2/16/2011
As we woke up this morning, Jen felt like her fever broke during the night. She’s still weak, but feeling a bit better.
We go down to the roadhouse to find the temperatures still colder than 40 below, and are thinking that we very well may be here another night. We have breakfast, and I decide to go up to the PUC and take a bird bath while it’s empty, since everyone else has packed their gear and brought it down, just in case. We all figure it will be 11 am or so before we know what the pilots have decided to do.
I go up the hill and start a fire and melt some snow in a pot on the woodstove. I wash up to the point I can stand myself again, and pack everything but what I’m wearing today. It’s about 10:30 am now, so I damper the stove down so the fire will go out quickly, bundle up, put my bags on the little plastic sled that I borrowed, and drag it all back down to the roadhouse.
To my astonishment, I arrive to a flurry of activity. “The planes are about an hour out!” Holy crap, they went for it!
Brad had called up his friend Andy Greenblatt, who my daughter and I have both flown with before on sheep surveys, and they were both enroute to pick up the first load of people and gear. We had little time to get everything packed and put away and cleaned up before they got there.
Pretty much everything that was in the cabin had to be taken out of the cabin, but with several of us working on it, we got it done quickly. (It is especially important to make sure there is no food left there, because in the spring it will attract bears from miles away, and they will do quite a bit of damage to a place breaking in and helping themselves. It has happened before at nearby Coal Creek Camp.)
Andy arrives in the first plane and takes Jen and Michael back to Fairbanks. Once they get there they have a two and a half hour drive to Denali. Shortly after that, Brad shows up to take Pat and Ed back to Eagle. Pat is reluctant to go before everyone else has cleared out, but she trusts Paul to close up shop and make sure the last of us get off safely, as he’s done this many times before. She hops on the sled behind a snowmachine and goes to meet the plane.
So now it’s just Paul, Chris, Eva and myself. We have a couple hours to wait while the planes travel to their respective destinations and turn around to come back for us. The guys have to get the snowmachines back up to Coal Creek, about 4 miles away. Chris is now showing signs of being the next victim of the stomach bug. I have a feeling it will go through all of us before it’s done.
When Pat radios in that the planes are on their way back, Paul and Chris leave Eva and I at the cabin with the radio, as they will be leaving from the other airstrip. We discuss the fact that it’s a bit of an eerie feeling waiting there those last few minutes alone. Although we know we’ll be on our way home within the hour, we also know that anything can happen, and if by some freak chance the other plane left and something happened with ours, we would be spending the night out here alone because there isn’t enough daylight left at this point for another round trip. But luckily, everything went smoothly and as planned. We went down to link up with Andy, and after greetings and meetings, were winging our way back home. On the flight back we talk about family, pets, soaking in Chena Hot Springs, the weather, and whether or not Eva will decide to stay in Fairbanks tonight or drive as far as Tok and stop there. She has a long haul back to Whitehorse, and they are calling for snow during the night. At least it will finally warm up a bit!
I’m thinking to myself about being able to see Matt’s smiling face again, and slip into a hot bathtub with a glass of wine. Then my thoughts turn to the miles and miles still ahead for the mushers and their dogs remaining out on the trail. I wish them all a safe trip, and to be able to finish the race successfully. I feel privileged to have met them, gotten to know them, and been a small part of their experience this year. Some of them will go on to race in the Iditarod in a month or so. For some, this may have been their last hoorah. And for the rest, they have just cut their teeth on this race. They will reflect on lessons learned, and begin the hard work it will take to prepare for the next long distance battle.
As for me, I just want to thaw out, and then start going through my footage and the hundreds of pictures I snapped. A million words are going through my head that I need to get down on virtual paper. I have to get something written up for the Park Service, and oh my goodness, get caught up with my blog!
Update: here is a scanned copy of an essay that Eva wrote that was published in "Up Here" magazine this past October.
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