If you read my last post about being laid low for a couple of months, I am sure you understand how badly I have been needing to get out for a good, long ski.

My first bright idea was that I would do the Susitna 100. Not race it, just ski easy, enjoy the hospitality at the checkpoints, and treat it like a tour. A nice weekend vacation. But when I went to sign up, I realized that the entry fee was $350! Holy crap! That’s an expensive ski tour. Unless they are serving lobster and caviar at Flathorn, no thanks.

So I decided I would watch the race instead, and get in some skiing and camping along the way. I recruited my friend Bill and we headed to Point MacKenzie early Saturday morning.

We started at 9:00 AM, same time as the racers, but we gave ourselves a two mile head-start by parking at the snowmobile lot up the road from the race start. We were able to ski the course, and watch the lead racers go by us along the way. We hung pretty close to the leaders until we got to Flathorn Lake, then stopped for a bite to eat. Our goal was to make it to Luce’s Lodge on the Yentna River (about 40 miles into the race) for a burger, then decide where to camp.

I felt surprisingly good while skiing. Sure, we were just cruising and I was pretty tired by the time I got to Luce’s at 3:00 PM. But I was psyched to see that we were only 30 minutes behind the race leaders at that point.

Bill and I hung out at Luce’s for a couple of hours, enjoying delicious burgers and chatting with many of the racers. Around 5:00 PM we packed up and decided to head back down the Yentna for an hour or so before camping. That would give us a shorter ski back to the car on Sunday.

As we crawled into our sleeping bags at 7:30 PM, Chet Fehrmann, the race leader, skied by in the darkness. We cheered for him, and then cheered for bikers Pete Basinger and Lance Andre when they went by five minutes later. The cool thing about this year’s race was that the conditions were good for both skiers and bikers, making for an even and exciting race. I have a feeling Pete was just using this race for training for the Iditarod Trail Invitational, but it was exciting anyway.

Most of the other racers passed us by during the twelve wonderful hours that we slept. We relished the luxury of sleep that the racers did not have. By 9:00 AM we were packed up and back on the Yentna. A slight tailwind made the return trip a little easier. We passed a few runners, bikers and skiers on our way to the finish. At the finish we learned that Chet held off the bikers to win the race for the third year in a row. Congratulations Chet!

It was a great weekend. Beautiful weather, great ski conditions, and lots of fun hanging out with other people who enjoy recreating in semi-remote Alaska. Oh, how I’ve missed this.