Petro bike 6 days 9 hours 18 min 8th place

Ed Plumb ski 6 days 9 hours 53 min 9th place

Tim Hewitt foot 6 days 15 hours 10th place on to Nome

Tom Jarding foot 6 days 15 hours 10th place on to Nome

Louise Kobin bike 6 days 20 hrs 41 min 12th place

Eric Warkentin bike 6 days 20 hrs 41 min 12th place

Aidan Harding bike 6 days 21 hrs 49 min 14th place

Billy Koitzsch bike 6 days 21 hrs 49 min 15th place on to Nome

Eric Johnson foot 7 days 15 min 16th place

Todd Kasteler foot 7 days 1 hour 39 min 17th place

Rick Freeman foot 7 days 8 hours 18th place

Robert Struble foot 7 days 8 hours 18th place

Marco Berni foot 7 days 8 hours 50 min 20th place on to Nome

Bob Ostrom bike 8 days 6 hours 5 min 21 place

Frank McGuire bike 8 days 13 hours 22 place

Howard Cook foot 9 days 9 hours 40 min 23 place

Francesco Ghigliotti foot 9 days 9 hours 40 min 24th place

Savino Musicco foot 9 days 10 hours 25th place

Sean Grady bike 9 days 23h 25min 26th place

George Azarias bike 10 days 9 hrs 40 min 27th place

Roger Leavesley foot 10 days 12 hrs 30 min 28th place

Message Board

2009-03-08T11:07:00.001-07:00

Please put your comments for racers here since our message board is down.

Kathi

The race is on...

2009-03-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

The race started today, Sunday March 1 at 2:00 PM at Knik Lake. Check for latest news daily for the latest updates from the trail.

Kathi

Winter Training Camp II and Su 100 race

2009-02-19T21:59:00.001-08:00

Bill and I went out to Point McKenzie to set up our winter training camp on Friday afternoon. We had only 2 students Kevin Hill from Canada and Yair Kellner from Australia, but we had a great time with them despite the warm weather and all the new snow on the trail. Gear testing was all about how it worked in this soggy wet conditions. I was actually able to watch the start of the Susitna 100 race and the Little Su 50 K race at the Point McKenzie store. I met a lot of our friends that were in the race. The trails for the race were soft and rather slow, despite that the bikers Bill Fleming, Greg Matayas and Janice Tower in the 100 mile and Billy Koitzsch in the 50 K finished in an amazing time. The skiers were definetly having the edge this year with snowy trails and warm temperatures perfect for sking. We cheered on racers from our camp in the trees just before Flathorn Lake and spent 5 days out on the trail testing gear and riding the trail to the Yentna River where Kroto Slough joins the trail on Tuesday when the trails finally firmed up some. Despite a tire failure on one of the bikes and a broken snow machine the winter school was a great success.
Thanks to Kevin Hill and Yair Kellner who were great campers and riders!

How different it can be,last week in Willow with -20 F and this week at up to 35 F.
We met Eric Parsons and Brij Potnis on the trail and had a good visit.

Conditions can vary so much. They are supposed to get two more feet of snow in the Alaska Range, we will see what this year's race has to offer us. It is never the same twice for sure.

We eat well!

2009-02-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

It has been very busy for us gearing up for the 9th annual Iditarod Trail Invitational.
We were able to sneak up to Willow for the 25 mile Va Moose bike race.
The last year and this year so far has been really good to us. The race roster filled up early in November of 2008. Our first winter training camp in November on the Iditarod Trail was a success and we had a great article and video in the New York Times. It has been so exciting to see the winterbike scene and winter ultra races grow so much over the last few years.
The race is growing in popularity locally, with more bike shops in Anchorage offering snow bikes And other smaller winter races such as the 25 mile bike race in Willow during the Willow Winter Carnival, a full Susitna 100 and Su 50K race
AND in the Lower 48 with new and exciting winter races such as the Arrowhead 135 in Minesota
And even overseas, with more international athletes signed up this year.
There has also been a lot of interest already for the 2010 and the 2011 races.
I decided to take a year off from racing myself and will be reporting from McGrath this year.
I think it will be great to see the athletes ariving into McGrath and interview them and post pictures on the website. It will give the race live reporting and what is going on the race course.
I am truly looking forward to that opportunity again.
Even though I am not on the trail racing I will be out there with the racers.
We will have a leaderboard, message board, sleepmonsters reports and MTB podcasts again.
I will post the links to all those sites on the website before the race.
Starting Saturday we will be out on the Iditarod Trail again for another 5 day winterbike training camp through Fabruary 18th.
I will be at the Point McKenzie store and watch the start of the Susitna 100 on the 14th at 9:00 AM where so many of our friends will be that have signed up the the 100 mile race.
On Saturday Feb. 21 we will collect all the drop bags for Fingerlake, Rohn and for the Nome racer's Iditarod drop at Alaskan European B&B at 3107 Cottonwood Street.
Bill will take those and the food & supplies for Puntilla and Rohn to Willow the next day to fly them out to the checkpoint locations with Denali Flying Service.
Our pre race meeting will be February 28th, at the Golden Lion Best Western Hotel in the Kenya Room at 2:00 PM.
It will be a very busy time for us between now and then, but it is always the most exiting time of the year for sure.
The big bus will leave the Golden Lion Best Western Hotel at 11:00 AM Sunday morning March 1 and take all the racers to the starting line on Knik Lake.
But finally the race will take off at Knik Lake on March 1 at 2:00 PM.
Looking forward to seeing everyone off again for another great race!

Kathi

You Tube Video

2009-02-10T16:17:00.000-08:00

Bill posted a video on You Tube from footage we took during our race to Nome in 2008.
Wheels in the Wind

Winterbike Training Camp

2008-12-06T17:14:00.001-08:00

We just got back from 5 days out on the trail. We had 4 students for our early winter training course. I had the pleasure of working with Aidan Harding from the UK and George Azarias from Australia living in New York City about riding a bicycle in the snow and how to sleep out in just a sleeping bag and pad. Both of them were interested in learning all they could for the race in March of 2009 and advanced quickly with their winter camping skills and snow biking skills. Bill spent his time with the Whytes a couple from the UK on a tandem bike and guiding the New York Times reporters and photographers, that visited our camp.

Bill and I went out on the Little Su a day early to set up a heated wall tent and shuttle in all our supplies and food with a snow machine. The weather showed us a variety of faces. When we were setting up camp it actually rained on us and temperatures were near freezing. The next day we had several inches of fresh snow for the first day of the camp and the temperatures began falling. On day two we headed towards Flathorn Lake at -10 F with hard trails from all the weekend snow machine traffic .

Every day we went for a long ride with at least one bivi where the students had to pack down the snow out of the wind, lay out their sleeping bag and pad and melt snow for water.

We also practiced riding a bike on marginal trails ( soft trails after fresh snow or windblown trails) and narrow snow machine trails ( Alaskan Winter Singletrack Trails) working on how to adjust the tire pressure according to the snow conditions. Having the right tire pressure can make the difference between riding on a snowy trail or pushing.

All in all, we had fun and enjoyed riding in the snow with this great group.

Here are some pictures from the camp.

Part 5 Koyuk to Nome

2008-04-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

We buried our bike wheels in the snow using the frame bags for a wind block. Bill said I was out after 15 min. sleeping a full 7 hours like a Baby. Only the next morning did he tell me that sometimes during those offshore winds the sea ice breaks loose and goes out to sea. What ?
I was not disappointed he didn’t bother to tell me the night before.
There was a good chance that I would have not closed an eye otherwise.
Sleeping well in the gusting wind and getting drifted in in the blowing snow I must have been pretty tired.
But I have been told that the world could come to an end while I was sleeping in total peace.
Makes me wonder If that is a good thing or not.

I was mad at the relentless wind that had taken away the trail piece by piece. Now there was no trail where there was a trail just a few days ago. I was angry we were here now and not a few days ago.
The head game had started for me now. I didn’t care about the biting cold, I didn’t care about the wind cutting like a knife in my face every time my hood slips a little bit exposing some skin, I would fix it, I can deal with it.
But “my trail” destroyed by the furious wind, gone now, slowing a progress to a crawl.
It was like slogging through a frozen cold endless Sahara. How much further is it to Koyuk?
The 15 miles we had left to walk to Koyuk took a long time. It seemed like an eternity and like we had done 100 miles , it had taken us 29 hours from Shaktoolik to Koyuk.
I was mentally fried. This section of trail had done to my head what had happened to the lead bikers when they got to Ruby and hit the Yukon River. No riding in sight, more bike pushing!
But now I was so close to Nome, I needed to get there. What the heck it just added another day to the trip, I would get some more rest and some warm ,calm time out of the wind and would be ready to go again.
There had to some more ridable sections somewhere between here and Nome.

They have a really nice school in Koyuk , very modern. It was built in 2003.
It was the weekend. We found one of the teachers that opened the door for us and we settled in the library and were able to heat water in the kitchen and use the telephone and internet.
After eating a dehydrated meal ( 1000 calories) at 4:00pm we went to a local video place
called “ Corinne’s Video” in a small trailer. The teacher had told us she also had burgers and other fast food. Another local teen hangout.
We both had 2 cokes, 2 cheese burgers and a Grande Tacos& Salsa with melted cheese each.
Stuffed to the top we went back to the school house where we had left a pencil in the door so we wouldn’t be locked out. Two little boys were playing in front of the school and were trying to follow us into the school. We quickly shut the door leaving them outside, we didn’t want to be responsible for them being inside. I felt bad, they were watching us through the big window.
We had to wait to get our box from the post office the next day since it was Sunday.

