Rough start with good end
I left Whitehorse to the Copper Basin a day early on Thursday and stayed again with Dorothee and Bill Bowler of the Fireweed Hill B&B which I enjoy very much. The only downfall was, that I wasn`t in race mood, too many thoughts about the business were circling in my head and those would not let me get focused on the race.
William
Kleedehn promised to arrange a handler for me, which he did, Maaike
was a great help, she was so highly motivated. I decided to leave
Tang and Brownie, my main leaders in the truck, they both have slight
injuries from past runs, with also leaving a few other leaders at
home, that left me quite tight with only Chevy and Dancer, and limited
Eagle and Circle as leaders. I was lucky to pull no 8, which is
great, it is defenitely a disadvantage to start in the back of the
pack on sometimes punchy trail in the beginning. Unfortunately Eagle
and Circle had other ideas about leading than me and I did not even
get out of Glenallen without changing leader, not that easy on a
parking lot where no hook holds. I was getting stressed, that in
return sensed the dogs and Dancer who is very sensitive responded
with not pulling and actually necklining, so I had to load him after
only 10 miles, not a good start. With Chevy and Piano ( just a yearling
) in lead, the team started to get some rhythm to it.
We
got to Chistochina in 5.30hr, still in daylight. Here Maaike was
waiting for me and headed me for the parking spot. Everybody ate
and drank well, even Dancer. Was it really all stress with him,
I had the vets check him over, they could find nothing wrong, so
what to do, the next leg of 78 miles could get ugly with a dog in
the basket? I still could not believe he would not work, one of
the most experienced dogs with 8 years, so I stuck him back in the
team and sure enough he pulled all the way to Paxson. In hindsight
the stress with leaders was good, I switched to race mood once that
happened and did not think about the business no more.
That
run to Paxson was most beautiful,. the trail hard and fast, the
summit calm with stunning views under the moonlight and the River
Crossing was dry this year, just some overflow, which would have
been easy if I would have not stumbled and fallen flat on my face....
I needed to get dry in Paxson. It look only 8.35 hrs to get there,
a lot quicker than I anticipated. Randy Chappel and John Schandelmeier
were always within sight, which makes travelling a lot more fun.
The dogs all seemed in good spirits, they all ate and drank well,
Maaike was there watching over them, while I tried to get some sleep.
My attempts to sleep in the shelf of the checkers cabin were rather
fruitless, compared to some mushers who rented a hotel room, I wish
I`d know about that possibility before, by the time I asked they
were booked. The more I enjoyed the great food and also the HOT
dogwater, thanks for rigging that up. Oh yeah, I also lost my armband
starting number, but Chatherine Pinard brought that in for me, thanks!
