Monday, March 5

Skwentna to Rainy Pass
The first part of the trail was well travelled by snowmachines, but the closer to Finger Lake we got the punchier the snow was. By punchy I mean, that the snow underneath the trail had not been packed down - there was no base and the dogs were "falling" through and had to work hard. This trail condition is very normal though for this stretch.
We were slowly climbing up the mountains.
I stopped long enough in Finger Lake to drop Foraker. He was just not feeling well.
The trail to Rainy Pass is described on the Iditarod web site as follows:
This is a tough run with some short stretches of extraordinarily difficult trail.

After leaving Finger Lake the trail climbs steeply over a ridge and later a series of climbing sooded shelves before the trail drops (pretty much vertically) down toward Happy River. This is were camera crews like to hang out waiting to record a spectacular crash. I heard stories about those Happy River steps and was quite worried about crashing and braking my sled, injuring dogs or loosing the team. Luckily this year, the trail was in good condition and I got through in one piece. But just as I thought the technical part was over I got hit again.
We left Happy River and it seemed like we were just going up and up and up and then for a long time we ran along this steeply sloped mountain. I can't remember how many hours it was, but these miles kept me very very busy. It is very difficult to describe the trail - the steep sloap and patches of ice made the sled slide around sideways and uncontrollable crash into whatever was in the way - mostly trees and stumps. It didn't help that the trail was very curvy making it impossible for me to see what was coming ahead.
I had an additonal problem. One of my key lead dogs, Ardie, was injured and I had to carry him in the sled for several hours. The additional weight in the sled made it not only harder for the rest of the team but also even more difficult for me to manoever the sled. My sled was now very top heavy and we crashed countless times, which didn't make Ardie happy and he constantly tried to get out the sled bag. I was pretty tired when I finally arrived in Rainy Pass.

Overall, this part of the trail took out over 10% of the competition. Broken sled runners, brocken stanchions, broken ribs, broken fingers etc. etc.

Between Skwentna and Finger Lake This is not too far outside Skwentna, when the trail was still nice and easy

Puntilla Lake - Rainy Pass Checkpoint It was a beautiful day, but the wind was picking up by the hour. The dogs were sleeping and I was putting some calories in my stomach - I knew I would need them.

Rainy Pass to Rohn
A little after 7pm I was getting ready to leave and head towards Rohn. Going down the Dalzell Gorge was the last piece of trail that I was worried about. It again would require all of my sled driving ability as it is known for braking sleds. I was hoping to run this leg in daylight, but my schedule didn't allow that. I would have to go in the dark. I had packed a good headlight particularly for this section, but what do you know - it quit on me before I even left Rainy Pass.
I had to go back to my regular headlight that I planned on using for the majority of the trip. It's a good headlight, but with 16 dogs I knew I had to use the brightest setting to be able to see my leaders and the batteries would last only about 5 hours.

As I was leaving the Rainy Pass check point, the wind was getting stronger and stronger and my dogs and me and my sled got pushed off the trail several times. I had Linus and Cruiser in lead, but had to take Linus out of lead soon - he didn't enjoy the wind. Vanilla was more experienced and tougher. Several dog teams behind me had more problems than I did - their teams didn't want to move at all. As we were getting closer to the top of the pass it was blowing like hell. I was glad though I was travelling in the dark. In daylight it would have been nearly impossible to make out trail markers because of the blowing snow. In the dark the headlight would pick up the reflecive tape on the markers and make travelling possible. Later on I learned though that "our" group of teams was the last bunch to make it through the pass. Teams trying to get through later turned around and headed back to Puntilla Lake.
On top of the pass I nearly took the wrong trail. I wasn't aware of it, but there was an intersection. One trail leading to Rohn and the other and more obvious trail was leading to Ptarmigan Pass. That trail was more obvious to me, because about 10 teams ahead of me had taken the wrong turn.
I caught it the very last moment and turned my team around and headed towards the Gorge.
Since it was dark it's difficult to describe the terrain, but it seemed I as running now downhills into a valley, but still above the tree line. Then all of sudden the trail gets very twisty and willow and shrub are haning over the trail. I was hiding behind the handlebar, trying to avoid branches wacking me in the head. My hands got a pretty good beating though and just as I was about to enter the Dalzell Gorge my batteries went dead. I was hanging onto my sled for my life (it seemed to me anyway) and had absolutely no time or a free hand to change batteries. I switched over to my 3rd and smallest headlight - I could barely my lead dogs.
To keep it short, the Dalzell Gorge was not easy by any means, but it was a lot easier than I expected. We had some glare ice, open water and rocks, but I guess it could have been a lot worse.
Coming out of the Gorge, the trail follows down the Rohn river a little bit before heading back into the woods into the checkpoint. With my limited visibility I somehow the turn off the river and kept running on the river. I only knew I had gone wrong when I started breaking through ice and found myself in knee deep overflow. It took me a while to drag my team out the water.

We got to Rohn and again, no broken sled parts. The first thing I noticed was the temperature - I was noticable colder (-35F) and since my sled, dogs and harness etc. had gotten wet in the overflow I had to work with iced up gear - great!

At least the trail should get better from here on - or so I thought.