Getting lost (Sab)
This past week end we raced the Knik 200. We left Paxson on Thursday to drive down to Willlow. Maren stayed behind with 1 team of dogs, and Pierre went with Andy and me. Before we could even leave, it is always almost a full day of preperations. Living without power in a small cabins means that Pierre and Maren have to chop all the meat for the food drops by hand, a rather cold and time consuming affair. Finally the truck was packed, to the lipps again wit 24 dogs and 2 teams, Jack, Tang and Chevy riding in the already overcrowded cab with us. 3 humans 3 dogs.It was a cold minus 30 degree morning, luckily the truck started fine and we were on the raod at about 8.30. After a quick shopping stop in Glennallen we got to Willow early afternoon. Our Food Drops had to be at the Willow Airport at 3 p.m. In Huston we stayed with Rick Casillo who is renting a small cabin there from Lynda Plettner. It was a great place to stay, specially with wireless internet and power. We could drop the dogs a bit off to the side of the hustle and bustle of the rather large doglot. A stray black cat kept on following me, either to Ricks cabin or hiding under the parked dogtrailers when we dropped the dogs.
Here I also met Scott Smith, who was generous and borrowed us his truck to go shopping the next day in Anchorage. I have never been a fan of big cities and Anchorage is no exception there. Single minded, I tried to find some Neo Overshoes and Lobben boots as well as same MRE (Meals ready to eat), which turned out not as easy as I had hoped. A small place called Pias had the Lobbens and 6th Avenue Outfitters the Neos, both are actually very close to each other, but we drove all over town, before we found that out. I tried to call different places, but my phone was giving me a hard time, and only after much calling to the provider I found out that I also had to pay for incoming calls, a small detail I did not notice when signing the contract, so my minutes are used rather quickly.
Before heading back to the dogs we did a quick stop to the Iditarod headquarters, where Joanne Potts gave me a permit to carry our food drops across the border. Once a again the devil was in the fine print, that permit is only for food bought in the states and than legally imported into Canada. For my food, which originates in Canada it is not valid. Luckily I had already made arrangements with Charlie Champaine to cut my meat here. The staff at Iditarod is always super helpful and I really enjoy visiting there each time.The mushers meeting at the Settlers Bay lodge was quite big with 54 mushers signed up to race. It is always a fun atmoshere to be at such a meeting. I only dislike the number drawing game, as I always get very unlucky there and draw a number way in the back of the field. No exception this time, as I drew number 53 of 54. Andy got a little luckier with number 29. The biggest disadvantage with a high starting number is, that in your mandatory 6 hr rest, your 2 minute start intervals get adjusted. While I only can rest 6 hrs 2 minutes, the front runners get to rest 7hrs and 40 minutes, quite a difference, specially with running times between 7.5 and 8 hrs. While the first starting numbers can run and rest pretty equal, I have to cut rest by 1.5hrs to stay compeditive. In a longer race, where we rest 24 or 36 hrs at the time adjustment, a high number is not really a big disadvantave, I got 58 in the Iditarod last year and 20 of 21 in the Quest. Other disadvantages are a chewed up trail and than quite a bit of time which is lost with each pass I have to do. Those 2 things did not play any role in the Knik. The trails were rock hard, ice in fact at the beginning, and wide enough to pass well.
The darn black cat would not leave…… and meowed all night infront of Ricks Cabin. After a short night we drove to the start of the Knik on Knik Lake. Also in this respect I do not like a high bib number, I have to crawl out of bed early, just than to hang out and wait before the race for hours. It is fun to watch a lot of other mushers leave though. We only packed out sleds right before there race, as we both had much time. I seem to get better with not being a pack rat anymore, while a lot of sledbags where bulging, I could have put 2 dogs in mine. That I would have to make use of that later on, I would not have envisioned in my wildest dreams. The dogs ran very well, I had Tang and young Nemo in Lead. Tang amazes me over and over again, once again we did run about 12 miles per hour, a pretty good clip for a 9 year old lead dog. The trail was great, not as flat as I though, quite a few little fun up and downs, over lakes, creeks and ravines. There are mile markers on the trail, at one point even a big thermometer reading 10 degrees F. Once I got to Flat Horn Lake, where Joe Redington Sr had a homestead, I caught up to a large number of teams and it was to be the beginning of a lot of passing. That is the only fun part of being number 53. Nemo passed surprisingly well with this being his first race as a leader. His brother Popcorn has more drive, but is too much of a goof ball to be trained for a leader yet.I hope he grows out of that. Totally new to the team are also Polar, Alligartor and Suhmo, some dogs I got from Catherine Pinard. I really like them, but they have one very annoying habit of dipping for a lot of snow while running, something with breaks the rhythm of the team, but also is an injury potential to the dogs, when the step into the deep snow off the trail. Once the trail dropped onto the big Susitna River there was a