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This is the first of 5 videos I took. Still working on the editing, but this one shows the bonfire and some of the drag races from a distance.
It was a great event this year and a lot of folks showed up, it may not look like it, but there were hundreds of spectators present spread over a fairly large area. The drags were of course the big hit followed by the Fairbanks Lions Fun Snowmobile Racing Snow Cross course for the kids and teens. I didn’t get a movie of Snow Cross so here are some stills Paul sent to me of the 120 circle course.
FAIRBANKS — Fairbanks snowmachiner John Johnston has never been forced to bivouac on the trail or in the mountains during 30 years of riding in Alaska, but he’s more than prepared to do so if that situation arises.
While Johnston may not carry the proverbial kitchen sink on his sled or his person, he carries just about everything else.
“Rope. Saw. Cook kit. Toilet paper. Stove. First-Aid kit. Flare. Knives. Strap,” Johnston said, pulling item after item from a survival bag that mounts to the back of his Arctic Cat M6 mountain sled and laying them on the snow in front of him.
Well, sort of. Been a crazy and hecktic month running the Iron Dog trail and trying to get it set was fun but a lot of work. Put on over 600 miles on the Bearcat exploring options, riding the route, once one was plotted and then staking the trail. Then it snowed, don’t get me wrong, I love the snow and would normally be hopping with joy, but why 4 days before the Iron Doggers are due to arrive and after I’ve ran the trail putting in marking stakes does it have to snow 2 to 2 and half feet in a day..
So I went and broke the trail open again and was thinking things are good and checked my email to find out Paul has gotten his sled stuck big time on the Tanana, what else could I do but take a couple hours off of work and go help him get his sled back. Seems he’s been having power problems or maybe I should say “No” power problems. We’ll we got it out and to the dealership for him on Wednesday and then it’s back to trail stuff and working on the new check point.
So the Iron Dog is over for 2011, but the staff and board are already discussing and starting to gear up for the 2012 race. There’s a lot to do in the next twelve month, but I know their all up to it.
For my share, I plan to revisit the route I used for the section from Nenana to the Chena Flood Control area. Although I put over 500 miles on sled trying to sort out the best route and dealt with the government entities to get us properly permitted, no one took the bypass route, they all ran up the river. So next year I may just change the route option. Of course I’ll still need to get all the permits in place so the racers don’t have to dodge bullets from the practice range, but then I can mark the hazards on the Tanana. Unfortunately it was one of these hazards that cost Todd Palin first place. He broke an A-Arm on his sled when he hit a block of ice poking up.
So it was a good race and now on to some fun time.
Short ride, about 45 miles but an excellent ride. Had its pitfalls, lots of wind and some white out conditions on the mountain near the top of Murphy Dome, but down along the mountain side and the Chatainka River the riding was excellent.
Lots of powder and fun.
Best part, I thought was I found out how to get from Murphy Dome to the Dunbar trail for our March ride into Beaver Creek Lodge next month. Since I’m suppose to lead, it helps knowing where to start and I’ll have to bring lots of gas since I’ve never run the Dunbar trail either.
Yeah I know, the route is round about, but its the best way to get to downtown Fairbanks. And yes there are options other than what I’ve tracked and logged, but this route will work this year and in future years to come, even if the Tanana is opened close to the Chena River, which has happened in the past.
The intent was to develop a long term route, not something that might only be used one year.
Got Ur Done.. Finally, after days of exploring and lots of hours of riding we got the new track set to get the finish into downtown Fairbanks.
It’s going to be a great finish this year coming across the Tanana Flats, then the Floodway, down the Chena River and hot a racers finish into downtown.
Now to mark the track the two days before finish day, along with the Tired Iron event this will be a big Fairbanks weekend. Let’s hope the weather holds and doesn’t get to cold or to warm.
Here’s two maps, the top one shows the whole route of the new section and the lower one shows part of the route but with a better overall view of the surrounding terrain.
So the weather decided not to cooperate and dropped to 40 below last week, man it was cold. I had planned to go out last Friday, but at -35 below decided to wait another day. Alan and I went out on Saturday and the temps weren’t to bad, maybe -15 below when started out, but dang it, it dropped to -25 below by time we headed back to the rigs.
