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| A
Rookie’s Journey – Willow to Finger Lake
May 3, 2006
Teams staging
for re-start on Willow Lake.
The lines in the snow are gangline for the teams
getting ready to hookup dogs. |
The re-start in Willow was another fun
day. I had expected to have a bad case of the nerves, but Lexi Hill
and Bonnie Foster took care of all the worrying while I relaxed and
enjoyed myself. Some of the other rookies told me they were very tight
and unable to sleep the night before, but I slept fine. Probably it
was a mix of the very relaxed race plan with lots of rest for me and
the dogs, combined with the fact that I had been training and racing
from Willow to Yentna and beyond for three years now. Granted I’d
only been as far as Skwentna once, but I was very comfortable with
the first 80 miles of the race and could almost run it in my sleep.
Eric & family at Willow start |
Due to traffic congestion we had to
be at the re-start before 11 am for the 2 pm start. This year they
staged the teams on Willow Lake itself, rather than in the various
parking areas at the community center. Then the trail went directly
across the lake, through the woods and onto Long Lake, rather than
down Willow Lake and through the subdivisions. It worked very well
and I hope they do the same again. We arrived at Willow about 10 AM,
and I thought the five hours until my start time would drive me nuts,
but everything just seemed to flow and it was time to go before I
even realized it. I kept getting interrupted and even had Lexi finish
packing my sled.
Lexi Hill giving
me last minute advice.
Lexi has been my coach for the last
three years and good friend for more than ten. |
Choosing the 14 dogs to run Iditarod
was a surprising simple task. I only had 14 dogs in the kennel that
Lexi, Bonnie and I felt were capable of running the race. This is
one of the disadvantages of a small kennel, but in my case it worked
out fine. The team we selected was: Bass, Lycos, Belle, Jewels, Balu,
Dukat, Sisco, Picard, Dash, Mocha, Platinum, Keiko, Rom, and Basil.
Once again we had one handler per dog, so it was an easy trip to the
starting line, even with the frequent stops (they like several teams
in line at a time so it’s easy to keep things flowing). The
crowd lined both sides of the chute, but it was a totally different
atmosphere than the ceremonial start in Anchorage. Anchorage had almost
a circus atmosphere – people calling for booties, passing you
muffins, and giving high fives. There were even street musicians playing
for donations along 4th Avenue. By contrast this crowd seemed much
more in tune with the race. They were very excited to see us and cheer
us on, but it seemed what they really wanted was a chance to see and
evaluate the dog teams and mushers. Maybe it was the limited parking
and traffic snarls these people had to overcome to be here, but they
seemed a more serious and devoted breed of fan. I really enjoyed them.
But even with that we had helicopters and hang gliders circling over
the lake to get a better view.
Eric leaving
the Willow starting line.
A good look at the crowds lining the chute.
This could be the start of something big. |
From the start the trail went straight
across Willow lake, through the woods and onto Long Lake. From there
we followed the same route we had for the Don Bowers for the last
two years, from Long Lake to Crystal Lake to Vera Lake and onto the
Willow snowmaching trails. Then we passed through a gate that is normally
closed into the Deshka Landing subdivision, down the subdivision road,
down the boat ramp and onto the Susitna River. This was the smoothest
route to the Susitna I had ever done and must have been a great relief
to those driving pumped up 16 dog teams (remember I started with 14
dogs).
Eric's Iditarod
team on a training run on
the Yentna River. Note how wide the trail is. |
Once on the Susitna I felt that I was
home free. I knew all the trails and turns from here to Skwentna and
we were off. From the Susitna we crossed over to Kroto Slough and
then to the Yentna River and just followed the Yentna up river to
Yentna Station, our first checkpoint. The trail on these rivers might
surprise someone who hasn’t seen them before. Typically they
very wide, sometimes almost as wide as the river, collapsing to narrower
trails at choke points where there might be small falls, open water,
or overflow. There are also a number of stakes marking the trails
for different purposes. In bad weather the stakes can be a lifeline,
but in good weather almost the whole river is available.
