Willow to Nikolai
Part 1 , Leaving Willow to Nikolai. The days before Iditarod are always filled with all kind of preparations to the last minute. After Bonnie and Jim’s open house I managed to get my sled packed on Saturday night before the race. For the ceremonial start I used a separate sled this year, rigged up the same way as during the Denali Doubles with a tow sled being permanently attached. I really like that setup. I can not be run over by the second sled anymore, and the sled can also not tip over. Plus the 2nd musher is so close, that communication is easy. The ceremonial start went off without a hitch, the usual crowds were lining the streets. Sissy Adams who was just on a dog sled tour with us the week prior had a “ Yukon Checkpoint “ setup along the way and supplied us with Chocolate and cookies. Anita Danielson, my Idiarider was smiling from ear to ear. She got to drive the second sled, instead sitting in the basket. For part of the 11 mile run she had the joy of feeling like an Iditarod Musher. Which dog to take and who to leave behind? I was really struggling with that decision. After all, we tossed a coin which put Solo in the team. Solo had a triceps injury during the Denali Doubles and I am always hesitant to take a dog that has been injured though out the season, in another race. The coin proved to know the answer, as Solo ended up finishing Iditarod. At the start line I had the help from many friends, Joel who came up all the way from the east coast, Tom from Haines, Bonnie, Jim and Lynn and of course from Matt who has been helping me all season. With not doing many preparation races and neither the Quest, I had to get some “ trail legs “ It took me a few days to get back into my usual traveling routine. Even my sled was fuller than usual, almost having a rookie bulge. Over the next days I would shed more and more weight with stuff I ended up not needing. Cougar and Finn led me out of the starting chute. Cougar was a leader I leased 2 weeks before the race from Iditarod Champ Dean Osmar. He was a great dog the whole way. Same as every year, I was quickly passed by many teams. I had a hard time to keep the dogs at a nice and steady trott and needed to ride the drag mat hard, I could tell the dogs were also not in trail shape, with them driving much too hard. I opted to run straight to Skwentna as the trail was hard and fast. Getting there I got the same parking spot as last year, first team on the “ right “ side of the yard. With almost having an identical starting number as last year, ( 34,35 ) I did not have to rack my brain much to compare run times. While taking care of the dogs, I curious tourist wandered over. Although I do not like to get too distracted when taking care of the dogs, we had a nice chat. I was thankful that this year no team with a bunch of females in heat was parked next to me. After taking care of the team, which for me always means to massage each shoulder and each wrist during the first couple of stops, I went up to the checkpoint to grab a bite to eat, something I had never done yet in Skwentna. Gerry, Sven and many other familiar faces were enjoying the great food also. We were given a hot hotel towel to clean out hands before dinner…. Things would not stay this luxurious for the remainder of the race. My trail food was once again prepared from Mimi, Polarfoods in Faibanks, and I enjoyed her meals along the way. I always cut the first rest very short, ideally under 2.5 hrs, to take the edge of the team and to slow them down. Slow to me is a good thing, and less injury prone… but yes more boring too. So after little under 2.5hrs we were on our way again. 4 of my dogs had an LED illuminated collar, called “ Leuchtie “ www.Leuchtie.com I instantly liked this light, not only giving me visibility to snowmachines ( a big safety issue ) but also letting me see my dogs. Specially in the dark small things like snowball in a bootie is easy to miss, but with the LED lights, a slight “head bob “ in a dog was easily visible. The Leuchties went with me the whole way to Nome. I never touched them, never changed the battery and they turn on and off automatically with the daylight. The trail to Finger Lake was much slower than into Skwentna, much to my liking. After passing Aily Zirkle resting beside the trail, there were still sled tracks ahead of me, much to my surprise. I knew that Hans Gatt should also be ahead of me, but I never recall passing him. Some spectators had a camp set up on the Skwentna River Crossing and boy did I have a heck of a tangle there. People were standing all over the place and my team dove off the main trail to the left. Although I try to be polite at most times out on the trail, I sure let these folks know, that standing in the middle of the trail was not very welcome and that it might be a good idea to block their snowmachine trail off before other mushers came. Still tracks ahead of me. Somebody had gone all the way to Finger Lake, nonstop. That is a long run. Those 2 teams were Warren Palfrey and Linwood Fiedler. Both ended up scratching later on and both were down to small dogteams by McGrath. It always amazes me of how much of a trail memory dogs have. In Finger Lake the team did not even try to run for the camping spots, they were patiently waiting while I loaded up some straw and heat. I have not pulled into finger lake for the past 2 years neither. No sled tracks were ahead of us now. The trail down Happy River Steps was easy to maneuver and going up the other side I was pleased with the power I could feel in the team. We were headed for Finnbear Lake again where Mike and his wife waited with great hospitality. I got there an hour and 15 minutes earlier than last year and had some thoughts of going through all the way to Rainy Pass. But with the team not having a Yukon Quest run before, and not being trail hardened, I opted for playing it safe and pull over to rest. I wanted to see what the dogs do, when I come to the junction where the trail leads to the cabin. I did not say any command, and sure enough Finn took a right and turn and headed straight for the exact same parking spot as last year. Dogs are definitely creatures of habit. Mike kept a big pot of hot water going for us mushers and the dogs were fed and bedded down within minutes. The massaging game took up most part of an hour. Nobody was sore, but I kept a shoulder coat with heatpacks on Solo´s old injured shoulder. Much looked like a repeat of last year, as the next team to show up was Paul Gebhardt