SKWENTA -- As fat-tire cyclist Jeff Oatley told his story at 4 a.m. in the Skwentna Roadhouse, it was a little hard to tell if the tale was real or a hallucination. He had been back along the Iditarod Trail on the frozen Yentna River pedaling steadily north in the dark and heavily falling snow when he caught up to a snowmachine pulling a huge sled, he said. This was odd in and of itself. Snowmachines normally travel a lot faster than even the fastest cyclists.

Oatley said it didn't take but a blink in time to figure out why this one was traveling so slow. Almost as quick as Oatley asked the inevitable question of travelers on the frozen winter trails of Alaska -- "Hi, how you doing?'' -- Oatley recognized the man was seriously drunk. Despite that, or maybe because of that, the snowmachiner wanted to chat. In fact, Oatley said, he putt-putted ahead and circled back a couple times just to be able to talk some more.

Oatley was glad the man was driving slow. He seemed, Oatley said, to be looking for someone with whom to party. The man volunteered that his whole sled was full of booze. Oatley made friendly, but said he had a bike race to run.

Later, Oatley, a survivor of Fairbanks winters of 40 to 50 degrees below zero, gave thanks the weather following the Iditarod Trail Invitational race up the river this year is warm. He did not like the man's odds in hostile weather.

"A mechanical (breakdown),'' Oatley said, "and it could be bad.''

That is too often the case in the north. Drunks have a bad habit of freezing to death on the winter trails of the 49th state. Most winters you can read about them in the dispatches of the Alaska State Troopers. The telltale words after a search ends at a body are these: "Alcohol is believed to be a factor.''

 

Oatley said the last he saw of the snowmachiner the man was circling and cruising close to the banks of the frozen river, apparently looking for the turnoff to party central. Oatley didn't stay to investigate. The early leader in this slightly crazy, 350-mile bike and foot race from Knik on the shores of Cook Inlet up and over the Alaska Range to McGrath in the Interior, Oatley kept pedaling.

 

The 40-year-old defending champ in the race, he knew he was being hunted by younger, leaner, hungrier racers. Among them as the race turned onto the Skwentna River and headed toward the Shell Hills was 30-year-old Peter Basinger from Anchorage, a three-time winner and the race record holder. In 2007 Basinger covered the 350 miles to McGrath in 3 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes. That's about the time it takes for a team of huskies to cover the distance in next week's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The huskies are professional canine athletes. Basinger is a university graduate student studying for his teaching degree while working part-time as a bike mechanic at Speedway Cycles in Spenard and part time as "manny," the male version of a nanny. The dogs get the benefit of a day built around their training schedules. Basinger pretty much has to work his training in around work and school.