long line of teams ahead of me, Andy being one of them. All passes went rather smooth and I was very happy with the run. I snacked all the dogs at Yentna, they ate like alligators, always a good sign that they run well within their comfort level. This was about 4.45 hrs into the race, I planned with 6hrs to Yentna, but the trail was really hard packed and fast. It was dark by now and I relied on my LED headlight for vision. The trail was marked well with orange markes which also said K 200 on them. There were a lot of other trail markers on the well travelled river also, some green, some also orange for the Klondike 300 (next week). A team ahead of me made a sharp right hand turn on the river, althoug I wondered a bit about that I followed that team, after all there were orange markers. Once we went off the river I thought, geez, they never mentioned anything about leaving the river,but whatever, must be right. Well it was not, we ended up in somebodies backyard. This was not supposed to be the only time I got lost. We turned the teams around right while annother unlucky musher piled into us,but no big tangle. On my way out I yanked out as many markers as I could reach and once back on the main trail I X’ ed of the turn. As it turned out later, my X’ es must have been taken down or run over, as many more mushers ran in there. It started snowing nicely, I only ran in my light wind breaker with my big parka in my sled. To keep warm I started skipoling. After a while the snow got so heavy, that it reall hurt flying into my eyes. I have tried goggles before, but they fog and ice up on me. I was debating to stop and pull out my parka, but at the same time told myself to stop whining. That whining was supposed to last for annother 1.5 hrs till I finally pulled into Skwentna at 20.40, a lot faster than I thought, I planned with close to 8.5 hrs, instead I did 7hrs 50 minutes running time for 90 miles and pulling in as 18th team. The Skwentna Checkpoint was very well organized, the checkers had their hand full with parking 54 teams. Our food drops were alphabetical order, cold running water available and nice straw for the dogs. The dogs ate very well again, a nice feeding of Eagle dryfood with some chicken and lamb snacks as desert. In the very well kept lodge I treated myself to a hamburger before trying to catch some sleep. Andy arrived about an hour after me. His team looked also good. I checked over my dogs again and massaged the right hind leg of Piano with Algyval it seemed a bit swollen, all the other dogs looked great. I decided to drop Alligator though, as her excessive dipping for snow really annoyed me on the way up and I think she distraced the team more than she helped. Sleeping turned out to be next to be impossible. They had very nice rooms for us mushers whith beds and all, but the smoke detector did go off every minute… No, nobody was smoking anything, it was just a bunch of wet smelly mushers in one room setting off the alarm, what is that going to tell you? My departure time was 2.42, about 50 minutes behind the leaders, being Lance Mackey, Melanie Gould, Jeff King and others. Amazing speeds those guys can do.
Jason Mackey and Paul Gebhard just pulled out ahead of me and I was going to see their headlights for many hours ahead of me. We left the Skwentna Roadhouse on a different trail than getting there. Luckily it stopped snowing and I only had my little wind breaker on again, it seemed warm, maybe about 20 F. Right after leaving the checkpoint, although they ate well and were well hydrated Polar and Suhmo also started their snow dipping game again. This time it did not take long and Suhmo fell off the trail and started limping immediately after. Darn, not only is he one of my really well working dog otherwise, but I was also only 10 miles out and still 80 to go. I had no other choice but to load him in the sled, he must have pulled some muscle in his right front shoulder. I massaged it with Algycal, put a heatpack in a shoulder blanket on him. Luckily I had lot of room in the sled and the other dogs seemed oblivious to the added weight. To help out more I ski poled pretty consistantly, while sitting on my cooler seat. I love that seat. Lori Townsend passed me about 3 hrs into the run, she started 11 minutes behind me and her team looked really nice. I saw her headlight ahead of me for a long time, and occasionally the ones of Jason and Paul, at least I assumed it were theirs. It took 3 hrs again to go from Skwentna to Yentna and I was happy with the run. Finding the markers was not as easy as I had hoped with my LED light. I got my big headlight out of the bag, but from the hard bouncing on the hard packed trail, the light came apart and the bulb was gone. I did not carry a spare this time. Some much for more light. That less light was going to cost me quite a bit of time here very soon. I could see some lights to my right, not too sure if they were headlights or houses, but I could also see some lights to the left side of the river. The trail was nice and hard packed, markers, some green some orange all along. After some time I noticed that I had not seen a orange marker in a while and wondering if I was still on the right trail. But hey, how can you get lost on a river……, it went always straight ahead I though. Minutes ticked along, the dogs cruising and all I saw was green markers. I stopped, walked to the front of the team, looking for sled tracks. There were quite a few of them, dogshit , booties and all the usuals. I kept on going. Still no orange Markers and now I was defenitely