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Michael Ellis' Journal
from the 2005 Can-Am Crown 250
Photo courtesy of Shellmer Photos
Text courtesy of
Michael Ellis
Howdy all.
Well, it’s once again time for me to share some thoughts about our
racing season and its climax at the Can-Am Crown 250 last weekend.
For anybody that doesn’t know, more info and some pictures and news
articles can be found at
http://can-am.sjv.net/main.htm.
As I’ve said before, please feel free to pass this along to anybody you
think might like to read about our incredible dogs and our journeys down the
trails and through life with them…
Getting Ready
This was our third start at
the longest sled dog race in eastern
North America
. In 2003, we learned how much we
didn’t know about distance mushing and I scratched at the third checkpoint,
Maibec. Last year in 2004, I ran a
much smarter race, did more to maintain a healthy dog team and finished 8th
out of only 15 starters. We
couldn’t have been happier to just finish last year after having worked all
year to overcome the disappointment of 2003.
We had just bought 3 more Kodiak line Siberians from our friends Mo and
Jere to beef up the team and spent the summer and fall assimilating them to our
kennel and style. So going into this
season we had 14 dogs in the training pool as opposed to just 10 in 2003.
More dogs gave us more options in training and allowed us to compensate
for some inevitable injuries to our canine athletes over the course of our
training season, which starts in September and puts 1500-2000 miles of training
on them before the race in early March. Our
goal for 2005, formulated on the drive home from
Fort
Kent
last year, was to take 12 hours off our total race time.
We thought this would be possible with a bit more dog power, coupled with
improved training, nutrition and good team management by us throughout the
training season, lead-up races in the 250 itself.
So that was it, all training and racing this year would cater to a team
we thought could get this job done. We
still have the same core group of dogs we’ve always had and a strong
relationship with our older dogs and the fresh, young blood of a few new dogs
gave us great hopes for this year. A
goal was set, and for those of you who know Sue and me well, that’s usually
all we need…
After getting home from
Fort
Kent
last year, we drew up a training schedule that we thought could prepare us to
take those 12 hours off our run. As
a very warm fall here in the northeast dragged on, we got off to a bad start.
We had set weekly distance goals which gradually increase in the fall to
build muscle and joint strength as the dogs pull our ATV while Sue and I ride
together on it, in effect coaching the team.
We had to watch week after week as we didn’t even come close to meeting
ANY of those mileage posts. We were
consistently 30-50% behind where we wanted to be because of shortening the runs
due to temperatures that are higher than are comfortable and safe for the dogs,
but we kept up the repetition of training if not at the distances we wanted.
In addition, the three new dogs and the one puppy we’d taken back when
Kim and Kelly leased our Maple for a littler this summer meant we were all out
of room in the dog truck (again!). Not
being able to take ALL the dogs with us is a real problem because we have no
kennel help, so if anybody (i.e. any dog) stays home, we’ve got to be back in
12 hours, at the most. Since cold
temperatures and early snow are hard to come by around here lately, we knew we
had to fix that problem very soon. So
we started shopping for a new truck. Having
a good dog truck we felt would give us the security of safe travel for us and
all our pups, something we decided was worth the price.
Since we’d gotten out of our mortgage the year before when we built our
new house from scratch ourselves, we settled on a new F-350 cab and chassis
(Yeah, that’s right, an Ellis bought a Ford.
Unheard of!) to which we had
an aluminum flatbed mounted. Then
came the big job of building new dog boxes.
I spent the better part of three full weeks putting together what I hope
will be the last dog box I build for a while.
It is 8’ wide, 8.5’ long and 44 inches tall.
In that space we fit 8 very big dog boxes, which leaves enough room for
two smaller cabinets and one big storage area down the middle for gear.
It was a serious undertaking, but they came out great and we’ve really
enjoyed having the room for the dogs and gear that allows us to stay organized
and them to stay comfortable. Hopefully, we’ll still love our “Big Green”
when it’s finally paid off. It’s
a little scary having a truck capable of carrying 10 more dogs than we own.
Finally with the distractions of the new truck and warm weather mostly
behind us, winter started to creep down from the north…
Practice Runs
It was a very good thing we
got the new truck ready because real winter just didn’t want to creep quite
this far south, so we had to go north to find it.
During a stretch of 40 days starting in late December I was away with
dogs training or racing for 34. That
included a great trip to the Mush Quebec trails at
Matawin
,
Quebec
where Sue and I stayed at a remote cabin for a full week with our friends Bob
and Rhonda and all of our and their dogs. We
could run every day without fear of heavy snowmobile traffic that scares us off
the trails anywhere near home during the holidays.
The dogs also got some excellent experience spending time on straw as in
the checkpoints of the big races. The
dogs need to learn when to rest and when to work and this was the very best kind
of training thar really got the snowy season off and rolling.
