Nikolai to McGrath: Helping A Friend Finish the Iditarod Trail Invitational

Post by Eric 

Nikki smelled the finish. 

When I saw the plowed part of road into McGrath, I figured we had an easy five miles left on our fatbike ride. I was tired from the previous 42 miles of trail riding, so I was looking forward to an easier cruise. But Nikki kicked it up a gear. 

Strong personal motivation can give you extra strength, stamina, and speed when needed. Well, personal motivation, youth, and training. Nikki had all of those. I had none. I just hung on, hoping that the next corner would take us to the McGrath Outpost, our finish.

See that little dot up ahead on the road? That's Nikki.

Aborted Race

In mid-March I biked with Nikki Potter from Nikolai to McGrath to help her with some closure. Nikki had entered the Iditarod Trail Invitational 350, which started on February 25. The ITI 350 is human-powered race that follows the Iditarod Trail from Knik Lake, near Wasilla, to McGrath. (The ITI 1000 follows the trail all the way to Nome.) 

Nikki’s race started well, even though conditions were often tough with winds, cold temps, and soft trails. Competitors spent a lot of time pushing their bikes. Despite all that, Nikki was among the top three women and left the Rohn checkpoint, nearly 200 miles into the race, in second place. 

Nikki during a fun time of the ITI.

A not-so-fun portion of the ITI trail. Photo by Nikki.

But as she neared Nikolai, 260 miles into the race, she started having problems and was soon pushing her bike on rideable trail. Below are some texts her husband, Mike Potter, sent to my wife, Corrine Leistikow, a physician and friend of Nikki.

6:56 PM: She just texted me that she is coughing up blood. That sounds bad to me.

7:23 PM: She said it’s coming from her lungs and she is having a little trouble breathing.  She also said she fell a few times today. I asked her if she has an injured rib but she didn’t reply to that.  I would think that she’d mention if she broke a rib though.

9:03 PM: So she’s asking for a ride. Having trouble breathing now. Race is going to try and send someone out to get her with a snogo.

11:00PM: Looks like she has a ride. Going 15 mph now.

Phil Runkle picked up Nikki on a snowmachine and took her to the Nikolai health clinic, where Community Health Aide Natalia Navarro put Nikki on oxygen. Natalia wanted to call an air ambulance flight to fly Nikki to Fairbanks, but Nikki was resistant. She wanted to fly out on a much-less-expensive commercial flight the next day. Corrine texted Nikki she should take the air ambulance flight. Nikki texted that while she had been doing “really bad” before, she was doing better. 

“I feel like I can fly out tomorrow. I’m not going to die for F sake. Have not coughed up more blood. But they saw it all over my shoes.”

Corrine told Nikki that without knowing what caused her to cough up blood, things could suddenly get much more serious if she wasn’t checked and treated ASAP. Nikki finally relented and was medevacked to Fairbanks. At Fairbanks Memorial Hospital she was hooked up to some monitors, diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia – pneumonia in both of lungs – and given antibiotics. Finally, she was released to go home with Mike.

Nikki at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Photo by Mike Potter.

The next day Corrine texted to see how Nikki was doing. Nikki's response: 

“Good morning. Not doing so hot today. My right eye is so puffy I can barely see out of it.  I can’t stop coughing (although I took cough meds with dextromethorphan). I look like shit! LOL I’m back in bed. I woke up last night soaked with sweat.”

In retrospect, it seems obvious that Nikki needed to drop from the race and get to Fairbanks as quickly as possible. But Nikki was in race mode and she’s stubborn by nature. It took her a while to agree to the advice, but she finally did, and everyone – especially Mike – was happy for that. 

Unfinished Business

That was the first time Nikki had ever scratched from a race. It gnawed at her. But she knew she wasn’t going to sign up to do it again. She gets too competitive and doesn’t enjoy the stress. And during the ITI she didn’t really get to take in the surroundings because she was riding at night or the weather was crappy. Still, she needed closure. She wanted to complete the ride. She would still be an official scratch, but personally it would be a finish. 

Enjoying the scenery along the ITI! 

Video courtesy of Nikki.

Nikki – being Nikki – wouldn’t do something like wait a year to complete the ride. And at this time of year, winter race routes soon start falling apart. She needed to do it soon. She picked a date that worked with her schedule – Friday, March 15 – a little over two weeks after her evacuation. The whole trip would require three days, including flying into Nikolai and back from McGrath. 

