Keep your browser posted here for the latest installment in Greg's Diary. Greg is travelling the trail on snowmachine (that's a snowmobile for you cheechako's) and will give us the insiders view!

Greg's Diary, March 11, 2002, 3:30p.m. reporting from Elim

As everyone can see, this has turned into the race of all races! We asked Ramy in Koyuk if he was going to hang onto second or take a chance and go for the win. He said that he had some young dogs and it wasn't worth taking a chance on blowing his team and ruining the experience for them. He was just going to stick to his plan and guarantee a second place paycheck.

Well....fortunately for Ramy, his plan just happened to jive with Martins. Martin waited in Elim for three hours and let Ramy catch up!! The checkpoint in Elim was abuzz when we arrived here, no one can believe what is happening.

John Baker is continuing his steady march forward and waiting for one of these teams to blow up. After the eight hour rest in White Mountain...it will be a new race!

Dee Dee Jonrowe is struggling to stay ahead of Jon Little and Vern Halter...and now Charlie Boulding has entered the mix. At this point the top 9 are probably going to stay there...but the order they will finish is anyone's guess!

Trail Report

The trail continues to be fast and hard. It is no surprise that the times are fast...setting up the possibility of a new record. Roxy and I left at exactly the right time from Unalkleet and missed most of the bad winds. There is a little bit of wind here in Elim, but the sky is clear and sunny.

We are going to push off and head for White Mountain to see what's happening with Ramy and Martin.

Greg's Diary -- March 11, 2002, 1:02 am reporting from Koyuk

Ramy is into Koyuk at 1:02 a.m. Martin Buser has left at 2:30 a.m. Martin Buser arrived in Koyuk tonight at 10:15 p.m. to a large crowd of nearly a hundred people. Adorers had signs and cheers to greet Martin and his dogs as they crossed the "burled arch" that Koyukmew (the eskimo name for locals from Koyuk) set up for the mushers as they arrived. The extreme winds and inclement weather that kept most airplanes grounded in Unalakleet seem to have subsided by the time we passed through. Winds may have been as high 30 sustained with 40 or 50 mph gusts, but really weren't a problem. There was a ground blizzard obscuring the trail about 10 miles out of Koyuk. We passed Jon Little and Vern Halter just as they were pulling out of Unalakleet about 5 p.m. Dee Dee Jonrowe pulled into Shaktoolik just a few minutes behind us. Roxy went into the checkpoint and talked with John Baker - he was planning on taking a little nap there. Ramy was about 10 miles out of Shaktoolik when we saw him, and his dogs were moving really well. We won't know for a few hours exactly how Ramy's travel time will compare, but both Roxy and I believe that Ramy is slowly gaining on Martin. But...will it be enough?!

Greg's Diary -- March 9, 2002, 9:45 p.m. reporting from Unalakleet

Roxy and I arrived in Unalakleet at 9:30 tonight amidst a ground storm with 40 mile per hour + wind speeds. The last 10 miles into Unalakleet the trail was impossible to see. Can't help but expect that this is going to slow Martin Buser (and Ramy Brooks later on) down substantially.

We saw Martin at 7:55 at the new Old Woman cabin, 43 miles out of Kaltag (this is what the odometer on our snowmachine read, but others say it is closer to 55) - 34 miles from Unalakleet. Given that he left Kaltag that means he was travelling at a little over 7 miles an hour. Not bad for this late in the race...but not real speedy either.

We watched him offer dry food and water to his dogs. Some of the team ate a little food, but they weren't very interested in water. Perhaps he had watered not very long before. They were interested in hiding in the brush to escape the wind though. Roxy commented that it was possible that he would have a pouting team on his hands - which might mean it might take a while for the team to get into a traveling rhythm.

Trail Conditions

The trail immediately out of Kaltag is really rough. There was almost 20 miles of washboard and moguld that kept our speed down to less than 10 mph. We were quite concerned for a while that Ramy was going to catch us as we left a mere 20 minutes before he was scheduled out.