heading north, it stared to dawn on me that I went north on the confluence of the Yentna and Big Susitna River, heading towards Willow instead of Knik. Well time to face reality, I went the wrong way I called Tang and Nemo gee around, them 2 giving me quite the questioning look. I checked my watch to see how long I had gone in the wrong direction. After a while I saw a headlight come my way. Did I not get off the trail after all. Truly confused I stopped the team and decided to give the dogs a snack, right when I was finished with that the team pulled up along side, it was my friend John Schandelmeier from Paxson and he also agreed that we were on the wrong trail and turned his dogs around behind. A few minutes later the next team came out way, this time Dean Rosiar, who also turned his dogs. A big island ended to the left and I tried to “ haw “ Tang, straigt across the river though the deep snow. As always she did her job, and her an Nemo slugged through the unbroken trail. The closer we got the the other shoreline, no marker or trail in sight, the more worried I got. Where the hell are we?? But sure enough, right hugging the shore line was a hard packed trail with dogtracks, an a few hundret feet later I saw the first k 200 marker again. I checked my watch 45 minutes from where I turned around. All in all a 1.5hr detour. That was very demoralizing, and the dogs could sense my feeling, there is no way to fool them. 5 teams passed me within 15 minutes, which did not help to boost my morale. I stopped to pet all the dogs and take their booties off. The trail was good and without Booties it is easier for them to run. We followed the other teams , finally leading by a orange Artic Oven tent, sitting on the big Susitna Crossing, where we left the River. The dogs started to pick up the pace again, Suhmo needed to pee so I let him out of the sled. I debated to put him back in the team, but opted to play it save and carry him also for the last 30 miles. 
Over Flat Horn Lake we got back onto the rolling hills and cutlines. My dogs usually do well in hills and we passed 4 of the 5 teams again and a while later even Lori Townsend, who I never expected to see again after my detour. About 10 miles from the finish, I managed to take a wrong turn once again, I hardly could believe it, when I ended up on some road. Well turn around once more and sure enough, about 10 minutes back I saw where I had done my mistake. A while later I saw a fimiliar green sled bag up ahead, Mark (I do not know his last name). He was running as helping his dogs. I had already passed him 3 times on this race, each time after getting lost. He surely tried to catch up to me, thinking I was ahead, and had quite a look on his face when I once again yelled from behind: Hey Mark I am here..., I got lost again. I passed him once again and could see annother team in the distance, that must be Dean Rosiar. By this time the mile markers where down to mile 2 and I just enjoyed the last few miles in. I finished in 12th place, defenitely not what I had hoped for, but after all my detours I could not have expected more. To my surprise, some of the teams ahead of me, like Melanie Gould were not in yet. Well that explained the sled tracks I saw on the wrong trail. I was not the only one getting lost. That is quite the frustrating experience. The volunteers tried to really mark the trail well, but there is so much other traffic in this area, that markers get simply run over, or sometimes even pulled out by some evil kid or adults. I had a map in the truck, I should have copied it, have someone mark in the trail and taken it along. Once again one of the should haves, would haves of dog racing. But hey after all it was a lot of fun. Lessons learned: Take a map (which I usually do), take a big working headlight as usual not only the LED, and I need to work on some of my dogs to dip less snow. I finished at 12.28, still faster than I thought before the race, I planned with 13.00, Andy came in at 16.18 with 11 dogs and Uno in the Sled bag, she also had a sore shoulder, she also is a snow dipper. Both dogs we packed before they really hurt themselfes and they will be ready to race in the Copper Basin 300 next week. The other dogs in Andy’s team looked great, were happy wiggling around after a near 12 hr run and eating their food well again, always the best sing. After annother night a Ricks, some more shopping we headed home. The transmission in the white dogtruck is barely hanging in there, now reverse works sometimes again, but the 4th gear is gone, I hope we make it home with that. We also had a new family member on the way home, the black cat, still following me everywhere curled up in the cab with Jack, Tang and Chevy. It took some hissing and sniffing, but finally the dogs got over the fact of having to share their kingdom with a black cat. We named here Willow, the town we got her. I think Tang thinks she is a puppy, she protects her from the other dogs. It was almost like come "home" when we got back to our little cabin at Zoyas. Maren had all in great order, John was just chainsawing a new ice hole for us, and even better, we had winter again, nice minus 10 F and lots of snow. This week we will pack once again and than go the the Copper Basin on Friday. But while unloading the truck, I realized, that we forgot half of the shopping in Ricks trailer down there, conveniently sitting 250miles away now..., most of the stuff we need for our food drop, the adventures never end, I guess I will take a late night trip to Willow one of these nights.
Race results
Sab