Day 22 Koyuk to Kwik River shelter cabin before Elim 23 miles

After Koyuk and the experience with the big winds our timing was more about timing the blow holes and less about getting in the villages at the right time.
How lucky we were to have those shelter cabins when needed most.
Most of them are maintained and stocked with fire wood by the local fire department.
At 9:00 am we picked up our food and batteries when the post office opened. It was not looking too good weather wise in Koyuk and the winds were blowing at about 35-40 mph .A man at the post office told us:
” Be careful in the blow” after we told him we were heading towards Elim on our bikes.
What “ the blow” means is what we got to experience firsthand, us and also the only foot racer to Nome Tim Hewitt who was a day ahead of us. He had the same conditions we had on the coast.
After Koyuk the trail follows the shore on sea ice again and we had the wind in our back for a while, in a total ground blizzard, you could see the sun as a bright spot in the sky somewhere above.
Then the trail climbs over a wooded hilly section on land which was all wind drifted and a walk.
By the time we dropped out into the Kwik River we were getting into the full force of the first blow hole.
In Don’s trail notes it says:” The Kwik River valley is a natural wind tunnel and the wind can be blowing very hard here from the north ( your right).There is a shelter cabin on the far side of the river it gets too bad. If your visibility is seriously reduced or you are having trouble finding the trail at night in the wind, STOP at the shelter cabin.

All of the things described by Don and with the warning of a local we decided to wait it out and see if the wind would die down some. We spent 14 hours here at the shelter cabin.

Day 23 Kwik River shelter cabin to Walla Walla cabin 33 miles

When the cabin wasn’t shaking anymore around 5:00 am we left with every speck of skin covered. The temperature was -20 F and we estimated that there was gusts over 50 mph before we got out of the blow hole which I looked up on a wind chill chart that creates a wind chill of about -60 F.
The outside of my legs felt extremely cold in the blasting wind from the right side. I was brave enough to take a picture of the amazing sastrugi on the trail in the dark.

Looking back now, riding the coastal section is what captivated me the most, it is what biking in the arctic is all about. Absolutely magic and total hell, the moments of horror alternating with arctic beauty. I know I have to go back there for more!
I am hooked. If you stay within your limits you can safely exist in this environment and make the journey successful.
From hell we emerged into this beautiful frozen landscape.

The full moon was setting over the mountains towards Elim and the first glimmer of red from sunrise was in the air wrapping the surreal landscape of a flash frozen choppy sea and its sharp teeth in an incredible lovely light.

The riding/bike pushing was challenging over big loose snow dunes and rock hard bump sastrugi, an interesting experience but slow until we hit the road which was good riding to Elim.
Before Elim the trail follows an unplowed road over a big hill into Elim and it was still 0 F when the sun came out, in our faces we pulled of our hoods and balaclavas and enjoyed the magical view from the top of the hill out to the Bering Sea.

We went to the post office there and then had 4 hot pockets and 2 cokes each at the small store where they had a microwave to heat up food. A little girl with a beautiful fur hat with her little friend helped us pack the bikes and talked me out of one of my reese’s cups.

The riding out of Elim with the cliffs on the right and jumbled sea ice reflecting in the sunshine on the left was spectacular and probably my favorite section.

We opted to call the day early only 8 miles past Elim with Little McKinley our next hurdle and more exposed sea ice in Golovin Bay. The next shelter cabin at the bottom after Little McKinley the friendly postman had told us had the entrance completely drifted in and the snow was rock hard. We also didn’t want to be caught in the winds in Golovin Bay, even if we made it to the village of Golovin, most likely there was no one to be found in the middle of the night or early morning hours to let us in the school. This is something for racers to think about, that you might not find a store open, not get your package right away and not be able to get inside a building despite arriving in a village.
We were grateful to have the shelter cabins on the coast and Kaltag Portage.
The sunset over the Bering Sea in the cozy shelter cabin with the wood stove going felt like little paradise that belonged to us at the moment.
In Don’s trail notes it says:” Enjoy the trees-they’re the last ones you’ll see until you get to White Mountain.
” Little McKinley takes you up to 1000 feet elevation and is very exposed.”

Day 24 Walla Walla shelter cabin to White Mountain 38 miles

We left the shelter cabin before daylight.
When we started climbing up towards the top of the 1000 feet high Little McKinley we could see that the wind had been blowing up here recently, we had made the right decision, Tim’s tracks were completely gone and again we saw the signs of high winds. We crested the top just at sunrise, again beautiful lighting and all the windswept slopes illuminated in pink.

We had a great view of Golovin Bay ahead of us and a fast decent down the other side on hard pack to the Little McKinley shelter cabin. The postmaster in Elim had told us it was drifted in at the door which had been left open and the entrance was two thirds drifted in with piled up snow and tracks going over the top. Was it Tim’s?
It was here where we got out of the wind for the first time since 13 miles before Shaktoolik and I told Bill how pleasant a day it was pulling off my balaclava and hood. I looked down at my thermometer on my bike and it was -29 F. I knew then we had some really cold winds for the last 4 days if -29 F feels really comfortable.

Riding Golovin Bay was fun again, we stayed more on the crunchy sea ice since the actual trail had more packed snow on it and was slower.

About 3-4 miles out of the tiny Eskimo village of Golovin a young man on a four wheeler came out to check on us. He though it was a villager in trouble walking back. When we got into Golovin the young man showed up again and told us we were welcome at his mother in law’s house on top of the hill.
She fed us sourdough pancakes and cereal and gave Bill black Muktuk for trail snacks.
It is made from Bowhead whale which she got from relatives from one of the islands. We sat for a while and enjoyed the local hospitality and listened to how they live on the coast and hunt Beluga whales in Golovin bay.
It is amazing to me that the native people have survived in this harsh environment for thousands of years and are such hardy, friendly people.
I called ahead to the school in White Mountain and the local teacher Jack Adams that answered the phone invited us into his home.
As we headed across Golovin Bay our constant companion the crosswind was back again.
Upon arriving in White Mountain about 5:00 pm we found out the post office had closed at 3:00 pm.

When we walked in the teacher’s house the two sons were cooking up some fresh caribou meat and King Crab they just caught. The postmaster had seen us and called the teacher’s house telling us he was back at the Post Office and could give us our supply package.
Later that night we tasted dried bearded seal dipped in seal oil, they call that black meat. We also had dry fish dipped in seal oil.

Day 25 White Mountain- to Nome 77 miles

When we were packing our bikes before daylight there was light flurries . The temperature was -15 F and the teacher had to leave the house early to get ready for a big school biathlon meet. He was concerned that with all the teams flying in from the surrounding villages the event might have to be canceled due to the wind. Here they had spent $60.000 on flight charters and the kids were on their way, the little airport was going to be busy all morning. They were worried about frostbite for these athletes. And here we went.

The trail follows the Fish River before it crossed another open area of tundra and then climbs into the Topkok hills.
It was windblown but we cranked away anyway hoping to get across that open section and over Topkok before the winds got worse again. When it was blowing 30-35 mph we were happy , it wasn’t too bad.
We got lucky over Topkok and actually got to ride quite a bit. The Bering Sea was visible in places and we enjoyed the sunny but breezy day.
Lenticular clouds were looming above the Bering Sea, we had more coming on our last leg before Nome.

We saw a fox and had a ball down the hill that takes you to the beach where you follow the shore all the way to Nome.
There is an other shelter cabin in these hills where the door was blocked by snow and it was unusable.

Our plan was to make water from snow and eat a meal at the Topkok shelter cabin and then push on into Nome that night. It had only taken us 6 hours from White Mountain to the shelter cabin.
By the time we were done eating and making water we walked outside looking towards Nome and Cape Nome had disappeared and a white curtain had come up between us an Nome.
A guy on a snow machine marking the trail for the upcoming dog race from Nome to Candle and back ( only happens every 25 years )stopped and warned us
“Don’t Go.”
“ I thought I was getting blown out to sea with my machine and sled.”
So we got our sleeping bags spread on the bunk beds and put on our parkas since there was no wood left to make a fire in the wood stove.
While I was laying there disappointed that we were stuck again I was reading the notes that covered the entire walls and bunks with notes from many past years of stranded mushers and other trail travelers.
“ Day 3 still blowing like hell.
“Day 4 still blowing …running out of coffee.”
Another one read:
“ Blowing like hell.17 people holed up here.
Running out of dog food.”
“ Day 4 got a food delivery.”
I was tired of waiting, I felt good, the Iditarod Trail was not quite ready to open the gates to let me on through to reach my goal…Nome. It had been 7 days of wind, I wanted to be finished, not add another day.
Almost there , I wanted to get there soon.

After about 3 hours we walked outside and the visibility towards Cape Nome had improved. So we packed up and dashed out hoping we had about 2 hours to get through what is known as the Solomon blow hole.
Just as we got to Tommy Johnson’s cabin the curtain came back up and a couple on a snow machine stopped after passing us to cover up every piece of skin.
The sky looked threatening with clouds and a strange color that just didn’t look very good.
And then we took off into the Vortex.
Another super blaster.
We pushed out bikes on the windy side at a 45 degree angle at times locking it in against our hip.
Bill had warned me that if I lost my bike and the wind took it out to sea I would not be the first woman cycling to Nome without the bike.
Then we got out of the blow hole with winds back to our friendly 30-35 mph breeze on our right cheek.
We passed the Safety Roadhouse in the dark, it had shut down after Iditarod and was going to reopen for the All Alaska Sweepstakes Dog Race.
Rounding Cape Nome we could see the lights of town still 15 miles away.
The last 5 miles were the longest when the wind turned into a headwind.
We arrived just before 3:00 am. I had reached my goal after 25 days 12 hours and 58 minutes as first female cyclist to Nome in the centennial year of the Iditarod Trail.
I needed to get off the deserted streets in Nome, because for the first time in 25 days I was getting cold, I knew it was ok now. We got a room at the Nome Nugget and I stood under the hot shower for a long time.
We ate the last of our dehydrated meals since there was no food to be found that hour in Nome. And it was delicious.
Phil Hofstetter, a racer from Nome had us over for a get together with guitar players at his house with a warm welcome that night.
Thanks so much Phil!