After we reached the Tripod Lake Forest Service cabin the trail got much better and we were able to make up some significant time. Once we got onto the flats on the downhill stretch into Unalakleet, the blowing snow at ground level made it seem like we were flying through clouds. I can see why a dog would simply want to stop running and sit.

Greg's Diary -- March 9, 2002, reporting from Nulato

Vern Halter pulled into Nulato at approximately 9:30 and his team looked
really strong! I think there is a really good chance that he is going to
pass Dee Dee soon and give John Baker a run for his money. John appears to also be making a run on the leaders, Ramy Brooks and Martin Buser right now.Once we get to the coast - John Baker will have the home court advantage. His dogs are wind trained on the coast and shouldn't have much problem.

One of the vets updated me on Ken Anderson's condition. If you recall we
reported that he had frozen his toes in Takotna. Apparently they were able to restore it, but advised him not to continue. Ken did continue...and we wish him the best.

This race could get really interesting in the next day or two, so stay tuned
and keep refreshing that page! Greg Loudon- Takotna.

Trail Update:
The snowmachining has been great on the river - it's almost like a frozen
highway, although the passing lanes are kind of rough (over frozen ice
chunks and 4 foot deep snow on the Yukon). The Comms people here in Nulato forgot to pack a power supply for the media hub so we had no internet capability to report on Ramy and Martin when we saw them at 1:30 in the morning.

Missionaries Greg and Kim Joyce here in Nulato were kind enough to bring us to their house and let us use their connections. Thanks Joyce's!

The welded hitch I got in Ruby seems to be holding real well...I don't
anticipate any more problems with it until Nome. But then again, you never
anticipate the problems - they just jump out at you!

Race Report - March 8th
The buzz in the checkpoint is all about Ramy and Martin. Martin has a 2 1/2 hour lead on Ramy into the Yukon. Linwood Fiedler said he's going to have to slow down now and let his dogs recuperate. It looks like he's out of the running for now.

Charlie Boulding says that he's not out of the running yet. He's used to having to cut short rest near the end to leapfrog ahead. The only problem with that strategy he says, is that he has to take longer rests afterwards to recuperate

Trail Notes - March 7th - Takotna
We had a great time with all the mushers last night. Clint and I were able to sleep on the floor in the church with the mushers - I just had to promise no pictures, no questions and no talking. That is a media free zone for the mushers where they can let their hair down and relax. Several talked to me even after I told them I couldn't...it was strictly off the record...

We pulled out of Takotna at 5:00 am right behind Sonny King and passed him on the long hill out of town. It was still dark and cold as we pulled in to Ophir and we stayed just long enough to check the oil and gas up (with our spare gas cans) for the looooonng run to Cripple.

During the run to Cripple we passed several mushers and all of them were friendly and stopped for a short visit. We caught up with Jeff King right after he set up camp near an overflowing stream. He told us the widsom of his choice, as he was able to water his dogs in about 5 minutes. Jeff was quite thoughtful on his reckoning of the competition. He was concerned that one of the front runners was going to make a crazy move and leave him behind. Although, he was still confident of his race plan...he wanted to be able to keep an eye on everyone. We were not surprised when he pulled into Cripple an hour later.

The trail was pretty consistent all the way from Ophir to Cripple, but completely moguled out. On one of the gully crossings my hitch finally pulled out of the frame on my snowmachine and left me stranded. We went back and found the sled and started trying to hook it to the sled with bailing wire and parachute cord. Just as we were getting it finished, Kevin - the Iditarod video photographer, came along with his guide. They had just picked up the lonely Iditaskier we had passed on the trail. The skier decided he was done and asked for a ride. Kevin was not towing a sled, but had a hitch, and he graciously agreed to tow our sled into Cripple.

Once we got to Cripple the Coms guy let me borrow a drill, hammer, and snips and Clint and I drilled new holes in the frame and fashioned up the hitch a little off-center. That got me into Ruby. This morning (March 8th) I found a guy to weld up a reinforcement for the hitch and it's better than new!

The checkpoint was full of people when we pulled into Ruby at 1:30 am, even though Martin Buser wasn't expected until 4 am. Clint and I were drafted to go and mark the trail into the checkpoint a little better because we followed the trail markers right down to the Yukon...almost headed out to Galena.

