I parked the machine to take a picture just a mile or two out of the Rainy Pass checkpoint.

Although it looks stunningly beautiful (it is) minutes before I left the checkpoint there was a whiteout and I barely stayed ahead of it.

These pictures give you some idea of the panorama you get - but they truly don't do it justice.

I could not have asked for more beautiful weather for this portion of the race. Incidentally, I was behind only one musher - Linwood Fiedler - at this point.

It was already starting to get dark as I got to the actual pass - I was a little scared to push through by myself, but if I didn't go through I would have to wait till morning and be a full day behind the leaders.

The actual Iditarod trail makes a hard right (North) just a few hundred yards ahead in this picture and up and over (through ) the mighty Alaska Range.

Being a rookie (and being by myself), I never did clarify where Rainy Pass begins and Dalzell Gorge begins. It's difficult to tell while you are in it. I'm going to guess that the horrible rocks coming up are the Gorge.

This view of the trail intimidated me a bit. Up till now the trail had been well marked and groomed. The Iditarod Trail groomers couldn't make it through this narrow section though - in fact they snickered at me when they discovered I was taking a Wide-Trak with sled through it.

Okay, that wasn't so bad - I had to go through a few willows and find my way through blown out trail - no big deal.

Incredibly beautiful -- again!

Here's where my Mountaineering (and avalanche survival) training spider-sense kicked in. I was seriously freaked out driving through heavily snow-laden >60 degree slopes. Lots of heating and cooling on the peaks and valleys means a lot of unstable snow. If covered, no one would ever know. There were dozens of run-out avalanches going through.

This was actually one of the better snow bridges crossing the creek through the Pass/Gorge. My skiis on the snowmachine wouldn't fit on the bridge - I had to balance. I pity the mushers in the back who had to pass it after 80 other teams and perhaps a dozen snowmachines went through.

This series of shots shows the fantastic glaciering coming down to the water - and the very narrow, very tilted trail. I went slow and got off several times to pull the sled back on the trail - leaning into the mountain the entire time.

 

This look behind me is the trail coming out of the woods from the Gorge.

And this is what lies ahead...frozen river. Well who am I to complain - at least it was flat and frozen. Quite obviously its a little too dark for any more pictures. It was another hour or so to Rohn.

This starts out the next day on the Farewell Burn. In between the last picture and this one is a whole nightmarish saga that had me stuck on a glacier 10 miles outside of Rohn, winching up a hill, blocking the trail, etc. (See the Tuesday March 5th section of my trail diary for more explanation

There is a cute little cabin on the river outside of Nikolai and I happened to catch Martin Buser camping there with his team.

I can't remember what this sign said, but it dedicates the bridge to someone.