ALASKA—Two weeks before Alaska Region Forest Service employee Bobette Rowe took off for the 350-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational, she worried that the event she had trained so hard for might be over before it began.

The weather had been warmer than usual in southcentral Alaska, and dozens of the ice crossings she was expecting to encounter on her journey from Anchorage to McGrath were looking more like open water crossings—not so easy to tackle on a fat tire bike. But after some anxiety on the part of the racers, the weather “improved” to colder temperatures, and the race was on!

A LITTLE HISTORY

Aligned with events tied to the historic Iditarod Trail, the invitational is the world’s longest winter ultra-marathon. Athletes can take part by fat bike, foot or ski as they tackle extreme physical, environmental and mental challenges making their way through the Alaska wilderness.

Those very challenges are what drew Rowe to the race to begin with. Having already tackled a couple of shorter winter bike rides, she considered the Iditarod Trail Invitational as the granddaddy of them all. And the fact that she already lived in Alaska, so close to the starting point, made it a now-or-never kind of event.

MAKING HER OWN HISTORY

Rolling up to the starting line for this race is a little different than your average bike race. While road racers try to streamline their weight, Rowe was packing it on, hauling 75 pounds of gear—enough to survive for several days on her own in the Alaskan winter.

There are six checkpoints along the 350-mile trail, but riders can only send very limited supplies ahead to two of them. Everything else—winter-rated sleeping bag, white gas stove, dry socks, hand warmers, headlights, batteries to keep the GPS and headlights going and, of course, food—was with her on the bike.

Rowe made it to the end in just over five days, despite some sticky situations—specifically at one point trying to cross the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River. There was so much snow melt that water overflowed on top of the river ice making it thigh deep in places and seemed to have its own current. And of course, it wouldn’t be an Alaska story if it didn’t involve a moose blocking the trail for four hours.

IN THE HISTORY BOOKS

So, despite all of that, was it worth it? Absolutely, says Rowe, “To be out there and work so hard to get right into the middle of that just fantastic landscape…that’s part of the drive for me. You get to be in these places that are just magical. I mean Rainy Pass, it's windy, it's cold—but you're looking at these huge mountains on both sides of you and it is as wild as wild gets in Alaska. It's hard to describe but moments like that and you’re just like, this is so worth the sore muscles and the saddle sore.”