I was shook awake by the race official at 6:15 and told that Ramy was a mile out of town. I scrambled to put on clothes and ran outside to snap a picture. His team looks really strong!

Roxy just met me here in Ruby, so I'm ditching Clint, and Roxy and I are going to head to Kaltag.

Wednesday, March 06, 2002 7:18 PM

Trail notes - First, just a correction on my wife's rendition of my call to her from Nikolai. I didn't get lost - I got stuck! The trail out of Rohn is absolutely horrible with frozen dirt clumps and rocks everywhere. I arrived in Rohn about 8 pm (just after Linwood Fiedler, but in front of everyone else) and asked if there was any bad sections of trail that I would have to worry about. One of the checkers said that a lot of people had been stuck on the glacier and that it might be tricky. The only thing I knew about it was that it was about 10 miles from Nome. The trail at that point was pretty sparse but weaved in and out of overflow on the river. I was expecting that it would continue like that (flat) well past Egypt Mountain - as that is what it usually looked like when I flew over the top. Well, at mile 9.8 I spied what appeared to be a really steep hill in front of me. Since it was dark I couldn't tell how high it was so I gently pulled the sled behind me over the bumps at the bottom and started up the slope. It turned out to be a 250 to 300 yard 55 degree slope. About 2/3 of the way up the slope the trail turned into complete ice and I lost traction. My adrenaline and heartbeat spiked and I jammed on the brake real quick. I slid backwards (snowmachine and sled) for about 30 feet until I caught traction on the snow. The bottom of the trail was 200 yards below me and there was no way that I could back up that far. My new snowmachine has no emergency brake so "I couldn't set it to get off. With one hand on the brake, I reached behind me to the top of my backpack (thank God I had put emergency supplies in it and kept it strapped behind me) and pulled out some parachute cord. I tied the brake off with one hand and then stepped off to survey the mess I was in.

Ramy had prepared me with 100 feet of rope and a come-along (a hand winch). I hiked up the trail and tied off to a tree and then connected the come-along. I ran the rope just about as far as I could and tied it to the sled. I gave a few cranks on the come-along to loosen up the link to the snowmachine and walked down to pull the pin. As I wrestled the pin out of the hitch, I could feel the rope gain tension as the load was added to it. All of a sudden the sled and rope started reeling away from me as the whole thing went flying to the bottom. With a heavy heart I wrestled the snowmachine to the side of the trail and managed to horse it to a place where I could drive it into the forest and get it turned around. When I got to the bottom I miraculously found the sled slid out into the river at the bottom unharmed and intact. I hooked up to it again and took a longer run.

The second time I made 100 feet from the top before spinning out. I tied off the brake again and then tied the sled to a tree. With a series of come-along pulls and towing the rope with the snowmachine I got the sled to the top....but not without trouble. After 2 hours I was just about done when the first team came by me - Ramy Brooks. He and his team went right around me by going through the brush on the side of the trail. John Baker was about 5 minutes behind him and his team didn't want to go around. They tried to share the trail and John's sled got tied up with me. He and I both got frustrated as we tried to untangle his dogs and get his sled away from mine without damage. The last thing I wanted to do was interfere with the race in any way. A total of five teams passed me as I sat there. If I could have waved a wand and been out of there -
I would have! Three hours later in -15 weather I was free and at the top of the hill....only to discover that I was at the base of a (the) gigantic glacier. There was no way that I was going to get myself into another situation like that one so I tried hiking the trail to see where it went. I couldn't find a good way around it so I waited until another team came along so I could ask how long that glacier was, or wait until daylight when I could see. None of the teams would slow down enough to answer my question. Finally a couple of snowmachiners showed up and helped me work out of the glacier.

I overheated several times and fell behind them as they headed down the trail. Finally I got stuck on another hill and decided to camp for the night. I pushed the sled off the trail and drove my snowmachine into the willows. I went to sleep with my sleeping bag and pad right on the snow next to my sled. Several mushers shined their light on me (including Ramy) as they drove past in the middle of the night. I woke up in the morning to discover another camp 50 feet above me. Somehow I got the impression that these gentleman were the ones I encountered in the middle of the night. They were buffalo hunting in the Farewell Burn near Nikolai. However, as I sit here in Takotna retelling the story to a bunch of interested mushers in the checkpoint - a couple of guys turned to me from their cribbage game and said "That was you we saw on the glacier? We wondered what happened to you".

