A Sno-go and Iditarod Adventure Part 2

On March 11th, Uncle Reid, Aunt Angela, Uncle Cam, Martin, Finn, Ross, Aubrey, and I left Unalakleet and headed towards Galena. It was a crisp morning. This morning started out a little colder than our trip over, so we all bundled up, fueled up and headed out. Some of you who know where Uncle Cam lives may be wondering how he came into the equation. Cam flew up from Montana to visit Reid and Angela and us and to come on this snow-go trip. He has been to Unalakleet before but hadn't seen Galena until this trip. We are glad he came with us!

Our trip went fairly well for the most part, considering we had 5 machines that could break down. It did seem like we had to stop quite often for different issues, but we made it back to Galena safely! We had tie down issues and a gas can that got a whole poked in it. Cam and Reid had to quickly poor the extra fuel they had brought in the gas can into their machines. The bolt that was holding Cam's sled he was pulling broke without him knowing it, so they had to go back and find the sled. We had hands and faces getting cold when we first started out, but as the day warmed up we actually got hot again going over all the bumps before Kaltag. We had to pull over several times for the Iditarod mushers and their teams to pass by. This added quite a bit of time to our trip and caused us to get stuck a few times, but it was fun seeing the dogs and mushers out on the trail in the middle of nowhere just quietly clipping along. It made me wish I was on one of those sleds behind a team of dogs!

I was finally getting use to the 800 and feeling more confident on it. I was ahead of the rest of the crew for a while on the bumps before Kaltag. I would get ahead and then stop for a bit and wait for the people riding double (it is harder to go over bumps with two people because you can't stand up to absorb the jolting from the bumps) to catch up. There was a guy ahead of me for a while and then he pulled off the trail and didn't even know I was behind him. After I got through a long stretch of bumpy treed area the terrain opened into a straight patch, but as I was looking back, I realized the rest of the crew was not behind me. I stopped on the trail and waited and waited. I was enjoying the beautiful sunshine and snow, but getting a little concerned, when I finally heard a sno-go coming. As it got closer I realized it wasn't anyone in our crew, but the man I had been following. He stopped and asked if I was ok and I told him I was just waiting for the rest of my group. He looked at me with a strange look and asked, "What group?" as he looked around. He must of thought it was strange for a woman to be sitting out on the trail all alone. He said we were almost to Kaltag and then left. I thought for sure everyone would be coming soon, but I waited and waited for what seemed like a very long time. I was sitting there debating what to do. It is generally my experience with deep snow, that I get stuck. Powder and me do not mix well. So I was thinking if I try to go off the trail to turn around, I am going to get stuck and then what help will I be if I am sitting here stuck while they are back there having issues. I started wondering if someone was hurt so I finally decided to try to turn around and go back. I wasn't going fast enough when I went off the trail to turn around and sure enough, I got myself good and stuck. I was trying to get myself unstuck when the rest of the crew finally caught up. Reid and Angela's machine had a broken spring on it, so they had to transfer all the stuff in Martin's sled to the other two sleds and haul the machine on Martin's sled. I was just thankful no one was hurt and it was a fixable problem with a little welding. Since we had two people riding on that machine we had to find room on the other four machines we had left. I rode on the broken down machine on the sled to Kaltag which was quite rough over all the bumps.

In Kaltag, we called the fuel attendant and fueled up, then I hopped on the back with Ross and Aubrey. After a while our machine started making noises whenever we hit bumps. The shock in the back was going bad so I played musical sno-gos once again and hopped on Cam's machine. So both machines that were not suppose to be meant to be ridden double were now being ridden double and I was holding on tight to my brother in-law! After riding double, I felt sorry for Angela having to ride double over all those bumps to Kaltag. It is a lot harder to brace yourself while riding double and you are left to the mercy of the person driving! We only passed over over-flow once that I know of. It was when I was riding double with Cam and I looked down and we were on top of over-flow. I tapped Cam and he quickly got out of there and we stayed dry. We all arrived back in Galena around 6:30 or 7, so even with starting later in the morning and all the issues, we actually made the trip back faster than the way there.

Uncle Cam, Uncle Reid, and Aunt Angela stayed in Galena for a day and then left the following day. They had quite the trip back with lots of stories to tell. After some broken tie-downs, scraped up knees, and running into a tree, they made it back safely. It is a long trip but I think we all would agree that we would do it again! Here are some pictures of our trip from Unalakleet back to Galena.

Outside of Unalakleet a ways. Reid and Angela and then Cam. As you can see there is someone in front of Cam. It is actually a biker on a fat bike. We saw a couple people riding the Iditarod with a fat bike.