The hot sun really softened first 50 miles down the mighty Yukon River. The spectator and volunteer snow machine traffic didn’t help either but, I figured hey, we are all on the same trail. Sprint musher Clifton Carroll passed me not even 5 miles into the run. He was calling up the dogs and driving them like he had 30 miles to travel not 300. I wondered when his team would run out of gas. Sure enough about 40 miles later we caught the sprint dogs again. I honestly think that if the trail had been good the whole 80 miles, he would have smoked us all on the first run.
The Yukon is wide open and fully exposed to the sun. Sometimes you travel along a cut bank and get a little shade. I have only been up and down the river 5 times, but its enough times now that I recognize little landmarks. “We camped there once.“ “That’s where we set the fish net.“
I traveled with Ken Anderson and Tom Lesatz, most of the trip. At one point the trail was so bad Tom was making breast stroke movements with his arms. Making light of the wallowing dogs. We stopped a lot and changed booties often. I started running out of booties. I would pick up discarded booties from the mushers in front of us to check to see if I could use them. By the end of the run I could only keep all of the dogs back paws covered. If I could peg one mistake I made on this race, it would be I didn’t have enough booties and the ones I had, were used. I went through over 3 sets of booties during the first 40 miles! This is a race when I really could have benefited drawing an early bib number. But luck definitely is a huge factor in dog mushing. After 50 miles the sun went down and trail got nice and hard. Not to mention Lady realized she was getting close to home. We cruised that last 30 miles into Fort Yukon. I was in fourth after the first 80 miles.
Fort Yukon to Chalkyitsik
After a four hour rest we left FYU. It was early morning now, still dark but the sun was coming up soon. We were the 3rd team to leave. The mandatory rest for the race was 4 hours at FYU, 2 at Birch Creek , and 6 more musher’s choice. Ken chose to break his six up, add one extra hour to the 4 hour rest in FYU and then only stay 5 in Chalkyitsik. So that meant I wasn’t really in 3rd yet.
I caught Jessie Holmes in one of the portage trails right after the sun came up. The Portage Trails are probably the most fun part of the race. They are narrow and twisty. You have to “drive them like a ninja” according to Jay. You have to be quick to dodge over hanging willows and tree wells. Then the trail opens up onto a series of meadows, lakes, and sloughs until you arrive at Chalkyitsik 75 miles away.
It was mid afternoon now and the sun was beating down hot. Perfect for resting dogs, and mushers! We were warmly welcomed to the tiny village. Josh Cadzow’s team was already resting well, so clearly they had been there a while. It truly was his race to win. So I waited to see who would be next and how far behind they were. Tom Lesatz and Joel Swisher pulled in about 20 minutes later, so I had already gained on the seven minute lead I had on them. Next Ken pulled in, with the hour extra rest, that put him seven minutes behind me. I rested well and ate even better.
Chalkyitsik to Fort Yukon
Before I took off to leave some trail breakers mentioned about some nasty overflow ahead on the trail.
“We broke out a new trail that goes around it but it really soft.”
“How far out of the way?” I asked.
“About 3 miles.”
“How deep is the overflow?”
“I don’t know, I just gunned it.”
I decided that Josh is from here, I’m following wherever his sled tracks lead.
It was hot, the dogs were crawling. I just let them go their speed. I kept waiting for Ken to pull up behind. About 26 miles into the run I stopped to snack and change booties just after John Steven’s cabin, also known as Ni’chii Village, where the trail drops onto the Black River.
Sure enough here came Ken. We traveled together quite some time. He must have stopped at some point because soon he disappeared from view.
I came upon a sign, “New Trail” with an arrow pointing one way, “Overflow” with an arrow pointing the opposite. I saw Josh’s tracks going towards the overflow so I followed. Someone had broke a little trail to avoid the overflow, so there really was no trouble at all.
The trail firmed up with a little wind as we traveled down the Black River, over onto the Grass River and eventually onto the l2 mile portage, across 12 mile lake, where Pete Wallis had is camp. You might remember that from Velma Wallis; book “Raising Ourselves". Then Iver’s Bridge over the Sucker River and onto the Wood Cutting Road that leads into Fort Yukon.
One of our most difficult obstacles we would encounter was soon ahead. It is 70 miles from Chalkyitsik to Fort Yukon, and to stay competitive, we would have to pass through the checkpoint at FYU, and continue onto Birch Creek another 36 miles away. That is a 105 mile run, which is a long run, but not unheard of. However the dogs had stopped and had a nice rest last time we passed through so they might think that that is the game plan. That coupled with the fact that Lady used to live in Fort Yukon and probably thinks this is the end of the run, made me nervous about getting through Fort Yukon. Probably not as nervous as Josh was, stopping in “the Fort” is what his team has done a hundred of times, not a handful.
I stopped just after crossing the Sucker River, to give a big snack to the dogs and change booties. I gave them a good rest, because once we go past Fort Yukon , I wanted to keep rolling for quite a while. We took off again and approached quickly pulled into the checkpoint.
Earl Cadzow was waiting. Which, by the way, he did the whole race. That man sat out under the Yukon Flats 300 banner for at least 3 days! He asked, “Are you staying?”
“No! Just grabbing my drop bag and I’m outta here.”
I literally ran over to where my food drop bags were and ran the bag back to my sled. Terri Cadzow packed me a nice lunch, threw it in the sled, and I pulled the hook.