Other trips during that stretch included training at the Lallas’ Kamp
Bearclaw and the Joys’ and Mattots’
Camp
Fish
and Mush, both in northern
New Hampshire
. Variety of trail, good company,
and having other dogs around to run with, kept training interesting and fun for
both mushers and dogs. We headed in
to the first race of the season with a very strong dog team.
Sue was to be on the runners for the inaugural run of the
Eagle
Lake
100, which actually crossed part of the Can-Am trail in the
Maine
north woods. We drove the 8 hours
north in a pouring rain and worried there might not be a race at all.
But, sure enough, promises of deep snow up north proved true and the race
went off despite quite rough conditions after things froze solid overnight.
Sue and the dogs ran a great first leg and covered the first half of the
course in 4 and a half hours. There
was a six-hour layover and then they were off again, heading for home.
Bad conditions on the lake they had to cross (glare ice with no chance of
stopping the team) caused her leaders troubles and it was a fight just to get
going in the right direction. Then a
mismarked trail sent Sue and the team on a wild goose chase that lasted for 20
or 25 miles. We had been looking for
a good start to the season and really, except for the time result, it was.
Sue got a little extra training in and the dogs and she finished no worse
for the wear as she brought all 10 back to the finish safely and in good health.
It was her first race longer than 30 miles and she’s dying to go back
next year.
The next weekend, we raced
at
Craftsbury
,
VT
, Sue running 6 dogs in the 30 mile and me running 8 dogs in the 60 mile.
Since we were training 14, this breakdown allowed us to run all the dogs
in the pool and get some more race experience on our new dogs.
Sue had a good run, redeeming her troubles of the week before, and
finished 3rd in a pretty big field and was the first place Siberian
team. I had a horrible run, got lost
four times, fell down on the rock-hard trail more times than I’d fallen in my
whole mushing career of 11 years, and generally just got beat up.
The dearth of snow just didn’t allow much control and Sue had all the
experienced leaders as I wanted to test our younger leading crew and establish
some confidence with them. In the
end, we still had a time of 6 hours, which had been my goal for that race
anyway, and I got voted the Sportsmanship Award for the second year in a row.
It was a bit of a test of resolve, but I think we got stronger for it.
Then came the
Stratford
race in which there is a 12-dog class for the 30 mile race.
Since I know the trail well (we are part of the crew that marks the
trail!) and it was in good shape, I was comfortable pushing the team for a nice,
fast run and we took third place with a time of 2 hours 36 minutes for the 33
miles, making an average of over 12.5 mph - very respectable over a hilly
course, especially since we don’t really train for speed at all.
Another new addition to the New England racing circuit this year was the
Greenville
100 miler at
Moosehead Lake
,
Maine
. It was set up like the
Eagle
Lake
race with a leg out to a checkpoint, a mandatory layover at a supplied
checkpoint and then a return run over the same trail.
This was to be the last chance to hook up to a 12-dog team race to
prepare for Can-Am, so I was running the team for this one.
The area got about two feet of snow the day before the race, so the trail
was soft and slow and temperatures climbed with sunny skies on Saturday.
Soft trail and warm temps are a bad combination for our furry dogs and
the first run over seemed to take forever. After
the two-hour layover, I left the checkpoint in 8th place of 11
starters with only one other Siberian team (Mike Santos, who finished his young
team about 1.5 hours after us) in the field.
The dogs picked up the pace after our two hour rest and we passed two
teams coming home in the dark and cool of night, which got us up to a 6th
place finish, less than 90 minutes off the win.
This was the best training run we could have had for Can-Am as the trail
was similar in difficulty due to the fresh snow and the short layover pushed the
dogs to recover quickly, things we needed to be prepared for.
After getting home we got more snow and the dog truck didn’t have to
leave the yard again until we loaded up to drive to
Fort
Kent
as we could run the dogs daily from home without the added stress of travel.
This kept the dogs healthy and happy leading up to the year’s big
event.
Phew, did ya think I’d
ever get to actually talking about the race?
If ya gotta go to the bathroom, get a beer or a cup of coffee or anything
else, ya better do it now, cuz this gets good.
Heading North
We leave to head north on
the Thursday before the race, driving six hours north at a leisurely pace and
even stopping in Freeport, Maine at the LLBean store to pick up a couple more
pairs of fleece liner gloves I was short on.
We bumped into Bill Bartlett (1980 Iditarod finisher from NH, whom
we’ve befriended through our mutual friend and musher, Jim Lalla) in the big
store and stopped and chatted for a while before hitting the road north again,
as he was on his way to volunteer at the race.
We considered bumping into him a good omen for the trip.
