Notes from Skwentna 3/3

Notes from Skwentna 3/3
We flew out Saturday afternoon after the fog lifted. Sterling and I boarded a little blue plane piloted by a friendly fellow named Scott. Prior to boarding, he ran through all the various safety equipment, emergency communications devices and beacons, and emergency food and other survival supplies, I suppose so wed have a chance of making it even if he was unconscious or worse. I found the forethought that went into providing these items both comforting and disconcerting at the same time. In any case we had beautiful clear skies and barely a bump the entire ride. Below us was forest and frozen rivers, an occasional road, and lots of snow. The Alaska range was up ahead to our left, and out the right side of the plane was Denali, bathed in warm afternoon sunlight.
We landed gently on the snowy runway and came to a stop. I was quickly whisked away by a snow machine, aka snow mobile, up to the Skwentna homestead. W crossed the frozen river and climbed up the bank, stopped in front of a log cabin where a group of around 30 people were congregating. I was expecting a skeleton crew but was met instead by this cheerful group of fresh faced and extremely friendly group. They all seemed to be long lost friends - they were hugging each other warmly, hugging me warmly, slapping each other on the back, smiling and laughing. I felt like i had landed in some secret magical kingdom of happy people. Brigadoon in a Alaska? A number of the women were wearing bright red matching aprons, suggesting that some culinary delights might be served up later. I later learned that they went by the name "Sweeties," a well- deserved term. Apparently the Skwentna volunteer group consisted of friends, and friends of friends, many of whom had been coming up here for years. They were so happy to be here and their warmth and energy infused the place. They were also extremely organized- everybody had their designated jobs, the sweeties had already been preparing dinner, which was delicious, all prepared without running water. I definitely had arrived at the Ritz Carlton of checkpoints.
That night we six vets slept in the post office, heated by a wood stove. The next morning was warm and clear, and after a breakfast of French toast, eggs, sausage, avocado (!!!), and fresh fruit, a couple of the other vets and I went for a walk. There wasn't much work for us to do yet. The official start of the race in willow wouldn't be until two pm, and the Skwentna volunteer team seemed to be on top of all the checkpoint preparations. The night before, after dinnerthey Had packed down the snow on the river with snow mobile style Zambonis to make it easier for everyone to walk around the check point. In the morning they started distributing the straw bales that the mushers would use to bed their dogs, if they decided to stay, and organizing all the dropped shipment of food , setting up me checkpoint banner, etc... I felt a little guilty but it was pretty clear that my services were not needed. So we walked a couple miles down the middle of the frozen river to the confluence of the Skwentna and Yentna rivers, enjoying the relative warmth and fresh air.
Our work will be tonight. The first teams are expected around nine pm, end they'll be streaming in through the wee hours of the am. Well be trying to examine as many dogs as we can, although many of the teams tr to blow throw this checkpoint quickly and camp further up the trail. We do have to keep an eye out for hyperthermia as it has been in the mid thirties f today without much wind. The conditions that are comfortable for us can lead to overheating for the dogs. In this warm weather, we may see more teams than usual trying to push through the night so they can rest their dogs during the warmer weather during the day. This may be especially true tonight since there is a mountain pass coming up the trail.


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