Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

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Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby libby the lab » Mon Mar 07, 2022 8:45 am

This is a tough run with some short stretches of extraordinarily difficult trail.

After leaving Finger Lake, the trail climbs steeply over a ridge to Red Lake, runs along it for a mile or two, swings up a ravine, and then follows a series of climbing wooded shelves interspersed with open swamps. About ten miles from Finger Lake, the trail drops down a series of wooded benches toward Happy River, then onto the river itself via the dreaded Happy River steps. Then it’s down the river to its mouth, up the Skwentna River for a few hundred yards, and back up a steep ravine to the plateau on the south side of the Happy. The trail will cross Shirley Lake, then Long Lake (11 miles from Rainy Pass Lodge) and then run along the steeply sloping mountainside above the south side of the Happy River valley to the checkpoint. There are two nasty stretches of sidehill trail in the last eight miles.


Rainy Pass to Rohn wrote:
It has some very tough trail, including the notorious Dalzell Gorge.
The trail runs in the open on the tundra of Ptarmigan Pass from Rainy Pass Lodge to the mouth of Pass Creek, which it then follows northwest up to the summit of Rainy Pass itself. Then there are several miles of sometimes steep downhills and often tight, twisting trail through scrub willow southwest along Pass Fork to Dalzell Creek. The trail then drops into the infamous Dalzell Gorge for a few miles and finally onto the Tatina River for the last five miles to Rohn.


Rohn to Nikolai wrote:
This run breaks into three natural sections: 20 miles along the south side of the South Fork of the Kuskokwim from Rohn to Farewell Lakes and up onto the Farewell Burn, 35 miles across the Burn itself to Sullivan Creek, and then 20 miles north from Sullivan Creek past Salmon River to Nikolai.
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Re: Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby libby the lab » Mon Mar 07, 2022 8:47 am

Plenty of snow in the steps! Hope there are some interviews as they arrive in Rainy to hear how they really are.
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Re: Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby elsietee » Tue Mar 08, 2022 8:00 am

Brent Sass' tracker appears to have died just before Rohn - which freaked me out a bit. When I went to bed, he was resting between the bottom of the gorge and Rohn... when I woke up, everyone had blown by and he'd only moved a few miles to where Aliy fell and whacked her head that time. Relieved to see he's actually through Rohn, and I'm guessing is closer to where the Seavey's currently are (instead of stuck in a snow bank on the way to Rohn).
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Re: Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby tanglefoot » Tue Mar 08, 2022 8:05 am

Sounds like the steps were quite kind this year. Miss Ally cam from the steps though
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Re: Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby Moose » Tue Mar 08, 2022 8:58 am

Is there video somewhere from the Steps?
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Re: Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby elsietee » Tue Mar 08, 2022 1:59 pm

Moose wrote:Is there video somewhere from the Steps?


Not that I've seen. It always seems to take longer to get that footage - maybe because they have to get it from that location to a checkpoint, then edit it down into digestible bits.
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Re: Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby flowerpower » Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:22 pm

Bruce mentioned that the camera crew were disappointed because there was so much snow this year that the steps weren't causing any issues. They like to set up there to catch any spectacular crashes. Since it was going so well, they packed up and left. Right after they left, Diehl had a pretty good wipe out.
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Re: Finger Lake to Rainy Pass to Rohn

Postby Breeze » Tue Mar 08, 2022 9:19 pm

I think the seasonable snow conditions are a big part of the safe passage, so far. That's probably saying too much and bringing down the wrath of Trail Trolls.
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