The whole northeast had just gotten a huge dump of snow, so the drive was
really beautiful and we got to Katahdin Lodge in the late afternoon in time to
feed and hang out with the dogs. We’ve
stayed here the last couple of years because it’s close to
Fort
Kent
without going all the way up in one day. It
makes it a little easier on the dogs to have a nice quiet place to rest Thursday
night. Friday morning then is a
quick breakfast and a short drive to
Fort
Kent
for the vet checks that start at 11. We
like to get there early so that we don’t have to park where other teams have
been put down at the ski area parking lot. This
helps us prevent picking up any nasty bugs that always creep around with teams
that travel and we knew many teams had been sick at the big race out in Michigan
just a couple of weeks earlier. Friday
is kind of a fun day, if a bit stressful. Our
vet check went great and I was told that it’d be hard to get a team looking
much better. We came in without a
single foot problem on any of the dogs. I
warned the vet that there was one dog that had had a nagging wrist injury that
we had been managing since January and when he was done he hadn’t seen
anything wrong with any of the dogs. I
took him back over to Gecko and told him which wrist it was and he examined it
further and could still find no stiffness or any other problems so our starting
12 was set. Once that was done
there’s not much else to do except get our checkpoint bags to each trailer for
delivery to each of the four checkpoints and hang out with the other 89 teams in
town to race! That’s right, each
of Can-Am’s three races (30 mile, 60 mile, and 250 mile) had a full entry of
30 drivers. That’s a lot of dogs
taking off down a snow-covered
Main Street
! I think it must have been second
only to Iditarod this year in size of start for a dogsled race anywhere - quite
a spectacle. Later Friday night we
got to check in with our host family, the Mitchells, and have some dinner with
them before our drivers’ meeting at 6. Without
the normal suspense of the bib draw (Can-Am started using order of registration
for starting order this year and since we’d been the firs to sign up in
September, I got bib #1), it was kind of a weird drivers’ meeting but it’s
always good to put faces to the names you didn’t know in the field and say Hi
to anybody we’d missed earlier in the day.
Many very tough teams were in the field including several Yukon Quest and
Iditarod finishers, three past Can-Am champions and quite a contingent of fast
teams from the
Midwest
to round out the very strong Canadian teams.
We had our work cut out for us, and honestly, I didn’t think we had
much of a chance of finishing in the top half, bit I did have my goal of
finishing by dinnertime on Monday evening. There
was just one other purebred Siberian team in the race.
It was driven by Paul Huska and was made up of his dogs along with some
dogs from Kathy Hughes’ kennel. Paul
had just had a great showing out at the UP250, and I knew he’d be hard to
beat. The only other purebred team
in the race was our friend Bill Battot with his beautiful team of Mals.
After the drivers’ meeting wrapped up, we headed back to Mitchells’
to catch up with them a bit more and get some sleep.
Sue and I were both feeling a bit under the weather as we drifted off to
sleep in the bed that Isaac Mitchell gives up for us every year.
(Thanks, Isaac!) Unfortunately,
we were both up most of the night with worsening coughs and I’m quite sure I
was feverish as I was totally unable to regulate my body temperature.
Ugh. The race must go on.
Race Day
Saturday morning.
Race day. Here we go!
We’ve got to be inside the staging area before 8 am to get our parking
spot before the 60-mile teams start going off.
This gives us time to set up the sled and gear for the dogs as well as
watch and help some friends entered in the 60 and 30 which both go off before
us. Finally it’s time to pull out
the dogs and harnesses, wax the dogs’ feet to prevent snowballing, and take
off down
Main Street
. This year I gave the nod to my tow
most experienced leaders, Squiggle and Kobuk to lead us out of town, something
that’s a bit harrowing for dogs used to running through empty woods, not
streets line with literally thousands of cheering people.
These two did a fine job while I stood on the drag with both feet until
we were out of town and the dogs were loosened up after two nights sleeping in
the truck. The team settled in to a
nice pace and the miles rolled away at about 10 miles per hour over chewed up
trail from having 60 teams in front of us as our course follows that of the
shorter races for a while. I caught
up to four 30-mile teams, but all passes were uneventful and we rolled on.
I expected teams to start to catch me soon, as I knew many fast teams
were right behind me. Surprisingly,
I went past the turn off from the 60-mile trail and got first tracks on virgin
trail for another 10 miles. I had
been looking over my shoulder for quite a while when finally I saw a team coming
up from behind. It was Amy Dugan who
went on to post the fastest time on that leg of any team and her team looked
great despite the heat of the day. We
had slowed considerably with the sun beating on the dogs and needed a quick rest
to cool down and snack, as the dogs had come nearly 40 of the 70 miles to the
first checkpoint. I stopped and a
couple of more teams (Matt Carstens and Bruce Linton, both friends) caught us
and went on by. The dogs slowed up a
bit until the sun started to set and we picked the pace back up some and
re-passed Matt even though a couple more teams came by before we pulled in to
Portage just two minutes later than my schedule!
