January 25, 2008

n the morning we got up about 5:30 am. The day promised to be beautiful.

The first day of the 3 day Mail Run starts this morning.  Elena and I woke up about 5:30 am, loaded up the truck and went on our way. I get to the 'Ceremonial Start' where the bigwigs from the province and post office borrow 4 dog teams, (mine was one of them) , then ceremonially (as well as they could, our poor mayor dumped my sled on the 1st turn) and my team went around the track two times with sacks of mail. My dogs hauled a city mayor and a head BC honcho for the post office around a circular track. Giving these guys a team to run was exciting for them as I think they did not quit smiling the whole way around the track. I think I have to admit that the postal district manager (or whatever his official title is), did better than the mayor.

We made it out to the real starting point. Elena caught up with the people whose dogs she was leasing from. The trail and parking were perfect this year. I had alot of friends there to see Elena and me off. We tossed the little girls who came to see me up on top of the dog boxes to keep them out of the way and where they could get a good view. I took my time to get my lines out, my sled bag packed and my dogs harnessed up. My leader "Soda" is a little scared of large crowds, so she didn't want to go forward into it, but we got her to do a "haw" and she, the rest of the team and myself were off and running. We started my 7th year of doing this. The 4th running a dog team and carrying mail. 

Picture Above: Me out of the gate and looking like I enjoy dog sledding or something. The photo was taken by my friend at Henki Photography

About a mile out I see a lone person walking. I thought it was a strange place for a photographer to be until I saw the number bib on her (and realized I had left mine on the dash of my truck at the same time). I called out to her and asked if she lost a team. She had crashed and burned at the corner and her dogs kept running (which they will do). I told her to hop on and we would try to catch up to them. You could see marks from where her sled kept hitting the bank. A couple miles out we saw a trail sweep on a snowmobile, we frantically waved him down. Rick said it was OK as he found them, flipped off the snow hook and on the second bounce, adhered itself into a bank. Annaliese's team was stopped. She got on the snow machine with Rick and off they went. She was lucky he caught up with them as a fresh team can run for miles and miles. It is part of the risk we take when we run our dogs and it can happen to any of us. These dogs love to run, you can too easily be left stranded. That is why I always carry my survival gear in my pants pockets. I wear wool German Army pants which are older than I am, but they are warm and have alot of pockets for survival blankets, knife, dog boots, a bungee cord, lighter & matches, etc. 

Today was the 25 mile section we were running. It was on hard pack logging roads where they unfortunately been working at and also someone lightly graveled. The sand/gravel under the runners of the sled sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard... for miles... and miles. 

 On the downhills, poor old "Scout"... "Scout" can still pull like an ox, but we have not been running enough in practice for the event (or downhill) enough to know he was too slow for the team when we were going down hills. I had to pack him into the sled bag and there he rode for many miles sitting on the mail bag and my sweater. When he started whining really bad, I put  him back out into the gangline, but he soon was back in. The sled bags are supposed to be designed to hold a dog or two if needed. 

Annaliese's team soon passed me and that was ok. We get passed alot as we have the smallest team with an adult and full sled bag on this event. I was now running 5 dogs instead of 6, and they were pulling more weight with "Scout" in the bag. It is not a race, it is just for the enjoyment of running dogs and getting the mail through. With only 5 dogs, I had to do alot of running. I wore out a new pair of boots already. 

Picture Above: This is the kind of country we are running the teams through. As seen in the photo we are NOT running down in the valleys, we are traveling the ridges... up.. .up...up for 11 miles!!

I had snacks for the dogs and organic pop tarts, some kind of sausage that I cannot pronounce the name of and grapefruit juice and water. I was dining like a queen out there. The dogs did look at me in mid-stride as I opened my pop tarts when the bag rattled. I did break one of my rules, I stopped the team and gave each one a crumble so they thought they were getting something special. 

I tossed "Scout" back out when we got to the soft snow and off the road as we had a couple good hills up and one steep hill coming down and I didn't want the extra weight in the sled to try to maneuver that. Many people crash there. We only had about a mile to go, so I thought he might like to run it as it was not going to be a fast area. And I wanted him to be able to finish his last run on his own feet. When we get home I will retire him. 

The dogs did the bridge crossing and we came into Cottonwood with happiness. My dogs have only been out 3 times prior to this event and they came through with flying colours. My support crew was there with a hot meal for the dogs and we took care of them.

I looked at someone else's dog who had been in a scuffle over food. I wiped the blood off and said he might have some road rash scars, but he could run tomorrow. It was nothing too serious. 

The community dinner was wonderful. I was addicted to ham and some kind of  strange cookie which probably had molasses in it. After dinner we slept in the community hall which is an old 1900's log trappers cabin which was donated to the community and added onto when a miner donate his cabin. It is all run on generator and wood heat. I slept like a rock even though we were on a wooden floor.