This week’s snow had the Sonot Kkaazoot blogger sidelined with snow removal and berm relocation at her house. Living below Birch Hill, the snow was very wet and heavy. On Thursday, although my shoulders and core were quite sore, I skated the blue, relay, white cub and white bear for 12 km with just the piston bully and overtaking skiers for company.

Today I recruited some fellow skiers to help motivate me through the last 8 km that I needed for my virtual 50 km Sonot. I was just missing the incoming portion of the Outhouse Loop and all the Black loops. Since it was zero deg F when we headed out with a 8 mph wind, we decided to do the Outhouse loop first since it gets more sun. However, when we got to the intersection with the Sunnyside Trail, we couldn’t resist getting a view of town and beyond. So we skied Sunnyside enjoying the bright blue skies and glittering snow.

Joanna Fox was so far ahead of Bernardo Hernandez and me on the Sunnyside, I was unable to take any group photos.

We took the relay return and headed for the Black loops so that I could finish my Sonot Kkaazoot grand tour. Once again Joanna was in the lead, however, she hasn’t skied the traditional 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot so she wandered off skiing portions of the N40 repeatedly while Bernardo and I skied leisurely along the Sonot course. Meanwhile, unknown to the three of us, Bill Husby had missed us at the start so he’d been doing loops of the Blacks, too, trying to catch us.

Eventually, we were all reunited near the end of the N40 loop:

With Bill and Joanna together, the pace got more frenzied, so I used the former luge run downhill on the Black Cross as an opportunity to catch up. Bill and Joanna were waiting for us at the bottom. Bill suggested that I make a snow angel in the untouched snow on the Black Funk loop. The result is what I call the “snow flounder on the Black Funk” because snow angels don’t work well with classical skis and poles. However, thanks to 8 years of PT with Denise Jerome, I was able to get up without taking off my skis.

We finished the rest of the Black Loops with Bill doing a little grooming with his skis.(https://sonotkkaazoot.org/2020/03/27/what-a-trail-groomer-does-in-his-spare-time/).

The motley crew finished the black loops (and my virtual 50 Sonot Kkaazoot) just about in time for lunch.

Here’s hoping that your virtual Sonot Kkaazoot is as much fun as my four installments were. Stories and photos are more important than times for the Sonot blog, but Eric Troyer is compiling times on the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks website so here are the first two installments of my virtual 50 km Sonot.

Installments 2 and 1 respectively:

https://sonotkkaazoot.org/2020/03/22/norma-and-susan-add-10-more-km-to-their-virtual-sonot-kkaazoot/

https://sonotkkaazoot.org/2020/03/22/fairbanks-master-swimmers-ski-virtual-50-km-in-snowstorm/

Last two photos by Joanna Fox

To summarize my virtual Sonot Kkaazoot math rounded to 1 significant digit:

Saturday 20 km + Sunday 10 km + Thursday 12 km +Friday 12 km = 50 km

My total elapsed time isn’t as important as the stack of student proposals I need to review and the lit crit reading assignment I need to finish. I will trust whatever Eric Troyer reports.

Please send your virtual Sonot Kkaazoot stories, times, and routes to contact@sonotkkaazoot.org

Don’t worry if you’re too exhausted and seized up on Sunday and can’t submit your report until Monday or Tuesday. Please get it to us by 11:59 pm. ADT on 31 March 2020.

I’ll post your stories and Eric will tally the times and distances.

Warning: Your report may be an April Fool’s joke if we don’t get it by the end of March.

Brandy writes:

This will have to do.  I got home and realized 20 k was 12.42 miles not 12.20.  (No problem –you’re within rounding errors). I was able to ski the 20 k portion of the river early March.  I really appreciated the grooming that day!  Thank you Bob!

Dr. Corrine Leistikow normally takes on ski and bicycle challenges that are hundreds of miles and longer. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a family practice physician, she’s preoccupied with keeping the rest of us well. However, she did a leisurely 20 km virtual Sonot:

She writes:

Half with Barb. Decided to at least do the 20K Sonot. Might try to do 50K on Saturday but will need to see what happens at work. Glad to get out a little early today.

Thank you, Corrine. These doctors are heeding their own advice of getting exercise while maintaining social distancing.

from Raena:

Thanks for keeping up the spirit of the Sonot in this virtual form.  I have these three sections that I skied over the last week at birch and on the river.

I skied the river on 3/17/20, so I don’t know if that counts, but I’m sending it anyway.   I was signed up for the 40K, but if nothing else, I’ve at least got a solid 20K in up at birch.(Sure, it counts–I skied on Tuesday, 17 March, and the trails were fantastic).

I’ve pieced my Sonot Kkaazoot 40K together in three segments (some classic and skate)!

I think the Sonot is one of the best things about Fairbanks. I was able to participate in the 30K last year and was really looking forward to the race in 2020. Thank you to the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks for thinking out of the box and making this race into a virtual experience!

I’m not the faster skier, but I love being on the trails and in the tracks with my fellow Fairbanksians. I love this community so very much and how we band together to make the best of a difficult situation.

Cheers to the Sonot 2020!

I hope many more sign up, ski hard and donate to the trail fund!

Thank you Raena! Now that you’ve skied the 30 and 40 km Sonot Kkaazoot, you’ll be ready for the 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot in 2021.

Lisa writes:

On Saturday I set out to do my 20 km Sonot.  Since the river was unsafe, I decided to deviate from the norm and do a 20 km “race” of the four classic only trails: Classic Bear, North Star, Chinook, and Blackhawk and then keep skiing until I have my distance.  Because temperatures were well in the 30’s I slapped on some Toko Red wax and was on my way. Turns out my vision of swishing through peaceful and beautiful forests didn’t quite go that way for the entire course. 