Our neighbors Pat & Frankie had made this sign for us and put it on our cabin in Chickaloon,
it meant so much to us.
I feel very lucky that I have made it to Nome. Winter Biking has been a lifestyle with me for the last 6 years, ever since I have met Bill. We have done a lot of winter biking expeditions together in Alaska and in the Canadian Arctic. Most of our base training trips are 20 to 30 day long mountain bike trips in the Southwest USA. In 2005 we did the 2500 mile long Great Divide MTB Route along the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico in 32 days. Last fall I designed a 1000 mile route from Salt Lake City, Utah to Tucson, Arizona through the mountains that involved a lot of bike pushing with loaded bikes since some of the trail was steep horse trails in the mountains. Little did I know then how well it really prepared us for the Nome push this year.
I estimate that we pushed our bikes one third, we rode one third and one third was marginal riding in granny gear. As far as temperatures we had 35 above and down to -60 F wind chills on the coast. I am glad I had all the gear on my bike. When Northern Air Cargo weighed our bikes in Nome mine was 64 pounds without my two 1L water bottles.

On the flight back to Anchorage I was looking out the window at this great big wilderness below I had covered on a bike.
I feel very fortunate for the opportunity to organize and compete in such a unique event and bring the world's best ultra winter athletes to Alaska each year.
I think you cannot find such a challenge anywhere else in the world with a route that takes you through a road less wilderness of such great length and variety of terrain.
The Iditarod Trail is unforgiving and you cannot afford to make mistakes or wrong decisions. The trail is never the same, every year is different. The weather and conditions can change in the blink of an eye. And conditions will change for the worse of for the better, you never know.
Making the right decisions at the right time and being patient, timing things and keeping a pace are some of the keys to success and a body that will hold up to the bittersweet end under the burled arch in Nome.

After growing up on a dairy farm in Bavaria, Germany in the foothills of the Alps where I was shoveling cow poop and hauling it out on the manure pile with a wheel barrow since I was a little girl I couldn’t wait to leave home. I disliked the hard work. Many years later I find myself living off the grid in a cabin in Chickaloon, Alaska without running water. By choice!
I carry loads of firewood up on the little knob that I picked for the cabin spot, my daily routine of doing chores got me ready to push my bike for miles through the snow.
Soon here in a few days we will be cutting and splitting next winters firewood.

The Iditarod Trail is a special place. To me it is as much about meeting the people that still live in those remote places and experiencing all this winter wilderness has to offer as it is about a race.
When I am asked " Why?"
What brings these people back year after year?
It can't be explained but only experienced.
I think many veterans of this race would agree with that.

Part 4 from Unalakleet on and out to the sea ice

2008-04-04T15:46:00.001-07:00

Day 19 Unalakleet to Skaktoolik 45 miles

After spending the night at Theresa’s house we had Bering Sea King Crab and Musk Ox Stew for breakfast.
We have known Jim and Theresa Hickerson for a long time, they both have worked for the school system for a long time.
From Unalakleet the trail heads over a series of hills, known as the Blueberry Hills.
It was overcast, but temperature was about -5 F when we left and the sun was trying to break through the clouds.
The Iditarod trail sweeps passed us here with their four snowmachines and sleds one last time and wished us good luck.
I was looking forward to the last hill that drops down to the beach and you can see Shaktoolik in a distance.

I have heard how much fun Carl Huchings had had on it in 2005. Several snow machines had gone by us this morning and two had gone up the hill, so when we finally got to the last hill, it was extremely difficult to ride since it was very washy since it was 2 inches of loose snow.
Oh well.
The bigger surprise came one we got to the lagoon that is protected by a natural wall from the ocean. I was sure we would be in Shaktoolik in no time. The trail runs along a lagoon with the Bering Sea on the other side.
The trail was drifting in and at below zero we had 30-35 mph crosswinds. We ended up pushing the last 13 miles into Shaktoolik. The wind was bitter and I put on my balaclava for the first time in the race and pulled my hood closed where I was looking out with one eye only on the downwind side.
I wondered it the beach on the other side was rideable, so we wondered over the little hump and found big mounds of crushed piled up sea ice up to 20 feet high but no riding.

We saw the most amazing sunset with a band of flames dancing in the sky, kind of northern lights at sunset. This picture really doesn't do it justice. The light kept changing until the sun went down, but it was cold in the wind, I did not want to pull my hands in just my fleece gloves out of my pagies again.

Before Shaktoolik you go through the old Shaktoolik which is uninhabited today, just a bunch of old cabins.

Arriving in Shaktoolik which is on a small spit of land the Eskimo kids where out playing in the snow drifts as high as the simple houses having fun and throwing snowballs at each other.
And it was 20 below with 45 mph winds!
Only here would you find kids out playing in conditions like these.
Tough people.
Shaktoolik is a tiny village with small houses lined up on both sides of a drifted in gravel road.

A desolate place with friendly people with big hearts and big smiles.
Why would anyone settle in such an exposed place?
We learned later that living on this spit of land right by the ocean put the natives in a place where salmon is abundant in the streams all around them and they can launch their boats into the ocean and hunt for whales and seals. They have historically settled where their food source was. Only today do humans move into cities to sit behind a desk so they can pay their bills and pay for gas to get them from home to their work and back and to buy a lot of things they really don't need.
Out here you see how simple life really is and how these people get by without a lot of those luxuries.
They have a big diesel generator for electricity and snowmobiles and modern guns to go hunting and planes bringing in supplies and food sure, but they still life a lifestyle that is much different from 99% of Americans that is more connected to the land they life on.
Reflecting back on the people I met during my trip to Nome, I feel very fortunate to have met them and their sharing.
Even though I feel that I live a lifestyle off the grid in Chickaloon.
It is not quite like living out in the bush of Alaska off the highway system.
Living in some of the villages is much like living on an island, shut off from the rest of the world. No invasion here by masses of motor homes in the summertime!
Their busy time is once a year during Iditarod, but visiting even during that time seems peaceful here.
Meeting and talking to the locals is what makes me want to go back and visit them again some time in the future.
With the sea ice forming later in the season they are more exposed to the fall storms, the drift wood line is right behind the row of homes, they might be facing similar problems that Shishmaref and other coastal Alaska villages are. Shaktoolik might face this challenge as well and the people might have to move their village further inland in the future when the waves start washing away their houses, beach and soil.

It was getting dark and the school was locked. A local guy spotted us looking lost and left out in the cold.
He started to throw snowballs at the window upstairs where the principal had her apartment.
She came down and openend the door for us. Linda was from Montana and had only been here since last May.
Across from the school was a snack shop that had opened just a week ago.
The man there said “ Come on in and have some fast food”.
Fast Food? Sure sign me up. Bill and I ordered 3 cheese burgers and 3 cokes for him and 2 cheeseburgers and a small pizza and 3 cokes for me. The small room was the local hangout for kids and youths, there is nothing else going on in a small Eskimo village of about 150 in the evenings.
About 15 kids crowded around us and watched us eat all that food we had ordered with both hands.
One girl couldn’t help, but shouted out loud: “ You are stuffing yourselves.”
And Bill’s response to that was:” Sweetie if you pedaled your bike out there all day long you can eat all you want too without getting fat”.
We enjoyed visiting with the kids and answering questions and teaching them some German, Japanese, Dutch , French and they taught us some Eskimo words.

Day 20, 21 Shaktoolik to Koyuk 58 miles

We spent the night on the floor in one of the classrooms and were able to use the kitchen to heat up some water for hot chocolate and dehydrated meals.
Linda chatted with us in the morning a bit and checked on the weather forecast for us and it didn’t look very good.
Wind, more wind.! We were prepared to push all the way to Koyuk with a drifted in trail. The lead bikers had made amazing time from here and covered this last stretch in just over 2 days.
I had figured with the same trail conditions as Pete, Carl and Rok we could get to Nome in 4 days from here.
But the race for us was only going to get harder and the toughest part in the end physically and mentally.
To our surprise we could ride out of Shaktoolik for about 20 miles until we reached the sea ice where you travel 30 miles across sea ice on Norton Bay.
It started snowing, the wind picked up, the visibility dropped to less than 50 feet.
The ground and the sky blended into one, you couldn’t tell where the ground right in front of your tire was. Everything looked the same. I got vertigo riding my bike and falling over with no sense of balance.
Our biggest enemy the wind was picking up and constantly moving more snow onto the once packed trail.
They had more snow on the coast this year than they’ve seen in a decade. There was plenty of snow to blow around and pile up into big wind drifts on the trail.
We were lucky to have the Iditarod Trail markers which is lath with orange paint and reflective tape when visibility went to nothing.

There was a brand new cabin where the old shelter cabin had been destroyed by the sea ice many years ago and we had another one of our hot dehydrated meals.

A local on a snow machiner stopped by to check on us, he was out hunting caribou, he said he only saw some wolves, too many wolves he said.

After leaving the shelter cabin the visibility deteriorated even more to where we lost sight of the next trail marker and the wind picked up reducing our bike pushing speed to about 1 mph in a ground blizzard with the snow drifts ever getting bigger.

