Well, my journey on the Yukon wasn’t over yet. While good moving happened on the previous day, I never quite got into the zone today. There are good days, and there are bad days. This was not a good one. But such is life.
Regulating your body temperature is a constant struggle. The saying goes that if you sweat, you die. So yes, you really want to avoid any sweat because it can literally freeze on your body. But conditions and the temperature change very frequently, and you don’t want to constantly stop to remove or put on layers. The key is to have layers that you can easily vent by opening zippers.
Another challenge is the ice buildup in your shoes. Your body always generates moisture that evaporates. If it’s cold enough, that moisture leads to ice on your socks first (pictured), and later to a gradually growing ice layer inside your shoes. While you can change your socks, it’s very hard to remove ice buildup inside your shoes without having access to a warm place for drying you gear. Once you have ice on your socks and inside your shoes, it’s almost impossible to keep your toes warm. While not perfect, the best solution to avoid ice buildup is to use vapor barrier socks (pictured). Like the sleeping bag vapor barrier liner, it’s just a fancy name for an expensive plastic bag, but it does the job.
Just when it got dark, Josh caught up with me a few miles before Nulato. He had left Galena 4h after me. That tells you how slow I was. Or how fast he was. Nulato residents are predominantly Koyukon Athabascan and lead a trapping and subsistence lifestyle. The mayor of Nulato himself greeted us at the Iditarod checkpoint. We were allowed inside only after passing a COVID test. It was great to have a warm place to sleep for once. Several mushers from the back of the pack were resting as well, including Inupiaq musher Apayauq Reitan, the first trans woman competing in the Iditarod. By competing in the race, she hopes to inspire other transgender people.
I was on my way to Kaltag, the last checkpoint on the Yukon, in the early morning hours.
Good morning!
That’s the moon.
That’s the sun. It was bitter cold.
In low temperatures, moisture from your stinky feet leads to a gradual ice buildup on your socks and inside your shoes. It leads to toes that you cannot keep warm anymore if you don’t address the problem.
One solution to avoid ice buildup on your socks and inside your shoes is to use vapor barrier socks. They are essentially expensive plastic bags. And yes, you can use plastic bags too.
Nulato is “just” around the corner behind that hill on the right. It still took hours to get there.
Inside the Nulato Iditarod checkpoint. We were allowed to sleep inside and dry our gear after passing a COVID test.
#iti2022 #iditarodtrailinvitational #ultrarunning #nome #alaska
