Reliving the 1000mi Iditarod Trail Invitational - Day 4

After a few hours of precious sleep, we crawled out of the cabin’s bunk beds and quickly readied ourselves for a 30mi section that can be beautiful and/or challenging: the climb over Rainy Pass and the descent to the Rohn checkpoint through the infamous Dalzell Gorge. I had nightmarish conditions on that stretch in 2020, so I felt ready for anything this time. Our wet gear had dried nicely and off we went into gorgeous valleys lined with the most amazing peaks. The trail only climbs a meager 1,500ft from Puntilla Lake to Rainy Pass, but pulling a 60lbs+ pulk turns this into a solid challenge. We needed our snowshoes for the ascent because the trail was soft.

The descent through the Dalzell Gorge can be challenging and dangerous. There’s usually open water, lots of ice, terrible winds, and brutal temperatures (-40F in 2020). We had a bit of all, but nothing overly harsh. There was only one open water crossing where we had to put our waders on. As darkness fell a few miles from Rohn, we both fell into a zombie stage that made walking straight hard. We quickly built a raging fire (an essential skill one must have for this race) to stay warm, melted some snow, and enjoyed a coffee. That kicked our tired (and not yet chafed) butts and got us to Rohn.

The saying goes that if you make it across the Alaska Range to Rohn, you’ll probably make it to McGrath. I’m not sure how true that is. McGrath is still 120ish miles away and a lot can happen, as we shall see.

The wind was blowing hard when we reached the legendary Rohn checkpoint (a small tent). We had the first of the two famous bratwursts everybody gets at that checkpoint, slept a few hours on the straw beds, had the second bratwurst, and left when it was still pitch dark. That turned out to be a mistake. But more on that tomorrow…