again, but instead of pulling over he went all the way to Rainy. John Baker parked next to me soon after. It was snowing steadily, so I covered all dogs in the nylon covered dog blankets to stay dry and comfortable. We rested for 5 and half hours and I got some good quality sleep in one of the bunk beds. Leaving right in the “ heat “ of the day is not my preferred thing to do, but this run leaves little option, unless I would have gone all the way to Rainy Pass. Coming into Rainy I noticed how few Airplanes were around, I guess the weather was not favorable for flying. Many teams rested while we only stopped briefly to pack up our return bag. This year I packed all things I would potentially mail back from a checkpoint already in the return bag, which I than stuffed in the food drop bag. This meant that going though a checkpoint was much quicker, just take out the return bag, take what I need, than tie it up and keep on going. The team looked strong and focused, Finn still in lead, although I kept on rotating his partners. But I have to admit I was missing my cheerleaders, Nemo, Popcorn and Yonder, they usual get the whole team barking to go. I took a huge gamble with leaving my 2 main leaders at home, but both are getting older and both are not suited for hard and fast trails at all. The run over Rainy pass was slow, as just as we left Punitilla lake, several snowmachines took off ahead of us and the trail was bottomless sugar snow churned up by the snowmachine tracks. I had to keep myself reminded, that slow is good and means no injuries, instead of getting frustrated with our slow progress. I was glad to drive though Dalzell Gorge in daylight . As usual there were some pretty interesting twists and turns over numerous ice bridges. We got to Rohn 1.5hrs ealier than last year. Once again I was debating to go through or not. I had very bad memories on resting in a windy spot 2 hrs outside of Rohn last year, so I decided to stay. That decision would end up costing me a lot of time, as leaving Rohn as the first team in darkness, I later on had a hell of a time finding the trail. I also got parked right next to the out trail, which worried me, that my dogs would not get any quality rest with teams going through. Much to my surprise, and the benefit of rest for my dogs, only one team ended up going though Rohn, that being Paul Gebhard half an hour after my arrival. In Rohn the team looked good, everybody ate well and we stayed for close to 5hrs again. Leaving short before midnight, it was blowing pretty hard. For the first few minutes I had no trouble finding the trail, despite a lot of glace ice on the Kuskokwim River. But soon after I all for sudden did not see any more markers. Shining my headlight in all possible directions I could still see no markers. Not good. I anchored the team on some driftwood and started exploring on foot. I had a very uneasy feeling leaving my team fully hooked up like that. I found some markers off to my right. Pulling my hooks the sled lunged a few feet forward and than the bridle got snagged in the drift wood. No matter how hard I pulled the sled backwards, I could not free the sled. I undid all the dogs tuglines but the leaders, and still could not get the sled free. After turning numerous dogs loose, I could finally pull back enough on the hooks to get the sled off the stump and the bridle free again. Dogs everywhere, snow blowing everywhere, mostly standing on glare ice, I was very glad when I counted the full team of 16 dogs being hooked up again. Off we went, dogs very motivated by than, they did not like the waiting around. I was drenched in sweat, not good at all, knowing a good 9 hr run was laying ahead. We went through an area where a forest fire had burned the previous summer and was continuing to burn in the root system as we could smell smoke. The dogs picked a route on the left side of the Post River Glacier and I had an uneventful trip to Buffalo Camp, where I gave the dogs a full cooler of soaked kibble and meat. From Buffalo Camp to Nikolai the trail had next to no snow on it, luckily it was snowing lightly, so there was at least some snow cover. With being the first team on the trail that meant breaking trail the whole way. Already in training I had quite a few issues with “ chickenfeet “ which is the dogs hair being stripped of the back of the front legs, right above the wrists. Dan Kaduce and Jody Baily shared their new innovation of “ leggings “ with me before the race and Matt and Lynn had sewn up a bunch before the race. I stopped to put “ chickenfeet leggings “ on Solomon, Solo, Skunk, Grisman and Scruggs. They are somewhat frustrating to put on, but better to “ waste “ some time now, than having to deal with Chickenfeet all race long. Arriving in Nikolai I was bummed out to see that I should have put leggings on Bananas and Cougar also. The dogs who are most prone to chicken feet are either the front end dogs or the team dogs who go off the hard packed snow to dip snow next to the trail, thus “ breaking trail “ a lot more than necessary. While some mushers encourage dipping for hydration, I have to admit I hate dipping dogs and usually try hard to break that habit. I never have hydration issues with my team eating well when I snack them, so I do not like dipping. With Cougar not being mine, I had to accept it as is, and Bananas, well….. I gave up on trying to break that habit with him a long time ago. Once I saw the Iditarod Trail drag, sitting next to the almost snowless trail, amidst all the tussoks, I knew the remaining miles to Nikolai would not be pleasant. As a testament to his quality workmanship, once again my Gatt Sled made it though without breaking or anything ratting loose. One of the stanchions on my tail dragger seat was badly bend from my encounter with the drift wood, but it ended up surviving the whole race. If you look for a real good sled, buy a Gatt Sled! Grumpy Kavik was running slightly off coming into Nikolai and while examining him I found a sore pectoral muscle. Kavik is not the friendliest of dogs even on his good days and touching him when he is pain free is not the easiest of things, so trying to massage his painful shoulder was a big time gamble. But I ended up keeping all my fingers, got a shoulder coat on him with some heat packs. Short after our arrival many more teams pulled in, with Mitch Seavey bing the 2nd team. All had much faster run times than us, but than I did not know if they had the same amount of trouble as I did. More to come next timeSab
