CB300: Towards Sourdough

After 5.5 hours of rest, the team left The Point Lodge checkpoint at 12:27am. Aliy has all 12 team mates with her.

The CB300 website says of this next leg: “From the Lake Louise checkpoint on the southern edge of the lake, the race trail crosses over Lake Louise itself for a distance of just over 3 miles to the lake’s eastern edge. The trail through this next section skirts or crosses over numerous lakes including Crosswind Lake (32 miles before Sourdough) and Fish Lake (19 miles before Sourdough) in a northeasterly direction before reaching the second checkpoint at Sourdough Campground on the banks of the Gulkana River. Total distance between the first and second checkpoint is ~ 55 miles.”

The temperature at the truck was reading -50F around that time so everyone is in for a frigid few hours. Sourdough checkpoint is a basic BLM campsite with no warm lodge or food to partake. There is usually no cell coverage either, meaning no trackers, so it is a tough one for handlers and volunteers. “Old School” still applies. The volunteer team there have been working hard this afternoon and will do so over night to keep the arctic oven tents warm for mushers, officials and handlers.

Once the team leaves the checkpoint the handlers don’t just jump in the truck and drive to the next checkpoint – their job just begins! Every team must have at least one handler and they are required to clean up the campsite before moving on. This involves gathering up all the left over equipment, food and trash from drop bags and returning it to the truck then raking and bagging up the straw the dogs slept in. I can tell you from many years of experience that is no fun at -50F. It’s not that much fun at -20F to be honest but less so at -50F. All the handler crews will be working tirelessly to support their musher this race.

Now that Aliy’s tracker is working we can employ our refresh-fingers again!