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Hardcore Huskies Newsletter 08 Race Edition.pdf [ Archive ] |
| ONLY 123 MILES TO GO! | Sat, Mar. 15th, 2008 | |
One More Hurdle - Then It’s Onto Nome!
The Hardcore Team is resting in Elim before they head out on the next to last leg of the race, a 46 miles run to White Mountain via a pit stop in Golovin. Heather and her Hardcore Team made up of the mighty eight, arrived in Elim just after midnight Friday; 00:34 AKDT (4:34 EDT) to be exact. It took them 6:59 to make the 48 mile run from Koyuk. The Hardcore Team is now only 123 miles from the burled arch and the finish line in Nome.
They will now rest for a bit in Elim, population less than 300. From here the trail heads over the hills of the Kwiktalik Mountains inland a little ways to the next checkpoint on Golovin Bay where mushers normally stop only long enough to sign the official race log. Then they make their final 18 mile push to While Mountain where all teams are required to rest for eight hours.
From While Mountain it is a short 77 miles to the end via the last checkpoint on the trail at the Safety Roadhouse!
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| KX TV Reports Hardcore Progress | Sat, Mar. 15th, 2008 | |
KX TV12 in Bsiarmck North Dakota continues to track Heather and the Hardcpore Team. This afternoon they spoke with Heather High, the Hardcore dog handler who is waiting for the Hardcore Team at the finish line in Nome. To view the story CLICK HERE.
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| Hardcore Team Inching Closer to Nome | Fri, Mar. 14th, 2008 | |
Heather and the Hardcore Team have hit the trail again and are off to Elim. They left Koyuk at 5:35 PM AKDT (9:35 EDT) this evening for the 48 mile run to Elim. This leg of the race this year is taking teams 5 to 7 hours.
The Hardcore Team will leave Koyuk on the sea ice headed southwest along the shore. The trail generally stays just far enough offshore to avoid the shore ice which can be jumbled and rough see a prominent rocky headland ahead at about the ten-mile point. The trail will cut inshore just past it run for another couple of miles across low ground and then begin to climb over a series of small ridges, eventually getting back into the tree line.
The Team will cross the highest ridge at a 300-foot summit after a moderate quarter-mile climb. Because they are making the run during the day Heather may see Mount Kwiniuk, a 2,000-foot mountain right on the coast five miles past Elim, 35 miles away.
After the summit they’ll descend quickly back to the lowlands, running through taiga and tundra and a few small ponds. About five miles from the summit they’ll drop down to cross the mouth of the Kwik River, only a few hundred yards wide. The Kwik River valley is a natural wind tunnel and the wind can be blowing very hard here from the north. At last check the wind was about 15 mph. The sky was clear and it was 7 degrees.
There is a shelter cabin on the far side of the river if it gets too bad. The shelter cabin is about 25 miles from Elim. If she keeps the Team going, the wind will usually switch to blow more at their back and they should be out of it within ten more miles.
After the Kwik River, the trail passes the shelter cabin and then runs along the top of the beach for about three miles. Then it drops back down onto the open ice to the southwest to cut across the mouth of Kwiniuk Inlet to Moses Point. The over ice portion is about two miles. The trail is usually hard and fast, but there may be overflow from high tides or storms.
Moses Point is the tip of a long, low, narrow spit extending back to the west. Soon after Heather climbs back off the ice, she will begin to see houses and cabins. This is old Elim, now used as a fishing camp. It was the main village until new Elim was built 30 years ago on high ground 15 miles west. It stretches for several miles along the spit. Once in awhile one of the cabins is used during the winter for hunting.
The trail will wind through the cabins and finally bump down onto the ice of Kwiniuk Inlet behind the spit. From here the trail can get soft and punchy (with possible overflow) as it meanders for several miles west over to the abandoned Moses Point FAA station; Heather will see the old towers and buildings easily as soon as she leaves old Elim. From about 1940 until the late 1960s this was a major airport and stopping point for airplanes heading to and from Nome. The only thing left operating here now is an unattended radio beacon.
