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Norwil

Pat Calls from Nikolai
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We've exited the black hole. I'm sitting in the community center at Nikolai native village. Jon Kirschke and myself are kicking back with a couple of cheeseburgers and two orders of fries. It has been two death marches and one death march with a compass in our hand to get to Nikolai. We left Finger Lake and did a 40-mile push non-stop for 17 or 18 hours up to Puntilla Lake. Took a five hour break there, at Puntilla Lake, and then started another death march up and over Rainy Pass.

It was snowing pretty heavily and no visibility to speak of. I lost John's tracks about half way up and ended up just going by a compass heading until I was able to...until daylight came and we hooked up with Pass Creek.

John Stamstad is in front, as usual. Jon Kirschke second and I'm bringing up the rear in 3rd place. It has been an incredibly sunny, beautiful warm day, about 20 degrees. And this road from Rohn across the Farewell Burn and now we're sitting in Nikolai. We've got 50 miles to go and it is the longest 50 miles of this entire race, down the Kuskokwim River which just serpentine all the way into McGrath.

So, there you have it. Death march, compass march, and hell-biking from Rohn Roadhouse down to Farewell Burn and to Nikolai. That's it for now.

—Pat Norwil, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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