by Terrie Hanke
The trail to Nome has many users. On the same weekend that the Junior Iditarod takes off from Knik Lake, participants in the Iditarod Trail Invitational human ultra sport are gearing up for their start from the same lake on Sunday. Users of the trail checkpoints cooperate to coordinate use. Junior Iditarod mushers turn around at Yentna Station for their finish in Willow early Sunday morning, then the leading ultra sport cyclists come through Monday evening.
The current invitational has forty-nine athletes making the 350 miles to McGrath or the 1,000 miles to Nome. Dog team is not their mode of travel. They are their own power source. Some entrants go by foot, some go by ski but the majority ride bike.
For the Forty-nine participants in the Iditarod Invitational, seven intend to pedal all the way to Nome while twenty-three have their sites set on McGrath. Seven athletes will attempt Nome on foot and 11 will call it a job well done when arriving in McGrath. The skiers are aiming for McGrath.
Early checkpoints along the Iditarod Trail received up to 30 inches of snow from Saturday late afternoon to Monday noon. The snow that slowed the Junior mushers down on their trip to the Willow finish also affected the Iditarod Invitational athletes. Bikers who left Knik Lake found themselves immobilized by the snow. Some were prepared to make progress by pushing their bikes. Mother Nature buried the hard fast trail participants were hoping for with a record snowfall.
This was the first year in memory that the foot travelers beat the bikers to Yentna Station Roadhouse. As bikers arrived, they all had a story to tell. Some said they were able to bike five of the sixty miles, others said they only rode two miles. With the amount of snow that fell over the weekend, it was just too soft to allow for progress by pedaling. One fellow limped into checkpoint Yentna with very sore legs. His explanation was that he hadn’t trained for pushing his bike; he’d concentrated on riding. The next biker came into the checkpoint with strong legs. His explanation was that he’d trained for pushing – every time it snowed at home, he’d go out and push his bike in preparation for what he hoped he wouldn’t have to do for the ultra sport invitational. Other bikers turned around earlier in the race. Compared to the foot travelers and skiers, it was clear the bikers faced the greatest challenge in their trek along the Iditarod route.
Old timers who’ve served as race officials for both Iditarod and the Invitational told stories about other years with record snow. Seems there was one biker wading through waste deep snow that advanced his bike by picking it up and throwing it as far in front of himself as he could. He’d push through the snow to where his bike had landed and repeat the process.
Some of the bikers scratched at Yentna Station saying they weren’t prepared. They dismantled their bikes to fit inside a small bush plane and were flown out to the road system. Others pressed on toward their destination of either McGrath or Nome. One of the walkers who was returning for her second invitational was determined to reach Nome – 940 miles distant. When asked what brought her back for a second time, she said – this event speaks to me all year long. It’s the beauty, it’s the silence, it’s the challenge, and it’s being able to persevere through the problems Mother Nature hands you. Ask a musher why they’re running their second, tenth or thirtieth Iditarod; you’d hear the same reasons with one addition – to spend time with my dogs.
In exasperating trail conditions, eighteen Ultrasport athletes cruised into McGrath by either foot, ski or bike. The first 3 places were claimed by bikers in six days. The final athlete, a biker, covered the 350 miles to McGrath in nine days. No athletes are attempting to cover the distance to Nome.
