Paxson to Meiers Lake to Sourdough (58 miles)


We were all a little slow leaving that long layover as is typical, but got going at 6:11pm. The next 17 mile section of trail to Meier's Lake went a little slow as the dogs were probably a little stiff and took a little time to get loosened up. The clouds were breaking up again and the full moon was again illuminating the full landscape. This section of trail was fairly flat as we crossed Paxson Lake and wound our way through some sloughs and then out onto Meier's Lake and the next checkpoint. JJ and Wayne met me there, but Bill had left to head back across the mountains towards Fairbanks. He needed to work the next morning and Paxson was as close to Fairbanks as he would get along the race course. If he had continued to Meier's Lake he would've had to do a bit of backtracking.


By the time we got to Meier's Lake at 8:15pm I was feeling pretty good and the team was settling into their paces again. They were pulling well and even Steele, who had been the stiffest leaving Paxson, was pulling hard again. We zoomed in and out of Meier's Lake checkpoint and I had Goldie and Dale in lead as we approached what was reported to be about 20 miles of trail riddled with moose holes.

Moose holes are 4-5 inch wide holes about 8-14 inches deep which are essentially made by moose walking across or along the trail and punching through the hard packed surface snow into the powder below. As you can imagine, these can wreak havoc on a dog team as shoulder injuries and even broken legs can be the result of a dog's misstep. We had been told that there was seldom a stretch of trail longer than a team which wasn't riddled with these holes and that it went on for 20 miles starting at the Meier's Lake checkpoint.

I had put Gertie back in the team since she was probably the leader I could least afford to get injured and knew I had to take it slow going through this stretch of trail. Well, the moose holes didn't really materialize for some reason, but I kept the dogs going slow regardless. This leg of the race was probably the longest for me as we did a fair amount of climbing and descending through "rolling hills". We crossed the Gulkana River a few times and the temperatures fluctuated almost as wildly as the terrain so I was often sweating and then chilled. Finally we emerged under the pipeline once again and I remembered that I had just a few more miles to go until I got to the Sourdough checkpoint. As the sky was once again clear I could see the Eastern horizon and could clearly make out the mountain we had climbed up the night before in our run from Chistochina. It looked even more impressive from a distance.

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