January 27, 2008

ince I have a slower team, I asked permission to hit the trails early since no one was supposed to start until 10 am. I hit the trails at 8. It had snowed a great deal overnight. Jerry the cross country skier took off a bit before I did. My sled was busting through 4-12" of snow as we broke trail. I thought it was ironic that one of the littlest teams was the one breaking trail for the larger teams and snowmobiles. After 3 miles of tough work of slogging uphill, I pulled over to have a snack, rest the dogs and wait for the next team or snowmobilers to come by. Soon a team and 2 snowmobilers did indeed come by. 

I put away my grapefruit juice and off we were off again. The dogs and myself were grateful for the packed trail, but poor Jerry the cross country skier was not. He said it was good going for him before, but the trail was torn up with the snowmobiles. 

Today is my favorite day out of the whole Mail Run. It looks like the front of a Christmas card coming through there. The trees have 2-3 feet of snow on them. The creek crossings were barely a dip this year. This is part of the original historic Cariboo Waggon Road. 

I should introduce "Flat Stanley". He is a children's school project from the States, I have been carting "Stanley" around for some weeks now and getting his picture taken with sled dogs, Miss Quesnel and princesses, a rock band, baby calves, chickens, riding a horse, ice fishing and other British Columbia things so he has a scrapbook to send back with him. "Stanley" was on the sled with me the whole trip and he was then mailed back to Pennsylvania in the special Sled Dog Mail Run envelopes. 

The pictures of his adventures will be sent on email to arrive about the same time he does. I was glad to meet you "Stanley"!

I mention "Stanley" as his was the last picture I got to take on the trail before my batteries died from the cold. Ironically "Stanley's" picture was taken in the ghost town of Stanley. Go figure!

My little team and I made good time. We climbed 900 feet and went the 15 miles in 6 hours. I am glad we started early. It was easier for me than the last 2 years I have done this, as I have regained strength and lungs from my accident. Even though teams started passing us about 3-4 hours out, I was not discouraged. Like I said, it is not a race. It is fun and the sense of history is overwhelming. 

A funny thing happened. I mentioned that all the trees had all this snow all over them. We were on a tight trail with lots of trees and all the sudden WUMP! A tree let go of the snow and dumped it on me, the dogs and the sled. After we could see something besides white again, the dogs turned around to look at me like "What in the _____ was that?" After they dusted themselves off, I dusted me and the 20 pounds of snow off the sled, we were on our way again. 

Even though it took 6 hours to run this section, I wish it would last forever. I love it that much.

Pictures above: My team coming through the historic ghost town of Barkerville. 

Soon however, bad news happened. I did not feel cold all day even though I know the temperature was dropping as my 2 liters of juice was freezing up and it had not done that the other 2 days. What I call the Slalom course was excellent and then we hit the main road past Richfield ghost town and into Barkerville. My team was running good and I did not want to stop them to put my extra clothing on. I had a hat on, gloves on my hands and a scarf over my face. I was getting pretty cold. But 5 more minutes and I would be done. I was already deciding not to do the Barkerville Dash.. the 6 mile race to Wells. I was going to let a 12 yr old boy drive a team of 3-4. By the time I got to where my dog truck was I knew I was in trouble and the dogs were not going to run the last 6 miles. I was done. 

Pictures above: Me waving to my support crew team as my team was almost through Barkerville. 

I got to my truck, took the dogs off the gangline and tossed them into their dogboxes without even taking harnesses off. I went to the Barkerville Info Center and as soon as I got through the doors, I was peeling off layers of clothes and started to drop them all over the entrance to get layers off to warm up faster. My nose was no longer my nose. It was a unfeeling piece of heavy concrete on my face. It was swollen up and looked like Jimmy Durante's nose. I still did not feel very cold and I had my face covered for the whole trip. A few minutes later I was shivering uncontrollably. An angel who was cross country skiing gave me hot lemonaide out of her thermos, Ursula the lady who worked at Barkerville got me a wool blanket. Jan who is a nurse and her daughter took off their hats and scarves and plied me into them and she also gave me hot cocoa. I had frostbite and hypothermia. The temperatures dropped suddenly and the wind picked up so quickly. It was -34C with wind chill at that point. Thank you to Jeff, Maggie and everyone who checked on my dogs for me after I put them away. 

Picture Above: Don't be stupid like I was. Even though I was bundled up and ate well, I still got hypothermia and frostbite in the last few miles of the trail. They took the picture of me when I was talking, but I didn't feel as bad as the picture looked. I was quite horrified when I saw what I did look like. Face red and swollen & nose swollen and white. I am one sexy looking gal!! (Egads!)

After awhile, I  made my way to where the postmaster was to hand him the mailbag I was entrusted with and carried for the trip. Then I went home and unfortunately Elena had to go right away, but hopefully I will see her later in the week. We plan on running together next year as I will be breeding one of my dogs, have young pups and a full size team again for the both of us. I think the weekend was too short this time. I can't wait again until next year.

Thank you to everyone who took care of my house, seeing me off, seeing me in, having hot food for the dogs ready and taking care of me when I was chilled. And to all the multiple volunteers who made this event happen. 

At home it was -32C overnight with high winds. Brrrrr... I slept in the livingroom next to the fire.