I started off with Classic Bear, which was in good shape and as I was going along, I noticed ahead a momma moose and her calf were lying down in the middle of the trail.  Both gave me the look of “yeah, what about it”. 

So, I hopped off onto White Bear and made my way to Fort Wainwright (had my ID in my pocket) and did Chinook.  This trail hadn’t been groomed or skied on in a very long time and I found myself breaking trail.  It was rough and I was happy to finish.

I then mistakenly got back on Chinook and skied until deja vu set in and I hopped over to Blackhawk and did the second half.  I then skied down Aurora Run to do North Star and conditions were perfect.  As I got back on Classic Bear for the return, I heard what I thought was evil laughter.  Turns out, as the afternoon warmed, my red wax started picking up snow and my skis turned into platform snowshoes.  So, I had to stop at 10 miles/16 km as I walked into the stadium.  Overall a nice day.  Next Saturday I’ll skate 20 km.

Total time was, er, lets just say I didn’t break any records!

Thanks, Lisa for adding 16 km and 3:16:04 to our virtual Sonot Kkaazoot.

Hopefully your entry contribution to the virtual Sonot Kkaazoot will allow Ken and Bill to groom the North and South classical trails again. I bet you saw the same moose and calf that Norma and I saw on the Sonot Connector. I’m also glad to know that I’m not the only geographically challenged skier.

Elizabeth’s private virtual Sonot route

Elizabeth writes:

Years ago, when I first lived alone after a seeming eternity of
sharing a room with my sister and then apartment sharing with friends
once I left home, I watched the movie “The Thing called Love.”  It
stars, among others, River Phoenix and is essentially a coming-of-age
and love story about a young woman moving to Nashville to try her hand
at song-writing.  For whatever reason, I got this movie confused
with “My Own Private Idaho” which also stars River Phoenix, maybe
because of the BoDeans song of the same name, or maybe because
I was so impressed by River Phoenix’s acting that I watched numerous
movies in which he acted during that time.

Regardless of the title, “My Own Private Idaho” (in truth, “The Thing
called Love”) resonated deeply with me.  Newly single and with seeming
endless freedom, I spent many hours listening to music.  Loud music.
Often late at night.  It was the time of “Car Wheels on a Gravel
Road”, “Hell among the Yearlings”, “Revival”, and “Spyboy.”  I dreamed
of going to Nashville and the Bluebird Cafe, or drinking Mad Dog
margaritas at the Chili Parlor bar in Austin.

Since that time, so emotionally vivid even at this distance, I’ve
secretly reserved the title “My own private ________” for a number of
things that I really wanted to do and that, either because of family
commitments or work responsibilities or something else, I couldn’t do
officially.  I reserve this terminology for things that I feel deeply
about, to cherish and honor my memory of that time being single with
lots of loud music and popcorn for dinner.  This year it’s time for
“My own private Sonot.”

I’ve tried multiple times to get to Birch Hill, both on my own and
with a friend, but with sick colleagues in my building at work and
the reality that I am one of two working parents that have recently
become home schoolers, it is just not going to be possible this year.

Instead, for “My own private Sonot” I am skiing from my house,
literally, on roads until I can make it to the trails in the
Goldstream.  The neighborhood roads have not been plowed,
conveniently, and even better no gravel has been laid down.  The 20 k
has been done in installments of roughly 5k at a time, and I have one
more installment to do.  Hopefully, this evening before the next snow
dump.  The first installment was probably the best, with dog walkers
asking me if I were on rock skis and the adrenalin rush from an
adolescent moose on the air strip adjacent to the trails.

This hasn’t been a good year for me in terms of distance skiing, other
responsibilities had to take priority this winter, and it’s as if a
bit of my soul went missing.  (It’s recoverable.)  There is little I
like better than skiing in the Fairbanks area on fresh corduroy or in
the trees.

Thank you to BBB and others, and to all you who have posted your
“Virtual Sonot” results.  They have cheered me tremendously in this
troubled time and, though I am jealous, the vicarious pleasures your
posts and photos have given and continue to give is invaluable.

Distance: 17 k and only 3 to go.  Should be easily doable by 3/28.

Stay healthy.

Finish line of an earlier Sonot with dear friend Kristin

Chris Broda, who leads the LOL (Ladies of Leisure) ski training group, like her husband, Byron, jumped into the virtual Sonot Kkaazoot before the traditional route was deemed unsafe. Not only that, she was joined by others. The half dozen skiers plus Chris, who except for this one uphill, were safely 6 feet apart.

Chris writes:  This was taken the day before the river was declared unsafe. A group of us are heading off the river to ski the loop before heading back. We put in at Pro Music so we are just short of 20K.

Virtual Sonot organizers ruled that these seven skiers had finished the virtual traditional 20 km Sonot Kkaazoot noting that in 1993 and 1994, the Sonot Kkaazoot started at the Steese Highway Bridge instead the Cushman Street one. So these skiers add 140 km to our virtual Sonot Kkaazoot running total.

Congratulations to Johnna Underwood, Jon Underwood, Callie Underwood, David Underwood, Karin Gillis, Nancy Hanneman, and Chris Broda.

Left to right: Erik, Max, Owen, and Steve

From Erik:

Another virtual race report: Max Kaufman, Owen W Hanley, Steve Taylor, and I skied a virtual Sonot 20 k+ at Birch Hill yesterday. Max, Owen, and I skied 26.6 k in 1 hour 59 min. Steve joined us midway and skied about 20 k, and Owen tacked on some extra k afterwards for good measure. We enjoyed the great conditions, and it was good to see a lot of other people out skiing.