Mike, understandably, was not happy with the idea of her doing the ride at all, much less by herself. She was recovering quickly, but she had been in bad shape during and just after the ordeal. Still, she felt strong and wanted to get it done. She wanted a trip partner and knew it would help ease Mike’s concerns, but that person would have to be someone she knew who had the time, desire, extra funds, and biking ability to accompany her. And that person had to commit ASAP. Very, very few people met all those criteria. Corrine would have been up for it, but she had to work on Thursday, the day Nikki needed to fly to Nikolai. That’s where I come in. Not exactly a knight in shining armor, but – you know – sort of, maybe?

Corrine and I had planned on a fatbiking cabin trip into the White Mountains National Recreation Area that weekend, but on Tuesday Corrine pitched the idea of me going with Nikki. Corrine insisted that she didn’t mind me bailing on our trip. We both wanted to help Nikki with this personal quest. And I thought it sounded like a fun adventure. I agreed to go. Mike still wasn’t happy, but he felt better. And Nikki said she would appreciate the company. 

Corrine and I on a White Mountains NRA cabin trip in 2023.

Touring Nikolai 

After a flurry of preparations – most of it done by Nikki – we booked a flight with Wright Air Service to Nikolai on the morning of Thursday, March 14. It was a little nerve-wracking, since Wright Air can’t guarantee getting two people and two fatbikes onto one of their small commercial planes. But it worked out and soon we were flying into Nikolai. 

We made it on the flight with our bikes!

Nikki had arranged for us to stay at the Top of the Kuskokwim School (the Nikolai public school), where – much to our surprise – they had a bunkbed for us to use. We had planned to sleep on the gym floor. We also got to use their kitchen and keep our bikes in a storage room. Accommodations were pretty darn nice for a small fee, which Nikki paid.

Since we arrived in the morning, we had a bit of time in Nikolai, which is quite small, less than 100 people. We biked the first part of the trail to make sure we knew how to get out of town in the morning. Then we were on village time. We hung out a bit, kept somewhat busy on our phones (using the school’s wi-fi connection), walked around town, and Nikki made a dinner of pasta, chicken, green beans, and alfredo sauce from canned ingredients she brought along. 

We visited the clinic in Nikolai where Nikki had been taken during the race.
Unfortunately, Natalia was in Anchorage when we were there.

Fancy digs at Top of the Kuskokwim School!

On the Trail

We took off the next morning in chilly but not too cold temperatures. Probably about -5F or so. The sun had risen a little earlier. It was light, and soon we had direct sunlight, which slowly warmed things. 

On our way!

Our bikes were a bit loaded. This wasn’t a full bikepacking trip, but we had a bit of gear, such as a change of clothes for hanging out in the towns, water and snacks for the trail, and gear in case we needed to emergency bivvy on the trail. The trail was in great shape, with lots of snowmachine tracks, and we made good time. I had to work to keep up to Nikki at first. I am normally a slow starter, and my training this year had been for a 26-mile run, not a 300-mile bike. (The ITI 350 is closer to 300 miles.) And Nikki is more than 20 years younger than me. But once I got warmed up and we got into a rhythm, we traded lead back and forth. It was hard work for me, but doable. 

While Nikki had strong personal reasons for doing this trail, I was simply curious. I had spent time at Nikolai and McGrath in 1989 while covering the Iditarod Sled Dog Race for the Frontiersman newspaper in Wasilla, but back then I was hyper-focused on the race. I am curious about the whole ITI race route, though I have no desire to do it. Now I was going to get to see one part of it as well as more of Nikolai and McGrath.

The Nikolai-McGrath section of trail is interesting, for about 10 miles or so. That’s when you start to realize it’s going to be pretty much the same all the way to McGrath. That area is flat wetlands with shrubby black spruce and a few lakes. The mountains are a long way off. This is the kind of country where you can find your inner Zen. Or not. It was good to have the distraction of a riding partner. We stopped and chatted occasionally, trading the lead or having a snack. 

A typical section of trail. You can barely see the Alaska Range in the background.

We did have some excitement. A short way out of Nikolai we noticed footprints leading from McGrath toward Nikolai. We kept seeing them, and we pondered why someone was walking. (They weren’t pulling a sled.)  Then, 14 miles out from Nikolai on a lake, the tracks diverged from the main trail. We stopped. We could see they had come from a side trail that had split off from the main trail at the beginning of the lake. The two trails never met up again and we saw no more footprints. We rode on still pondering. A broken snowmachine was the likely reason, but without any other evidence we had no clue.