The Hardcore Team will then wander by the old buildings and pick up a road headed west. They’re about ten miles from Elim. In recent years the race has followed the road all the way into Elim. The first couple of miles of the road across the flats are usually windblown and bare in spots. Heather may be able to guide the dogs to run in the ditch alongside the road or perhaps on the shoulder. If she runs on the bare part of the gravel road, you will trash your runner plastic in about two minutes.
At the end of the flats the road becomes solidly snow packed and they’ll begin a steady climb to get on top of the bluffs where Heather will see the coast to her left.. Finally they’ll reach the crest of the road (the Team’s back in the trees by the way—this part of the coast supports the biggest forest on the Seward Peninsula) and start down a long downgrade into Elim.
The checkpoint is usually in the big state maintenance garage; Heather and the Hardcore Team will be met by the checker on the road and will guide them in. Heather will probably find water is available (sometimes “hot” water) and there are usually good munchies in the checkpoint plus a place to rest. Elim is normally well sheltered from the north wind, so the mighty Hardcore dogs can get some quality rest here if they need it.
When they arrive, Heather and the Hardcore Team will only be 123 miles from Nome.
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| Hardcore Team on the Home Stretch! | Fri, Mar. 14th, 2008 | |
Heather and the Hardcore Team are one checkpoint closer to their goal of reaching Nome. They arrived in Koyuk at 10:04 AM AKDT (2:04 EDT), after a 7 hour and 27 minute trip from Shaktoolik across the ice of Norton Sound. She ran this leg only about 30 minutes slower than last year with one less dog.
The costal village of Koyuk has a population of about 250. Now that she has reached this checkpoint, Heather and her Hardcore Team can breathe a sigh of relief as almost all of the rest of the trail is at least over land. The checkpoint in Koyuk is the City Recreation Center.
Heather and her mighty Hardcore Team have now completed 941 miles and have only 171 more to go to get to Nome.
After resting for a few hours, they will head up the coast another 48 miles to the checkpoint in Elim. After that they have two short runs; first to Golovin then to White Mountain. When the Hardcore Tem arrives in White Mountain they must take a mandatory 8 hour rest before they travel the final 77 miles to Nome.
Heather is still running well ahead of her pace set last year. In 2007 Heather did not reach Koyuk until 13 days 21 hours into the race. This year she arrived at 11 days 18 hours, 26 minutes, an improvement of well over two days.
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| Hardcore Team Trudges On! | Fri, Mar. 14th, 2008 | |
Heather and the Hardcore Team are inching ever closer to Nome. They left the checkpoint in Shaktoolik at 2:37 AM AKDT (6:37 AM EDT) this morning for their run across the ice to Kuyok. Heather still has the fantastic eight leading the way.
We spoke to her dog handler, Heather High, who is in Nome making preparations for the Teams arrival and she told us a lot of the dogs Heather is running with now were NOT expected to make it to Nome.
“This is sort of funny in a way,” says High. “Dogs like SnoGo. We never thought he’d make it all the way. Thank goodness she trained a lot of her dogs to lead because she needs them all now.”
High says Fast Eddy, who is deaf and a fan favorite, is still hanging in there. He made it to Nome last with Heather.
“Heather promised me if Fast Eddy made it to Nome she was going to switch him out into lead to make the run up Front Street to the finish line,” High added. “I can’t wait to see that!”
High says there is only one thing to say about this leg—bleak, flat, and deadly monotonous. Locals say the actual distance is less than 50 miles, but it always seems like a hundred. Race veterans tell us there is not so much as a shrub on this stretch, most of which is over the sea ice of Norton Bay. Last year it took Heather and her Team just under 7 hours to complete this leg.
The trail to Koyuk runs almost due north from Shaktoolik, overland across very low rolling terrain for about nine miles to Reindeer Cove, then across the ice for five miles to Island Point, then back onto the ice immediately for the last 45 miles to Koyuk. There are no hills.
