Another day on the Yukon! More endlessness, more wind, more relentless moving. After leaving McGrath, I had created a virtual Magdalena that would always be 100 feet ahead of me, moving in her infamous Duracell Bunny style. Each time I had to stop, I saw her virtual double disappear quickly, which was a reminder for me to be efficient in my stops and everything else I did. A minute wasted here and there quickly adds up over a day and becomes an hour. And an hour quickly adds up to a day. Wasting an hour in each official ITI checkpoint would literally lead to an extra day on the trail. It pays off to be organized and efficient.
The sun was out and the trail was quite fast. Besides the wind and the cold, it was a day of good moving. It was sometime around 3pm when I spotted Galena ahead of me on the opposite side of the Yukon. I thought I’d be there in 20min. It took almost two hours. This time I found the checkpoint, another B&B, without problems. To my surprise, two athletes, who were more than a day ahead of me when I left Ruby, welcomed me. I learned that they suffered from some serious food poisoning since yesterday, and have been unable to continue so far. Thankfully, they were on the mend and were also planning to leave Galena in the early morning hours.
A little later that night, Iditarod veteran Matthew Failor’s dog team was attacked by an aggressive moose just outside the Galena Iditarod checkpoint. Matthew shot and killed the moose to defend himself and his dogs. A kick of a moose can easily kill a dog. This was a stark reminder that moose really do need to be taken very seriously, especially on the river where there is nowhere to find protection.
I left the checkpoint before everybody else and continued my journey. It was going to be a solid ~50mi stretch to Nulato, population of 239. My goal was to be there in the evening and to get some sleep in the Iditarod checkpoint.
Just another day on the Yukon.
Just before sunrise (~8:50am), the temperature usually drops to new lows. The drop can be quite brutal.
#iti2022 #iditarodtrailinvitational #ultrarunning #nome #alaska