Posts - Page 62 of 286 - Christof Teuscher

I was particularly excited to make the 86mi to Unalakleet for two reasons: (1) to see the Bering Sea with the sea ice and (2) to have pizza at Peace on Earth, which would also be our checkpoint. It’s rather unusual to find a pizza place in a small Alaskan community by the Bering Sea. But more on that tomorrow.

Over the next two days, it was pure solitude, which I greatly enjoyed. I saw nobody. I was now running in 2nd place. ITI veteran foot athlete Beat was about a day ahead of me, leading the race. This was his 6th Iditarod to Nome. Needless to say that he had a lot more experience than my clueless rookie persona. As a Nome veteran, you don’t lose time with navigation, you know how to find the checkpoints in towns, you know what to pack and what not to pack, and you can take more (informed) risk and optimize everything. My strategy was to play it safe.

I loved this entire section. For the most part, it follows a valley that is lined by great coastal mountains. The trail was mostly in good shape because it’s a well-traveled snowmachine highway. After about 35mi I got to the Tripod Flats cabin, one of two public shelters on that stretch. It was definitely too early to rest. My plan was to hammer out the 50mi (from Kaltag) to the Old Woman cabin, the 2nd public shelter maintained by BLM. I made it there just when it got dark. There was not enough wood to heat up the cabin, melt snow, and make dinner. So I first had to head out with the axe, cut down a big tree that would provide enough wood, chop it up, make a fire, and only then I could start to think about dinner. Given that I had 17 leg days so far, a bit of upper body workout with the axe was welcome. I quickly made dinner and hung up my wet gear to dry while I slept a few hours. Yet, before I passed out, I melted extra show and kept the stove going because I thought Josh would be showing up any minute. He never did. Hmmm, I wasn’t sure what happened and assumed he bivied somewhere on the way.

#iti2022 #iditarodtrailinvitational #ultrarunning #nome #alaska

As much as I was still blown away by the beauty and the scale of the Yukon, as much was I looking forward to finally getting off this monster in Kaltag at about mile 633. The miles finally started to look like the end was getting a little closer. But alas, 367 remaining miles looked still quite intimidating.

There isn’t much to say about the stretch from Nulato to Kaltag. More of the same, yet still always somehow different. The moon was there, the sun came up, and I moved, and moved, and moved some more. A local on his way to Nulato stopped and we chatted while he smoked a cigarette. He told me his wife wanted him to take his granddaughter, yet he declined because he couldn’t go fast with her on the snowmachine. We laughed and he took off like a rocket. And no, the locals do not wear helmets.

Around noon, veteran musher Lisbet Norris passed me and tossed me a snack pack (pictured). I was very excited to eat some new food as I was growing increasingly tired of each and every type of food I had packed (and shipped). Lisbet had the only all Siberian husky team at the 2022 Iditarod. Siberian huskies are white and have beautiful almond eyes is an adaptation to protect their eyes from the wind. Alaskan huskies currently dominate in long distance mushing while Siberian huskies are sometimes nicknamed “Slow-berians,” yet they are adaptive, resilient, and great long distance dogs.

PS: a team of students at Portland State developed a more efficient musher cooker that Lisbet and other mushers now use. More info at https://bit.ly/3EjQdxB.

I reached Kaltag by 7pm, after a solid day of moving in great conditions. None of these small rural communities use cars in the winter. You get around on snowmachines. The ITI checkpoint was located in the Kaltag school, a big red building. It was spring break, so nobody was there. I quickly organized my resupplies (from another mailed box), boiled water for the next day, made dinner, and passed out. The next two days will be a long 86mi stretch to Unalakleet, which is located on the Norton Sound of the Bering Sea.