Becoming

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To Lauren's birthday party

Miraculously, I got 2 hours of restorative deep sleep in the cold leaky tent in a puddle in the rain, and I was able to set out running again by 4am. Now that we are so much farther south, it is still mostly dark at 4am. I reached the long bridge over the Yukon River just as the sky brightened, and I had a glorious view of its mighty flow. Daniel & Steph tailed me with hazards flashing over the narrow wood bridge, but it wasn't really necessary as there was no other traffic at that time of morning. The bridge itself has 6% uphill grade all the way across its 1/2-mile span. Then a long climb up the river bank to another beautiful view from a ridge 2000 ft above.

I ran well through the morning, but came to a grinding halt mid-day as the road deteriorated into a sticky mud pit. There are 3 distinct kinds of mud on the Dalton: slippery brown mud, slippery sticky red mud, and the dreaded gray mud which slides and clumps like clay, forming platforms extending out 2" from my shoes in all directions. The trucks going both directions all take the same narrow packed path through the center of the highway, which works because they are all constantly communicating on their CB radios, so they can swing wide to dodge when 2 trucks pass. So I also run the center while listening closely for trucks from either direction, then step off into the mud when trucks come, then spend some time cleaning the clay platforms off my feet, then proceed to do it all over again every minute or so. By noon I slowed to a mostly-walk, and slogged the last 30 miles through the mud to the end of the Dalton Highway.

I am so grateful for a generous & committed & creative crew, Stephanie Dempsey and Daniel Larson. Thanks to Mount to Coast for a tough pair of shoes that protected my feet through 464 miles of tundra, mountains, and mud of Alaska. I had an amazing adventure, with breathtaking views (all the way from the Arctic Ocean, through the Brooks range, across the Yukon River), awe-inspiring animals (5 grizzlies, 5 musk ox, 6 caribou, a herd of Dall sheep, 2 moose, 2 porcupines, and countless new birds and caterpillars), and some new friends along the way (oil workers and bikers and other campers).

I established an FKT on the Dalton Highway of 5 days, 18 hours, 5 minutes, and 27 seconds (https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/jenny-hoffman-dalton-highway-ak-2025-08-15). I learned a LOT and hope to return some day with more time and planning to make it the whole way across Alaska. This is a beautiful state in a big diverse country full of fascinating people and creatures.

If you're feeling a little sad to have no more blue dots to track on my Garmin map, the good news is that we are now a 2-tracker family and my son Zephyr Larson is currently making his way in a self-planned and self-supported journey across Colorado - much more impressive in my opinion than my own well-supported journey.

https://share.garmin.com/zephyrlarson

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Jenny Hoffman

Dalton Highway FKT

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Becoming

Treadmill at home

Home again

To Lauren's birthday party

Treadmill at home

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