White joy

By Tuesday morning, Fairbanks was Fairbanks once again. Daylight was still gaining at a rate of seven minutes per day, but all the heat faded from the glaring March sun. I'd hoped to embark on a long solo ride in the White Mountains while I was up north, and wasn't going to let subzero weather deter me. Still, the prospect was intimidating. As I drove to the trailhead at the relatively late hour of 9 a.m., I saw the temperature fall to as low as 23 below zero in a low-lying valley.

I packed up all of my camping gear, mostly for safety, but also included a few comfort items in case I actually did decide to camp. I knew the prospect of camping by choice wasn't likely given the possibility of minus forty, but adventure hopes spring eternal. All of the cabins in the Whites had been booked that night, so any "camping" I did would mean unrolling my bivy bundle and taking a desperate nap in the snow. Not actually fun, but it would allow me to ride farther into the Whites. I was still torn on the decision to camp or not, so the down booties came with. So did a gallon of fluid, because when it's that cold I'd rather go thirsty than stop and melt snow, but snow biking is hard work and I tend to get terrible headaches and feel chilled if I don't quench my thirst. The result was a ridiculously heavy bike, but I did feel prepared for the worst — a good feeling to have when I'm alone in the Arctic cold. 

The trailhead sits at 2,400 feet near the top of a high dome. In this region, higher elevations generally mean more wind and higher temperatures because cold air sinks. It was still seven below zero at the Wickersham Dome, and breezy. Back in December, Beat and I went on an overnight trip where we saw eight above at the Dome and 25 below as soon as the low winter sun went down and we dropped into the Wickersham Creek drainage. I braced myself for this kind of temperature swing. 

The day was stunning — clear with the severe contrast of deep black and sparkling white. The trail was in great shape, too. Even my loaded bike coasted well over the hardpacked snow. My legs, however, were still sore and fatigued from the Chena River to Ridge race and other adventures in the days prior. I did not have much oomph while climbing the rolling hills around the dome, and my appetite seemed to be missing as well. I couldn't stuff down more than a few handfuls of cereal before I started, and the last thing I wanted to do was stuff icky frozen candy under my iced-up face mask and into my dry mouth. Fueling would prove to be a problem for the rest of the day.

When riding in the Whites, you never see the same trail twice, so it's always an adventure. The trail along Wickersham Creek was mired in overflow — some sections still wet and ankle deep, and others refrozen to a sheen of glare ice. On my overloaded bike I had packed microspikes for my boots, specifically for navigating these slippery obstacles. However, the spikes collected slush while I was wading through the wet overflow. The slush then stuck to snow, which quickly refroze into ummovable tennis-ball-size clumps of ice on the bottom of my boots. I kicked them against the pedals, trees, trail signs, to no avail. The ice balls were completely stuck in such a way that my only hope seemed to be melting the ice, which wouldn't be happening at 15 below. The ice also froze the spikes to my boots so I couldn't remove them. This happened early and would make everything from pedaling to pushing more difficult for the rest of the day.

Especially when I had to walk across sections such as this with balls of ice stuck to the bottom of my boots — glare ice that slopes downward into a wet swamp covered in only the thinnest film of ice. Scary, scary. Eventually the walking wore the ice balls down to a point that the spikes stuck out again, but for a while the ice crossings were dicey.

I pedaled 18 miles into the Beaver Creek drainage, where Borealis cabin sits. This was my original planned turnaround point, but I reached it faster than I expected. I considered pedaling a few miles farther down the main route toward Fossil Creek, but felt more drawn by a route that veered west and climbed a high ridge beside the limestone mountains — Big Bend. Only three hours had passed since I pedaled away from Wickersham Dome, so I figured I could get away with two or three more hours on an out-and-back trip.

The Big Bend trail was softer due to lighter traffic, and deeply drifted in sections. Even though it was spring break and all of the (three) cabins along this part of the route were booked, I only saw one snowmachine and two people on bicycles during the ride into Borealis. I was all but guaranteed to see nobody on this remote connector trail, which was exciting in its own way. I could hear my own solitude when I stopped pedaling — that depth of silence is something I don't often experience anymore. Small sounds would occasionally break through the quiet — low howls and crunching footsteps, seemingly from miles away, carried through the air like a frozen whisper.