Loosing the fading trail and wandering out to the open sea was not an option!

After looking at each other what to do next we decided to do the unthinkable: bivi on the sea ice until the visibility improved and then we would continue on to the shore where you get off the sea ice in Koyuk.

Part 3 Ruby to Unalakleet

2008-04-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Day 13, 14 Ruby

We arrived in Ruby at 2:00 am and went to the Iditarod checkpoint where we sat in a corner and napped a little bit until it was later in the morning to go to Moose Camp B&B. Their checkpoint in Ruby is the community center and we were told by a local that we were welcome to step inside for a while.
Some of the top mushers were there including Martin Buser and Zach Steer, our neighbor near Eureka. Martin Buser actually gave us some of his food he had sent out to Ruby he didn't need, smoked Salmon, swiss chocolate, roast beef, good stuff! Thanks Martin!
After learning from Dan our race director it had taken the leaders 32 hours from Ruby to Galena on the Yukon River which is used by villagers and often a packed highway I was devastated that the bike pushing was to continue on the Yukon River as well.
A decision was made quickly and Bill and I were in agreement that the smartest thing was to wait and give the trail some time to set up and for temperatures hopefully to cool down to more normal temperatures for this time of the year.
We took 2 days in Ruby doing chores and eating lots of good food at the B&B. We went to the laundrymat to put our clothes and gear in the dryer. We figured we had accumulated about 6 to 7 pounds of moisture in our boots, sleeping bag and down parkas in those wet and warm conditions before Ruby.
We heard the same evening that it had taken Rok only 8 hours to Galena, but we had booked the room then and decided to give it another day despite the good news.
We spent a whole day visiting with Paul Claus a famous Alaska glacier pilot and I listened to Jeremiah that had done a 4 year motorcycle odyssee in South America.

Day 15 Ruby to Galena 58 miles

We left Ruby at about 5:00 am and found the first 4-5 miles of trail drifted in. Not again!
Then the trail was hard packed all the way to Galena where we arrived 7 hours and 45 minutes later.
It was Bill’s 55th birthday and we had a burger and coke at Archie’s Inn before settling in for the night at Sweetsir’s B&B which we had to ourselves and the owner had brought over baked salmon, potatoes and salad, Bill’s birthday dinner.

Day 16 Galena to Nulato 50 miles

It was about 20 degrees when we left and light snow. The trails were soft again, so letting air our of the tires would be something we would be doing for one third of the entire trail to Nome.
Granny gear, at times cutting 2 inches deep, but we were riding because we were tired of pushing.

This section is where we saw the most locals on snow machines. Most of them were visiting relatives in an other village and there was a Potlatch tonight in Nulato.
With every snow machine passing us the trail got worse and more churned up, especially when two future Irondoggers past us and then another young kid with a paddle track snow machine and his girlfriend on the back seat trying to impress her. Out here it is not a hot new car but a fast new paddle track snow machine that guys ride to impress girls.
A local couple stopped and chatted with us for about half an hour, then we told them that we really needed to move again. About 5 miles from Nulato the young kid had busted a the belt on the snow machine and they both had walked into Nulato. From here on we could ride again, soft but it was rideable.

When we got into Nulato at sunset, we had just missed the potlatch, but the school’s gym here was also the Iditarod checkpoint and there was still a handful of mushers there and the Iditarod volunteers had saved us some food from the potlatch and our box with food and supplies was there too.
We settled in a corner of the gym and got a good night’s sleep.

Day 17 Nulato to Tripot Flat BLM shelter cabin 71 miles

In Don’s trail notes it says
“ This is another run on the Yukon on a well- traveled snow machine highway.”
Well, it wasn’t a highway, the Yukon River this year was actually a single snow machine wide trail and soft for most of the 130 miles of Iditarod Trail on the Yukon River.
We made good time and arrived in Kaltag after 36 miles in the early afternoon. We had been mostly in light snow and bad visibility on the Yukon River since Galena and it was really pleasant just before Kaltag when the sun came out. We picked up our box at the post office and made another one of our delicious dehydrated meals that we have had every day twice since McGrath. We had added 600 calories with butter powder to those to bring the total calorie count up to about 1000 per meal and they tasted delicious.
After stopping for about 2 hours in Kaltag we felt really good and started over the Kaltag Portage towards Unalakleet, the first Eskimo village on the Bering Coast.
This route has been used by the Natives for hundreds if not thousands of years and is a connection between the lower Yukon and the Eskimo people. It is the transition from the Interior to the Bering Sea Coast. We made really good time despite some soft trails again and some windblown sections arriving at the Tripod Flat BLM shelter cabin before dark. We built a nice wood fire and settled in for the night.

Day 18 Tripot Flat cabin to Unalakleet 50 miles

There was a huge amount of snow on the trail here the outhouse at the cabin had a big hood of snow on top. Parts of the trail the sides of the trail were over my handlebars. Truly amazing.

Temperature was -5 F when we left the cabin.

We had some of the best riding that day from Tripod Flat cabin to Old Woman cabin which is 15 miles and we covered those in just under 2 hours. The Iditarod Trail sweeps were there, 4 snow machines, we stopped and snacked then headed on to Unalakleet. We saw two of the most beautiful coastal dog sprint teams out training. Those dogs have a lot more hair than the modern Iditarod dogs that wear little coats often at temperatures under 0 F.
In Unalakleet we went to Piece on Earth Pizza place and had the largest Pizza with everything on it and 3 Cokes each.

Part 2 Rainy Pass to Ruby

2008-04-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Pass Creek was a bit soft with granular sugary snow, we saw the signs where the Iditarod Trail brakers and our checker Rob had had a hard time getting the snow machines through. We also saw where the lead group of bikers had been braking their own trail in the Dalzell Gorge after passing the snow machines.
The trail over the pass and into the Dalzell Gorge is a spectacular section of the Iditarod Trail if not the most beautiful. You cross Dalzell Creek several times on ice bridges, some are actually put in every year by the Iditarod Trail volunteers in Rohn. Bill was there last year as our trail braker and was helping Terry, Rob and Lisa building those ice bridges. There is a really pretty frozen waterfall in one spot. In 2005 that section was all rideable with bikes and it was a lot of fun.
This year not all the ice bridges were in place and we had to wade a couple of the creek crossing with our bikes. A section of the freshly put in trail had huge holes in it from moose using the new trail. One year the trail had even bigger holes in it from buffalos using the trail in a big snow year. The sun was just setting behind us on the Alaska Range as we rolled onto the Tatina River and we had made it into the Rohn checkpoint 16 hours after leaving Puntilla.

We got another 8 hours of rest in Rohn and left there at 9:30 am at a warm 17 degrees F.
Jasper, Terry, Lisa the Iditarod Volunteers that run the checkpoint in Rohn for Iditarod and go out there early are a super bunch of folks!
Rob is our checker in Rohn in a small tent camp we fly out every year, we are lucky to have him there with the rest of the Rohn gang!

Day 5 Rohn to Nikolai 82 miles

The gravel bars and a short stretch in the buffalo chutes were the only bare ground this year all the way to Nome. The famous “Post River Glacier” was there this year.

I have heard the funniest stories of the different ideas racers come up on how to cross this obsticle on the trail. One told me about bushwhacking around, Rok who had been traveling with us since Puntilla scrambled over the top of the rocks to scout for a route since he is a rock climber as well.
An other year a racer had strapped shark bite pedals to his feet.
It is a very glaciated area sloping gently and very slick, you have to get around a rocky corner, then you have pretty much made it past the biggest issue.
The rock was loose there and I grabbed handfuls of shist and threw it on the ice which made for great traction. Another sunny day on the trail.

This area after Rohn is very interesting in that it is very different from the section before Rohn.
It is in the "rain shadow" of the Alaska Range and most times there is no snow on the ground for several miles and you ride on gravel bars and bare ground. The scenery changes so much from the alpine scenery over the pass. You are now in the Interior of Alaska and when you look back you get a last view of the Alaska Range. From the Farewell Lakes we could actually see Mt. KcKinley and Mt. Foraker in a distance.

The Farewell Lakes are often windblown and clear black ice, when it is cold your tires stick to the icy slick surface pretty good and as long as you don't make any quick movements riding across them is no problem.
Crossing them in the dark on black ice can be pretty spooky.
This year they had a light covering of snow and the track left behind by the lead bikers made for some cool pictures.

The trail was very hard and fast after Rohn with many bumps from the Irondog Snowmobile race.
It was a little technical riding but really fun. Bill, Rok and I were flying down over the hills and had a ball!
Antonio Frezza and Jill Homer were at Bison Camp with the wood stove going.
After resting for 2 hours and melting water from snow we went on to Nikolai making the trip from Rohn to Nikolai in 20 hours. Nick and Olene are wonderful people and fed us moose stew. We slept about 5 hours before going on to McGrath. The wind had picked up after arriving in Nikolai and it was a tailwind all the way to Big River.
We made the first 22 miles in about 2 hours!

We were giggling about the tail wind and thinking how fast we would be to McGrath.
Turned out that the wind had blown in the last 15 miles and made a lot of it unrideable.
The wind blown trails were going to hunt as much later in the race. This was just a little taste of it, little did we know at this point.

