JayP

I can't explain how much Tracey enjoyed the journey to McGrath. It's been fun reminiscing about the time on the trail and sharing the withdraw from being away from it. The decompression of such an event has a lingering effect. Week one your still high from the finish, week two your body starts to remind you of what you did to it and week three till the start of next year you think about it.

Here is a race re-cap from T-race:


Wicked! There is no way to truly tell the story and explain in words what went on during the Ultra Sport without being there much of the feeling and depth of the conditions are just unimaginable. The rush of the start, riding the river, riding some really sick white track, the best I’d ever ridden, pushing through waist deep snow, the bike attacks, trying to eat, drink and breathe while pushing the 55 lb beast with one hand. Meeting the group and sharing the experience with the people we did. Meeting the people on the trail who live in these conditions and love it! How they are so eager to help and be a part of this journey we choose to take. I know my mind set has a lot to do with where and how I finished. Knowing I have no control over what conditions were handed to me, I decided to enjoy them all! Of course I would have rather been riding the sick white track Jay said he was able to ride last year, but I felt really fortunate to be in the middle of wild Alaska, me, my bike and Jay, it’s not hard to enjoy every day when you have a few of your favorite things with you and you get to eat KING size candy bars for breakfast.

The start was really interesting, fast and good track, then a little pushing around Flat Horn Lake and a little more after that, but then some more nice riding into Yentna where there was some grill cheese, tomato soup and a warm bed. 5 hours of sleep and back onto the -20 river for some more riding. Don’t forget or even think about ignoring to eat or drink, no matter how cold, how much you don’t wanna, how inconvient it is, you like your fingers and toes? Then eat and drink! Simple as that.

On to Skwentna, some really good white track and big open area through this part. Bonnie, her husband and their 2 girls where very excited to feed us and make us feel right at home. No meat for me please and with in minutes a plate of spaghetti, tofu and veggies appeared-freakin delicious! Dried out some clothes and defrosted my toes which were blue from tying my boots to tight-stupid! BTW, my boot system was BOMBER for the rest of the race after loosing up the laces and switching my sock system around. I can not express enough how dyno the RU Outside boots are-thanks Rick for such a fantastic boot!

Onto Shell Lake, some more really good white track, whipping thru the trees and swamps. Quick stop there for a shared bowl of soup and some POTATOE delicious chips-mmmmm! Off to Finger Lake for our 1^st drop-hmm, I wonder what’s in the bag? Arriving around 10 pmish for some rice, beans and tortilla, so-k. 3hrs of sleep, then some more rice and beans, stuff the bags, pockets and face with drop bag goodies, also leaving some behind. Too much is better then not enough and it’s amazing how good junkie food taste.

The ride to Puntilla was the toughest riding for me. It was very technical, tight white track. I believe this is where the snow trolls live. They were under the snow grabbing my front wheel and chucking me into waist deep snow then throwing my beloved bike on top of me. So getting into Puntilla greeted with a bucket of boiling water containing many cans of soup, accompanied by Poor Boy crackers was a huge relief. And of course catching up with our friends James, Chris and Alec, I could tell they were so happy to see me!

Ahhhh-Rainy Pass. The journey to Rainy Pass was mild, some pushing, of course going up a pass, but some of it was ridable due to the wind blown surface and my advantage of being light on the bike. We kinda traveled together, just being spread out by a couple hundred feet. Then the final accent to Rainy Pass at midnight thru waist deep snow between the 5 of us just wasn’t going to happen. We attempted to make it to Rohn, but with no trail, waist deep snow and exhaustion setting in, it was my call to stop, go back to the roofless safety cabin just before the pass, catch some zzz’s and continue in the morning. The rest of the boyz were very happy with this decision and complemented me on being able to tell Jay to stop. When we reached the cabin we found Bill Merchant, the course director and Jeff Oatley who had been there since noon the previous day. The sled Bill had rented to put in the trail had broken down and there was no way Jeff would have been able to break trail by himself over Rainy Pass into Rohn, so it all worked out. We turned in at midnight and 7 of us were back on the trail the next day by 10 am. No trail and the markers lead thru thick brush, we wondered how a dog sled team or even a snowmobile could get thru it.
18hrs and 9 miles later we bivied. Got up at 630am to do again, with no water, eating snowballs, riding rivers and freshly made snow bridges we made it into Rohn at approx 1130am. Getting our next drop was delicious. I had one of those buckets of cup o soup and a tube of Pringles to start, 3-4 16oz hot chocolates, some country time lemonade and licorice. My stuff was pretty dry so I was able to focus on food and water. Meanwhile Jay had to spend some time drying his shoes and stuff. Did I tell you how badass my boots are? 4 hours later we are off to Bison Camp. We rode the river which was really cool but also very unfriendly. Ice and rubber-good match? NOT! Then back to pushing-man I think I thought I saw Salt-n-Pepper! The trail was really crusty with those big crust chips nailing us in the back on the legs. We found a really sweet spot to bivy and it was the best sleep we both had have since we were out there. Another hour of pushing in the morning and then….
Getting back onto some really, really good white track we were in heaven again! Up and down and around, whoop tee doos, just really fun riding. Then 3 miles b4 Bison wind blown, this is where the snow trolls called in their cousins the wind trolls, trying to blow me and my bike back to 1980, not that I would have mind, but I really wasn’t dressed for the 80’s and wanted to get to Bison Camp. This is where we met Daniel. A true Alaskan native. He had melted gallons of water for us, coffee, had a fire going with lots of wood stocked up, offered us what little food he had, jelly and crackers and was responsible for cleaning up part of the trail that had been wind blown, just cause he wanted to help us. We thought we would be able to ride to Nikolia, but surprise! 6 hours of 4 minutes pushing, 2 minutes riding, 4 minutes pushing, 2 minutes riding. About 11 miles from Nikolia were we able to ride, what a relief.
Getting to Nikolia was very exciting; we meet Nick an Oleen and their 3 kids. I had the best plate of Spaghetti, butter, parmesan and bread I have EVER had. They were laughing too. Stephanie, Oleens Daughter had made some blueberry coffee cake I had 2 pieces that never left the house. We slept 5 hours there with the plan being only 3, so the trail would be firm, but neither of us heard the alarm and woke up late. The villagers go to town on Sat. This make the trails soft and harder for Jay to ride. We dealt with it and carried on. 10 miles from the finish Jay had dropped the GPS, and there was a turn we had to negotiate. We walked ½ mile on the original Iditarod trail, with the looks of only 2 snow machines going down that way we turned around and followed the other trail, both would have taken us the same way.

Getting to McGrath as 1^st women and 2^nd overall after all the obstacles is something else.

The GPS was recovered by Nick and given to another racer who brought it to McGrath-whew! The info which was recorded, to me, is more valuable then the GPS it self.

Thank you for all your support everyone!

T-Race