Not hunting related but definitely backcountry

[Floorguy]

The iditarod trail invitational is going on right now. One of the longest human powered winter events that I can think of. Basically it is a bike, run or ski event that goes from the old Knik townsite outside of Nenana to McGrath and onto Nome following the iditarod trail. It is self supported once you leave McGrath. Being a bike and smaller winter endurance geek I think it's awesome. I wound up going to the start and talking to some of the racers. Here are some pics from the start of the race.

The guys I feel for are the runners. They are pulling pulks and according to race officials they will have no choice but to go through knee deep sections of water.

So the majority of the racers are all going to McGrath a smaller group will attempt to make it to Nome. McGrath is 350 miles there are 3 mandatory checkpoints that they must stop at and can get water and warm food. After McGrath the remaining 700 miles are completely self supported and the checkpoints will be only checkpoints and they will only have whatever the had drop shipped to the village they are going to.

And because there is only that one guy...

Drinking "2 beers and some shots" right before you embark on a 350-1049 mile odyssey across a somewhat frozen Alaska can lead to a slow start. Gotta love the Scottish.

This is an event that is on my bucket list at least to McGrath. Most of the racers are using spot trackers and are being tracked by trackleaders.com. the website for the event is http://iditarodtrailinvitational.com/

The site for the tracking is http://trackleaders.com/iti16

Anyway thought it was worth sharing if anyone is interested in checking it out.

 

[Ceby7]

That's pretty cool, I'd never heard of it before.

 

[justinspicher]

I wouldn't mind trying at least part of that.

 

[JFKinYK]

A past winner of this Iditarod race was the first to fat bike the Yukon Quest trail this year. I'm sure someone knows him. He is from Fairbanks.

http://www.outsideonline.com/2057226/guy-just-finished-toughest-fat-biking-ride-ever

 

[Floorguy]

Jeff Oatley I met him in Anchorage at the Fat Bike Expo. His wife Heather Best is racing too she is a female record holder.

 

[Cledus]

That would take me all year

 

[wyodan]

This is the first time I have ever heard of this. Sounds like fun!

 

[Floorguy]

There is a documentary on it called A Thin White Line from the 2001 race you can watch it for free on vimeo. The person that posted it is Brüdder. My friends dad Mike Estes tied for first with the only other biker to finish that year. Two walkers finished 20 days later one with a broken ankle. By the time it was all over Mike had pushed his bike over 400 of the 1000 miles and had actually been behind the walkers for 2/3s of the race.