Day 5 McGrath 50 miles

Our time to McGrath was just 2 hours slower than 2005 where I had set a new Alaska Ultra Sport female record, where I had slept a total of 10 hours from Knik to McGrath.
This year, my goal was Nome, Bill kept reminding me that despite the great trails I needed to focus on Nome. I slept every night and got 32 hours of rest the first 5 days.
With the same amount of rest as in 2005 I could have shaved off 12 -16 hours of my time this year and possible set a new overall time record for women. I had to let go of it because my ultimate goal was to get to Nome.
I needed to get to McGrath strong and healthy, this was only one third of the trail.
It was hard to let go thinking how long it might be where the trails would be this good again and have that opportunity again.
This year out of my three years being on the trail the conditions to McGrath were definitely the best. Bill would agree on this that the trails in the 350 mile were the best this year out of his 10 years on the trail.
I had picked a year of the Northern Route for Nome since I had heard all the horror stories of the Southern Route which is used in odd years and the section between Ophir and Kaltag only by the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The Northern Route however is used two weeks prior to our race start by IronDog snowmobile race and they had 99 snow machines go over the trail this year.
We took two days in McGrath since the wind had been blowing and there was a chance the trail was blown in. That way the Iditarod Trail Brakers wouldn’t be far behind us.
What followed in the next 5 days to Ruby might as well have been on the Southern Route.
It was a long walk with a bicycle to the Yukon River.

Day 8 McGrath- to Ophir 61 miles

The wind drifts from McGrath to Takotna had set up and were rideable. We stopped at the community center in Takotna and had a bite to eat. At the time Rok Kovac from Slovenia and Alessandro Da Lio from Italy were traveling with us.

This section of trail goes over the Takotna Hill and is really pretty.
After Takotna you start climbing over a long hill and at some point it started snowing on us. We past Mike Curiak on his self supported trip with his 140 pound bike.
We went on to Ophir that afternoon passing old buildings and mining quipment that is actually a road in the summertime from Takotna to Ophir.
Bill, Rok and I took a big spill on a glaciated side hill that was covered under the fresh snow with Alessandro stopping in time and taking a picture of all three of us scattered all over the ice.
Luckily none of us got hurt.
The Iditarod Volunteers in Ophir invited us to stay in an unheated tent which was nice with all the snow falling that night.

In the morning there was some accumulation, but we managed to ride a little bit to about the split where the Northern and Southern Route part.

Day 9, 10,11,12 Ophir to Ruby 170 miles

This is the most remote section of trail with no habitation.
What followed after Ophir was cloudy, snowy warm weather with black spruce after black spruce indistinguishable interior country with burn area after burn area, Farewell Burn times three.
Pushing the bike hour after hour, day after day, no end in sight.
I was prepared that it could take us 5 days and that temperatures could be extremely cold and this required sleeping outside several nights in a row.
Mike Curiak had told me that the temperature had stayed at -30 F on this section of trail when we set his record to Nome. Marco Berni and Wilco van den Akker had encountered -55 F here in 2006.
This year we got rained on in march in Interior Alaska!
We didn’t have any rain gear, but we had brought some garbage bags to keep our down gear from getting wet.
The last night Rok the Slovenain biker was with us, we had gotten soaked, we had a long day of pushing behind us and found a sheltered spot in the trees where we built a big fire and dried out all the wet clothing.
Our dehydrated " gourmet" meals with lots of butter powder tasted delicious and gave us plenty of calories.
My hands looked like I had been in the bathtub too long they were totally wrinkled up from being wet all day despite having the poagies on my bike.
Rok took off the next morning never to be seen again making up a lot of time and finishing eventually just behind the winner Pete Basinger and Carl Hutchings who placed second in the 1100 mile this year.
I think his timing was the best this year to have the best overall trail conditions.
Well done Rok!
This section of trail had a lot of overflow from all the warm temperatures and I was sure glad that my Neos Overboots worked well for that.

The next days we spent time with Mike Curiak off and on. We picked up our resupply that a pilot had dropped off right on the trail a mile from the Cripple Iditarod Checkpoint.
We stopped there briefly only to bump into one of our neighbors from Chickaloon, Danielle a pilot flying Channel 2 for Iditarod. When we got there it was sunny, the trail was sugary, the temperature must have been 40 degrees above and there was a palm tree with monkeys.
After a short chat with some of the people standing outside because it was so nice out, we moved on.
One night we bivied on a small creek watching a dozen of the lead Iditarod Dog teams coming through in the dark at eye level. All we could hear was the little dog feet, the lines clipping along and the mushers whistling and their headlights. Some of the dogs smelled us and barked. It was a view and experience of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race few get to experience, even the Iditarod tourist that pay big money to see them in the villages along the route don’t get to see the Iditarod quite like that.
Much bike pushing even after the trail brakers past us, the trails stayed soft and punchy.
It was disappointing to be on a road from Poorman to Ruby with gentle but long grades and to be pushing along a 2-3 mph. The last 55 miles we covered in 19 hours with the last 28 miles into Ruby of marginal riding.
I arrived in Ruby a tiny little village on the banks of the Yukon River very tired.

Part 1 riding to Nome

2008-03-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

Making it to Nome on a bicycle has been my dream for the last 5 years.
Winter biking has become a lifestyle with me since I moved to Alaska from Bavaria, Germany 6 years ago. I don't have to think much about what gear to pack and what to bring since most of our time spent on local snowmachine routes is spent a loaded bike and our winter gear. I believe that if you train with a light bike, it is going to hurt you adding all that weight to the bike just before the race. Pushing a loaded bike is part of what we do on our rides in the steep hills in the Matanuska Valley where we live.
I have done the 350 mile race to McGrath twice before. Nome was going to be not only 3 times longer, but a lot more remote, possibly with no trail at times, monotonous black spruce Interior country, the big wide open Yukon River and finally the exposed open coastal section. From past stories from racers I knew that in a bad year I might be pushing my bike halfway to Nome.

After being back in Chickaloon for a week I have had time to reflect on the last three weeks that I have spent on the Iditarod Trail riding and pushing my bike 1100 miles across frozen Alaska.

Day 1 Knik Lake to Skwentna 90 miles

After a burger and a coke at the Knik Bar we started lining up at the starting line under the Alaska Ultra Sport banner.
10 9 8...3 2 1 Go.
Off we went heading across Knik Lake under blue skies and a beautiful warm sunny day.
I know the first section over 3 mile hill, 7 and 8 mile lake and 9 mile hill really well, we ride that section a lot training for the race. We crossed Flathorn Lake in the late afternoon and had a beautiful sunset over Sleeping Lady, also known Mount Susitna, that can be seen from Anchorage.

This year there were no obsticles on the river, it was smooth and hard packed as can be. No overflow, the open water section on the Susitna that was there earlier in the year during a training ride was frozen over.
After many miles on the Yentna River which is can be monotonous especially in the dark we arrived at Yentna Station our first checkpoint mile 60 at 10:00 pm.
We had a plate of spaghetti and went to bed for about 4 hours before eating more and finishing up the river section on the Yentna River in the dark and arriving at our second checkpoint Skwentna Roadhouse at mile 90 in the morning at daylight.

Day 2 Skwentna to Shell Lake 20 miles

We had breakfast and layed down to get a little more rest, but couldn’t really sleep. We left around noon with another bike racer Pierre Ostor. When we got to the “tunnel” of willows there was a moose cow in the trail that would not leave the trail into the 5 feet of snow off the trail. She was feeding right of the trail and signaled us that she was not going to let us by. After clapping our hands, blowing a whistle, yelling at her she had moved down the trail to about 200 yards from where the trail opens up into a big open swamp, but she was done moving. She had enough. This was her feeding trail. We were not welcome there, she wasn’t willing to share the trail with us, the trail and food tunnel was hers. Those ears went back and her hair on her neck stood up, her eyes rolling in her head. She took a run at Bill who was first in line with his bike across the trail to protect him from the moose attacking. My heart stopped cold. This was it. Bill was going to be stamped to death by a mad moose cow right in front of my eyes. I didn’t even think she could have stamped me as well since I was just behind him. And if she was still angry she could then go after Pierre. Please moose, take the bicycle and let Bill go. About 10 feet from him, he would throw up his arms and yell really loud. She whirled around and threw snow all over him.
I know that bears bluff charge, but I have never heard of a moose bluff charging.

Bill did not get killed that day by an angry moose cow. I thought for a second he was lost forever. More people get killed in Alaska by moose than by bears. We turned back 2 miles down the trail to Skwentna and waited for another 4 hours to give the moose time to go away. Some snow machines passed through and then we tried again to get through the willow tunnel. We made it!

But here she was again out on the swamp paralleling us on an older snow machine track that was not as firm as the main trail making her way back to the tunnel. She gave us one more angry look.
Pedal track snowmobiles had churned up the trail between Skwentna and Shell Lake. We arrived there late in the afternoon and after a burger and coke we decided to give the trail some time to set up and went to sleep in one of Zoe’s cabins.

Day 3 Shell Lake to Puntilla 57 miles

arriving at Fingerlake Lodge in the morning

At 4:00 am we got up had another burger that Zoe had made for us in the evening and went on to Fingerlake, We passed Mike Curiak’s tent shortly after. He had left Knik Lake just after our race start on his self supported trip to Nome. We made great time with trails at best as I have seen them on this stretch.
Getting to Fingerlake just by daylight we had more food and chatted with Carl Dixon the owner of the Lodge and off we went towards Puntilla. We made it there in 8 hours. The trails were so good this year !!
It is a good year for Nome I kept telling myself. Incredible fast trails all the way to Puntilla, couldn’t have been better. This is the year to go to Nome. The Happy River steps seemed so much easier this year, we got to the top in no time, piece a cake. We got into Puntilla before dark and I could see how beautiful this area was. In 2005 and 2006 I had gotten there in the dark both times. I was happy to get there where I could see. We learned from the checker and lodge caretaker Sharon that the trail brakers had not gotten through to Rohn in two days after leaving Puntilla and they were camped out 9 miles from Rohn. What happened? The lead pack of racers must have started piling up behind them or passed them braking their own trail?
We figured we were in no hurry leaving Puntilla.