Paul Raymond and Paul Sayer travel along the trail every year and THEY were the ones I saw on the glacier. Thanks guys!

Nothing quite that interesting has happened since then. The trip across the Burn was relatively great - far superior to the trail out of Nikolai. There was plenty of snow, but lots of moguls so I could only travel at about 15 mph.

In Nikolai I picked up a hitchhiker, 2001 rookie Clint Warnke. Clint trained Sonny King's dogs for him this year in Alberta and is following the race as a spectator. He and I roared down the trail to McGrath in great time.

About noon today, Wednesday the 6th, we headed to Takotna. That was a rough trail. It took us three hours to cross the 20 miles to town.

RACE REPORT
As you hear, Ramy's drop dogs have been corrected. He is only down to 11 dogs, not 9 as reported. He is flying and there has been a lot of buzz about the quality of his team this year.

There are a lot teams pooled up in Takotna right now. A lot of mushers are taking their 24 hour layover here and taking advantage of the incredible hospitality. We shared a slice of Sonny King's pecan pie that the locals make with pecans Sonny sends to them each year. Very delicious!

I don't have a lot news about the front runners - but I'll catch up with them tomorrow during their 24 hour layover in Cripple. Rick Swenson is here...it looks like another dissapointing year for him despite his claims of having the best team he's ever had. He scooted out of the checkpoint real quick after eating so I didn't get a chance to ask him what's happening with his team.

Musher Robert Bundtzen is sporting a small gash on his cheek. He says that he received a "wake up call" from a tree branch last night. Not a major injury....but it could have been devastating. Clint and I saw a 4 inch thick branch hanging down into the trail approaching McGrath. It would not surprise me at all to see someone get knocked out there.

Ken Anderson (currently 20) asked one of the vets to look at his feet while here in Takotna. They found two of his toes were turning black and advised him that he is severely frostbitten and better drop the race or risk losing a toe. I just talked to Ken and he's taking painkillers right now and considering continuing. He's not convinced that he has frostbite and is hoping that it is something else. He has a few hours to think about it before his 24 is over...

Well, this place is starting to take on a party atmosphere. Mushers are poring in and lots of trail talk is taking place between competitors. As I write, Mike Williams, Lynda Plettner, Vern Halter, and John Little are all sitting around eating. Sonny King just went to take a nap, and Ken Anderson is getting a second opinion from an old sourdough. I'm going to stay the night here (it's a lot of fun) and leave for Ophir and Cripple at 5 am.

Wednesday, March 06, 2002 10:50 AM

Hello to all! I had my first good sleep of the trip last night. Went to bed at 11:00 and didn't wake up until 8:30. I found a shower and a mocha and I actually feel like a human again!

I feel a bit negligent on the reporting side of things. I was following the race, the racers and the dogs pretty well through Swentna. However, that next day (Monday I believe) I left my two travel partners in Skgentna and headed to Finger Lake expecting them to catch me. The weather and trail was great so I pushed through to Rainy Pass. I saw Ramy there at about 3:00 pm and he encouraged me to hit the trail and get through the Gorge and perhaps all the way to Nikolai....that was a very bad decision. The next 24 hours I was pretty much in survival mode. In Nikolai I saw Ramy again and decided to follow him through to McGrath and wait for the card Cathy was sending to me.

The trip through the pass and the Gorge was fairly uneventful. I lost a few trailer pins and sustained some minor rock damage to one of my skis, but nothing that couldn't be sorted out fairly well.

Race report:
Skwentna:
There was a giant open lead on the river just before Skwentna that quite a few mushers had a close call with. No reports of anyone hitting it at the time. Talked to GB Jones and he said that he got lost for 4 hours wandering around at the turnof for the Skwentna checkpoint. The town of Skwentna is straight down the river, but you have to turn left (west) to head in to the checkpoint at Joe Delia's (sp?) place. He was a little overwhelmed but happy to be there.

