January 25, 2009 

dzactly one year ago this weekend, a shy 14 year old girl watched me come in from the 2008 Gold Rush Mail Run. She asked her parents and a mutual friend of mine, if they thought that I would let her hang out with me. Of course I said, "Well, yeah!!! If she wants to!" So that was the start of having a 'little sister'. 

She ran dogs with me last winter. She wants to be a writer, so she went to work with me at the paper often and wrote many 'Teen Talk' articles for the paper I worked for. I had her most weekends and on many of her breaks, she went with me everywhere and we hung out alot doing lots of different things and going to many places. This year, at the age of 15, she took care of my sled dog team pretty much every day for the last several months and has been running them with the plan (from a year ago) of running them in the 2009 Mail Run. I was her support crew this year, along with a friend of mine and her parents. 

Thursday night I went up to go on a run with her on her local trails to see how she had been doing. I was going to forbid her to run the first day if I thought she or the dogs were not up to it. We ran in the dark. Feeling much better about turning her loose in the wilderness for 25 miles the next day, we started packing, attending a meeting, getting her registered and doing last minute repairs to the dog box door which a dog ate last summer (repairs courtesy of her grandfather while we were at the meeting).

Early Friday morning, we get all the dogs, equipment, dog foods, buckets, sled, gear, ganglines, harnesses, my stuff, her stuff, our friends stuff, her parents stuff, dog first aid kits, cameras and etc. all loaded up and off we went to the post office.

Photo Above: The trail route that Ashley and team will be going over for 3 days.

Photo Below: The Postmaster swearing Ashley in and handing her the mail which is in her care for the weekend. 

Ashley was looking a little nervous and excited. I know very well how she felt. We got her sworn in as an official Canadian Postal Carrier for the weekend. One dog collar (someone gnawed on 'Dutch's) and a couple toques later, we were on the way up to the start of the trail.

When I let people run my dogs, I want them to know each part of the gear and how to use it. I let them set up their own ganglines, teach them how to make sure everything is on proper, hook up the sled, harness and hitch the dogs. With Ash, it was no different. I let her do it all before she started running. I walked her to the trailhead and gave her last minute advice. She was looking scared but excited to go. 

She got the dogs on the gangline and off she went. Her mom had tears. We were sending her baby off into the wilderness alone. I reassured her mom that she would be ok, the dogs would take good care of her. 

Hours later, I must have started pacing alot, as a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go out to check on her, as the team who was supposed to run with her forgot. She had never run solo before. Ever! Taking a snowmobile, we found her about 2 kilometers out and running fine. It was a huge worry gone when we saw her. Little did I know until she came in, that she had not seen a single team or snowmobile the whole length of the trail until we had caught up with her. That is highly unusual. This is my 8th Mail Run event and usually you have teams who pass you and snowmobiles which are heading both ways to check on teams as a safety measure. She really was not alone out there, but she must have been in a spot which kept her in a void of everyone.

 She said she never felt alone. She had the team. That is how I always feel as well. There are two wonderful guys who go out behind the last team for all three days for all 17 years, to make sure no one is left out there. In total we had 80 volunteers for the 26 dog teams this year. Safety is always a priority.

When Ashley came in, I could tell from the way she was driving, that she had learned alot on the trail that day. She was now looking like she had been doing this for years. 

Ash was sore that night. I told her that she would be. She did not eat much for dinner that night. I have an excellent friend who loaned us a place to sleep for two nights in a row with (some) heat and places for all 5 us to sleep, as well as a place to park, drop the dogs for feeding and let them go to the bathroom. 

Saturday when she woke, she was really sore. I warned her for weeks before, but told her to move and that as soon as she was out on the trail, she would be fine. The only way to work and stretch those same muscles was only by running the sled again. This is only a 15 miler day, but it is mostly uphill, with a few glorious downhills (mostly as you are tired of fighting for every step upward for miles). I was asked by a friend if I would like to accompany him out on the trail that day on a snowmobile. Of course I would love to go!!! It was killing me not to be out on those magnificent trails this year. So the postmaster and I went out to go take alot of photos of everyone. 

Saturday night is the banquet and awards ceremonies. Ashley was put on the Holger Bauer award and was presented with an official event hat and a pair of binoculars. 

I am sure her run of this day lead to her declaration of "When I am 20, I am going to run the Yukon Quest" when she got in. Hmmmmm.. another dog addict. I have friend's who have been on the Quest and I told her to talk to them. I also told her I would be more than happy to be her support crew. 

Sunday morning we woke to a temperature of -32C/-25F. The ski hill was closed due to it being too cold. Vehicles would not start. It was pretty brutal. I told her she did not have to go, but she decided to go ahead. (*sigh* She really reminds me of me.) She did get chilled on the ride to the start of today's section, so I tossed her in my truck to get warm while the rest of us got her team hitched. When she was ready, I walked her to the trailhead so she could see what she needed to do to make the turn and we got her on her way. The trails today were punched through at least 15 feet deep of snow. She was heading off onto the original Cariboo Waggon Road. 

Waiting...... waiting.... waiting. Unlike 'normal' runs, this one seemed like the dog teams were very scattered coming in each day. Towards the end it felt like at least 40 minutes to over an hour between teams. Out of 25 teams, only 12 took the challenge of the third section. Ashley was one of them. I missed getting a photo of her coming through Barkerville. She got wonderful compliments from many mushers for how well she did this weekend. 

She got her dogs rested for a little while and then we collected Linn, who is a visitor from England as Ashley's passenger for the Dash. The Dash is the 'race' part of the event. It is 6 miles long and you have no more than 6 dogs, a passenger and your mail. I think Linn loved going, although she had about a 30 second warning that she was going to go on a dog sled ride. We tossed her (probably not very glamorously) into the sled basket, tossed the mail in her lap, then Ash and Linn were off and running.

I have no idea how Ash placed, no one really cares, it just matters that the mail got through and everyone had a great time. Prizes are funny, but Ashley got what she wanted when her name was called and she had her eye on the gift card from the new Starbucks in town.

Ash said that the run was even more amazing than she had ever imagined. She was not ready to run dogs tomorrow (she has finals poor girl), but she plans on starting training for 200 mile mid-distance events. Oh my!

I am very proud of her. Her parents are too. But unless you are a dog musher and have done this trail, you have NO IDEA what she went through.

Back at her home, we got the dogs unpacked, her gear in the house. The gangline ready to be washed. Me and my friend on our way home. What a wonderful event.

Photo Above: Ashley and team going over what feels like the millionth hill. I had it easy this year, I was on a snowmobile. 

Photo Below: Ash, team and Lynn heading across the open meadows on 'The Dash'. There was so much sun glare off the snow that it looks like a water color.

Photo Below: Dad & Daughter time at the banquet.

When I got home, Bren had been busy all weekend and the bathtub was permanently installed. He drew a bath for me and presented me with hot cocoa. It felt wonderful on all my sore muscles.

I shall be running a team on these trails again next year. I was sad I did not get to this year, but sending Ashley out, made it more than a happy time.