My pace slowed considerably on Big Bend. The soft surface combined with significant climbing meant I was walking most of it. An hour passed, then two. The trail climbed to crest of the ridge and turned to the north, contouring the spine. It was all steep ups and downs but stunning in its scenery, and quite a bit warmer, too. I was even higher than Wickersham, close to 3,000 feet, and the temperature may have even climbed above zero degrees. I could camp up at elevation, I thought, where it might not get that cold overnight. But anywhere high in this area was going to be far away from the trailhead, which would mean a long ride out the next day. Plus, Ed was working when I left and I hadn't had a chance to fill him in on my tentative plans. He only knew I was "riding in the Whites" and knew I didn't get a cabin, so if I didn't come back that night he would probably worry about me. It wasn't fair to him and may have even spurred unnecessary searching. I scanned the sky with my cell phone, hoping for reception, but there was none. That cemented the no camping plan, which was disappointing and a huge relief at the same time.

Even knowing I'd be pedaling all the way back that afternoon, I couldn't help but press farther up the ridge trail. Stoke was running high and pains were few, although I still had no power in my legs and I still wasn't eating. Strangely, I didn't feel sick or bonked, but my energy levels were plummeting rapidly. I sucked on some chalky M&Ms and marveled at Beat's adventure, again. "He has to eat this crappy frozen junk all day, every day. How does he do it?

After I finished up all of my nice and lukewarm Camelbak water, I pulled out a bottle of Gatorade that I had been storing in an insulated container on the rear rack. The Gatorade was still fully liquid with no ice particles at all. But as soon as I cracked open the lid, I witnessed one of the strangest science experiments I've ever seen. After I took the first sip, I noticed ice crystals forming inside the bottle. They floated to the surface and started multiplying like snowflakes, gathering momentum in a purple blizzard. Within seconds my liquid Gatorade had morphed into a thick slush, icy throughout. I'd never seen anything like it — instant Slurpee. Unfortunately, at the time I would have much preferred hot tea to Slurpee, but I was still very thirsty so I choked it down.

As soon as my watch indicated a little over six hours from the start, I decided to turn around despite continued resistance from my adventurous side. I had traveled thirty miles from Wickersham Dome, and far enough along the ridge trail that I could look down into the valley that holds the Colorado Creek Cabin, where Beat and I camped on New Years Eve, accessed from a trail much farther up the highway. It seemed like a long way into the frozen backcountry. I was pleased with the ground I'd covered.

The ride back was serene — still immensely quiet, and I was fatigued enough to shed my fears of the cold and slip into the mechanized mindset of forward motion, breathing, and occasionally stopping long enough to force myself to eat something — dry frozen cookies, drier Wheat Thins. It was strange — I was still so thirsty that I had gotten to the point of rationing my last Nalgene of water. My base layers weren't too wet, so I hadn't been sweating profusely, and I also had only peed twice that day in twelve hours. I'm not even sure where all of that water went — perhaps freeze-dried out of my body and sucked into that cold, dry air.

Clear skies remained and the deep cold returned as the sun went down. Despite low energy it spurred me to pedal faster, until I reached the Wickersham Wall 53 miles into my ride. I've pushed a bike up this wall four times, and it's left me shattered every time. The depth of my low energy became apparent and the remaining ice on the bottom of my boots slipped on the steep slope, causing me to fall to my knees several times. Ah, Wickersham Wall. You never fail to break me.

I finished my ride in the dark after 11 hours and 44 minutes in the deep cold, with sixty miles for the day. A grand day out.

Learning to run

It occurred to me during the long drive north to Fairbanks that I haven't really trained this year for running on snow, at all. There was that one 22-mile run in Yosemite, a couple of arduous sled-dragging hikes, and a lot of good intentions once I arrived in Alaska. But just like the rigors of snow biking have caught up to me as a wholly different sport than mountain biking, my trail running muscles felt weak and not tuned to the demands of snow. Plus, I was exhausted. That one was my fault so I tried to shake it off. The Chena River to Ridge 25-mile race loomed. 

I decided to sign up for this race partly because I needed a shakedown training run for the Homer Epic, at some point. But mostly I signed up because it gave me an excuse to visit Fairbanks, which is perhaps the most fun community in all of Alaska. And I mean this genuinely — you need to have a good sense of humor and an adventurous spirit in order to survive this stark and cold place. 

