YQ: Summit then Creek – Evening Day Two

It’s 8.30pm AK time.

Black Team

Since last report, Allen and his 14 team mates have left Mile 101 Checkpoint, climbed Eagle Summit, passed through Central Checkpoint and set up camp just before Birch Creek. What have you done today?

Padee was able to find a small pocket of internet to send through a few pics from Mile 101 – thanks Padee!

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Bridgett managed to get a message through to her husband Scotty via satellite phone, who sent it on to me, that said “The dogs are great, Dad is great”. After just a hair under five hours rest at Mile 101 the team left at 10:47am, running into the rising sun and up over Eagle Summit. He ticked off his mandatory four hour stop (plus differential) that needed to be taken at either Mile 101 or Central.

Bridgett and Padee were able to watch the team climb summit from the road which is way better than watching a black and yellow bouncing dog on the tracker. Perhaps a little cooler though. They said the team surprised a huge herd of caribou and they scattered everywhere.

Look at this great pic from Padee – it really shows the huge scale of everything compared to one tiny dog team.

Bridgett said it was -40F or less at 101 over night but it had “warmed up” in Central. I can’t find a ‘horses-mouth’ temperature but the forecast says it is about -25F-ish there currently. She and Padee at burgers and watched SuperBowl football at Central Corner while waiting for the team to arrive.

The team got to Central checkpoint in 3 hours 50 minutes where Allen stopped just long enough to grab his “to go” supplies from the drop bags and head on down the trail towards Circle Checkpoint.

As I write this, they are camped at race mile 156, 16 miles past Central and just before dropping down onto Birch Creek.

Birch Creek is well known to be cold, cold, cold – trail notes say to expect it to be 15 degrees colder than in Central. Brrr.

The teams spend around 47 miles winding and meandering along the creek – I believe it can seem like they are snaking around forEVER until they exit on the north bank of the creek, 7 miles from Circle checkpoint. This creek is also a favourite in the summer to float down and I imagine the scenery is spectacular.

The YQ300 teams have the added bonus that they get to run the creek twice! They arrive into Circle and turn around to run back to Central for the race finish.

R&B Team

Karolyn and her team mates left Mile 101 at around 8pm. As yet the official standings have not been updated so her exit time is tbc. (Edit: their exit time was 7:47pm) They are currently ascending Eagle Summit – let’s everyone send her and the team some good vibes as they climb.

I received a message from Aliy via Sat phone in Mile 101 to say “Karolyn and team look great. No issues. Very pretty up here – huge mountains. She and dogs are hungry and happy”. They had a good long five hour rest and everyone ate well. The rookies are probably starting to wonder what on earth is happening but their youthful enthusiasm will carry them for a long while yet.

I’m off to zoom in the tracker and yell encouraging words at the computer. That all helps right?