Going Long and Hard.

Whatever injury I started with has migrated itself into brutal hip bruise. The muscle in my lower back on the right was super swollen and I think from walking weird to compensate for that my hip is wrecked. I stopped by Fatback to get a frame box to pack my gear in so I don't have to carry it through the airport. I'm staying through Sunday so I can do some Dog Race Tourist shit while I'm here.

if it gets progressively worse, get checked for internal bleeding.

advice from someone that rides a fatbike and has been to alaska. just not at the same time. 😉

there are now more sweedish fish spread throughout alaska than at any time in history......
 
if it gets progressively worse, get checked for internal bleeding.

advice from someone that rides a fatbike and has been to alaska. just not at the same time. 😉

there are now more sweedish fish spread throughout alaska than at any time in history......

Peter and Troy will eat well. I messaged both of them already.
 
if it gets progressively worse, get checked for internal bleeding.

advice from someone that rides a fatbike and has been to alaska. just not at the same time. 😉

there are now more sweedish fish spread throughout alaska than at any time in history......
Treasure hunt anybody?

As someone that occasionally rides a fat bike and prefers doing so in the snow I would advise to get that checked as soon as possible. Heal up soon!
 
Treasure hunt anybody?

As someone that occasionally rides a fat bike and prefers doing so in the snow I would advise to get that checked as soon as possible. Heal up soon!

I don't want to know right now with a really long travel day coming up. Being that I have extra budget leftover from not going to Nome, I bought better plane seats so I at least don't make it worse.
 
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Better luck next time and feel better Jim.

My advice - avoid Alaska in the winter - it's too cold and dark. We are going back in August for a fishing trip plus a few days sightseeing - probably rent a bike at least one day.
 
Better luck next time and feel better Jim.

My advice - avoid Alaska in the winter - it's too cold and dark. We are going back in August for a fishing trip plus a few days sightseeing - probably rent a bike at least one day.

If you can swing it, strongly suggest staying with the Perrins at Rainy Pass. They have a 5 day trip with horses and helicopters and sea planes and shit. I think it's a million dollars.
 
Butterfly Lake - Yetna Station

Coming out of Butterfly Lake was a reverse of the hike a bike to get in. Tons of traffic and confusion, was a stressful spot. Eventually we got back into the Big Lake Trails and my plan was to again take a longer but predictable route out to the Susitna via the Iron Dog Trail.

The trail was super hard and the temps dropped really fast so we all had to stop and air up our tires. I was in a group of Canadians with former Olympian Lindsey Gauld and a former NJ resident Brian Marang. One of them pulled their valve out taking the pump off so we hung out and fixed it. None of us knew for sure where we were so we made a little pact to stay together until the Yentna.

The trail to the Sus was pretty hilly so there was pushing, then riding, pushing, riding all the way out. When we finally dropped onto the river we were way North of Yetna and had to go an hour or so to hit the ITI Route.



We hit a few spots with sketchy overflow but all manageable stuff.

Yentna River is always about 20 degrees colder for whatever reason and I was only wearing my Pearl Rain Pants. My legs started to get stingy but I was close enough to the Checkpoint to ignore it. I hit Yetna Station just before 2am.

Changed into my poofy RAB pants, put on my tent boots and sat down for a toasted cheese sandwich. Not grilled cheese, toasted cheese.

There was a spot on the coach in the bunkhouse so I grabbed that and tried to take a nap. It was packed and loud in there so I kinda just laid there. Maybe around 4am or so someone hit the trail and I stole their bed for a couple hours. I always feel really tired the first day because of the time switch and starting so late in the afternoon.

I get up when the sun comes through the window and went back into the lodge for breakfast. George was in there getting ready to leave.

This Checkpoint ended up being about 30 miles farther than Trackleaders or the Athlete Guide showed because of the trails we had to take to get in there. That's 6+ hours in moving time which is why not many people went ahead to Bentalit like planned. That was another 25 miles up river.
 
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