Posts - Page 71 of 287 - Christof Teuscher

It’s about 30mi from the Yentna Station to the Skwentna Roadhouse, and another 15mi or so to the Shell Lake Lodge. We pushed through the night and it was still dark when we reached Skwentna. Breakfast was in order. I admit that I had a (light) beer as well. Beer is one of the oldest beverages in the world, so it must be good for you. It was definitely good for me. Especially at 6am.

We left as soon as we could do so without headlamps. It was a quick and efficient pit stop. We were now off the Yentna river and the landscape started to change. That was welcome because rivers get old after a while.

Most Nome veterans will tell that it’s not the best idea to get caught up in the 350mi race frenzy to McGrath if you are Nome-bound. Instead, it would be wise to have a routine and pace that is sustainable for the 1000mi distance. I am grateful to MP to teach me how to sleep enough, avoid ineffective zombie walks, and move more relentlessly. I thought I was good at that, but I clearly wasn’t. It appears I stop a lot, adjust a lot of things, eat a lot, pee a lot, and drink a lot. The latter two are probably somewhat related. Each time I had to stop and saw her quickly disappear at the horizon provided me with a fresh opportunity to become more efficient, or better even, not to stop at all. It was a humble learning experience, but it helped me to get to Nome.

Once we made it to Shell Lake, Chris made us a tasty burger. I admit I had a (light) beer. Again. MP insisted on 6h of sleep. I agreed, but cheated and set the alarm 1h earlier. The cabin was cold, so we lit the stove and loaded it with plenty of wood. The next thing we both remember is that we woke up drenched in sweat, gasping for air. The stove had turned the cabin into a sauna. We stripped to the bare essentials and had to open the cabin door for 15min before we fell asleep again. Beginners!

At 9pm Chris made us breakfast for dinner. I had no beer. Not sure why not. And off we went into and through another cold night toward checkpoint 4 at Finger Lake (~mile 125).

A hearty breakfast at the Skwentna Roadhouse.

After more than a day on the Yentna river, a change in scenery was welcome. Rivers get old after a while.

The weather was about to change.

The hills that would soon swallow us.

The nose hat: one of the most useful items on this race. It prevents frostbite on your nose and cheeks and keeps your face warm.

Shell Lake Lodge! “Lodge” can mean a lot of different things in Alaska. It can be a luxury resort or a very basic cabin with an outhouse.

Another culinary highlight: a burger and beer at the Shell Lake Lodge. Note that this was the only beer they had.

#iti2022 #iditarodtrailinvitational #ultrarunning #nome #alaska

We made it to the Susnita, then the Yentna River sometime in the early and still dark morning hours. That’s where the cold usually hits you like a brick. It wasn’t too bad this time. We passed a few racers who bivied on the river, some even set up tents. Because the cold air sits on rivers, it’s not generally a good idea to sleep there, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Our goal was to make it to the Yentna Station checkpoint without sleeping. So we did.

I had to get used to Duracell Bunny’s way of moving, or I would be left in the literal and proverbial snow dust. MP moves relentlessly for 5 hours without stopping, drinking, or eating anything. She then takes a short break, snacks on some weird trail mix, and drinks a coffee. All of that takes a few minutes. The process then repeats without mercy. During such a 5h block, I probably peed 17 times, ate 12 Snickers, 1lb of nuts, 67 Oreos, 35 shot blocks, 18 caffeine tablets, and drank 2 gallons of Tang. MP wouldn’t even have noticed any of this. I could have dropped dead, she would not have noticed that I was missing until her next coffee stop.

We got to Yentna Station before lunch, had a hearty breakfast, slept a few hours in one of their cabins, spent some togetherness in the double-seater outhouse, had another meal, and then headed out refreshed toward Skwentna Roadhouse (checkpoint 3, ~mile 85). Our plan was to push through to Shell Lake Lodge (~mile 110) and sleep there for a few hours.