The Very End.

• 200 miles straight north - middle - Yukon river - 3 days/2 nights - exposed - freezing winds - 50-60 below + windchill.
• "It is, in a word, brutal" (224).
• dogs zoom over ice - dogs happy with cold - Paulsen freezing - shady part of track - has all clothes on - still freezing.
• stopped - check feet - jogged with dogs.
• cheeks frost bitten - fingers/toes frozen
• cold - matches stuck in box wouldn't light, batteries (in clothing) stop working, dog ointment froze.
• finally arrive - Kaltag - grateful.
• head - 100 miles - Bering Sea - light track - sunny - met drunk snow machine drivers.
• One musher had friend set up camps + deliver food - illegal but share pizza with Paulsen.
• Unalakleet coast - Eskimos - take one musher/family - very hospitable - serve him flown in food - white bread, beans/sauterkraut/grape jelly - ate continuously - still lose 1+ pound/day - save grape jelly for kids.
• 13 days into race, he "had changed, reformed" (237), gained knowledge - know where's worst wind on hill, where find moose, rhythms - running dogs, etc.
• eskimo said Paulsen "had become one of the them [(dogs)]" (238).
• hooked up - left before dawn - easy trail - cross 75 miles - open sea ice - Norton Sound - easy trail - beautiful - towards Koyuk - felt bond - ancient people who rely on sled.
• run well until Cookie slowed - tail up - signal bad ice - sea ice shift - water spray through - team nearly fell through - Paulsen slipped - tell Cookie to go - dragged on stomach.
• Eskimo women lose many husbands because of this.
• Cookie led team back to old ice - huge chunk of ice float away - carrying a musher on it - float back after two days - check in Koyuk (150 miles to Nome).
• over Topcok Mountain to 2nd last checkpoint - White mountain - very cautious - some people have gone wrong 50 milest o Nome - but couldn't stop now.
• up Topcok Moutain - wind blow sea water on team - high velocity air - lift Cookie up - floating - Cookie mad - bite Wilson -rough way down mountain - bouncy/rough.
• check in - snack dogs - 50 miles to Nome.
• siren set off - jog with dogs - finish - family there - determined to come back + win.
• finished in 17 days, 14 hours - frozen beard/frost bitten cheeks/toes, torn clothing.
• Found out - coronary heart disease after collapsing in Boston airport - end of Iditarod.