Another Year Older

 

Post by Corrine

“Get up NOW!”

I woke out of a deep sleep when Nikki yelled from the open cabin door.  Erica and I immediately jumped out of our warm sleeping bags, tossed on our jackets, and followed Nikki outside. We assumed her rude awakening was due to the lights. We had made a pact to wake each other up if the aurora was spectacular.

And! It! Was! 

All aurora photos are from Erica and Nikki as their phones took better night photos than my older phone

The sky all around Crowberry Cabin was lit up with auroras. The display kept going and going. We kept ducking back inside to warm up only to quickly head back out so as not to miss any of the show. We stayed outside for close to an hour watching in awe while trying to get photos to capture the auroral display. What a perfect end to my birthday!

Another Birthday

Another March, another year older. I don’t think that much about birthdays or generally worry about getting older or slower (although I am). Mostly I find them a good excuse to plan something fun. When I looked at the calendar, I realized my birthday was the day before the White Mountains 100, a multisport 100-mile race that makes a loop around the White Mountains just north of Fairbanks. Although my days of racing it are over (I skied it twice and biked it once), I still love this race. Two years ago, I rode the course backwards with Eric and two friends, over several days.  We took pictures of all the racers as they went by us. This year I thought I could just plan an overnight but still get photos of all the racers. That would be a fun way to spend a birthday. I checked online and Crowberry Cabin (25 miles into the race) was available the night before the race started. Perfect. 

Crowberry Cabin

Eric wasn’t interested in coming. And even I wasn’t sure if I would have the energy to do another overnight trip since I had another multi-day cabin trip planned earlier in the week. But, heck, I am training for a month-long bike race this summer and doing back-to-back trips would be good training. So, I booked the cabin and hoped for good weather. I decided to ask a couple of women bike friends if they wanted to join me. I told them I would be slow, but they said they didn’t care. Husbands were invited, too, but none could come, which was okay. It would be fun to have a girl’s only weekend.

Erica and Nikki join me for a girl's weekend

My Birthday Could Not Have Been Better

As my birthday got closer, Mother Nature gave me the perfect birthday present with phenomenal conditions. Sunny with highs in the lower 30s and minimal wind. I couldn’t have wished for a better forecast. In fact, most of March had had amazing weather. And I knew the trails were quite good from my previous trip, so it was looking like a great birthday weekend.

Erica, Nikki, and I met up at the trailhead Saturday morning around 11 AM. Erica and Nikki immediately surged ahead on the first mile-long uphill. 

“Told you I would be slow,” I muttered to myself as they disappeared up the trail. Oh well, they are both quite a bit younger than me and I am another year older. It was too nice of a day to be grumpy. They could either wait or just go ahead and meet me at the cabin. I was fine with either. 

Erica and Nikki wait for me before we start the Moose Connector 

We decided to take the long way to Crowberry Cabin by heading down the Wickersham Creek Trail and then taking the Moose Connector over to Trail Creek Trail, adding about 4 miles to our day for a total of 29 miles. Erica had never been on the connector trail, and it was in the best shape I have ever seen it. No overflow, no wind drifts, good riding the whole way. 

Great biking on the Moose Connector Trail

Erica and Nikki waited for me at the Moose Creek Cabin, where the trail got a lot softer due to warmer afternoon temperatures and a large group of snowmachiners going by. Once again, I was left in the dust as we pedaled the last nine miles to the cabin. I was slow but steady and it was such a beautiful day, I didn’t care.

The trail was a little softer after Moose Creek Cabin but the views were outstanding

Once at the cabin, we were happy to see there was plenty of firewood but were dismayed to find no pots for melting water. There are always a few pots around the cabins. Somebody must have taken them. Luckily, Erica had included a larger collapsible pot that we could use, as we had otherwise just brought small 1-liter pots with us. It would take a long time to melt enough snow with those.

While Erica melted snow, Nikki and I got more firewood to replace what we would use. It was so nice to be out in the sun in just our long john shirts sawing dead tree trunks. Soon all the chores were done, and we were ready to make our freeze-dried dinners. 

