Iditarod 2009 – Paul Gebhardt Update # 2 as of 4:30 am, Tuesday, March 10 ©Evy Gebhardt
Bib #15 Paul and team are currently running in 1st position
Out of the ROHN checkpoint as of 7:43pm last night
With trail reports of temperatures hovering near 30 degrees F, and fresh snow carried by winds, Paul departed the checkpoint last night marking his safe passage through the Alaska Range. All reports back suggested that the trail had an abundance of snow already, so the normally precarious journey down the Dalzell Gorge and switchback steps into the Happy River valley may have seemed relatively tame compared to prior years. I am optimistic that being one of the front runners also meant that he enjoyed better trail conditions through this area than in years past.
Particularly on the downhill sections, the trail can get very chewed up with the passage of team after team. Depending upon the condition of the snow, which “sets up” harder when the temperature plunges, the trail can deteriorate quickly just with the rising mercury. What may be a packed trail for a few teams, quickly becomes the consistency of beach sand. On the downhills, the mushers are using their metal brakes and drag tracks to keep the sled in control and slow the team to a safe speed. Not unlike running a garden tiller through the surface, this act – coupled by 60+ teams – really makes for a trough of loose snow by the time the later teams hit that section of trail.
Paul had kept a close eye on the weather forecast leading into the race, and had mindfully taken advantage of our warmer weather here back at the kennel to run the dogs in the days before we headed north for the start. It was a strategy that proved successful in allowing his team to handle warmer trail conditions in the 2000 Iditarod, that are similar to what the teams are encountering now. After drawing his starting position this year, Paul then formulated a schedule that would ideally get his team into a run/ rest pattern that had them sleeping during the warmest part of the day. It is sometimes difficult for people who are unfamiliar with Alaska to understand the concept of the phrase “heat of the day” when you consider that we are surrounded by mountains of snow. But for those of us here, you do appreciate how powerful the sun can be this time of year in Alaska. If you go outside on a sunny day, particularly with a dark colored jacket on, you can definitely feel the warmth of the sunshine. What Paul comments on, is how beneficial it is to the dogs to rest in the warmth of the sun out on the trail. He said he will put straw down for them to lie on, and they will just sprawl out and soak in the sunshine. He says it is almost like a tonic for them. Because of this, he will try to balance their runs to maximize their opportunity to rest when it would benefit them the most. This said, he would take into consideration the variables along the trail. Should a weather front move in, and he could alter his schedule to outrace or bypass a storm, he would adapt to whatever come his way in a fashion that would best meet the needs of the dogs.
Upon leaving the ROHN, Paul loaded any supplies he would need to care for the team on this long run into the next checkpoint of NIKOLAI. The trail leaving the checkpoint passes through dense stands of spruce, that in places is more like a tunnel. One year, with only his headlamp illuminating the trail ahead, Paul sensed something was not right when his team suddenly stopped. In the cold night air, their breaths made a hazy fog around them, and at first it was difficult to make out the dark shape on the trail just ahead of his leaders. When he realized that what he was looking at was the carcass of a freshly killed moose directly on the trail, his heart began to beat a little faster. It was obvious that a pack of wolves was in the area, and judging from the steam rising from the open cavity of the moose, these wolves were not to far off. But due to the thick stands of spruce lining the trail, Paul had no choice but to ask the team to try to navigate around the carcass the best they could. As it turns out, they elected to go directly over it – sled and all. Just as they were making their jump over the wolves’ midnight snack, out of the woods rang the primal howls of the wolf pack. The sound reverberated off the spruce trees and filled the night air. Paul said it was an exceptional experience and he wished he could have recorded that song, but he was equally relieved to have gotten the team safely through as well.
The trail leads up onto to rolling country that is slowly transforming several decades later now after a devastating wildfire changed the landscape in the 1970s. This area is known as the Farewell Burn, or “the burn” more commonly. It is also bison country. Although it has been rare, there have been instances of mushers running into herds of bison along the trail here. Paul says the area is littered with evidence of their presence, and being a true country boy himself, he says it “smells” like a herd of cattle at times where a concentration of animals has been lingering. Their wallows are scattered throughout the region, and the mushers will often call sections of this part of the trail the “buffalo tunnel”.
It was in this run from ROHN to NIKOLAI where Paul had the misfortune of smacking his sled into a tree and breaking his gangline just a few years ago when he was in the lead of the race. After starting dead last in the field of 80 mushers, he had successfully passed all of them and was finally leading the Iditarod. Just as the team was about to drop onto one of the small lakes that are sprinkled throughout the region, the front of the sled hooked a tree and even with the metal cable interior of the gangline, the power of the team pulling in tandem snapped the sled loose. Off they ran, never looking back. It all ended up ok, but it did mean a 3rd place finish for Paul that year instead of the victory he could almost taste.
Paul normally has one of his extra sleds waiting for him in NIKOLAI, having shipped it out before the race started. However, with the deep snow, and the cost of fuel (over $9 per gallon in the rural villages) he could not hire anyone to handle the delivery shuttle over from the airport hub of McGRATH. Because of this, he instead elected to have it shuttled to the TAKOTNA checkpoint just a little further up the trail. Why not leave it in McGRATH you might ask? The answer is because Paul does not normally stay in that checkpoint very long. He would want the sled to be at a checkpoint where he intended to give the team a longer rest. This would give him time to switch the gear from one sled to the other while the team was sleeping.
Speaking of giving the team a rest, look for some wild fluctuations in standings with the mushers over the next couple of days. Race rules dictate that mushers are required to take one 24 hour layover during the race. There is not a designated checkpoint they have to stay at, only that they take the full 24 hours at one checkpoint without breaking it up. This is the time when their two minute starting intervals is also factored in. The LAST team leaving the starting line will have a layover of exactly 24 hours. Every team ahead of that has their two minutes plus added onto that. Because of this, Paul will actually have some additional resting time tacked onto his layover compared to teams running in close proximity to him right now. I am not sure where Paul will take that layover, I only know that he packed his food drops strategically to allow him several options for the extended rest so that he could adapt to whatever the trail and the team dictated.
Usually I get a phone call from Paul when he is in NIKOLAI, so I will hopefully have some good insight into what conditions they are encountering with my next update. But for now, the stats according to the Iditarod website http://www.iditarod.com/, all point to him having a good run up to this point. Stay tuned…
Until later… life is a journey, enjoy the ride! Evy
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