There was a lot of buzz among the other mushers in Yentna that Doug was going to take 8 hours in Skwentna. When he woke up in the morning and came down there was visible relaxation from the other mushers present to see he was still there. Apparently he has been talking for years about how much fun it would be to run the race and not race...but just enjoy himself. It looks like that's what he's doing. Ramy was happy for him, but a little dissapointed - "We're out here to race against the best, and right now Doug is the best. It would be nice to beat him and know that he is really trying".

Ramy dropped Hunter in Nikolai. On the trail from Nikolai to McGrath we passed Jeff King (moving well), John Baker, Ramy Brooks, Charlie Boulding and Dee Dee. Ramy was moving fast and we expected him to pass Charlie. But Charlie picked up the pace and surprised everyone. He did stay here in McGrath and is taking his 24.

Ally Zirkle's dad is here in McGrath with us visiting with Ally while she's doing her 24. The death of her kennel partner (Jerry Louden) this fall hit her pretty hard and she lost a month of training. Despite that, her spirits are up and her dogs are doing better than expected.

Although, the trail out of Rohn looked horrible to me, the mushers tell me that this is the best conditions they've seen in years. It's been fairly cold (-10) and sunny so the dogs can run fast without overheating and visibility is great. It's sizing up to be record race...we should break the 9 day barrier this year unless a storm breaks out on they Yukon or the Coast.

 

Tuesday, March 5th, 2:30 pm - Jenny writes:

Greg called in from Nikolai at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon. He is running a little behind the leaders and has a newfound respect for the skills of these guys. It seems that at Ramy's urging, he left Rainy Pass last night to push through to Nikolai. Unfortunately, he had a tough time with the sled getting stuck and then getting a little lost. He ended up on top of a glacier and being rescued by some buffalo hunters...the Farewell Burn is a popular place for them to congregate. After sleeping a few hours this morning, he just made it into Nikolai and was off to find Ramy before our favorite musher begins the trip towards McGrath and Takotna.

Due to his little adventure between Rainy Pass and Nikolai, Greg is not as familiar with what is going on at the front of the race. But apparently the trail is ablaze with rumors as to Swingley's slow race this year. One rumor has it that Doug was chagrined to find the Anchorage Daily News article touting the chances of Linwood Fiedler with the headline "Sometimes Nice Guys Do Finish First." Disappointed at the lack of support for his accomplishments, and deciding that it was no longer a challenge, he decided to basically retire with a leisurely ride to Nome. Other rumors coming off the trail, though, claim that this is part of a new strategy. Rumors stating that Swingley proposed to his girlfriend during the race start are apparently true, although it is unclear whether this has anything to do with Doug's race this year.

Message sent Sunday, March 03, 2002 10:58 PM

Knik - 4:30 pm

Just taking off from Knik after getting Ramy off at the start line and running down the last of my supplies. It took a bit longer to get started than anticipated. The trail has been fast and hard most of the way from Knik. The first 20 miles out of Knik the trail was full of moguls from all the snowmachines.

Flathorn Lake - 6:15

Just passed the first musher camped out on the trail about 25 miles out of Knik. A few miles down the trail I encountered 15 or 20 mushers camped out. At 7:00 all the mushers started heading back out on the trail!

Yentna Landing - 8:00pm

I saw Ramy right as I walked in to the lodge. He's in good spirits and very encouraged by his team's performance. He said he was the second one in to the checkpoint and thought he had the fastest team. He's scheduled to pull out at 9:30.

Just about all of the front runners are here. Doug Swingley was walking around in his puffy foam suit after a couple of hours rest. He claims he's going to take a 6 hour rest in Skwentna, but I think he's bluffing. Hans Gatt bemoaned how tired he was feeling after just winning the Quest. His team is made up of about half Yukon Quest finishers. He said that at the start line his leaders didn't want to go...and the other dogs just about ran them over.

The Vets just told me that Ramy dropped Gordon here in Yentna. Apparently he's suffering of a sore back.