Shirley Lake

Happy River Steps
Day 4 Puntilla to Rohn 45 miles

We left Puntilla at 5:00 AM and made it to Rohn just after sunset. We had -9 F and a stiff headwind for a few hours in the dark which subsided as we reached the mouth of the Pass. This section of trail can be one of the most challenging in the McGrath race. In 2006 there was extreme avalanche danger and we were hauled up in a shelter cabin just before the pass with wind chills off the chart and waited out over 24 hours before continuing on over the Pass. In 2005 I rode some on the Puntilla side and all the way to Rohn from Pass Creek and had the most fun downhill ride through the Dalzell Gorge. I have seen Rainy Pass at both ends of the scale of extreme.
Beautiful and stunning or with horrendous winds. This year the Pass was good to us.
The weather and views over the Pass were stunning!

top of Rainy Pass

entering Pass Creek

Kathi's pics to Nome

2008-03-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

I uploaded my pictures today to Picasa Google.
There is a link to it on the sidebar.
Report will follow soon.

Kathi

Back from Nome

2008-03-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

Bill and I just got back to Anchorage last night.
I will have to go through all of the many pictures I took and write up a report about my race to Nome.
It was an incredible journey and I am not sure if there is much out there to top it off.
I was asked where I had been on vacation because I am so tanned in my face.
It is maybe windburnt a bit, but I have no pains or aches, no blisters and have only lost about 4 pounds.
I am grateful that I was lucky with my body holding up and making the 25 day journey with hardly any physical issues.
I will post some pictures here for a little taste.
More will come soon...
I will do a full write up of the whole trip here soon.

Kathi

Ready to start the race

2008-02-21T14:18:00.001-08:00

After having all the race business taken care of, we are ready to get to the starting line.
The drops and supplies are in place.
We are able to do our last minute details for our race to Nome.
Our bikes are packed and ready.
We will be in Anchorage tomorrow at the Speedway party and have a Pre race meeting at the Loussac library Saturday before the Start Sunday Feb. 24th, 2:00PM at Knik Lake.
Looking forward seeing everyone and having a good time on the trail.

Kathi

Soon the Vacation Begins ...

2008-02-16T17:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon Bill and I were busy unpacking and sorting drops that were mailed to us in Chickaloon. Tomorrow we will pick up the rest of the drops in Anchorage. We will check them off a list and then pack them into sturdy bags to be loaded on the plane. Monday Bill will fly them to Finger Lake, Puntilla and Rohn.

Getting on the trail will seem like a vacation after weeks actually months of planning and organizing the Iditarod Trail Invitational. Every year we want things to go as smoothly as possible for racers but there are always bumps in the road. After all, it's the Iditarod Trail and you never know what it will throw at you from one year to the next.
Winter riding is more of a lifestyle than a hobby with Bill and I . We find the peace and beauty of exploring Alaskan winter wilderness by bike takes us far from all our worries and cares. The only things that really matter are eating, sleeping, staying warm, moving up the trails and soaking it all in. It is life in it's simplest form. Bill and I (and many others) are of the opinion that adventure only happens to the unprepared and this philosophy has carried us safely and happily over hundreds of miles of winter wilderness trails.
Not that we haven't had our share of adventures and are sure to have more but it's just a small part of the whole experience. In the face of difficult situations the need to live in the moment with no time for thought of yesterday or tomorrow is both exciting and liberating. Some would dramatize what many of us find exciting in our lives but for us if we didn't enjoy and couldn't do it with a smile we wouldn't be out there.
I have heard Bill say that it is no place for tough "guys" that you go out there to work with what nature presents to you not to conquer it.
Weather forecast doesn't look so good for a while, so that is some added stress until the drops are actually in place.
Looking forward seeing everyone soon at the Speedway Party on Friday.
Kathi

Packing our Drops

2008-02-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

After several trips to Palmer and Wasilla and one to Anchorage a few weeks ago, we have gathered all of our supplies and food for our own drops all the way to Nome.
Packing and labeling all the meals and supplies for 47 racers for our checkpoins in Puntilla and Rohn is tomorrow's chore.

We actually added up all the calories this year we have put into our drops for Fingerlake, Rohn and all the way to Nome in the Flatrate Boxes we ship to the villages along the route beyond McGrath.
Looked like a bomb went off in our one room cabin (16 x 24). The entire room was full of food and stuff.

Here is a list of our trail food:

42 dehydrated meals
with dehydrated butter 29.586 cal
12 packs of Salami: 18260 cal
26 pieces of cheese(8 0z): 22880 cal
1 large bag rice crackers: 7200 cal
36 almond joy bars: 7920 cal
24 reeses cups: 10080 cal
36 kitkat: 7560 cal
6 packs of smoked salmon: 9000 cal
6 large bags of M&M's: 39900 cal
2 large cans of cashews: 12920 cal
1 large bag of Gardetto's: 6750 cal
4 bags of little sausages: 6120 cal
Spices Cider Drink Mix: 1920 cal
1 can of Hot Chocolate: 4620 cal

Total: 191,050 cal

that's 4547 calories per person per day if we get to Nome in 21 days + about 2000 calories or more in the checkpoints, so we hope to consume about 6500 calories per day on the trail.
50% of those calories come from fat.
It is most likely that we will still loose weight consuming 3 times the normal amount of calories a person should eat.
Bill and I have both tried to gain some weight in the last few weeks.
Burning body fat is not the most efficient source of calories, but on those long trips in the cold,
it would be nearly impossible to eat enough to maintain bodyweight.
Starting the race with some body fat is a good idea if you don't want to burn muscle mass during a long expedition like the 1100 mile race to Nome.
Bill and I are what we call "big eaters" we do what we do because we like to eat.

Riding the Chickaloon River

2008-02-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

We have been busy with organising the big event and getting our own stuff ready, so we haven't really had much time to ride. We also needed some stress relieve and do a fun ride. Bill and I decided to give one of our favorite winter rides in our backyard a try, since there was a chance the trail was packed enough after some snowmachine traffic on the Chickaloon River. In the summertime the Chickaloon is a remote Class III rafting trip without road access. It originates deep in the Talkeetna Mountains and flows at a fast pace into the Matanuska River.
Since it is such a fastmoving little stream it usually doesn't freeze solid enough until late January/early February.
It is a neat place to ride with all kinds of cool things to see, beautiful mountains in both directions and ice ledges and ice bridges to cross.The trail was a little windblown in the beginning from the strong Matanuska valley winds we have been having for days now, but then rideable with Fat tires. The Chickaloon freezes over differently every year, in places there is only a small ice ledge you can cross. In other places where there was once a trail the ice has caved in and other places you ride on frozen overflow. It is never boring on the Chickaloon, you look down into clear running water or frozen chandelliers. In a windswept place the colour of the ice was aquamarin, so beautiful you would want to chisle out a piece to take it home. Further up the river there are some pretty ice falls. At mile 9 there is a place called the "narrows" that is often impassable. Last year the ice ledges from the first freez up at higher water were way over our head. After crossing a big mound of overflow ice we wandered on up to check them out, and the ice had caved in where the last snowmachines had crossed and was overflowing and refreezing. But it looked like the new ice was only about 1-2 inches thick. So we turned around there. Another spot had snowmachines tracks on both sides and the centerpiece had fallen in, about 3-4 feet of air, then gushing water.
In places we were pushing our bikes across jumbled up ice and you could hear the hollow spaces underneath or rushing water. When you are riding on the cold snow most times you can't hear those sounds, but when you take a minute and stop it is quite exciting to hear the water rushing just underneath where you're standing.
Some places where the ice is sagging it is really not an option to stop.
All the drainages to the Matanuska River are beautiful, but the Chickaloon is one of the few you can actually explore for quite a ways up in the wintertime.
And we never see anyone, that rides those trails. We wouldn't mind to see other folks on bikes or skiing out there.
Enjoy the pictures, it was a cloudy day with flat light but they still tell the story.

Kathi

Cold Trails in Willow

2008-02-04T00:02:00.000-08:00

Our friend Tony had invited us to his cabin in Willow. We spent the night there Saturday and planned to ride the 25 mile loop of the as part of the Willow Winter Carnival Sunday morning. Temperatures dropped to -25 below zero that night and our Hippie Van wouldn't start.
It is easy to tell where our priorities are when you look at our bikes and the vehicle we drive. After about 2,5 hours with the help of Tony's little generator to preheat the van and using jumpercables, we finally got it started. Most racers had taken off at 11:00 am. We rode the marked loop out across several lakes and on swamps and through the woods with temperatures staying between -15 F and -20 F all day. We met several racers on their return lef of the race. The Alaska Range with Foraker, Hunter and Denali was stunning from the Willow swamp in a distance. We met up at the community center with several other bikers before heading back home. Seems like Bill always wins the prize with the biggest icicle mustache.
Good times with good friends.

Kathi

Sunny day in Chickaloon

2008-01-30T19:05:00.000-08:00

Bill and I went for a day of snowshoeing from our cabin in Chickaloon up towards Castle Mountain which is about a 15 mile RT and over 2000 feet in elevation. We follow a horse trail and then a rodd for a mile, the rest of the way is a muddy summer trail, it was pretty good since at least one snowmachine had been on it. At the top there is an old hunter's cabin on a ridge but protected by alder bushes.Otherwise it would have been toughbraking trail from the old mining road another 3 miles of deep unbroken snow. The day couldn't have been more beautiful. I spent most of the time looking for animal tracks and taking lots of pictures. You sure wouldn't have to starve around here, lots of bunnies. We actually saw one, they are hard to spot since their winter coat is white. We saw a set of wolf tracks on the mountain the other day. We also found two moose beds where they felt pretty safe and had a pretty good view of their surroundings.
We had started at noon and got back just when there was alpenglow on Castle Mountain.
Bill and I are headed to Willow on Saturday for the Willow Winter Carnival bike race and hope to ride there for a couple of days and ride up the Yentna River.

