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| Heather in Shageluk | Mar-13-2007 | |
It took 10 hours and 4 minutes for Heather to make it to the Shageluk checkpoint at 12:04 PM ADT or 4:04 EDT. She arrived with 10 dogs, the same number she left with from Iditarod. As of when this post was done, Ellen Halverson had yet to arrive.
Missing musher Eric Rodgers had been located. As you may recall Rodgers left from Ophir on Saturday night at 11 PM Alaska time to make the run to Iditarod. Trail sweeps found the missing musher with leg and frostbit injuries and escorted him to a plaace called Dons cabin where he spent the night. Reports from the Iditarod Headquarters in Nome are that his team is fine.
Heather has now completed 600 miles. Her next two legs of the race are rather short, 25 and 18 miles. The first leg is a well traveled village to village trail use by snow machines and the second leg is her first part of the trip up the frozen Yukon River. These legs combined should take around 6 hours.
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| On the Trail Again... | Mar-13-2007 | |
After resting a little over 10 hours at the Iditarod Checkpoint, Heather and Ellen woke up early and headed to the next checkpoint in Shageluk about 65 miles away.
As we told you in an earlier post, this leg is every bit of its official 65 miles, and its unendingly hilly terrain makes it seem more like 100 at times. Heather and Ellen can plan on 7 to 10 hours for it, more if they want to stop and rest somewhere. There is absolutely no human habitation for the entire route—no cabins, no mines, nothing. The people of Shageluk rarely have any need to go over to Iditarod and Flat and vice versa, so this trail is normally only put in every other year, and then only for the Iditarod. Much of the area between Iditarod and Shageluk was burned in a forest fire years ago and some areas still have not grown back. In short, it will be pretty lonely and maybe even a little spooky. This is a good leg to find another driver to run with, just for the company if nothing else. Thankfully Heather and Ellen have each other.
There are no real problems on this leg—just the hills. The trail leaves Iditarod heading downstream (north) on the Iditarod River for a few miles and then turns west and begins to climb over an endless series of ridges before finally dropping down into the broad valley of the Innoko River, on which Shageluk is located. Some veterans say there are nine big hills, some say thirteen, some say more. The first one is within ten miles after leaving Iditarod and the last one is within ten miles of Shageluk. Most of the bigger climbs are in the 500- to 1000-foot range, and some are fairly steep in a few places. Some of the downhill’s are a bit sporty as well.
The trail is fairly narrow at times, although it tends to get better in the last 30 miles into Shageluk. The trail will cross several rivers draining northward into the Innoko, which describes a huge loop from Ophir, swinging north, then west, and finally south to Shageluk before it merges with the Yukon near Holy Cross. The Innoko Valley to the north of the hills across which the trail runs is a vast, uninhabited, mostly wooded expanse of endless swamps and marshes and countless serpentine rivers interspersed with low hills, covering an area larger than many entire states.
The trail will cross the Little Yetna and Big Yetna Rivers, a couple of the many good-sized tributaries of the Innoko; the Big Yetna is approximately at the halfway point. The western half of the trail is generally better than the eastern half, following a cat trail for much of the way into Shageluk. Also, timber coverage increases the farther west you go.
The original Iditarod Trail angled northwest from Iditarod across the Innoko Valley to Kaltag. That section of the old trail hasn’t been used since the 1930s and is not likely to be resurrected any time in the near future. The current trail from Iditarod to Shageluk also dates back to gold rush days, but was never used as extensively as the Iditarod. Parts of it on the western end were more recently used as hunting and trapping trails by Shageluk villagers. Finding the entire trail and putting it in for the first running of the Iditarod southern route was very difficult and relied on the knowledge of a few Shageluk elders who had used it in its heyday more than half a century earlier.
Still no word on musher Eric Rodgers who left Ophir nearly three days ahead of Heather and Ellen.
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| Heathers Mentor Scratches | Mar-12-2007 | |
Gerald Sousa, who was Heathers employeer and mentor when she first arrived in Talkeetna, Alaska nearly three years ago, scratched this evening in Grayling.
In speaking with his wife, Kathleen from their home in Talkeetna earlier this evening, she said Gerry injuried his knee after hitting a tree stump in the Rainy Pass area several days ago. She said the swelling on his knee has gotten progressively worse and an ER doctor on the trail advised him not to continue in the race.
