Down to
Summit Lake
The run along the pipeline was fairly smooth with a few stops to check the
dog's feet and bootie a few which were starting to get chewed up by the sugary
snow. The sky was beginning to cloud up a bit and the moonlight was becoming more
diffuse. Yet, I could see a lightening along the Southeastern horizon and knew
that daylight was creeping up behind me as I traveled further north.
I passed a few beacon lights which I knew marked the hills surrounding Paxson
and had a good sense of where I was on the trail. It had been a great run so far
and the dogs were doing great considering we hadn't been on this long of a run
yet this season. Finally the trail got close enough to the Richardson highway
and I saw the flashing yellow lights of a highway caution sign and knew that was
the road crossing and where the trail dropped down onto Summit Lake. We jumped
across one more short water crossing and then dropped down to the road where a
few faithful volunteers asked what my number was as they watched for traffic and
I crossed the road. "Are you # 14?" "You go guy!" was the
reply and as the last musher through that crossing they probably rolled up the
carpet before I was out of sight.
The trail across Summit Lake was fairly well marked, although it would have been
more assuring to have the trail markers spaced a little closer together. It was
still dark enough that I could see the reflective tape when I flashed my headlamp
across the landscape. A few teams had gotten turned around on the lake last year,
but this year it seemed to be a straightforward trail. I knew I had about an hour
to go until the checkpoint and knew there would be one more hill to climb up to
the Denali Highway (not plowed in winter) which would take me into the Paxson
checkpoint.
The clouds had rolled in and the mountains to the south were somewhat obscured
by the light snow which was now falling. It didn't look too threatening, though
and I figured I had enough time to get to Paxson without any weather related issues.
The good news was that the temperatures had warmed up somewhat and it may have
been closer to 10 below than 30 below by that point.
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