Ryan arrived in Grayling at 9pm last night. He splurged, deciding to stay at a local Air BnB instead of the lodging provided to racers at the school. He clearly didn’t learn his lesson from our recent travels to Cuba, texting that he probably should have asked the price before going this route (unlike Cuba, accommodations in the remote Alaskan wilderness are not cheap). He did score a shower, WiFi, and breakfast in the morning…and considering the next section has pretty much no accommodations, I think the splurge was well worth it!
Speaking of the next section, Grayling kicks off a 120 mile slog up the frozen Yukon River. There’s a checkpoint at Eagle Island (mile 581), but he’s not sure it will provide much for the racers. From boots-not-on-the-ground-this-year-but-seasoned-veteran-of-the-race-Troy, Eagle Island is a small checkpoint with a few sparse tents largely catering to the dog sled race. Space available to racers is cramped and on the shady side of the mountains, meaning cold. No racers thus far have stayed more than an hour. It may be *slightly* different/more accommodating to ITI racers by the time Ryan arrives, as the dogs are few and far between at this point. I guess we shall see. If he opts not to stop at Eagle Island, he will have to bivy at least once, as the next checkpoint is Kaltag (mile 647). “Bivvying” is when a racer rests in there combo sleeping bag/weather protective shell along side the trail (hopefully somewhere somewhat protected from the elements). When I went to YouTube to find a video to try and provide a visual for y'all and found this short tutorial by friend and race director of the St. Croix 40 (the PERFECT race to dip your toe in the winter ultra scene if anyone needs help making bad decisions, ahem, sign up for their first winter race...). Thanks Jamison! Ryan has a -60 degree Feathered Friends sleeping bag (it's the bulky blue thing on the back rack of his bike...without the stuff sack it looks like a dead body in a body bag when stored on our basement couch), so he’ll be nice and toasty. Fingers crossed he’s able to get some decent shut eye and let his left leg chill a bit. Update on the leg: “it doesn’t hurt in the morning”...which I pointed out that it can’t be getting better if it hurts the whole day. I’d like to think he chuckled at my humor (he didn’t call me wrong or respond with a negative, so humorous it is!)
I asked for pictures and he sent the following. The dog pictures feature legendary musher Brent Sass, who had to scratch at Eagle River yesterday. Looks like a cool dude. The dusty cabin shot (Step 1: Acquire a broom. Step 2: Sweep up the dust with said broom ha!) is from one of the shelter cabins, I’m guessing Big Yentna, but he didn’t clarify (a mystery!).
Weather continues to cooperate. Ryan noted the wind was picking up today, but the temps are decent (not too hot, not too cold….yup…juuuuuuust right). Not sure we’ll have a ton of communication until Kaltag, so it’s truly a dot watchers unite type moment 🙂
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