Night 1, Cooper Creek

A few miles shy of the Blue Lake turn, the one we don't want to take this year. 

Nine of us left Dave Cramer's compound, mile 83.5 Tok Cutoff Road, for the start at Devil's Mountain Lodge. Three–Luke, John, and Chunk–took a right up Nabesna Glacier to do the President's Chair glacier route, a straighter line to McCarthy. Chunk, aka Craig, said they each carried about 10 pounds of food, in the form of Taco Bell burritos. "One for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinner."

We on the low route have at least twice as much food. Three people are ahead of Michael and I–Dave Cramer, Forest Wagner, and Rob from Anchorage. Danielle from Anchorage is somewhere camped behind us.

Big headwind today and a few skis through overflow made for frozen bindings and an epic doublepole day as the wind blasted us near the mouth of Cooper Creek. Cramer, who could take his skis off, installed his ice creepers and made good time, crossing paths with a few river otters on the way. We used his advice and used a few containers of lock de-icer to free our boots just before we camped.

Tired on this take-off day, time to shut 'er down, under a million billion stars . . .