A Day in the Life
Day 6 of the Iditarod Trail Invitational
Ever wondered what checkpoints are like? Prepare yourself for an update from Checkpoint Nikolai! Just a few days into racers arriving here at route mile 259.3, a daily pattern has emerged. In the early morning hours, one or two at a time, athletes emerge from their naps and slowly put themselves together. There’s coffee to make, oatmeal to consume, gallons of water to decant into thermoses, hydration bladders, water bottles, and of course people. Feet are cared for, faces and smiles get a smear of skin protectant, gear is organized (and re-organized, and tweaked again). Racers get rid of a few extra trail snacks, or perhaps snag something that was left behind. By daybreak most have set off on their final 50-60 miles to McGrath.
Days tend to be quiet. During the afternoon, exhausted after their battle with tussocks, athletes start to trickle in. Hot Tang or hot chocolate are offered, and they make a choice between salmon, beef or veggie burgers. Cold layers are peeled off, clothes are hung, and dazed athletes eat and drink and start to come back to themselves. Racers chat about tussocks, where they slept the night before, and when they’ll continue on to McGrath. They ask for information such as directions out of town, overland or river route, trail conditions, or the weather forecast. After eating what they can (GI distress is a real thing), they crash out on a mattress or cot if one is available (we have three mattresses and two cots, luxury!), or on their sleeping pad. By late evening clothes are hung everywhere, the floor is crowded with people napping and floor space is at a premium, the lights are dimmed, and those awake chat quietly.
We volunteers fetch water from the clinic (the water at our location is not potable), make sure there’s plenty of hot water available, tidy up behind athletes scrambling out the door, and try to make sure they are drinking and eating. The volunteers here are amazing. One example, we walked over to the dump, retrieved a rusted out saddle from an old bike, and fixed it up as a possible replacement for broken saddle rails. Jay Cable is a master of building rapport with the local community, speaking to kids at the school, coordinating to take students out for a ski, and always game for chatting with locals.
Back to the trail. We’re going to digress from our usual WWW programming to talk about Tucker Costain. First place skier Tucker Costain finished at 6:56am this morning, joining Jim Jager and Chet Fehrman as just the third person to ski to McGrath in under five days. Every racer has a reason to get to the finish line, some rush, some not. Tucker had a unique reason to be in a hurry, his partner is starting the Iditarod sled dog race in Fairbanks on March 3.
Had the Iditarod used its normal route from Anchorage, he would have been in McGrath when she came through; an ideal scenario. Thanks to extremely low snow (basically none) in sections of the course, the route was changed at the last minute and the new course doesn’t run through McGrath. This left Tucker in a bind, how could he get to Fairbanks in time when there are limited flight options out of McGrath? He had to make the last scheduled flight out of McGrath at 3:00pm on Friday. He did that handily, despite breaking a pole before getting to the first checkpoint, refusing a replacement pole and instead skiing with a DIY pole made out of a small tree trunk (really, check out the photos).
Nome racers Janice Tower and the always cheerful Julie Perilla Garcia left Nikolai this morning in good spirits. The difference between 1,000 and 350 racers is becoming more and more apparent. Julie and Janice rolled in with good spirits after the tussocks, noting that a similar section of trail was much worse in 2022, and that you always know the trail will throw something difficult at you. Magdalena Paschke and Kari Ann Gibbons are deep into the Farewell Burn, about to hit those tussocks. With the larger sleds Nome-bound athletes often have, this section of trail will be challenging.
350 racer Henriette Geel finished early this morning, the first of several racers that went through the 2024 ITI winter training camp. Kendall Park finished late this morning, and Gillian Smith and New Zealand racer Nina Stupples this afternoon. Beth Freymiller is resting in Nikolai. Foot athletes Stacy Fisk and Melanie Vriesman are making their way over the pass on what looks like a snowy day with light winds. Sarah Hurkett rested at Puntilla Lake(Rainy Pass Lodge) for more than16 hours, but is now on the move and headed for Rohn.
Leader for the ladies ski field, Tracie Curry, is closing in on Nikolai. If she doesn't vary her pace too much she should arrive in Nikolai late tonight. Jessie Gladish is through Farewell Burn and working her way toward Bear Creek cabin, and Petra Franke is just a few miles from Rohn.
In Nikolai, the forecast calls for a 20% chance of snow tomorrow and rising temperatures. The area between Salmon River (where the route from Rohn to Nikolai makes a 90 degree turn to the north) is known for cold February winds, and indeed there’s been a continuous breeze since we’ve been in Nikolai.