The first race
The
next morning the day started early, we had to be in the Staging
lot at around 7.30. We had a short stop in the Caribou Hotel to
have breakfast and there John Welsch tapped me on the shoulder.
John drove my dogs in the summer on the glacier. John just came
to see the race and exactly that should change in the next minutes
because he offered me to be my handler. That was ideal to find
a handler how knows the dogs just 5 minutes before the race. John
and his leaddog "Jimmy Bea" came to us in the truck and
we went to the start area.
Mentally I was with the kennel and the
problems with our guides and couldn’t concentrate on the
race and so I and also Roland nearly missed our starting times.
In the Starting Chute I still have to take the last booties and
blankets on and then we were on the trail. Normally the feeling
after the start is great but this time I thought: my god what I’m
doing here, unprepared like never before, with a team which I didn’t
drive in this combination, and even worst, I didn’t stay
on the sled since middle of Decembers at the last race. Tang and
Chevy led the team sovereign through the city, the first kilometres
goes through the city, and stopping on the frozen-over trail wouldn’t
have been possible. Quite fast, like always, some teams passed
me, also Martin Buser with his "Old Man Sled" with a
seat installed in the back where the musher stands between the
seat and the Sledbag. His team was unbelievably harmonious and
I remembered what a patchwork-team I was running. The team didn’t
have power; I didn’t have to stand on the brake and that’s
not a good sign on the first miles. The Trail was better than expected
also the frozen river crossings and suddenly Roland was in front
of me, with all my thought I had completely forgotten that he is
in the race too. I passed him, but he remained more or less behind
me, we caught up and drove to Chistochina. Many teams were already
in the checkpoint and John our handler assigned us 2 good parkspots,
in the middle between many trees, but very near to the water house
and very calmly. It was really reassuring to have a good handler.
The dogs ate well, on that 5.5 hours run I didn’t snack,
then they eat better in the checkpoint. After 4 years I finally
realised that you don’t have to sit around stupidly in Chistochina,
but that there is a house to sleep, it would be good, if one they
would tell such things in the mushermeeting.
After 4.5 hours rest I continued at 20.30 to Paxson. This section
is with 112 kilometres the longest and also most difficult part
of the race. The start between the trees was rapid, with the result
that an anchor was torn off, but I had 3 with me, and so with the
2 remaining still enough. I noticed immediately that Austin hobbles.
What do? Turn? I did never make that. Stop, massage, and wear a
shoulder-blanked with a heatpacks and than every 30 min the same
procedure. If this don’t work and I have a dog in the sled
for over 100 kilometres, that could become genuinely unfavourable.
Gradually Austin got suppler in his run and I could also calm down.
It is amazingly what you can do with Algyval, Massage and warmth.
In my head I was still thinking about the problems with our guides
and so the time passed pretty fast and I already reached Exclesior
Creek, which is always open, but really narrow so the dogs through-jump.
At my running time, I have nearly 4.45 I noticed that I will be
very slow on this stage; normally I should have been there after
4 hours. A short snack and we continued, but the Trail became really
bad. Extremely softly, partially the dogs disappeared completely
in the snow. It was a really rough going over this silly mountain,
but it should still become worse, the snow was so soft that I had
to help often when we went downhill. Arriving at the Gulkana River,
he presented itself beautifully open. Tang and Chevy jumped in
the water, but with Popcorn and Nemo it ended they didn’t
go in. Then, in the middle, the whole team turned around and because
an other mushers was behind me I didn’t have a choice and
jumped in the water untangled the team and pulled them through.
Man, the water was cold. In the Bunny Boots it was o.k., but not
so on my legs and I didn’t have spare trousers with me. On
the other side I pulled off all the booties from the dogs and asked
myself what I should do with the wet clothes, but without replacement
the answer is simply, “Abfahrt”! Over a plateau it
goes to the Alyeska Pipelinie and then to the Highway which we
have to cross. On the way I caught up Chicken Gerry, who gave some
snacks to his dogs, which I did also. The whole time I there was
a team behind me and I had to help the dogs a lot, so that they
do not catch me up. Later I remarked that it was Roland, whose
dogs naturally smelled that I was in front of them and followed
me like crazy. Roland had his dream run, while I had to work hard,
but that was ok because otherwise I would be frozen in my trousers.
The Trail was still quite slow and after the Highway we came
one on the Summit Lake. On that I didn’t found absolutely
no and in some places on the lake there were sledtracks in 3 different
directions. Tang has the habit to still recognize a Trail which
she ran once, after years again. So I let her run on the lake (with
x islands and in the form of a horseshoe), without commands simply
there where she wanted. Often I had mushers far beside me, than
headlights which came towards to me, once a musher asked me if
I know where the trail is and I said: " no, but Tang knows
where the trail was last year." I’m not sure what he
held from my answer but he followed me. And we came exactly to
the place where the trail leaves the lake by a steep hill. Later
I remarked that I passed a lot of teams on the lake without knowing
it because of Tang. The last kilometres to Paxson are on the Denali
Highway and after 9 hours and 41 minutes were we there, approx.
2 hours slower than expected, this was an extremely hard run for
the dogs. When we arrived I remarked that they have still lot of
power left and that they are becoming a team. We parked quite apart,
so I had to walk a lot but it was nice calm for the dogs. In Paxson
they have flowing hot water for us, which facilitates the life
much. After feeding the dog and embed them I went to the Lodge
for a breakfast.
Roland came only a few minutes behind me, which surprised me very much. I asked myself who he did that.
All dogs lie on straw and from above put small Fleeceblankets
over them, so they don’t lose much warmth. Among them they
sleep very warm especially if the keep the snout under the coverage
and there own breath keeps them warm, this saves a lot of calories.
In the Lodge was a lot of scolding from the other mushers about
the bad trail. On the trail in front of us they had 3 skidoos broken
by the ice last night. However they were on the right side of Paxson
Lake, there I broke in 2 years ago, and it is even well-known for
me as strangers that you don’t drive on the right side of
Paxson Lake. Many mushers have decided to give up, but worst some
tried to persuade us others to also give up and made us a bad conscience,
that is would be bad for the dogs to stay in the race. I could
absolutely not follow the opinion from my 12 dogs all 12 healthy
were, the same with Rolands. On the bad trail I drove slowly. With
12 dogs I will not give up, only on speculations on a bad trail.
Never mind where they marked the trail, I would drive on the left
side of Paxson Lake. After an 8.30h break I left at 14.30 and the
dogs looked good, even if they needed some time to get warmed up.
The trail was on the left side of the lake and very good, but badly
marked. Allen Moore overhauled me and his team look pretty good.
I couldn’t even though to keep his speed. After approx. 2
hours we were in Meiers Checkpoint, there I didn’t stay.
The trail from Meiers to Sourdough is challenging and quite hilly,
with some very close trapline passages. This piece is well-known
as few travelled and therefore often very soft. 
Not so this year,
after we had climbed up the first mountain we had a fast run travel
through the traplinetrails and after only 5 hours we were in Sourdough,
altogether 7 hours from Paxson. That was faster than expected and
the whole panic about the bad trail was completely for nothing.
* all picture were taken by spectators of the CB300