Sousa, 47, was born in California where he lived until he was 12. He moved to Alaska with his family in 1971 and has been here ever since, graduating from Susitna Valley High School in Talkeetna. He began mushing in 2000 and said he became interested in the Iditarod by listening to KHAR radio reports on the Race. He’s a member of the Iditarod Trail Committee, Inc. and the Talkeetna Fishing Guides and for the last ten years has been a tour operator. He says, “I enjoy being a father and running sled dogs.”
Heather worked for Jerry and Kathleen for a couple of years as a dog handler. Five of the 16 dogs Heather is running in this years race are on loan from Sousa's SunDog Kennel, including one of her lead dogs, Odo.
We all wish Gerry a speedy recovery.
Out of the five mushers from the Talkeetna that began this years Iditarod, Heather is now the only one left in the race.
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| Heather Arrives in Iditarod | Mar-12-2007 | |
It has been a long day but after 33 1/2 hours on the trail, we are happy to report that Heather finally arrived at the Iditarod Checkpoint. Two other mushers, including Ellen Halverson, made it to this checkpoint after nearly 38 & 34 hours on this leg of the trail.
Bev Tanner, a life-long Alaskan and owner of the Tanner Trading Post & Coffee Shop in Talkeetna where Heather now lives, said it was not unusual for rookies to take a long time on this stretch of the trail because it is full of two to three foot moguls. She heard from veteran mushers that this part of the trail has been really some of the worst this year. Bev has actually driven the trail by snow machine. Tanner added that this section of the trail was used for the Iron Dog snow machine race a couple of weeks before which created moguls of 2 to 3 feet or even higher.
Weather on this section of the trail didn't seem to be a factor. Although it was cold, the visibility was good and the wind was not a factor. Further up, along the cost, wind gusts were reported to be nearly 90 mph at times.
Bev said she knows Heather is a very savy musher so felt she would be alright. She would probably go pretty slow over the moguls and take her time.
Iditarod PR Director Chas St. George speaking from race headquarters in Nome said that in past years it wasn't out of the question for a rookie to take 40 hours or more between Ophir & Iditarod as it is the one of the worst stretches of the race. St. George also said the checkpoint at Iditarod checkpoint is basically a couple of volunteers hunkered down in a tent with a satellite telephone as their only communication tool. If the phone goes dead, communications is lost until the phone is re-charged.
It was very nice of all these people to assure us Heather would be fine and not to worry. That is easier said than done. We thank God that she is now at the checkpoint and will get the rest she needs before venturing on.
Heathers next leg is to Shageluk and is every bit of its official 65 miles. Its unendingly hilly terrain makes it seem more like 100 at times. She can plan on 7 to 10 hours for it, more if you want to stop and rest somewhere. There is absolutely no human habitation for the entire route. When she arrive in Shageluk, she will have completed nearly 600 miles and have about 522 remaining.
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| Heather leaves Ophir | Mar-11-2007 | |
After about a 4 1/2 hour rest, Heather was back on the trail. It appears that she left about 15 minutes before rookie musher Donald Smidt. This leg is said to be 90 miles of one of the emptiest legs on the entire race. The trail crosses a mix of terrain, ranging from barren upland tundra to thick river-bottom forests to brushy ravines and hillsides to swamps and lakes. This leg has no major problems, although there are always patches of minor overflow, plenty of hills, and some potentially rough trail across the uplands. Some compare it to driving through Texas, where there are miles and miles of nothing.
This has been taking mushers anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. She will probably take a several-hour rest somewhere along the way. Many mushers stop at Don’s Cabin which is 36 miles out of Ophir. It’s a ramshackle plywood hut but it’s sheltered in the trees and has a stove. In fact the materials for this cabin were flown in by a musher after he ran the southern route and thought the trail desperately needed some kind of shelter in that area because the weather can be a major factor on this leg, especially on the Beaver Flats, which are completely exposed. Whiteouts can happen quickly and winds can be severe.
The trail across the Beaver Flats may have little snow; which may cause bouncing from one tundra tussock to another for many miles. For the most part, the trail is generally well marked and the nice part is, it is under 600 miles to Nome.
You go girl!
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