First off, at the time of this writing Ryan just arrived at Anvik (mile 506)…which is 22 miles past HALFWAY! I texted him this (as if he didn’t know) and got a “Whoot! Whoot!” in return :-)
Last we left Ryan he was navigating/relishing in a hoard of dog sled teams en route to the shelter cabin at Moose Creek. For a quick and fun read, here’s a great write-up on the history of the shelter cabin system!
Given the chaos that is a checkpoint coinciding with the thick of the dog race and the next checkpoint, the ghost town of Iditarod, only being 15 miles down the trail, Ryan decided to keep moving. As you will recall, he was also a bit off the pace from the group he had been riding around. I wasn’t wrong that the arrival of the dogs had something to do with that (“Dogs are GREAT!”)…but I wasn’t entirely right either. He stayed at Moose Creek about 3 hours, which was long enough to send a message that he was experiencing some pain in his left quad. He never complains about physical issues, so I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t of concern. He made some bike adjustments (raised the seat up and forward) to hopefully alleviate some of the effort required of the quad, asked if there was food at Iditarod (“not sure, sorry…but make sure you self-massage that quad please!!”).
He arrived at the Iditarod CP at 10:15pm, so didn’t make horrible time considering the pain he was in. The stories surrounding the Iditarod CP is that your experience is 100% dependent upon the whims of the dog race. If there are a ton of dogs, you’re largely out of luck, “here’s your dropbox and a place to lay down somewhere out of the way” (if you’re really out of luck, the volunteers/mushers have already been through your drop box of supplies because they don’t know who’s still in the race)....if there’s a lull, kind dog race volunteers, or I’d like to think if you’re Ryan and spent all day schmoozing with mushers on the trail, you get fed and let in the race buildings or warmed communications tent. He messaged upon arrival that while the CP was a “shit show”, he scored room in the warm tent and got lots of food :-)
He messaged in the morning that his quad was “somewhat” better and that he hoped it got better throughout the day. I found out this morning that after the ride from Moose Creek he thought his race was done. I’m glad he’s sticking it out, as it seems to be getting better with time. But I’m not going to lie that when I got word that one of his foursome, Julie, was ending her race and getting a plane ride home (knee issues), I selfishly thought, “please don’t be on that plane with her…” As you’ll know from dot watching, he wasn't.
He left Iditarod 12 hours after arriving, stopping for about 30 minutes at Big Yetna (mile 452), clicking off some nice speeds while enjoying the pretty much perfect weather, and arriving at his nightly destination of Shageluk (mile 478.5) around 10:30pm. We got to text a bit in the wee hours of the morning (1:40-2:30am MST), where I got the brief scoop on Julie, an update on the Italians (oddly still at Shageluk for the evening despite already being there most of the day), and an uplifting report on his quad (we’ve improved to “my leg is sore but still working”...can’t ask for much more than that).
We chatted a bit in the morning: he got a plan sorted out (I think, he didn’t actually relay said plan to me), he gave ME an update on why defending champion musher, Brent Sass, dropped from the race in Eagle Island (according to their interaction on the trail, he had a tooth that was killing him so it must have escalated), I gave HIM an update on the mundaneness of life (saw mountain lion tracks on my run, bought a new plant to revive from the unfortunate lot of the Walmart clearance section, parenting humor from friends, and a recap of his dad’s birthday…Happy Birthday Mark!!). Oh, and I *think* my two new puppy update pictures went through!
Right before departing he casually let me know that the Post Office was closed and he couldn’t access his dropbox. I asked if he needed it and he conveniently didn’t respond…nor tell me he was taking off. So, lesson learned…don’t ask questions you’d really like to know the answer to haha! Glad I didn’t respond with what I really wanted to, which would have been to the effect of, “no worries, the box probably wasn’t there anyways considering how late you mailed it” I’m sure he would have found me funny… Looks like another dinner of Reece’s Pieces for you my friend. Below is a picture of what a last minute drop box assembly process looks like in the Wanless household.
(the organized chaos is Ryan's approach, the organized piles are mine athankyouverymuch)
Next bit is going to be a slog…he just arrived in Anvik (mile 506 at 3:30pm AKST), which puts him on the Yukon River for the foreseeable future (good news is that the temps and wind seem reasonable for the next day or so). He is leaving in minutes for a pretty quick jaunt to Grayling (mile 526), but that is the last good place to stop before Kaltag (mile 648). Eagle Island is an official checkpoint, but it sounds like not an ideal spot if dogs are still running (they’re largely not, with three currently at Anvik and only two teams behind those three) and the tents available being set up in the shady cold. The gaggle of front bikers must have found a great bivy spot (or were that tired ha!) about 25 miles before Eagle Island, so maybe that’s an option. Regardless of where he ends up tonight, I’d anticipate some bivvying in his future.
Happy Saturday friends!
No comments:
Post a Comment