Eating dinner at the cabin

Then Erica pulled out a large plastic container holding a huge piece of cake to celebrate my birthday. She carried it the whole way on her bike, and it didn’t even get smushed! She and Nikki offered to sing “Happy Birthday.” But they both said they couldn’t sing, so I didn’t push for it! The piece of cake was large enough for all three of us to share. It was an unexpected birthday surprise and made my day feel even more special than it had been. This was my second surprise cake this month! On our recent trip on the Denali Highway, Nikki and another friend Erica ordered one from Tangle Lakes Lodge for my retirement. I could get used to having cake on all winter trips!

Yum!  Birthday cake.  I can't believe that Erica carried in on her bike all day.

As the sun was setting, we went for a short walk back up the trail. It was a beautiful evening. Crowberry Cabin is in a stunning location with expansive views of the mountains. Watching the sun set was another high point of my day. 

Watching the sunset

We were tired and so were snug in our sleeping bags with lights out by 9 PM. Luckily, Nikki had drunk a lot of tea that evening and had to go pee a couple of hours later. She walked outside and looked up thinking the stars were quite nice. But then she turned toward the outhouse and saw the sky was exploding with auroras. That’s when she threw open the cabin door and yelled at us.

That aurora display was one of the more spectacular light shows that any of us had seen in a long time. And it lasted forever. 

We finally settled back into bed. The aurora were out again when I had to get up at 2 AM to pee and again at 3 AM when Nikki got up. But they weren’t quite as spectacular as earlier in the evening, so we let each other sleep. I was surprised the auroras were so spectacular as the forecast was for low activity with a Kp index of 2. We hoped it would be as good the next night for the WM100 racers who would be out on the course after dark. 

My birthday had been filled with many surprising moments, more than I could have imagined. What a fantastic day!

The White Mountains 100 Race

We weren’t in a big rush the next morning but were up and ready to leave at 9 AM. I had told Nikki and Erica to just go ahead as I planned to take photos of all the racers, which would mean a lot of stopping. The race started at 8 AM so I figured I would start seeing the racers at about 10. And I did. As I started up the last long uphill before Moose Creek Cabin, the lead bikers came bombing downhill. I stopped and quickly took a couple of photos before recognizing one of them, Curtis, as he said hi while whizzing by. 

Curtis and Conner in the lead. Curtis went on to win the race in 8 hours 40 minutes.

When my friend, Ben, came biking towards me a few minutes later, he stopped his bike and started rummaging in his bag. I thought it was a weird place for him to stop - on a steeper downhill - but maybe he needed a snack? Then he handed me a small container of Haagen Daas ice cream. And then a card. And then he pulled out a plastic container with a cupcake. And put a candle in it. And pulled out his lighter to light the candle. Ben is a man of few words, so I had to figure out on my own that this was a birthday celebration! 

Ben stops to make my birthday special while racing!  He went on to finish the race in 14 hours 32 minutes.

I started laughing and told him he needed to get going, this is a race! He shouldn’t be stopping to wish me a happy birthday. Or carrying all this extra weight. He didn’t say anything, just gave me a look and kept trying to light the candle. We finally decided it wasn’t worth lighting (there was a slight breeze that kept blowing it out). I had him take my picture and then I sent him on his way. Just another fun and surprising birthday moment in this amazing weekend. 

A little while later, I decided I needed to put the ice cream in a spot where it wouldn’t melt with the sun beating down, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Twice I emptied my entire pack but still couldn’t find it. Dang, it must have fallen out. I was so disappointed, but I hoped that one of the racers would find the treat and enjoy it. And I still had my cupcake and card!

For the next hour-and-a-half, the racers continued to pass me. I had fun stopping and cheering and taking photographs of each one. They were all in good spirits. It was a gorgeous day, and the trail conditions were excellent for biking, skiing, and running. Plus, it was still early in the race, too. I was happy to see them out there and had no FOMO about not doing the race myself. 

Shalane smashed her own women's ski record by an hour. She finished in 11 hours 43 minutes!

Jamie did the race with his son, Liam.  Liam at age 12 is the youngest racer ever to finish!

Beat having fun on the trail! He finished on foot in 30 hours 28 minutes.

Another Year Older and Still Having Fun

After passing the last racer, I continued to bike to the trailhead passing lots of other people out biking, skiing, hiking, and mushing, all enjoying the wonderful spring weather. I may be getting older -- though not quite over the hill -- and I may be getting slower, and maybe I can’t quite keep up with some of my younger friends anymore, but I can still have a lot of fun. This weekend definitely proved that!

Thanks to Erica and Nikki for sharing my birthday weekend with me!