Topkok: The Nicest Shelter
Erick Basset (ski) and Jon Richner (foot) - After an overnight rest in White Mountain at the home of trail angel Joanne Wassillie, they got a start at 8:15 am as per Joanne, they are planning to get to a cabin tonight and to Nome tomorrow. As a reminder, there are a couple of new cabins that ITI athletes can use: one is 18 miles after White Mountain and the other is between Topkok and Safety, roughly 32 miles to Nome. With the Iditarod’s Red Lantern finishing days ago, the Safety Roadhouse won’t be open for those out on the trail and they’ll have to wait to get to Nome for a celebratory burger and a beer. With just two bumps in elevation left to the end of the trail, they are nearly there!
As these two reach the Topkok cabin (mile 917 on trackleaders) close to 5pm AKT, it's early enough to continue onwards towards the cabin just past Safety, roughly mile 932 on Trackleaders - Okitkon isn’t on the TL map, and it’s not the greatest accommodations… versus Topkok with solar powered lights and charging stations for electronics. Popular opinion is that Topkok is one of the nicest shelter cabins along the whole Iditarod trail! Aside from the ability to charge one’s things, Topkok also warms quickly and boasts nice drying racks for one’s gear. Bunks, warmth, and so close to Nome - we love it! It’s so nice compared to the shelter further on, though we have heard reports that Okitkon has been cleaned up which may make it better accommodations than memory serves.
Kari Gibbons and Petr Ineman (both on foot) took off this morning after a quick 4-hour rest overnight at the Elim school, Team KarPet got an early start at 5:30 am. They went along the coast, past Walla Walla safety cabin, and to Little McKinley, which is the last significant climb of the race. It looks like they may have had fun sledding down the hill, with Petr reaching a maximum speed of 9.3 mph, compared to his average moving speed of 3.0 mph!
Petr is no doubt excited to make it to White Mountain, as Joanne Wassillie is one of his favorite friends to see along the trail. It’s very possible he can already taste her moose chili! He and Kari are planning to push here for the night. KarPet has less than 100 miles to Nome!
More good news: today marks the first day of spring! The spring (vernal) equinox brings 12 hours of daylight everywhere around the world. At high latitudes, the lower angle of the sun in the sky means that sunrises and sunsets pass through the horizon slowly, giving them light for about 50 minutes before sunrise and after sunset which must feel like such a bonus. If they were a construction crew, they would have sufficient visibility to work outside without lights for 14 hours a day. ITI athletes are really feeling the extra light compared to the 10.5 hours (of combined daylight and civil twilight) that they got when they left Knik Bar on February 23. Furthermore, since Nome is on the far western side of the time zone and Daylight saving time has started, it does not get dark until 10:07 pm (1:07 am for those of us in CDT, where Kari and Petr are from). If it looks like our friends are going late into the night, remember that to them it may be evening rather than burning the midnight oil like most of us back at home.
Authors: Jill Martindale and Leah Gruhn