Ryan's getting so close to the finish he can almost taste it...except that when I asked him how he liked those Babybel cheeses he swiped from someone's unused drop box, he mentioned he had no tastebuds left. I pointed out I'm pretty sure they'd appreciate the FINISH LINE whiskey! At the time of this writing, he's 42 miles to Nome!
Ryan left the wonderful Joanne's home in White Mountain (879), after resupplying and downing some musk ox (obviously). The weather wasn't good, but it wasn't going to get any better, so off he went. Throughout the night, Theo and I got to hear all about how "special" the trail was (it wasn't special).
Luckily, reporting of this race (ah, thank you Wild Winter Women!!) has been top notch and I remembered a comment about Kinsey (1st Place Female Bike!!) and Mark's journey that referenced a tip from a snowmobiler about a warm cabin past White Mountain, but before Topkok (905). I did a little research, contacted my own personal ITI resource (Jill Homer), and compared all of that to some notes we had on trail marker distances to decide that racers could count on a shelter cabin at mile 896.7(ish). My notes called in Suprize Creek Cabin, google found this image/report from 13 years ago calling it Surprise Creek Cabin, but some of us have decided to refer to it only as Poop Tree Cabin (ask Kari if you need an explanation, but I love it and will only refer to it as such).
Word is that they built a new cabin after the A-frame became defunct. Upon arriving at 1:30am, Ryan turned instantly positive last night describing how great the cabin was and how good a fire he was able to build. Yay Poop Tree!
Ryan left Poop Tree cabin at 10:30am and had the pleasure of walking his bike 8.5 miles to Topkok Musher's cabin (905, back on the coast). Arriving at 3:10pm, he's refueling (oatmeal & pb, coffee and R&R), getting updates on weather and mileage, and plans to boogie soon! Conditional on the trail speeds (wet snow is no one's friend), Ryan hopes to make the last 42 miles in one push....this bike isn't going to pedal itself to the finish...
There's two spots for "respite," Tommy Johnson's shelter cabin (917) and Safety (925), which is actually a ghost town save the week that the dog race comes through, but it does provide something to lean against and duck out of the wind. After that, it's a wicked tailwind (35+mph) and 20 miles to Nome!
History appears to be repeating itself...quite freakishly, actually. Last year's finish (which provided some epic northern lights, pic included) occurred while I was on a flight to DC for work.
Currently, I'm scheduled for the same 5am flight to DC tomorrow morning, close enough to when he might finish that missing it again is likely. I'm also currently scheduled to wear the exact same outfit, which is funny and I should probably say sad...but I'm too lazy and I love that shirt and vest. A gigantic THANK YOU to the Bittners for watching the Theo Bear...we owe you!
Enjoy the ride RyWan, squint hard to see the northern lights through the fog and cloud cover.
Thank you Emily!
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