Iditarod Musher Eric Rogers - R North Bound Dogs

IDITAROD 37
March 7th, 2009

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Shaktoolik to Koyuk

A Rookie’s Journey – Shaktoolik to Koyuk
July 18, 2006

It’s 9:30 AM and Randy Cummins is shaking me awake. The weather service is forecasting a major storm to hit the Norton Sound area with blowing snow and whiteout conditions about 6 PM tonight. The trail from Shaktoolik to Koyuk crosses a long low peninsula before it crosses Norton Sound. There is absolutely no shelter from any storm for the entire 48 mile trip except an emergency cabin just before you leave the peninsula. This is not where you want a bunch of rookies with a storm brewing. Iditarod has decided that effective immediately no one leaves Shaktoolik alone until the storm has blown over. There are two mushers in Shaktoolik beside myself, Randy Cummins and Kim Kittredge, and they are leaving at noon. If I don’t want to wait for the red lantern group to catch up before I leave I have to get up and go now. Iditarod tries hard to give the first musher a broken out trail to follow, but does not go back and re-do the trail if a storm blows in after the front runners. This can be very unforgiving country and you want to be on the other side before any storm hits. I quickly feed the dogs another meal, pack up the sled and go. Since I am so much slower than everybody else we decide that traveling together means that I will leave first and 30 minutes later Kim and Randy will leave and catch me. Nobody wants to wait around for a slow team on the ice and take a chance that their dogs will quit in the face of the storm.

The trail leaving Shaktoolik. At this point we
are still onshore, although I can't tell just
by looking. While the weather looks good now,
there is a major storm with high winds and
whiteout conditions in the forecast.

At noon I pull the hook and head for Koyuk. This country is so flat that for a long time I’m not sure if I’m on the ice of Norton Sound, or just a large flat swamp. Later I learn the trail here is on shore, but it is very flat with no vegetation coming up through the snow. The dogs are tired and have no spirit. I’m trying to give Bass some support and move Platinum into dual lead with him. We must be traveling close to 2 mph at times. Platinum isn’t happy and I move him out and try Dash with Bass. That gets us up to 2 ½ to 3 mph, but after a while Dash starts to neckline (pull back on the neckline connecting her collar to Bass’ collar rather than pulling forward on her tugline). Mocha was in swing (behind lead) and she decided that was too much for her so I move Mocha further back in the team, where there is less stress mentally. Now I’m back to Bass in single lead looking at a large, flat, white, and featureless plain for as far as the eye can see.
I keep looking over my shoulder, but don’t see any sign of Kim or Randy. About 3:30 PM we pass the shelter cabin which is about 15 miles from Shaktoolik. I’m watching the clouds building in the west and if that storm hits around 6 PM as forecast we will be about 10 miles from the shore with the cabin and about 20 miles from shelter at Koyuk. I don’t want to get caught here at the cabin either and decide to push on.

Just as we pass the cabin Randy Cummins passes me. I told him I was surprised that they didn’t catch me much earlier and asked where Kim was. Randy told me that Kim’s leaders refused to cross the featureless white country and after an hour Kim went back to the checkpoint to try again when the red lantern group arrived. I had been a little frustrated at our lack of speed, but Bass never quit on me and I tell him again what a wonderful job he is doing. Randy also asked me if I had changed runner plastic since the trip over the rocks on the top of the Blueberry Hills. When I said that I had not, he said it made a real difference in how hard his sled was to pull when he changed his. I always carry a spare set of plastic (since I wore one out during my first race) and stopped to change.

We were starting to build into a nice traveling pace just before I stopped. When I changed runner plastic and restarted we slowed down some, but I think we will get the travel speed back up. The sled is definitely pulling easier. I can see the storm growing in the west. The wind is beginning to blow harder. I don’t think we will get to Koyuk before 10 PM, about 4 hours after the storm has hit. Randy Cummins didn’t wait for me, although I really didn’t expect him to, and I am alone on the ice.

This is the trail across Norton Sound. You can see
the high clouds moving in ahead of the storm.
The dogs are tired but moving. In the distance
you can barely see the next tripods marking
the trail.

This is a peculiar feeling for me. I am concerned that this could get very interesting before I get to Koyuk, but I’m not worried if it does. In the 1983 race Herbie Nayokpuk, a native and excellent hunter from Shishmaref, Alaska left Shaktoolik into a gathering storm like this and got stuck on the ice for 24 hours before coming back to the checkpoint to finish waiting it out. In 1985 Libby Riddles pulled out of Shaktoolik into a storm, weathered it out and was first into Koyuk and won the race. But it was a real tough time. There is no shelter until you get to Koyuk and you are so far out on the ice you cannot see land in any direction. The solution in a storm is to empty your sled and put your sleeping bag inside the sled bag to break the wind, climb inside and wait out the storm. As long as snow is blowing it will cover the dogs and shelter them.

The wind keeps blowing and hour after hour Bass just puts his head down and keeps the team moving. He is doing all this by himself in single lead. He never missed a beat or lost the trail. I stop to give the dogs fat snacks to try to keep their energy up. At 6 PM I can see the far shore and I am guessing that we will arrive about 8 to 9 PM. The storm is still brewing, but hasn’t hit us yet. We are moving slowly and the dogs are taking any excuse to stop, but Bass and I always get them moving again.

At 8:30 PM we pull into Koyuk. The forecast storm that I was concerned about never hit the Koyuk area. I found out later it did hit Little McKinley between Elim and White Mountain. Karen Ramstead and Lachlan Clarke were both caught in 75 mph winds on top of Little McKinley and came down the wrong side of the mountain. It took Karen and Lachlan nearly 24 hours to make the trip from Elim to White Mountain, normally a 6 to 8 hour run.
As I came into the checkpoint the vets met me to check on the weight of my dogs. I had planned a 20 hour rest here to make up for the long run. If a storm caught us now we had crossed the worst of the open area and I wasn’t worried about trail conditions. I gave the dogs cold water immediately after we arrived and then fed them dry kibble. The vet wanted me to fix them a hot salmon and kibble soup and see if they would eat that. I did and fed it to the dogs an hour after we arrived. I didn’t expect them to eat it so soon after a full meal, but the scarfed down every bite. I was amazed, but very pleased. I went to bed, setting the alarm for 4 am to fix them another hot meal. All in all I put 4 meals down the dogs while we rested almost 21 hours in Koyuk. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for myself. My stomach is upset and nothing sounds good. I force myself to eat a breakfast burrito and am taking Imodium like popcorn. I know this isn’t going to work, but can’t force myself to eat more.

Keep ‘em Northbound
Eric
© 2006 All rights reserved

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