Kathi

Lake Louise Trails

2008-01-25T21:44:00.001-08:00

Bill and I had a great time out at Lake Louise. It is a large lake at 2300 feet in the Copper River Basin. We rented a cabin at Lake Louise Lodge so we could plug in the van from Naomi, a very nice hostess. We started out at 1pm and rode off across the lake for 4 miles then took the Crosswind Lake Trail. I have never seen a trail so busy with animal tracks, it was covered the entire way with moose, wolf, fox, rabbit, pine marten and caribou tracks. The lakes we had to cross had a hard wind crust that was rideable. After three hours of riding we turned around and made it to the lodge before eight to have a burger. At some point it had started snowing on us on the way back. I was happy that it took us as long to go out as it took to come back keeping a steady pace 5 mph with a soft trail and a loaded bike. The next morning there was 2-3 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I wasn't sure if we would be able to ride with the new snow on top of the wind drifts. After breakfast we decided to give it a try and headed out on the lake trail that follows the length of the first lake for about 8 miles. The lake system is over 20 miles long.
The pedaling was slow, but it was rideable, the lighting was flat and it seemed like riding on a white cloud without a point of reference. I was following for a while, then it was my time to brake trail. I was having vertigo looking down where my front tire was moving through the snow. I decided to look out far ahead to the next marker and that seemed to work. I felt for the packed part of the trail under the fresh snow with the front tire. Gently moving from side to side to stay on the hardest part of the trail. Finding the best line can be difficult on lakes or rivers where snowmachines spread out even more so with flat light.
Later a little blue hole in the sky appeared above us where we could see more contoures in the snow.

There is cabins all around the lake on the shores and of course it wasn't a weekend either. But we sure had a great time. Temperature was down to -17 F and just below 0 F the second day with a quartering wind.

Lake Louise is a great place for winter biking and we didn't see anyone on the trail the first day and then a couple of snowmachines the second day. The local people were amazed to see someone on fattired bikes headed out on the trails. They have a 15 foot wide groomer and groom over 100 miles of trails regularly. This year has been a low snow year out there and today was the second time they took it out on the trails.

Kathi

Driving in the Hippie Van we are always dressed for outside temperatures since it doesn't make much heat and you are sitting still. It is part of our training.

in the morning on Glenn Highway

cabin at Lake Louise Lodge

Frosty finish to a good ride

riding in the white abyss

tracks on Lake Louise in 3 inches of fresh snow

The Glenn Highway just before Eureka Lodge on the way back to Chickaloon

temperatures dropping rapidly

2008-01-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

The latest warm spell was ugly but short. This afternoon it was 30 F here in Chickaloon, now at 8:30 PM it is already -6 F. I don't think I have seen such a significant change in that short of time.
I am exited to got out to Lake Louise tomorrow to do some riding in cold temperatures.
I checked with a lodge out there and they haven't gotten any significant snow. Bill and I hope to follow some of the Copper Basin 300 route a mushing race that happened last week. Snowbiking is new to trail users out there, but they have a large trail system with over 300 miles of groomed trails. It is about 80 miles from here on the way to Glennallen. We have never been there, but we are exited to see some new country and ride new trails.
I talked to Peter Schneiderheinze in McGrath today, he said they had a sprinkle of rain, but no significant snow and the temperatures were back well below 0 F.
From another trail report on Flathorn Lake and the Susitna River, it sounds like there is a bunch of overflow from the warm weather and rain, but with cold temps that should improve and be ok by next week. I hope we can go back out there by next week after some snowmachine traffic over the weekend and some time for the overflow to freeze back up.

Kathi

Warm Day in Palmer and more snow on the Iditarod Trail

2008-01-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

It has warmed up in Southcentral Alaska.
Palmer and Wasilla received some significant amount of rain last night.
Chickaloon stayed below freezing and this morning we had 3 inches of fresh snow!
We had to run some errands in town ( Palmer/Wasilla) and what a mess on the streets it was there. I could hardly wait to get back to Chickaloon to our beautiful winter wonderland. Amazing we are just a little higher here and further up the Matanuska Valley and such a different weather system.
At this hour (10:00PM) it is still 44 F in Palmer. Those winds from Prince William Sound bring that warm air down the Knik River valley.
It is 28 F here in Chickaloon and a pretty moon reflecting in our fresh snow here.
Word from Denali Flying Service in Willow was that there were 2 feet of fresh snow at Shell Lake and a foot and half on the Yentna River.
With these warm temps the trails out of Knik and Point McKenzie should set up good. By Thursday there is a cooling trend in the forecast for Southcentral.
Here are some more pictures from past years at the Knik Glacier.
Hopefully we get to ride out there soon.

Kathi

Iditarod Trail Ride

2008-01-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

The only place rideable after the recent snows is out of Knik Lake for us since it is used by local mushers and snowmachines. Rideable it was, but a bit slow. We averaged 4.5 mph for our 32 mile ride to the Point McKenzie Store and back. We ran into a bunch of Susitna 100 racers that were training as well out there on part of the new course they use this year.
The folks that run the store and restaurant are super nice people and make great hamburgers.
After one of those I rode back in just my base layer and a light vest at 18 F on our way back to Knik. The foot of snow that fell on the trail is the consistency of powdered milk despite all the traffic on the trail and not setting up.The Aurora 50/50 mushing race and the Klondike 300 from the Tug Bar had started in the morning and parts of the trail had been groomed. It was a big workout for a short ride on the trail. I have seen this kind of snow, but worse in 2006 between Nikolai and McGrath. The trail would not set up even after lots of snowmachines on the trail. There was a significant warm up in the forecast for today, it was 47 in Palmer, 26 in Wasilla, those warm temps usually really help set up the trails. It is 25 degrees here in Chickaloon.
By Wednesday it is supposed to cool off again. We hope to do our first ride this year to the Knik Glacier next week, one of our all time favorite rides. It is a 42 mile ride on gravel bars, crossing creeks and main channels of the Knik River and finally the huge glacier lake with frozen ice bergs and the 4 mile wide head wall of the Knik Glacier.
I had a broken spoke on my front wheel yesterday, I made it back to the parking lot without major issues though. Bill is rebuilding my wheel today.

Kathi

Pictures from past years to the Knik Glacier

Snowshoeing in Chickloon

2008-01-16T20:28:00.001-08:00

Bill and I snowshoed today from our cabin in Chickaloon since we have 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground. The temperature today was 20 F, it felt really warm, I just needed my base layer to stay warm hiking up the hill. Just two days ago it was -20 F. We had planned to go out to the Susitna and Yentna Rivers with loaded bikes, but we had some issues with our vehicles and water when it got cold here, so we were busy with fixing those problems and didn't get to go. That was during the latest cold spell and I had been so exited to go when it was really cold. Oh, well, cabin life. Today made up for it, we saw a lot of moose tracks on the trail, it is part of the Matanuska moose range and often on our snowshoe days I have seen several "moose beds" in the snow where they actually bed down to sleep in the snow. Those animals make a lot of heat, amazing the hard crust they leave in a depression in the snow. Well, on one of our bivis I had found the same thing under my Zrest sleeping pad and thought it was time to get a new one after dozens of times of sleeping out. I have used the same pad summer and winter for all of our trips for five years. Amazing the difference with my new Zrest.
Both days we also saw some fox and martin tracks out there.
Castle Mountain was glowing red when we got near the top.
I fell pretty lucky to live here and have this wilderness playground right in our backyard without driving anywhere or ever crossing a road.
With the fresh snow it will be a while before we can ride our bikes again.
Hopefully after this weekend and some snowmachine traffic we can hit the Iditarod Trail again.

Kathi

Winter Trails Day Hatcher Pass

2008-01-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

Bill and I went to Hatcher Pass for Winter Trails Day where folks came out to test gear, snowshoe, cross country ski and have a good time. It was -2 F when we got there at 11:00 am.
They also held a snow downhill race where 11 bikers ran each three runs on the groomed downhill course. It was a beautiful sunny day up there. Later a group of about 10 of us went for ride on the groomed trails in the Moose Meadows. By the time we got back the temperature was down to -5 F and dropping. It is going to be a cold night in the Mat Su Valley.
Bill and I are off to the Deshka Landing to do some more riding on the Susitna and Yentna River.

More tomorow.

Kathi

Yentna River Ride

2008-01-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

Bill and I rode from Point McKenzie to Flathorn Lake and up the trail across the Dismal Swamp and on all the way up the Yentna River to Luce's.
The trail is in great shape all the way right now with some softer sections on the river and less snow than usual for this time of the year.
The Knik 200 sled dog race had started the day before and we met some of the last teams in the race returning to Knik. We enjoyed a burger at Luce's and after spending the night we headed back down the trail to Point McKenzie early at dawn. On the Susitna River we saw two wolves in a distance on the jumbled up ice. This year the rivers froze more jumbled than other years, it is fun to ride through it on a bike. Looking at some of the tracks that some of the mushers had left behind jumping off ice ridges, I don't think they enjoyed it quite as much as I did. By the time we got to Flathorn Lake we got into a snow swirl for a while pushing across the lake since I thought I wanted to push the bike some so I wouldn't forget what that was like. The trails have just been too good for biking so far. In 2006 I pushed my bike pretty much from Puntilla to McGrath, 170 miles. The year before I estimated that we had only pushed the bikes for 30 or 40 miles. That was on Snowcat rims with the Geax Sedona tires, now I have a Fatbike with bigger rims and tires. I have really enjoyed having the bigger tires, I can ride softer trails.
There was one spot on the Susitna River where the trail had fallen in and our tracks from the day before had disappeared. The river was blocked off and flagged, now there was only an 18 inch wide ice bridge of trail left to cross. Dave Luce said that he sees the first snowmachiners usually by mid November. This year the rivers froze much later and nobody traveled on the rivers until mid December.
Every time we go out on the trail it is like a new place and I could never get tired of it.
The morning light out there on the river was special, in the race it has been dark both times on that section of trail, I didn't get to see much.
Now I know the river section isn't quite as monotonous and boring as I thought.