We did get a good section tracked and GPS’d and I feel good about that. Draw back was that we only made it about 3/4 of the way across the Tanana from the Floodway Dyke. Hopefully I’ll get that sorted by this weekend and make the connection Paul and I ran yesterday (Monday) from the Salchaket/Tanana into the Flats.
As always, we both called in and registered with our Rec Permits to be on Military Lands and the recording said the area was opened to the public (no shoot at the range), imagine our surprise when we started to hear gun fire, oh yeah, that got my attention. We decided that it must be small arms and not be to concerned, yeah right, we’ll just ride around and explore some trail options and ignore the sounds of automatic gun fire aimed our way…
We’ll we rode and tracked until Paul’s gas gauge said it was time to head back. Below is a map of what we’ve gotten tracked so far. Hopefully I’ll be able to get the two connected tomorrow.
I’ve been trying for the past 3 years to get the Iron Dog finish in downtown Fairbanks and not just a ceremonial finish, but a hot “race to the end” finish. Now that I’ve gotten the OK from the Iron Dog folks to do it I have to get the trail set to make it a reality.
Let me explain, the old trail comes off the Tanana River and then onto the Chena River. For various reasons the Chena River is to hazardous to run to downtown Fairbanks (bad ice, open leads in the water, etc). So in order to get the finish to downtown I had to come up with an alternative race course. Putting in another 70 miles or so of racing trail is easier said then done.
The track goes through the FTWW Military Rec area (need permit) and crosses the Chena Flood Project Floodway (need permit) and also runs through FTWW itself on the Chena (need permit) Fortunately the FTWW Rec Permit covers two of these. Now that I have the permits all I need to do is set a track, yeah right, I figured it’d be an easy run across the Tanana Flats, not.
Have to stay out of the Military Impact areas and also schedule my trips through the area when there isn’t any arms practice going on, so I’m limited in time. Now add to that the weather, I’ll ride at -20 below, but dang if I setting trail at -30 below and so far I’ve canceled three days of trail setting due to the temps. Today for instances, had planned to get the Eastern section of the trail set, well it’s a balmy -36 below and no way am I riding in that if I don’t have to.
Did get to do a fly over Saturday and that was fun and educational. Thanks to Rob Everet of Everts Air Cargo for the lift and scenic ride. We flew over the eastern section and I think I have it sorted out, now if the dang weather would just cooperate I can get that part set and tracked for marking.
We did get the Western section set two weekends a go, but that may change and hopefully I’ll have it done by next weekend and ready for GPS logging.
So I figured it was time to take a trip south and see how the snow was and what kind of shape the cabin platform near Chulitna was in. I had planned to start work on a couple trail options into the site so we could get ready to haul building materials in March.
The last two weeks in Fairbanks have been running between -30 and -50 below zero, not real conducive weather for snowmachining or driving a motorhome in. Tyler and I left Fairbanks on Wed AM and the temps were hanging around -10 below, not bad and warm enough I would have driven the RV down but hadn’t gotten it ready for a trip.
We got to the Hurricane Train depot around 1:00 in the afternoon and hit the trail. Had a nice day and a few flurries driving down but nothing to worry about. Game plan, decide which of the two trail options we were going to use to haul materials in and then start building a base by riding over it half a dozen times. The lower trail goes through the woods and has more brush to deal with, but in some ways it is easier. The upper trail which is our preferred route, assuming we could get over the snowberm on the hwy is the easiest and runs mostly above treeline.
Well the upper trail route was pretty hard packed and windblown and not a fun ride. So we rode the lower trail a bit and it was a better route, although it does have more turns and bends to deal with for hauling.
Chulitna12_29_10
Trip to the cabin site. Just Tyler and I, we went to shovel the snow load off the platform and do a little playing the snow.
Once we got to the site and I looked at the platform, plans changed and we decided to shovel off the 3 feet of snow and ice on it. It was a good idea and we got it done as you can see, but dang-nabit, it snowed 2 to 3 feet while we were there. We didn’t ride out to the site on Friday, but I’ll bet it’s pretty thick on the platform again. Should be all right, the post are pretty stout and the snow load shouldn’t cause any damage.
We did get to do some riding, not as much as we would of liked, but a little bit. The drive home was white knuckle driving with 4 to 6 inches of snow on the road and occasional whiteout conditions.
