A great day and an excellent 106 mile ride. When I arrived at Chena Pump Landing, our parking area, at 8:30 AM it was already 2 above zero. It looked like it was getting a little cloudy and of course that had me wondering about the flat light. Last year there was a couple of place where I was driving by brail, not a fun feeling going 35 miles an hour on a sled and wondering if there were any open leads and holes in the ice you’re heading into. This year we had a little flat light but not bad all in all.
2_15_2015_FST_Sweetheart_Run
Snow Travelers run to Nenana 2015
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As you can see in the photos, we had a good turnout. Started out with 21 working sleds, at least for the first 18 miles, then Tony’s Polaris went down and we ended with 20 sleds and 22 riders.
I had heard about a big hole in the ice about half down and sure enough we found it, not that little crack in the picture, this was a big hole, but fortunately it was easy enough to get around and I didn’t get a picture of it. The crack where all the sleds are backed up went completely across the channel we were on and the banks were too steep for us to get up and go around.
Being the ride leader for the day I had the privileged of being the first to cross, oh joy. So after looking at it for a bit I figured if nothing else there were lots of hands available to pull me and my sled out if I didn’t make it across. Well it wasn’t as bad as it looked, about 6 inches below the water level was a nice ice shelf and I scooted right across. Of course there were a few folks behind me who had to be “coxed” into crossing, but we all made it.
We arrived at the Monderosa around noon, so it took us 2 and half hours to get there. As always we had a great lunch and then I had a sit down with the Iron Dog trail volunteers who came on the ride. I think we have it down to getting the trail marked from Nenana to the Nordale Bridge.
On the return trip Tim, the club’s prestigious president flew over, took some pictures and then landed for a visit. Nothing like Alaska for landing a plane on the river ice in the middle of nowhere. He was coming back from a few days at his cabin on Deadman Lake and decided to join us, well he did have skis, so maybe I should add him to the sled count
In the last few pictures you get to enjoy me towing Tony’s Polaris back to town, now we all have mechanical issues on occanssion, but as the saying go “he who tows gets to rib he who is being towed”
The temps were above zero all day and that just made it even better, so a great day and a really nice ride.
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