The mystery footprints that kept us entertained for a while.

Our other main “excitement” was negotiating some softer sections of trail in windblown areas. Those sections were rideable, but often just barely. We worked hard to keep going and focused on the tree line where we knew the trail would get better. We were both grateful to be doing that on fresh legs and good conditions rather than in windy, snowy conditions after more than 260 miles. That’s what Nikki would have had to face if she had continued. Considering her health at the time, it’s fortunate that Nikolai has an airport and a staffed health clinic. 

A section of churn.

Overland Trail and an Annoying Road

About halfway into the ride, the main trail split into the overland and river trails, both leading into McGrath. We chose the overland trail, which we figured would be slightly safer and a bit more interesting. And it was interesting…eventually. First there was a lot more lakes and wide-open areas, with some areas a bit more protected. We stopped at one and had lunch. (Leftover pasta from the night before. Yum! We also munched on apple fritters that Nikki bought for the trip. Yum! Yum!)

Nikki eating frozen pasta. (Should have packed it next to her body!)

Then more riding with occasional churning, more riding with occasional churning, more riding with…a wall! OK, not really a wall, but the trail suddenly went straight up onto a raised shelf of land. Probably an ancient riverbank. We laughed at the absurdity of it. That’s what happens when you spend hours and hours on flat, monotonous terrain. You see a hill and you laugh, thinking it’s absurd. Weird.

The hill had two parts, this is the second smaller part. Not very impressive,
but even that was a big change from earlier. Photo by Nikki.

We pushed up the hill and were suddenly into a mixed forest. The trail was tighter, winding, and undulating, though perfectly bikeable. The change was a big relief. 

Yay! Fun trail!

It didn’t last long. 

After a couple of miles, we climbed a short hill into an open area and realized we were at the end of a 14-mile road that comes from McGrath to a rock quarry. We smiled, having anticipated this. We were glad for the change and hoped the road would be in good shape. The road wasn’t plowed there, but the good snowmachine trail continued down it with no more wide-open areas with soft trail. Yay! 

Instead, we had looooong straight stretches. We would climb a hill, wondering what was just ahead, only to crest the hill and see another loooong straight stretch. Ugh! That got old in a hurry. 

Another loooong straight stretch. Oh joy.

But eventually we hit the plowed part of the road. Yay! Well, yay for me…until Nikki kicked it up a notch. I was darned tired by then. I didn’t have energy for yay. Instead, I just focused on keeping up the pace and acting like I was unfazed. (A knight in shining armor CANNOT let the damsel know she is kicking his butt!)

As we neared town we needed to negotiate a couple of turns, but Nikki had the route on a couple of different electronic devices. And we finally pulled up to the McGrath Outpost, which served as this year’s ITI checkpoint. The ride had taken us just under 8 hours. 

Nikki at the finish!

McGrath Welcome

Nikki had been satellite texting with the outpost owner, Lindsay Sturm, so Lindsay knew we were close. But Nikki and I were both surprised when Lindsay and her husband, Brad, and several of their seven kids came out to greet us and congratulate Nikki. It was quite a little celebration. Nikki’s not super emotional, so there were no tears, but she did have a big grin and you could tell she was relieved to be done. 

The Sturm family were super welcoming. They have hosted the ITI for a few years and were really interested in people’s stories. We chatted with them quite a bit before Lindsay showed us to our rooms. No restaurant was open in McGrath while we were there, but the general store was still open. We were going to walk the mile or so to the store to get some frozen pizza and fries, but Brad said they were driving to the store so they gave us a ride. 

We had dinner, hung out a bit, and finally crashed for the night. We had a lazy morning the next day before flying back to Fairbanks with Wright Air. 

Touring McGrath before our flight out.

Touring Instead of Racing

Nikki made it clear several times that she is not going to attempt the race again. But she would like to tour other parts of the Iditarod Trail. She wants to be able to see some interesting country at a relaxed pace with friends who also enjoy active touring. On our trip she was already thinking about sections she could tour and who might want to come along. 

I might be one of those people, assuming Nikki hasn’t been training super hard and doesn’t have a finish line she can smell. She went out for a hilly bike ride with Corrine and another friend the day after we got back. What an animal! I stayed at home and took another rest day. I’m still tired! 

Tired, but happy I did the trip. I enjoyed seeing new country and am pleased I got to help a friend complete an important journey. 

This is actually on the flight to Nikolai, but it captures our respective feelings at the end of the trip.