My arrival felt like a homecoming of sorts, even though I've never lived here or even spent all that much time in the Fairbanks area. One of CR2R race-directors, Ed, let me stay at his place during my visit. I credit Ed with helping re-spark my passion for adventure racing when I was disillusioned with a lot of things, because he invited me to sign up for the White Mountains 100 in 2010. I had a lot of fun staying with Ed. He's an animal on skis and packrafts, and has completed numerous amazing wilderness trips throughout the Arctic. At home he's a weather forecaster who loves pop culture. While I was there, we indulged in silly movies and television such as "Pitch Perfect" and "The Biggest Loser," and top-40 radio is always pumping when he's awake. It was great fun. 

Chena River to Ridge had 55 entrants on skis, bikes, and foot. There was a 25-mile race and 45-mile race run concurrently, encompassing two different trail loops in the recreation area. There were about an equal number of starters for both distances, but the majority of runners were in the short race and bikers in the long race. At the sign-up, a number of people asked me where my bike was. I think most who have even tried skis or snow bikes can't imagine why anyone would leave these beneficial pieces of equipment at home. Snow running is just slow and strenuous, and only those who really love running would bother with it. After several minutes of gleefully describing my Willow, Denali Highway, and Denali National Park bike adventures without a single mention of running, it was probably clear I am not one of those people.

But the challenge — the sheer amount of difficulty running causes me — is exactly why I love it. The first five miles of the Chena River to Ridge trail were sublime. Rolling through frozen swamps into a canyon surrounded by round-top mountains, the trail was just soft enough to feel like a cloud under my feet, but still packed enough to allow my untrained legs to kick up some 12-minute miles. The effort level was still high and my mind slipped into a peaceful daze — the mindless serenity of running. And just when I had decided this run was going to be amazing and maybe even sorta easy after all, the warm sun peeked over the mountains.

By the time the climbing really started, the trail had softened considerably and was churned up by several dozen runners, skiers, and bikers — many who were reduced to pushing after the lead pack enjoyed smooth trails. The steeper climbs weren't bad for me — similar to hiking up a slope with loose talus — but anytime the trail leveled out and I tried to run again, my forefoot would stamp a hole into the  mush and my knee would wrench sideways. Lifting off the snow was equally straining and pulled uncomfortably at my hips. Within a mile of this I was already hurting, only seven miles into the race.

Around mile nine I caught my cyclist friend Dave Shaw, and tried not to sound too chipper because I know it sucks to be caught by runners. But the truth is despite my aching hips and sore knees, I was still in a great mood. It was a beautiful, warm morning and the endorphins were running full-tilt. "Are you sure this race is in Fairbanks?" I chirped. "It feels like Juneau in the spring, or California." Dave smiled back at me; he wasn't even crabby. "At least it's a beautiful day to take my bike for a walk," he said. Two days later, Dave would take me out for an incredibly fun ride on the Corral Creek Trail, near his cabin in the Goldstream Valley. We weaved through trees and dipped into icy stream beds, pedaling until the trail got steep and it was time to start pushing our bikes. Dave observed that he'd had enough of pushing for a while, and I fully agreed.

I passed a few more bikers and began to wonder if my knees and hips would hurt less if I could resume the bike-pushing position, which I'd had at least some conditioning for. It sounds idiotic to envy a bogged-down cyclist pushing a bike, but I was willing to try anything to soothe my aching hips. I moved my trekking poles to the side and leaned forward, but it was awkward to walk that way without an actual bike to lean on.

By mile thirteen I was grumpy, aching, and done with slushing. Before the race began I strongly considered wearing snowshoes, but didn't because it was a short race that I wanted to try to run. Also, I already had trekking poles, and the snowshoes would have made me look like a complete dork among the well-tuned Fairbanks runners. I rarely worry about how dorky I look, so I'm not sure why the snowshoe thing mattered. Next time.

Luckily, there was a high ridge aid station with friends to lift my spirits. I didn't even recognize John Shook in his Jesus Christ Superstar outfit, and his wife Andrea had abundant enthusiasm for the semi-broken back-of-packers. I stood there eating bread and butter, enjoying the sweet relief of not moving my hips for a few minutes. Then I started to worry about the bikers catching me, which is humorous because I knew they would not only catch me but start riding again as soon as the trail trended downhill, and finish two hours before me. Ah, well. Bursts of irrational competitive spirit — that's what racing is all about.

I was about three miles from the finish, walking downhill to reduce the posthole strain on my knees, when my cell phone rang. Beat was calling from the long traverse of hills before the Yukon River, and lamented the warm weather. He had been rained on the day before, fought slush for more than a hundred miles, waded through ice-choked overflow up to his thighs, and maxed out his capabilities for a walking pace that I could stil achieve relatively easily. He asked if I was still out on the Chena trail.