Kathi

2008-01-01T20:17:00.001-08:00

New Year's Eve Night Ride

2008-01-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

Bill and I rode from Knik Lake out the Iditarod Trail to Flathorn Lake and back on the seismic line to Point McKenzie and from there back to Knik, about a 62 mile ride. We left the parking lot about 3 pm. The trail started out being hard packed with little snow cover, as little as I have seen out there this time of the year. The area around 9 mile hill is better than most years, it is not quite so rutted on the downhills and had beautiful white snow covering the trees.The big swamp before Flathorn Lake was very soft and slow going, so was the lake when we finally got there, it was very windy.
The swamps after Flathorn on the return leg were very fast with ice underneath a light packed layer of snow. The trail in the trees was soft again from all the recent snowmachine traffic and 6 to 7" of fresh snow they had received a few days ago. We only saw about 5 snowmachines right in the beginning and a musher we had met a few days ago. He stopped and we talked briefly. He is signed up for the Knik 200 which starts Saturday, Jan. 5th. I figured we must have been the only ones pedaling bikes through the night on New Year's Eve. There was a cool cloud above the Chugach Mountains in the distance reflecting the city lights of Anchorage in orange and illuminating the mountains in light orange. We stopped at the Point McKenzie Store for a coke just after midnight, what great folks.They are hosting the Susitna 100 start and finish this year. We got back to the Knik Bar at around 2PM with karaoke going on inside the bar.
We didn't feel like going inside a smoky bar after the ride so we headed home to Chickaloon.
Was a great night ride with variable snow conditions. Temps were around 18 to 19 degrees with wind on the swamps.

Kathi

Sunday, December 23 2007

2007-12-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

All is good here in Alaska. Kathi and I rode up the trail Friday night to Flathorn Lake to celebrate the longest night of the year. With the moon nearly full we hardly used our lights. We could use a little more snow but there is enough to smooth out the trail on the swamps and the creeks are all frozen. The trail is in from Nikolai to McGrath and word is there is good snow and ice all the way to Nome.

Some of you will soon be packing your drops. I want to remind everyone that only food, fuel, batteries and handwarmers are allowed in drop bags for Finger Lake and Rohn. All clothing and gear must be carried from the start in the McGrath race. Nome racers may send extra gear to McGrath by post. You are allowed 10lbs (4.5 kilos) per drop but please send only what you believe you will need. We can no longer dump food that is left in Rohn and what you do not take we have to fly out. We also must haul out what is left in Finger Lake. Nome racers should send only what they will carry from Cripple since there is no place to leave garbage or extra supplies. If you mail your drops please put them in bags inside the shipping boxes to make them easier to pack in the plane for delivery.

We hope training goes well for all and we look forward to you soon.

Bill and Kathi

December update

2007-12-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

December 6, 2007

Hello All,
Winter is in full swing here in Chickaloon and Kathi and I have been enjoying the winter riding. We are excited to see all of you soon for the 7th annual Iditarod Trail Invitational! I spoke with Peter Schneiderheinze in McGrath yesterday and he is looking forward to hosting all of us again this year. The trail from Nikolai to McGrath is in and they have about two feet of snow. All drop bags are due by February 17th.
Those of you mailing drops can send them to us at:

Alaska Ultra Sport
POB 1125
Chickaloon, Alaska
99674

We will pick up all other drops at Alaska European B&B on Sunday, Feb. 17th at 1:00 pm. As always drops are limited to food, fuel and batteries only ! All clothing and survival gear must be carried from start to finish in the McGrath race. Nome racers may send extra gear to the McGrath Post office at their own expense. Nome racers will also have a drop bag that will be sent to the Iditarod Cripple checkpoint between Ophir and Ruby. All drops are limited to 10 lbs (4.5 kilos) each. Those of you sending your drops by mail should package them in a waterproof bag inside the shipping box. Bags pack much better in the small plane. The pre-race meeting is at the Loussac Library Saturday, Feb. 23 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm The bus to the starting line will leave from the Golden Lion Best Western at 36th Ave.and New Seward Hwy. Sunday, Feb. 24th at 11:00 am. Race start is at 2:00 pm Sunday Feb. 24th. The only major change this year is we will be using Yentna Station instead of Luce's Lodge as our first checkpoint. Those racers planning to stay at Alaska European B&B need to contact Irene at irenemay60@hotmail.com I am sure there will be more of you wishing to stay at the B&B than she can accomodate so it is best to contact her early. For the few who still haven't sent your entry fees don't forget they go up by $100.00 Jan. 1st. We hope training goes well and you have a great winter season and
Happy Holidays
Bill and Kathi

4 spots left in the 2008 race

2007-11-23T12:41:00.000-08:00

November 5, 2007
It is great to see all the interest in the race this year. The roster is full with 50 racers signed up for the 2008 Iditarod Trail Invitational. We are starting an alternate list. If someone cancels we will give that spot to the first racer on the list. I have spoken with most of the checkpoints on the trail and everyone is excited to see us again. The only major change this year is Yentna Station will be our first checkpoint not Luce’s Lodge. Yentna Station is about 6 miles further up the Yentna River and has good food and lodging available. As always racers may use any open lodges along the trail but are required to check in and out of checkpoints.If any of you plan to stay at Alaska European B&B you should contact irenemay60@hotmail.com The rates this year are: $39.00 per night + 12% Tax It is winter here in Chickaloon, Alaska and Kathi and I are busy switching seasons at our cabin. We have about 6” (15cm) of snow and soon the rivers should be freezing up. It’s time to put away the riding shorts and get out the long pants and fat tires for winter trails. We are ready to pack the bikes and hit the trail for another season of winter biking/camping. Here’s hoping all of you have good health and a super winter training season. We look forward to another great race on the Iditarod Trail and to seeing you in February.
Happy Trails Bill and Kathi

Alaska

Fan Packages at Winter Lake Lodge available in 2012

Winter has arrived in Alaska

September 2 Iditarod Trail Invitational updates

The 2012 race roster is full! 2012 dates for winter training camps

2012 race roster published today.

Entries for the 2012 race

On the Iditarod Blog and Iditarod Insider this year

Final report 350 mile race

How to follow the race in 2001

Mike Curiak's self supported journey to Nome 2010 part III

Mike Curiak's self supported journey to Nome 2010

current conditions along Iditarod Trail

Iditarod Trail Invitational face book page is online

New York Times video about our winter training camp

An Iditarod highway

Freeing rain from Anchorage to Barrow

New winter bike race called Sheep Mountain 150

Winter Bike Training School on the Iditarod Trail

Join us for our winter bike training school on the Iditarod Trail. 6 spots left.Dates: January 29- February 2.

Fall in Alaska

Graveyard of Dreams-Shattered Hopes and Aspirations on Alaska's Iditarod Trail -new book by Craig Medred

2011 race roster

2010 Racer's write-ups 2011 Entries

AK Dispatch links & APRN Radio, MTB Podcasts

Follow the 9th annual Iditarod Trail Invitational...starts Feb. 28th, 2010 at 2:00 PM

The drop bags made it out on the trail today.

trail update February 19th

trail update February 1, 2010

Trail report by Michael Schoder

Willow backcountry winterbike class

Thanks to the Willow community for the use of their comunity center and WTC for awesome trails!Everyone had a great smile in this winter wonderland and good winter riding. More pictures here on Facebook

Riding a frozen river in Alaska

Trail report by Michael Schoder

Great video of the trail to McGrath

Winter Bike Training Camp at Flathorn Lake

More snow in Southcentral Alaska

Snowfall in Southcentral

Summer guiding season 2009

Great write-up by skier Cory Smith and Phil Hofstetter

350 mile race results 2009

Message Board

The race is on...

Winter Training Camp II and Su 100 race

You Tube Video

Winterbike Training Camp

Part 5 Koyuk to Nome

Part 4 from Unalakleet on and out to the sea ice

Part 3 Ruby to Unalakleet

Part 2 Rainy Pass to Ruby

Part 1 riding to Nome

Kathi's pics to Nome

Back from Nome

Ready to start the race

Soon the Vacation Begins ...

Packing our Drops

Riding the Chickaloon River

Cold Trails in Willow

Sunny day in Chickaloon

Lake Louise Trails

temperatures dropping rapidly

Warm Day in Palmer and more snow on the Iditarod Trail

Iditarod Trail Ride

Snowshoeing in Chickloon

Winter Trails Day Hatcher Pass

Yentna River Ride

New Year's Eve Night Ride

Sunday, December 23 2007

December update

4 spots left in the 2008 race

Join us for our winter bike training school on the Iditarod Trail. 6 spots left.
Dates: January 29- February 2.

Thanks to the Willow community for the use of their comunity center and WTC for awesome trails!
Everyone had a great smile in this winter wonderland and good winter riding. More pictures here on Facebook