The IditaTour: Part one.

[MikeC]

Late last winter I found myself in Alaska with a bike and a plan.  Again.

I went there with an ambitious objective: To ride the Iditarod Trail from Knik to Nome without outside support. 

Why? 

Well--why the hell not?!

Actually, there are many reasons why--you can read more about them here.

Early in the trip I started a video diary, basically turning the camera on myself and letting fly with whatever came to mind.  It was a spur of the moment creative effort that morphed into a means for keeping myself together through the difficulties that came my way, day after day.  Looking back now, it was a stroke of brilliance: Combining the immediacy of spoken word with the timelessness of stills tells a much, much more complete story than I (or anyone) could recreate from 9 months and three thousand miles away.  This 'retelling' is much more honest.  Really.

Below is the first installment in a 3-part series.  Part one covers the first 8 days from Knik to ~McGrath.

Please keep in mind that my energies throughout the tour were focused on efficient forward progress--the camera had to remain an afterthought, which limited my creativity considerably.  I started with a very, very limited amount of food, fuel, and camera batteries, and each time I stopped for a pic or vid I was 'burning daylight'.  I didn't have enough battery power to review shots much less get any 'do overs', so the clips were off the cuff and then I'd be back on the bike seconds later, working to generate some heat and unthaw frozen-from-handling-the-camera fingers.  Run and shoot, shoot and run. 

I carried a glorified P&S camera.  No tripod, no remote, nothing but a peashooter and a fistful of batteries.  Given where I was and what I was doing, this camera's specs (HD vid, big zoom, flip screen, and AA batts) made it the easy (only?) choice--I didn't see another option that combined those 'big four' all together.  All in all, it worked out pretty well.

Lastly, there were several times when it was simply not possible to shoot due to circumstance.  Most often this means it was too cold, or windy, or snowy to bring the camera out, but there were several occasions when I was suffering too badly to be able to manage it.  Thus, while the clips shown are somewhat revealing, some of the most precious moments were never recorded.  And that's as it should be: Memories can grow more powerful through the years without evidence to support or deny!

IditaTour: Part one.

Part two coming up in a few weeks.  'Til then, enjoy this'n a few times.

Cheers,

MC

[Jilleo]

Brilliant. My favorite part was the tribute to Mike and Ike candies, with tribute to real silence a close second. Beautiful and haunting. Thanks so much for creating this. Can't wait for the next installment.

[ActionJackson]

Been waiting a long time for this to be posted up since your blog post in March 2010 after you finished with your 92lb. bicycle in Nome.



Awesome!

[nick]

That was impressive! Well for me at least... I hate cold!

[wdlandparker]

Videos like these are the one's that make me want a snowbike...

[Hubcap29erMan]

Excellent.  Thanks for sharing.

[Rocketee]

That was incredible!

[6thElement]

Great to see such a recap after reading about the original adventure when you did it. Always makes me appreciate where my wheel funds were spent

[MikeC]

Another seven days of travel encapsulated in the montage below--from just before Takotna to just past Kaltag. 

I tried (when editing the video) to give some idea of morning, day, and night, but the reality (when shooting the clips) was that all effort was devoted to forward progress, and I just couldn't focus tightly enough on the vid.  Thus, the bulk of the shots are daytime when it was warmer and more doable.  Another way to look at it is that (in the video) things all blur together into one endless day--and that's *very* accurate to how it was out there.  Even thinking back I have a hard time calling up where certain campsites were, or which memorable events happened on which days.  One big blur.

The entirety of this segment was shot below zero--the high temp in this 7 day stretch was about -5, with 4 nights of roughly minus 55.  Yes, those were difficult nights.  Average daytime temps were closer to minus 20, which turned out to be nicer than you'd guess because the sun was shining and there was no wind.

Enough details--much more important sensory data to be gathered right here:

IditaTour: Part two.

Working on part three now.

Cheers,

MC

[mattinaustin]

Just wow!  Not only was that an amazing adventure to read about and watch, the images and video editing are completely pro.

Eagerly awaiting #3...

[MikeC]

The last ~7 days of my 2010 self-supported Iditarod trip.

I feel a need to reiterate: My energies were largely devoted to forward motion, leaving the camera a distant afterthought.  Especially, and oh so critically, on this leg of the trip where my daily caloric deficit caught up to and passed me by, asleep trailside.

I did the best I could rendering these stills and clips into a story.  And it is important to dwell on the fact that it is "a" story, but far from the complete story.  I have no idea how to objectively film myself falling to pieces over and over the way I did on the way up to Shaktoolik and then Koyuk.  I wish someone had--it would have been hilarious, right up until it became too pathetic to watch.  Increasing calories (by eating 'ahead' into my rations) made all the difference--bringing me back from the brink and into a coherent, forward moving human in just a few hours.  Had I been a day later getting to where I was, that wouldn't have been an option, and my predicament would have gotten interestinger and interestinger.

<iframe src="

http://player.vimeo.com/video/19022689?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ff9933

Completing the trip that I did, in the style that I chose, is probably the most rewarding thing I've yet done.  The difficulties went beyond the mental and physical relatively early on, and took me to lows and highs that I didn't expect and could never have prepared for.

That said, I'd encourage anyone considering duplicating this trip to think twice, thrice if necessary.  It's about the worst way to experience The Trail and bush Alaska.  At least from my perspective.

It is almost unbelievable the amount of time that goes into putting a video like this together.  Darn near a full-time job.  Hope that it provides entertainment, inspiration, and maybe even a bit of education to someone, somewhere.

Cheers,

MC

[6thElement]

Used often and not always worthy, but this is certainly deserving of the superlative.

Epic.

I feel a need to reiterate: My energies were largely devoted to forward motion, leaving the camera a distant afterthought.  Especially, and oh so critically, on this leg of the trip where my daily caloric deficit caught up to and passed me by, asleep trailside.

Your pieces are always superbly shot, edited and produced. Particularly in this instance while undergoing such hardship.

[joeydurango]

Mike, that was wonderful.  Thanks for taking the time to create and post all three.

I once saw you speak at a bike shop in Indianapolis, a couple hours from my Midwestern home town.  At the time I was a (slow) amateur XC racer who thought any ride over three hours was long.  Since then a lot has happened - I've been in Colorado for years, lengthened my "long ride" definition by quite a bit, and I'm working towards the 2011 CTR.

Thanks for being one inspiration among many!  You helped open up my definition of what is possible.

[wookieone]

Damn, just watched episode 1, just amazing, Mike, just amazing...Jefe