ITI 2024 Day 17: Old Woman Cabin (672) to Unalakleet (706ish)

PEDAL TOWARDS PIZZA

In my head, this has been the mantra Ryan's been reciting for the last, well, all of today.  He had 34.5 miles before reaching his personal heaven, Peace on Earth Pizza in Unalakleet, AK (706).  This absolute favorite stop of Ryan will receive it's own blog post tomorrow.  For now, I'm happy thinking about him sitting in a warm pizza parlor, shoveling his favorite food in his mouth for the next few hours. 

Speaking of food, I thought I could take this opportunity to tell you a bit about the food I'm almost certain he's not looking forward to shoveling into his mouth for the foreseeable future (but will get to for the next week...eek!).  To be sure there are grocery/convenience stores/BnB meals along the way that Ryan plans on purchasing food from, but for the most part food comes by way of six drop boxes mailed to himself along the trail from McGrath to Nome (I'm not covering the drops he had the race deposit in McGrath and Cripple).

About a week before departing for Anchorage our living space was taken over by all things race prep, including the dining room table seen here covered in all the supplies for his drop boxes.  

(To address: "Ryan Wanless, ITI Athlete, General Delivery, Ruby, AK 99468...maybe on that zip code)

Flat rate boxes were addressed to the most comically generic addresses, often to a POC or the post office in a town. These boxes (if you're lucky enough for them to actually arrive) are usually collected by the BnBs hosting racers or available for pickup at the post office (which is hopefully open at the time of your arrival...not always the case!).

After Ryan departed I finished up the task of mailing two more boxes (to Elim & White Mountain) and took a picture of one "drop" worth of consumable items.  Note: racers are limited to shipping consumable items only in these drops...so, food, drink, hand warmers, pain relievers, toilet paper and wipes, etc.  They are not to ship extra clothing or bike parts.

(yes, that is a stick of butter...calories y'all!!)

This year, Ryan brought with him a little something special from SD, a flask (thanks Best Bud Sam!) of Weller whiskey.  This post is also especially timely because I do believe Ryan dipped into this special reserve last night...another reason the vibe of Old Woman makes it his favorite?

Speaking of last night, it sounded like a full team effort at Old Woman cabin. Ryan arrived at 8:30pm and promptly started a fire and melting snow for water.  I let him know that Asbjoern and Gavan were just a couple miles behind him.  He told me he cut a ton of wood down, but could only bring so much with him, and so he hoped the guys would think to gather along their way in.  Sounded like Asbjoern made good use of his skis, collecting all that Ryan cut, and Gavan had the smarts to cut and bring more.  With temps in the -20s, I think they were all aware it would take a chunk of wood to keep the cabin warm.  Good news, Ryan reported a 40 degree cabin upon rising...signs of a successful night of stove stoking!  And, hopefully there's wood leftover for Leah behind them!

I heard from Ryan midday that the trail was frustratingly slow.  I didn't hear from him again until a "Go Bucky!" response to an update from the Big 10 men's basketball tournament, so I'm assuming the trail got better (speeds seemed to indicate so...).  He should be rolling in to Peace on Earth as we speak and I couldn't be happier for him!