"Aw, we're both in a race!" he said with silly excitement.

"Not much of a race for me," I grumbled. "I'm still going to try, of course, but I think I'm screwed for the finishing the Homer Epic under the cutoff if trail conditions are similar at all, which they probably will be because it's spring down there. The trail is just so soft. This is really hard."

Beat just paused for a few seconds. I thought the line had cut off because he didn't respond, but then he burst out laughing. I started giggling, too, because my complaints were ridiculous in comparison. If Beat can bust out his slog for a thousand miles, I can certainly work my way through a measly 25 miles of soft snow.

I finished in 7:30, which was still under my guessed time of eight hours, but admittedly well over the hoped-for six hours I thought I could achieve in good conditions. According to my GPS the race actually came in closer to a marathon, 26.1 miles with 3,100 feet of climbing. Although painful during the race, the hip and knee soreness mostly worked itself out within 48 hours, although my legs retained a deadened, tired feeling.

But, above all, the Chena River to Ridge race launched what turned out to be an incredible week here in Fairbanks. I regret nothing.

Riding the invisible highway, part two

Our first night in the Lake Cabin was my fourth or fifth night without significant sleep. Around 4 a.m. I had read enough Jack London and hiked out the road to search for Aurora. I was wearing my pajamas, down booties, a thin down coat, and fleece mittens. The night was immensely quiet, and filled with a piercing cold that I shrugged off as the overreaction of an unacclimated Californian. I stood on the bridge across the Maclaren River, staring out into the mountain-ringed expanse with faint green light undulating in the northern sky. But stars stole the show, with the full-spectrum depth of the galaxy in clear view. I stood with my neck craned upward until I started shivering heavily, and my hands and feet were numb. I scolded myself for being a wimpy Californian, but in the morning, after sunrise, the lodge thermometer read -18F.


On day two, we decided to take a stress-free day of sightseeing, knowing our hoped-for big day to Alpine Creek Lodge and back would take us the better part of 24 hours to ride in these conditions. Jill M. was invited on a snowmachine trip that she happily accepted. Jenn, Sierra and I opted to pedal down the road. Trail conditions beyond the lodge were even softer and slower, but the route climbed into increasingly more spectacular scenery.

There's a bigness to the land out there that's futile to try to capture in photographs, and even more futile to try to describe. I was beginning to feel the sensation that we'd ventured onto another planet, a moonscape surrounded by the brightest stars of the galaxy, bathed in the severe light of a heatless sun.

I lost myself in the dreamscape, churning along at three miles per hour, imagining Antarctica.

Jenn turned back a few miles early. Sierra and I pressed on until our time cut-off had passed — two and a half hours — in which we traveled to mile marker 51, which was about nine miles from the lodge. As we rode back, it became clear that Sierra was a much more skilled snow rider than me, choosing clean lines and cutting a straight track through the snow more often than not. I, on the other hand, swerved around like a drunk driver, nearly pitching off the trail more times than I care to admit. Sierra's been riding in Whitehorse all winter and I am dirt-spoiled, clearly out of practice. Snow biking isn't all high-resistance slogging. There's a lot of technique, maneuvering, and bursts of power involved.

Thanks to rusty technique, I did take one spectacular crash that no one was around to see. Sierra had a quarter mile on me during the final descent into the Maclaren River valley, and I was laying into the pedals to catch up. The rear wheel washed out and experienced a dramatic few seconds of fishtailing in which I could actually hear the "whoosh, whoosh" of the bike leaning into the swerves. It dipped one last time and tossed me into the snow in an eruption of powder. I wish someone was there to witness that crash. It would have earned me a great nickname, perhaps even better than the one I received ("Jilly-Ho," spoken as though saying "Land Ho.")

On day three we got an early start out of the lodge — the benefit of understanding there was a ten-hour day ahead of us. Jill M. had developed a good rapport with one of the young lodge employees, Sean, and he offered to give us all a snowmobile "bump" up the first 1,200-foot climb to Maclaren summit. I resisted vehemently; I would rather wake up at 4 a.m. and sneak out than take any sort of ride on a bike tour. Jenn and Sierra wanted to pedal but were open to hopping onto the trailer if the climb took too long. Jill M. was happy to take the bump. It's funny — and likely caused by an abnormally high-strung state due to lack of sleep — but during the night I lied awake stressing about this. I didn't want to sprint ahead but I was resolved to reach the top before the machine passed us and made me get on. It was kind of like a race ... but only to me.

