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.
Share on Facebook