Waking up to Day 3 of the race, we see that Jeff stayed in Rohn until early this morning before he and the team hit the trail to Nikolai. This section of trail includes the Dalzell Gorge (aka “The Gorge”) which can be pretty notorious. Trail reports from teams that arrived into Nikolai earlier this morning say that while the base is nice and solid, there are miles of moguls left from snowmachines that have been traveling the trail – making for a constant pounding as the sled goes over bump after bump.
Jeff is pretty seasoned on this section, and even shot some GoPro footage during his run through here back in 2014 when there was hardly any snow. Here’s the video from 2014… hold on tight!
So far the race has been pretty warm and mild weather wise, but reports are showing storms moving in, and there are already winter storm warning in effect for the western side of the state. Once the teams cross the Alaska Range, they will be heading into the interior where temperatures drop and the winds become stronger.
Nikolai is only 263 miles into the race… so stay tuned Race Fans! We’ll let you know when Jeff and team make it in to Nikolai!