March 6 Ruby—1:20PM—Race Changes to Yukon

We have now moved to Ruby, a village perched on a steep hillside on the  south bank of the Yukon.  I have enclosed a photo from the checkpoint, high above the south bank, out onto one of the great rivers of the world.

On even years the Iditarod is run on the so called northern route and intercepts the Yukon 150 miles upriver from Kaltag here at Ruby.  On odd years, the trail intercepts the Yukon at Anvik, about 150 miles downriver from Kaltag, a point of departure for the portage to the Bering Sea CoaST.

What could possibly be the difference?   In winter, the cold air molecules get stiff and cold and migrate down thousands of miles of tributaries t arrive on the Yukon where they continue to tumble down the river to the ocean.  This is a theory why the wind almost always blows down river in the winter.  In the summer, all the air returns like migrating salmon back up the Yukon’s tributaries.  Any old timer will tell you that the air blows downriver in winter and blows back upriver in summer.

Therefore, the mushers departing Ruby will almost certainly have a wind to their back—which is a good thing— as they travel on the Yukon trail to checkpoints Galena, Nulato and finally Kaltag, a distance of about 150 miles.  Invariably, if the temperature is -20 on the high bank of the Yukon, its -40f on the river bed.

The Yukon is a new challenge for the dogs and mushers because of its unceasing whiteness and uninterrupted  vistas.  It is not technical mushing, but a mental challenge.  A trail on the Yukon rounds a bend and to the musher and dogs it seems like it takes all afternoon.  The Yukon is huge, wide, in some place four miles across.  The sameness of the trail on the frozen surface of the river, the steady trot of the dogs is like a clock ticking off the seconds of your life, gives the musher time to think about one’s place in the universe.  “I am nothing but a snowflake in the great cosmos of parking lot snow dumps.”  The struggle to stay awake, especially at night when the featureless river hypnotizes  the musher, is nearly overwhelming.  Minutes blend into hours and the confusion is like being in a sensory deprivation tank.

But back to the race where we find Jeff King as a solitary figure in the the expansive dog lot of Ruby.  Sonny is reorganizing his sled by his team parked on the opposite side of the center used for musher sleeping.  His team is on an exit road and completely out of sight of King’s.

Back at King’s sled,  one can see his team resting in the sun, recharging.  Because of the differences in start times in Willow we have to consider Kings #17 starting number and Sonny’s #70 starting number.  In the grand math calculation that means King gets a 24 plus 2 hrs equals 26 hours in the checkpoint (because he started 2 hrs ahead of Sonny) and Sonny, because he was the last guy to start, is 24.  More or less then, Sonny is first out and King will leave Ruby behind him.  I haven’t seen the out times posted on the checkpoint chalk board but I think I am right to say, actually, that Sonny Lindner leads the race.  (his fans will be irritated , a little, about this oversight.  )

I asked King about the little grey female in the middle of the team that he was talking to in Cripple. The reader may recall that he promised her a day off.  Later, he told her, “Won’t that be fun?”

  Does she like her 24 hour day off?  “Oh, yeah, she is sleeping in today.”  And did she do a good job?   “Sure, she is part of the team, did a really good job.”

Over at Sonny’s quadrant we note the veteran sorting through gear.  Using his knife, he cleanly cuts the top knot off his white feed bags  and removes smaller bags marked “chicken”, “beef” etc which in turn contains very thinly sawed frozen components he will place in his picnic cooler with hot water.

He also cuts a hole in a bag labelled “Return” and ties it with hay string to the side of his sled.  This is for all the socks gloves, used booties that are still good, and miscellaneous that can be carried back to Anchorage.  He will put the bag in a location back at the race checkpoint later.

 A Norwegian entourage arrives by snowmachine in Ruby.  Some of the members are posting news to Norway about the race at our location in the local school. WE are at least another half mile up the hill from the checkpoint.  I ask about Sorlie and what he said in their secret Norwegian conversations.

I am disappointed.  Apparently Sorlie is as understated in English as he is in Norwegian.  “Yes, of course he was happy with his time from Takotna to Cripple” referring to the very fast ten hour surge off his 24 hour rest. But, he understands there are many good mushers in the race.  Anything else?  No, but he seemed happy when he left Cripple a little after  noon.  Expect him about 10:30 PM in Ruby tonight.

Ralph Johanessen is another leading Norwegian who we haven’t seen for a while.  He hurt his collar bone on the Alaska range transit.  After a big discussion in Norwegian, I find out that he didn’t break his collar bone,  “it’s just very sore and he holds his arms close to his body.”