Today I would hopefully make it to the Ruby halfway checkpoint at mile 500ish. When you sleep outside and can’t dry anything, your gear gets gradually icier. I sleep in a vapor barrier liner (basically an expensive plastic bag) inside my sleeping bag to prevent body moisture from getting into the sleeping bag. In a few days, it would otherwise become a useless frozen chunk. Shoes and everything else you don’t want frozen must be kept warm in your sleeping bag.
Trail conditions varied between barely acceptable to terrible. The wind persisted. Yet, the worst part were the never-ending gradual climbs over hills that seemed small, but then turned out to be monsters. The longest gradual climb I remember was 15mi long, with many false summits on the way. If you think the trail is flat once you crossed the Alaska range, think again. On the stretch from McGrath to Ruby I logged 190mi with 9,759ft (2’975m) of cumulative elevation gain. That’s 6.5x the climb over Rainy Pass from Puntilla Lake. Let’s just say that it was no cakewalk with a heavy sled in soft snow.
As darkness fell, the northern lights made a showing again. To fight sleep deprivation, I sang for several hours in English, French, German, and Swiss German. That made things more interesting and challenged my fried brain. Thankfully nobody heard me. At 2am I reached what my GPS said was the checkpoint, a B&B. It was clearly not. After 1h of searching and several useless directions from locals who were still up (doing what?!), I finally found the right place. I knocked and yelled, but nobody opened the door. I’m not used to enter stranger’s houses at 3am, but eventually I did, found a bed, and passed out.
In the morning, I was served a salad and piles of meat (my late dinner), and a little later a fabulous breakfast too. I ate it all. French skier Mathieu emerged and I learned that he would not continue to Nome. Aw! I was hoping for more rest, but the B&B was buzzing. I loaded my sled with new supplies that I had mailed to the checkpoint and readied myself for the next section.
Another hill, then another one, then some more…
The mushers leave straw that makes for good sleeping spots. At least if you don’t mind sleeping in dog pee.
My feed bottle. I make my dehydrated meals in it and eat while walking so that I don’t get cold.
That’s the moon in the middle. The northern lights can be seen faintly only because it was too bright. Notice the state of the trail. Not fun.
The things you see at night.And yes, that was very soft snow.
6am view from my bed. I got 3h of sleep only.
A salad and piles of meat for breakfast. This was supposed to be my dinner, which they had kindly left out for me, but I didn’t see it at 3am.
That was the real breakfast.
I look tired. I wonder why. That bowl of meat was for me. Photo by MB.
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