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| Heather Returns to Rohn | Mar-08-2007 | |
After leaving Rohn for Nikolai last night, Heather and her team had return to Rohn to drop a dog.
In talking with race Director Joanne Potts just after 3:30 PM EST, she said they were not sure how far Heather had traveled out of Rohn before deciding to return to drop the dog. After another short rest, Heather and her team of now 11 dogs were on the trail again headed for Nikolai.
To demonstrate the bond shared between mushers, when Heather decided to return to the Rohn checkpoint, musher Ellen Halverson apparently went with her.
Heather, along with musher Eric Rogers from Eagle River, Alaska and Halverson left Rohn at 9:05 AM ASK (1:05 PM EST). They all should arrive in Nikolai sometime early Friday morning.
Potts also said that Iditarod Officials were out looking for rookie musher Deborah Bricknell. You may recall from earlier posts, Bricknell had joined with Heather and Halverson on the leg between Rainy Pass and Rohn. This run normally takes 4-7 hours. So far it has been 27 hours and she has not yet arrived. We'll keep you posted.
Potts also said the conditions this year have been bruital, especially in the Rainy Pass area. Many of the teams, inclduing Heather, were urged by race officials to stay in Rainy Pass and wait out a blizzard on Tuesday. The cold and wind don't appear to be vanishing and has taken its toll on lead dogs. As you might guess dogs don't like running into a strong headwind any more than humans do. Going too fast with little rest can put added stress on the dogs, which will lead to failure later on.
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| Off to Nikolai | Mar-08-2007 | |
After an eight hour rest in Rohn, Heather and her team left at 11:05 PM AST on Wednesday night (3:05 AM EST on Thursday 3-8) for Nikolai. She is still operating with 12 dogs so she has not lost any more dogs since Rainy Pass.
This leg isn’t as long as it’s alleged to be. Some people say it actually runs only 75 miles, but the real distance is probably closer to 80. It’s still quite a pull, but not as bad as it could be. (The published figure probably comes from the old trail routing over to Farewell Station and then to Nikolai.) On the other hand, there are some truly bad spots on this stretch, mostly within the first 20 miles.
Expect a total of 10 to 15 hours for this leg. Heatehr will neeed to rest the dogs for several hours somewhere, or else take a lot of shorter breaks.
This run breaks into three natural sections: 20 miles along the south side of the South Fork of the Kuskokwim from Rohn to Farewell Lakes and up onto the Farewell Burn, 35 miles across the Burn itself to Sullivan Creek, and then 20 miles north from Sullivan Creek past Salmon River to Nikolai
One of the potentially worst stretches of overflow is after you are by Egypt Mountain, only a couple of miles before the lake. The trail will enter an area of several acres of swamp and trees that may be flooded with ice. The trail exits up the hill to the left, although in some years it is entirely possible to miss it and continue on down the icy swamp, ultimately coming to the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River. (In 1997 six teams were tangled up in this mess for an hour and a later musher missed the turn completely, got lost, and ultimately took almost two days to get to Nikolai.)
As a rule, if teams made it to Nikolai, they've made it through the toughest trail and they-and more importantly their dogs—have managed to make the mental transition to the long-haul trail mode. Many veterans say if you can get to Nikolai with your team and your wits intact, you've got a good chance to finish the race. Let's hope Heather and her teams make it!
FYI - Ellen Halverson left for Nikolai about 10 minutes before Heather so they are probably teaming up once again. However the third member of their trio, rookie Deborah Molburg Bicknell, who left with them from Rainy Pass, has not yet arrived in Rohn after more than 16 hours on that portion olf the trail.
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| Heather Makes it to Rohn | Mar-07-2007 | |
At 14:49 PM AST (6:49 EST) Heather and her 12 dog team arrived at the Rohn checkpoint. This area is tied with Rainy Pass as having the most spectacular scenery. It took Heather and her team 6 hours and 3 minutes to make the trip from Rainy Pass which is in line with the times set by most mushers.
The gateway to the interior, Rohn Roadhouse marks the transition point where the mushers start to venture into the flatlands of the interior, along with dropping temperatures. Situated near the confluence of the South Fork of the Kuskokwim and Tatina Rivers, the area served as one of the original Iditarod Trail Roadhouses for the dog teams carrying mail, etc. The actual roadhouse is gone, so the checkpoint is a cabin built in the 1930’s.
Heather now joins 15 other teams at the Rohn checkpoint. Leaving here, they will travel 90 miles across the the bleak but treacherous farewell burn to the next checkpoint in Nikolai.
An important note, race veterans say that if you make it to Nikolai with the team spirit still high there is a good chance of making it to Nome.
So far Heather and her team has travel 272 miles with 859 to go.
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| New Red Lantern | Mar-07-2007 | |
Ellen Halverson has now also left Rainy pass about 15 minutes behind Heather. Another rookie, 61 year old New Hampshire native Deborah Molburg Bicknell, left about 15 minutes behind Halverson. So it would appear that this trio of rookies are making their way down the Alaskan Ranger together.
This means Perry Solmonson from Plain, Washington now holds the Red Lantern. There is some speculation that Perry is having problems with his sled. He arrived in Rainy Pass at 10:36 PM AST on Monday, March 5th.
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| Heather Heading to Rohn | Mar-07-2007 | |
Heather is no longer holding the Red Lantern. She and her team left Rainy Pass at 8:46 this morning AST (12:46 EST) thereby passing the lantern to Ellen Halverson, another North Dakota native who also moved to Alaska to become a musher.
Heather left Rainy Pass with 12 dogs which means she had to leave one behind. The team rested a total of 20 hours and 36 minutes at Rainy Pass, which means she has not taken her full 24 hour manditory break.
Heather and her Hardcore Team will now travel the 48 miles to the next checkpoint in Rohn. This run should take five hours to six hours, although one rookie took a little more than 22 hours. It has some very tough trail, including the notorious Dalzell Gorge.
The trail runs in the open on the tundra of Ptarmigan Pass from Rainy Pass Lodge to the mouth of Pass Creek, which it then follows northwest up to the summit of Rainy Pass itself. Then there are several miles of sometimes steep downhills and often tight, twisting trail through scrub willow southwest along Pass Fork to Dalzell Creek. The trail then drops into the infamous Dalzell Gorge for a few miles and finally onto the Tatina River for the last five miles to Rohn.
The wind chill advisory issued earlier for this area has been extended until 11:00 AM AST. Heather and her team will be encountering high temperatures of 0 TO 5 above. The wind will be from the northwest at nearly 20 mph with gusts to near 30 mph creating wind chills of 25 TO 45 BELOW ZERO this morning.
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