Heather and the Hardcore Team will leave Shaktoolik via the slough behind the village, paralleling a long, eight-foot-high snow fence on the right (north). The snow fence is about the only thing that keeps Shaktoolik from being completely buried in drifts during the winter. The trail goes through The Gate, the main opening in the fence; there will probably be many snowmachine tracks here, so Heather will need to watch the watch the markers.
Once past the fence, she’ll be running across gently rolling and often windswept tundra for eight or nine miles. Some of the villagers have reindeer herds which wander in this area; Heather might see some (they look just like caribou). Heather will know when she comes to the shore of Reindeer Cove: everything ahead will be completely flat.
If she had made the trip during the day she would have see Island Point about five miles ahead across the cove; it’s a hundred-foot rock at the end of a low-lying peninsula jutting out from the mainland on the right. Because she is making the run at night Heather will probably begin to see the red light on the FAA radio beacon at Koyuk, which is on a hill behind the village and is visible for almost the entire trip. (She may become intensely frustrated because you never seem to get any closer to the light.)
Once on the ice, the trail will be dead level and virtually straight. After five miles you’ll come abeam Island Point; the trail may cross over the peninsula or may stay out on the ice. There is a dilapidated shelter cabin at the foot of Island Point; more than a few mushers have had to hole up here to wait out storms. It doesn’t offer much in the way of facilities, but it’s in the lee of Island Point and is the only place to get out of the wind until Koyuk.
After Island Point, you’re well and truly on the bounding main. The water underneath you isn’t very deep (maybe 20 feet at the most) but it’s definitely salt water. Heather may see some pressure ridges but little else along the way. There may be cracks in the ice, some of which can be several inches wide. These are normal and shouldn’t cause Heather any concern. She will probably also hear the ice cracking under or around her; also normal, if a bit unnerving.
Stories about the ice cracking off and drifting mushers and their teams out to sea are probably a bit overdone. (At least it hasn’t happened in recent memory.) The important thing is to stay on the trail and go marker to marker if you have to, and stop and wait out the weather if you get lost. It is entirely possible to get turned around and headed out to open water, which is usually at least 10 to 20 miles to the southwest.
From Island Point to Koyuk is about a 340-degree compass heading if all else fails. The whole way Heather should be able to see the ridges and mountains surrounding Norton Bay eventually begin to see the buildings (or lights) of Koyuk still have at least ten miles to go. Heather will just need to bear with it and eventually she’ll pull into the checkpoint, just back from the beach. There may or may not be water available here (but there’s always plenty of snow to melt). The race usually has a building rented for staff and mushers to rest in, but it may be a couple of blocks from the dogs. Heather and the Hardcore Team are now only 171 miles from Nome.
On a historical note, the original Iditarod Trail didn’t go to Koyuk. It went by Shaktoolik and continued south of Elim to Golovin, skirting much closer to the open water than the race trail does today. During the 1925 Serum Run, Leonhard Seppala drove his dogs (behind his leader, Togo) nonstop from Nome toward Unalakleet and Kaltag, thinking he was going to pick up the serum somewhere on the Yukon River.
He unexpectedly met Henry Ivanoff carrying the vaccine on the ice just offshore of Shaktoolik. Seppala loaded up the serum and immediately started back without even resting his dogs. He went almost directly across the mouth of Norton Bay to Golovin, where he passed the life-saving package to Gunnar Kaasen and his legendary leader, Balto (who, by the way, actually belonged to Seppala).
Seppala’s route from Shaktoolik to Golovin was extremely dangerous and difficult, made worse by high winds and 40-below temperatures and the ever- present threat of open water and moving ice. Seppala was already widely regarded as the territory’s best musher, and his part of the serum run was certainly the hardest of any of the 20 mushers who participated. Togo worked so hard on the Serum Run he injured himself and never raced again.
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