It was a cold morning — -11F when Jill looked at the thermometer at breakfast, possibly four or five degrees colder right at dawn. I admit I was nervous about feeling chilled again all day, so I stripped off all of my insulation layers to the point of being uncomfortable just so I wouldn't soak them in sweat during the long climb. I knew body heat would kick in soon enough, but the first twenty minutes are always tough.

I remember seeing road signs such as this during my summer ride on the Denali Highway and thinking, "Great, forty miles, only four hours." On this morning, it was more like, "Wow, forty miles. That's ten hours."

Thanks to the cold morning, the trail was well frozen and in the best shape I'd seen yet. The climb seemed to take less effort than riding downhill had the previous day. We were able to pedal the whole five-mile ascent without pushing, which felt like a victory for my imagined solitary race. Extended climbs really are my favorite kind of pedaling. We stopped to soak in the gorgeous sunrise view at the summit sign — which is actually about two miles and 300 feet below the actual summit. I hastily applied a bunch of layers, which is perhaps why I look so disheveled in this photo.

The morning had a nice rhythm to it, and everyone was in a good mood. We were still traveling just as slow and working just as hard, but we had adjusted our expectations to match reality. Attitude is the majority of the challenge in endeavors such as this, whether racing or touring. The rest is attention to physical needs — food, water, and warmth. Neglect any one of these things and the landscape quickly shifts to a hateful, scary place. But when all needs are filled and expectations are matched, this cold and desolate landscape is pleasant, even friendly.

Jill and Sean caught up to us at mile 13. We were well ahead of our expectations — which we had set so low that even after three hours they thought they might find us only reaching the top of the pass.

We decided we had much more time on this day, so we spent more time goofing off. Sierra even stopped at one point to make coffee, which I enjoyed immensely after our semi-early start, where the caffeine tends to wear off by noon.

We marveled at the amazing weather we had, having planned this trip months in advance and set the exact dates a month earlier. More often than not in the winter, the Denali Highway is pummeled by high winds, ground blizzards, real blizzards, and deeply subzero temperatures. As soon as the sun came out, the air warmed to a few degrees above zero — not warm by any means, but perfectly comfortable without the presence of wind. I managed to stay much more comfortable than I had two days earlier, although I sometimes ran laps when stopped just to avoid the dreaded chill.

Photo by Jenn Roberts

The most incredible moment of the trip happened when we were descending into the place that Jill M. termed "Low Morale Valley" on day one. I admittedly had earphones in, and heard a strange sound that caused me to hit pause on my iPod. Jill M. was stopped on the trail, and I stopped behind her to see the origin of that echoing rhythmic sound — dozens of caribou running across our path just a few hundred yards away. The herd continued moving up the slope, glancing back in our direction occasionally as we continued down the valley. The whole hillside was mottled with caribou tracks, which appeared to me as a kind of abstract snow sculpture. Beautiful, awe-inspiring experience.

And while my rather holey trip plan has since been picked apart by the group as a whole, everyone was forgiving of my unrealistic ambitions and nobody had a meltdown or fight the entire trip. We shared our cozy lake-side cabin ("Oh, I see, it's the Lake Cabin because it's by a lake. I couldn't tell. It looks like every other blank white expanse out here.") We poked fun at each other and told dirty jokes. We enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Maclaren River Lodge and left our mark in the form of a one-dollar bill scrawled with images of fatbikers. Pecha Kucha is a gregarious group, and I sometimes feel like the odd person out ... the token introvert. But they are accepting of me and my quirks, and I love that we are making a tradition out of this. Sierra wrote a great description of everyone in our "pack" on her trip report. Here's her take on my role:

"Jill Homer is through and through a husky.  Not a fancy, prancy show-dog husky, a true-blue sled dog husky.   There is no doubt in my mind that she could keep moving for days, or perhaps even weeks; surviving on whatever she needs.  In a husky’s case this would probably involve foraging for garbage and small rodents.  For Jill, it’s foraging for Sour Patch Kids and frozen salami.   If there had been no lodge on the Denali Highway, I imagine we would have eventually come upon Jill curled up nose to tail in a snow bank; or sitting with her nose pointed in the air, smiling at the sky."

Thanks girls. I hope we can do it again next year.