At the Rookie meeting they emphasized the importance of pacing your
team in the early part of the race. The dogs react to all the excitement
and have no idea how long this race is. They can easily burn energy
that they will not recover, even during the 24 hour rest and you will
sorely regret this on the coast. Jeff King even suggested that for
a Wasilla start we go to Knik and get a room for the night and start
again on Monday. My game plan is to run very conservatively to Yentna,
rest for longer than I ran, then go to Skwentna and evaluate whether
to stop or go on and camp along the trail to Finger Lake.
I wanted to rest Bass so he was
fresh when I really needed him, so I started Lycos and Basil in lead.
They worked very well through the crowds at the start and along the
lakes, but an hour and a half into the race Lycos started telling
me that he was getting stressed. I moved Bass into lead with Basil,
but Bass wasn’t really into the crowds either. I took a chance
and moved Balu into lead with Basil and Balu acted like this opportunity
was just made for him. He and Basil moved out and set a very nice
pace.
Part way down the Yentna there was a large group camped just before
a large patch of over flow that came up after the trail was put in.
They had re-routed the trail around the overflow, and told me that
one team had gotten stuck in there and they had to help them out.
Remember that this is a snow trail, so most overflow here turns the
trail to slush and deep slush can be really hard to move a sled through.
The over flow was in two intersecting circles, almost like a figure
8, set perpendicular to the trail with a thin spot between them where
the original trail had gone. Generally my dogs listen to voice commands
pretty well, but the team ahead of me went through the middle of the
figure 8, so that is where Balu and Basil went also. It was only a
couple of inches deep there, but you could see the water soaking the
deeper snow off to both sides.
We had a very pleasant run to Yentna arriving at 19:25 in 47th position
after a 4:47 run from Willow. Most of the teams that passed would
chat a bit as they drove by. Jeff King said we were looking good and
wished us well. Rick Swenson passed and commented that this was what
we had been waiting for all year.
Early on the
trail between Skwentna and
Finger Lake. Note the deep snow to the
sides of the trail and soft snow in the trail.
Pretty Country! |
Yentna has no drop bags so all your food
must be carried from the start, but they do have straw and fuel for
our cookers. They had a hole in the river for water. There were enough
teams staying there that there was no room at the inn and we had to
sleep with our dogs, but it was a warm night and that wasn’t
a problem. What I hadn’t counted on was the traffic. I was late
enough that almost the entire time I was at Yentna station, someone
was hooking their dogs up to leave, and those dogs were not in the
least bit tired. My dogs all lay down and closed their eyes like the
professionals they were (I was so proud of them), but with the constant
barking of leaving teams I don’t think they got any sleep. I
know I didn’t.
At midnight I was up getting ready to leave and at 01:19 I pulled
the hook in 77th position and headed for Skwentna. There was a small
storm moving in and a fog had formed over the river. It seemed to
be about 7 feet off the river in most places, so it felt like we were
driving under a low ceiling, very peculiar. The trail had set in the
cold and the dogs were in cruise mode. We ran to Skwentna in 3:30,
the 22nd fastest time for this leg. I had no idea we were that much
faster than so many other mushers and would probably have slowed then
team down if I had known.
Balu was looking tired when we got to Yentna, so I moved Platinum
and Dash into lead. Platinum is very right handed and will take all
the right turns he can. He was running to the far right side of the
river (the trail was further left). When he tried to take a side trail
to the right to someone’s home I stopped and put Lycos back
in lead. Lycos has much better trail sense than Platinum, and with
the reduced crowds at 2 in the morning did just fine.
We arrived in Skwentna at 0449 in the morning and it looked like Los
Angeles Airport! There were large lights so everything was well lit,
and people with wands like they use to guide aircraft controlling
traffic. With less than a 3 hour run and the memory of all the noise
at Yentna I had no urge to stop in Skwentna and went to plan B –
camp part way to Finger Lake and see if I could leave Finger Lake
in time to do the Happy River steps before dark. The Skwentna folks
were incredibly organized. They had all the drop bags sorted alphabetically
down the middle of the river (runway) so teams could come up both
sides. The person with the wand guided me to my bags and I opened
them and took what I needed right there while they stood on my brake.
