Golden Solitude
We are nearing the end of the 350-mile race and 1000-mile racers are stretching out across the Interior and the Yukon River. Today Eric Thomason finished the 350-mile race on skis, and having finished on foot last year, he only has the bike left to complete the trifecta. Also finishing the 350 mile race today were Jacob Lankford, Jerry Palmer, and John Sharp. They enjoyed a few hand-delivered mancakes on their way to the finish. A few 350-mile racers are still on the trail, including Sarah Hurkett, who left Nikolai today after being powered by burgers and a chocolate owl.
In the 1000 mile race, Pete Delamere continues to lead, having arrived in Kaltag. The rest of the bikers are spread out along the Yukon, with the last groups, including Janice Tower and Julie Perilla Garcia, arriving in Ruby shortly. In the 1000 mile foot race, Gavan Hennigan is leading and is currently stopped at the North Fork Innoko cabin. Also out on the course is Jon Richner, along with Kari Gibbons, Petr Inman, Magdalena Paschke, and Daniel Heon who all left McGrath this morning. Erick Bassett is from France, the lone skier in the 1000 mile race, and he is making good time currently north of Ophir.
Warm, but stable weather continues. Past McGrath, the trails have been getting fairly soft in the afternoons but are still firming up overnight. There are also sections before Ruby where temperature inversions occur in the low spots, and racers are moving well. Today, Kari Gibbons reported that a bug hit her in the face; you could say that temps are “bug hits you in the face” warm. Looking ahead, this weather pattern is predicted to continue for the next several days.
Without the Iditarod dog sled race using their regular route this year, it is especially lonely for racers in the Alaskan Interior, the section from McGrath to Ruby. Around 18 miles from McGrath is a small village named Tokotna, and after that, racers are unlikely to have contact with anyone except one another until Ruby. Racers go through the ghost towns of Ophir, Poorman, and Long. Along the way, racers are welcome to stay in two safety cabins built by the Bureau of Land Management - the Carlson Crossing Cabin (mislabeled as Collins on Trackleaders) and North Fork Innoko River Cabin.
When racers get to these safety cabins, they have chores to do. They will likely need to chop wood for a fire if they wish to hang up and dry their gear, and they will also be busy melting snow for water. As a courtesy to the next cabin user, racers tend to chop more wood before they leave so the next person has dry wood to start a fire. It is indeed lonely in the Interior this year. The only other users of the trail we have heard about have been moose (lots of moose post holes by Poorman and further north), wolves (several sightings), and the reported encounter of a couple of gold miners on snowmachines (referred to as snowmobiles by those other than Alaskans).
Wait - GOLD MINERS? Ghost towns? Where are we?
Our racers are traversing the Interior on historic routes, a network of trails developed in the Interior after gold discoveries. Prospectors took the natural land routes or Native routes to explore the area south of Ruby and also north of the city of Iditarod, locations already being explored for gold. They struck out on their own to find their own claims and, in 1912, gold was discovered in the Poorman and Long area. This prompted trail development from Ruby south as miners flooded the region. A wagon road was built by the Alaska Road Commission, running from Ruby to Poorman, and can still be seen as an old road bed used by our racers.
By 1913, a new junction at Ophir was formed going north from Ophir to Ruby via the gold camps of Cripple, Poorman, and Long. During the summer of 1914, fifty-five mines were in operation, employing 450 men in the Long and Poorman areas, the height of the gold boom in this area of the Interior. After World War I ended, the district never returned to its vigor of the pre-war period. Today, racers will see a few buildings still standing in these areas, including the town of Long, where houses and equipment still dot the landscape. According to the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, today’s Iditarod Trail is a symbol of frontier travel. Best wishes for our racers as they travel in solitude on this frontier, and may they strike it rich, if not in gold, then in memories and scenery.
Written by: Faye Norby