ITI 2025 Day 7: McGrath (306.6)

Follow @itialaska for general race updates,  itidiaries.blogspot.com for Ryan updates.

TL; DR: Made it to the 350 race finish. Didn’t find pizza, did find a quiet hotel room.

Ryan’s ride (all times in AKST):

*Arrived in McGrath (306.6) @ 4:13a.

*Departed McGrath @ 9:08a for Ophir (346.2)

 

Upon arrival, Ryan found a packed Outpost, the finish line headquarters (CONGRATS to all the 350 finisher, y’all are so, so impressive!), and so he grabbed his drop box and scored a room at the McGrath Hotel B&B. Sadly, with no dog race coming through this year the town of McGrath pretty much shut down…meaning…no. Pizza.  But with a private room, a shower, a bed, and space to spread out all the things, he was able to get reset.  We chatted from first dinner until bed (he had to get to sleep so he could get up for second dinner at midnight).  He sounded maybe a touch tired, but excited to move on to “the wild side.”

 

Tussocks are gone, snow is back. There isn’t much of a trail really in though, as there is very little commuter traffic and no dog sled race, from McGrath to Ruby…fear not if you see Ryan riding off the “red line”...the trail broken appears to be on the river (and remember, river = more miles).

What Say You Ryan?

Day 6: What is your favorite way to pass the time on the trail?

1. ***Audiobooks (keen guessers noted the Libby app…so, if you have a good adventure recommendation, he’ll gladly take it!)

2. Meditate (ah, no)

3. Sort the candy in his feedbag by color (this is Ryan answering, not me haha; but seriously, candy is slung back in fistfuls…this trek really takes the joy out of candy)

4. See how many seconds he can pedal with his eyes closed (I totally made this up…would love to see him try!)

Day 7:  What is your least favorite thing to do when you get where you’re going for the night?

1. Make dinner (unless it’s pizza, it’s a chore that doesn’t reap many rewards)

2. Talk to other people (if one more person asks me “How ya feeling?”...)

3. Calculate distances to next checkpoint and figure out how long to rest (sigh, it’s just always so far and never a long enough rest)

4. Resort the bike (y’all, it quickly makes the jump to hot mess after a day)

Comment with your guess and I’ll reveal the answer tomorrow!!