Professional service with a smile. They were so good it was a little
intimidating.
We left Skwentna at 04:54 (a five minute stop – can you believe
it) and proceeded down the trail. About 30 minutes later I was passed
by Dee Dee Jownrow, and an hour later by Martin Buser. It kind of
tickled me to think that I had caught and passed the likes of Dee
Dee and Martin, but of course it was just a difference in run rest
schedules. I never saw either of them again. The trail quickly went
from firm, well set on the Yentna and Skwentna rivers to 2 to 3 inches
of soft punchy trail over hard pack as we left Skwentna. It was much
harder going for the dogs and they slowed down substantially. We had
some crisis in leadership where no one really wanted to lead and I
finally put Bass in lead. We were getting into deep snow country and
I kept finding ruts in the trail that were as wide as the sled and
up to 3 feet deep. If the ruts were in the middle of the trail and
I hit them square on there was no problem, but if they were on the
side and only one runner went in I rolled the sled every time.
Still on the
trail to Finger Lake.
The Alaska Range in the background
are the mountains we will cross
leaving Rainy Pass checkpoint. |
We stopped on a side trail at 7:30 in
the morning and I fed the dogs. I got out my sleeping bag and space
blanket (mylar on one side and plastic on the other – either
a ground cloth or water proof top whichever I need) and went to sleep.
After about 30 minutes it started to snow, light but very wet at 32
degrees, so I crawled under the space blanket. I had set the alarm
for 1 PM intending to hit the trail by 2. The alarm went off and I
got up, packed my sleeping bag and started to pack the sled when I
noticed my watch on the sled read 11 am. I must have bumped the alarm
and reset the time. Rather than unpack my sleeping bag I tried to
wrap up in the space blanket in my clothes, but couldn’t get
back to sleep. At 12:45 I got up and we hit the trail to Finger Lake
at 2PM. That meant that I had only gotten 2 hours sleep in the last
30 hours when I should have gotten 6 or 7. Not a good start to the
race.
The trail to Finger Lake stayed
slow with some hills and lots of ruts to work our way through. We
pulled into Finger Lake at 6:41 PM. The trail was slow enough that
it was too close to dark to make the steps before nightfall. Finger
Lake is not a bad place to stay. The lady that runs the lodge is a
gourmet chef and fixes a really nice meal for the mushers. Normally
we could get water from the lodge, but with all the mushers the well
had run out of water, much to the consternation of the guests who
were paying a pretty penny to stay at a deluxe lodge and watch the
race go by. The Iditarod volunteers staffing the checkpoint had chopped
a hole in the lake for dog water, but the green tinge distressed them
so they melted snow for people water – even for us mushers.
The way the volunteers rise to the occasion always impresses me. They
even had a heated tent with straw on the floor for us to sleep in.
Again there were no drop bags for Finger Lake (I think most mushers
don’t stop here) so we had to carry everything from Skwentna.
Dukat ate his dinner but nobody
else did. However Dukat threw-up his breakfast so that might explain
the difference. I don’t like the lack of eating, but will try
to feed them another meal before we leave in the morning. The dogs
worked hard during the heat of the day with the soft punchy trail
so a good long rest will probably help them. I caught up with Danny
Seavey here and over dinner he commented that it was probably just
as well we had a soft slow trail. The trail was heavily moguled from
the snowmachine traffic and if we had hit that at 12 mph instead of
10 (or 9 in my case) we would have injured dogs. The sky is clearing
and temperatures will probably drop tonight. That should be a pleasant
relief from the mid-30’s temperatures that we have been running
in (Note – be careful what you wish for!).
Mark Lindstrom, the race judge at Finger Lake, kept trying to talk
us (mostly rookies) into leaving before daylight, but I wanted to
see the Happy River steps the first time I went down them. That turned
out to be a very wise decision.
Keep ‘em Northbound
Eric
© 2006 All rights reserved
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