January 26, 2008

his morning was a little chilly, however Elena is turning into quite the bush-woman. She kept going outside in shorts! I ignored my bladder throughout the night and pulled the sleeping bag over my head to ignore any cold. It snowed overnight and I knew it would cover any gravel on the bushroads we had to take the teams today. 

They had left some food out for us to snack on during the night and I had some sausage, Swiss cheese and more of those molasses cookie things for breakie. I got the truck warming, gear repacked, took Jerry a cross country skier, down to the starting point of the second day as he is cross country skiing the whole 100 kilometer trail. Power to him, I couldn't do it.

I went back to get Elena and our gear into my truck and we were off again. I dropped the dogs and fed them slump (a mix of hot water, high protein kibble and meat). I got the 5 dogs hitched and off we went. I felt bad for leaving "Scout", but we had an 11 mile climb today and 2-3 miles of almost straight down. He would not be able to keep up. I remembered my #12 bib this time.

Picture Above: Elena with the 2 wheel dogs she was using this weekend. Elena rented 8 of the dogs from the 'Snow Dogs' and '8 Below' movies.

The trail starts out across a nice area good for pictures, the dogs move good and then thankfully the treeline hides the steep hill we have to climb. It snowed a couple inches overnight so it hid that horrible gravel & sand on the road which was yucky yesterday.

As much as this day has been my nemesis in the past, it was not too bad even with a team of 5. There was a couple teams who are running this as training for their racing season and 14 dog teams were coming back as we were heading out as they do the full distance of what the rest of us are doing... twice. Sandy and Craig ran 50 miles with the dogs the 1st day and 30 this day. Their dogs didn't even look out of breath.

Picture Above: Jeff (#1) had 9 dogs and Craig's (#22 ?) 14 dogs got a bit tangled as they passed in opposite directions. Soon everyone was under way again. 

There was a tangle with Jeff and Craig's teams as they passed each other in opposite directions. I parked my dogs with the snowhook and jumped on Jeff's sled with his 9 Inuit's to have him lead them past Craig's team. I have never driven Inuit dogs. In the first 2 inches of movement you could feel the power of these dogs. I do not think I would be able to drive that team of Jeff's. The dogs I have are technically sprint dogs. Jeff's are like Freightliner semi trucks. I then helped hold Craig's dogs after Jeff's were in the clear as two more teams were passing mine and Craig's teams. I finally got to go back to my dogs and got them past Craig's. Nuthin' to it!!

Lots of cameras out on the trail. The 2010 Olympic camera crew set up in the worst place to take video... at the top of the grinder hill. So it looks like we just yell at our dogs and are pushing our sleds up the hill. But at the crest of this peak, it is all downhill. Literally, as we are coming down into the ski resort. It is a couple miles of drop. I have to be on the brake at all times. I do not have a drag brake on my sled. A couple people were wondering how I even did it. I keep putting a drag brake on my sled and end up cutting it off somewhere on the trail. One day I will figure out the 'perfect' system for one.

I had to switch my lead dog "Soda" out for "Tasha" & "Taku" as we halted when "Soda" saw all the skiers, the crowds waiting for the dogs to come in and all the noise from the speakers blaring music. Think of it like going from peace and quiet all your life and suddenly being dropped into New York City at Rush hour. That is what it is like for the dogs. Overwhelming! So it is slightly embarrassing switching out dogs like that, but I put my 'people dogs' out front and we came in looking great. "Tuff", the borrowed dog pranced the whole way when he was not playing puppy at the start of each day. 

With all the public there, we were asked to put our dogs on display and I did. "Soda" got put away from the noise and everyone made a fuss over "Scoutie" with his beautiful large blue eyes.

I tried the weight pull with "Cyrus", but after he started to pull, the crowd closed in on him and spooked him so he didn't want to do it anymore. I hitched him up to my sled and he cruised around the parking lot so he will still be a good puller for me at home. Well, we tried. 

The banquet was very good. I even got to eat some of it this year. Last year I had "Musher's Plague" or something. Food? Blaugh! I didn't feel bad having seconds this year since I missed out on the year previous.

I got to finally participate in the Musher's Triathlon and my part was to set a real trapper's trap. It was the first time I had ever set one and I am thankful to say I have all 10 digits yet. Many caught their gloves and fingers in the trap on their turn. We had to chop wood, start a fire, do a moose call, set a trap, make tea and bannock. Thievery and cheating were rampant. I am scheming for next year already as I was doing the straight and narrow thing. Next year will be revenge!! (Hehehehehehe)

The banquet was good. Parts of it were difficult as many of us had tears in our eyes and couldn't look at one another who knew Holger. There was one other loss this year, Jo K. whom used to be our postmistress and a huge supporter for this event. Though I mourn their loss, it was wonderful to have known them. To me, in alot of ways, Holger is not gone as I see parts of him in all the different things he has done over the years. When I was at the spot he passed me with his huge team last year. I nodded in tribute to him.

I won an award. "Spirit of the Mail Run" or something like that. I don't feel like I did anything exceptional to win it, but there were those who thought I did. I was just being me. But I get my name engraved on a very nice trophy which is in a permanent location on display.

I got special permission to sleep in the old ski lodge which was hand built by Hildur's father in the 1970's. She was telling me that most of the materials came from the land, she remembers straightening out nails and the windows are all different sizes as they were recycled. She thinks he built the huge lodge for about $50. I again slept very hard that night and apparently snored. Sorry guys! I was tired.