Sue led the team to our parking spot, which is all she can do for us once
we start, as this is not a handlers’ race.
The team ate pretty well and with no injuries I massaged and wrapped a
few of the heavier dogs as a preventive measure.
We get a bale of straw at each of the four checkpoints and we use it all
to make the dogs as comfortable as they can be, including loosening their tug
lines so they can move about to rest, relieve themselves and eat snacks I give
after the initial meal shortly after arrival.
The vets gave the team a quick once-over and signed off on all 12 being
ready to continue. Our race plan
called for 4 hour rests at each of the first 3 checkpoints before the mandatory
5 hour rest at Allagash, the last checkpoint.
This would make for a bit over my mandatory 14 hours and 58 minutes of
rest and start differential I have to make up to bib 30 who goes out 58 minutes
after me, but that was the plan and I was sticking to it.
As I prepared to leave the checkpoint, the team who knew we were pressing
on got ready before me and popped the snowhook and started on their own.
Sue’s quick work grabbing the leaders and their still secured hook,
coupled with matt (who was tending to his team right next to us) grabbing the
sled from behind (nice move Matt, thanks!) saved a near disaster and I had only
a small tangle to fix before we hooked to an ATV for a controlled exit across
the road. Just before midnight,
after a 4hr20min rest, we signed out, and left on better trail that we’d had
anywhere in the first leg, and as it turned out, the only real good trail we’d
have the rest of the way. We
followed a snow machine trail for 13 miles and that got the dogs rolling along
nicely in the dark of night. Even
after turning off the better trail, the dogs kept up decent pace with a few more
rest stops on the 50-mile leg to Rocky Brook logging camp.
The first night with no sleep is pretty hard and you see some weird
things out there in the dark. Two
teams caught and passed me on this leg, but I thought we were holding our own in
the top third of racers pretty well. Stump
had taken over for Squiggle leaving
Portage
and he and Kobuk brought us up the driveway at the recently renovated Irving
Woodlands Rocky Brook Camp just after dawn in moderate and accumulating snow.
This was a new checkpoint this year and it was a nice improvement, as
this one had running water and more room for mushers to spread out with their
teams. The team again ate pretty
well and was resting nicely except for Ambler who felt the need to sit up and
watch all that was happening instead of laying down to sleep like the 11 others.
I tried to lay him down, but each time I’d leave, he was right back up
keeping an eye on things. The remote
checkpoints (the middle two, which are inaccessible to the public or any
handlers other than race officials), mushers are treated like king.
We are brought our checkpoint bags, straw, and a five gallon bucket of
warm water upon arrival. This is everything we need to care for our teams.
As far as caring for ourselves, they always have an all you can eat, hot
meal inside along with a bunk house where you can spread out gear to dry, take a
nap and/or change your clothes. I
always tend to the dogs first, which takes 60 to 90 minutes.
Then it’s inside to change in to dry clothes, get a meal and drink as
much as I can, and then if there’s time I lad down for a few minutes after
leaving a wake up call that always seems too short.
As it takes about 30 minutes for me to get the team ready to go again,
there’s not a lot of spare time in a 4 hour “rest”.
I did have a minute or two to talk with Keith Aili from
Minnesota
who has a very good, fast dog team and has both won this race and the UP250 in
Michigan
and has finished Iditarod! He was
rounding out his rest and planning on skipping the next checkpoint in a
strategic move very different for the teams in front of us.
Keith was taking his rest early, while trying to maintain speed as
opposed to Martin Massicotte who was in the lead but pushing on with only 3.5
hours rest total in the first two checkpoints.
Keith asked if I knew if the snow which was now coming down pretty good
was gonna amount to much. I said
I’d heard “snowshowers” but that was in
Fort
Kent
and out here in the hills it might be 6-12 inches.
I wish I’d have been wrong. I
wished him luck and we both went out to prepare our teams to leave in the
deepening snow of midmorning. I
passed another Keith, Peppler this time, on my way out to my team.
He has been in mushing forever and I wanted to introduce myself.
He’s the race marshal up at the UP250 and I’d like to go run that
someday. We had a nice chat for a
few minutes about some of my concerns about that race’s cutoff rule and he
assured me if I could finish this race, I’d have no problems in
Michigan
. We his the trail after a 3hr49min
rest to get back on the 4 hour goal after the slightly longer rest in Portage of
4:20.
I knew this next leg would
be slow as it was in the heat of the day (~28 degrees and snowing hard, with
some gusty wind), but it’s short and I planned on a snack stop half way, near
Round Pond where we cross the mighty Allagash River as it drains south-central
Maine. It’s a 28 mile run I
thought I would take us 4 hours. With
the snow and hills never seeming to end, we made our lonely way over to Maibec.
This part of the trail is just plain out there.
You don’t see anything except for the trail put in for this event.
It makes it very tough to lose the trail and I’ve never had any trouble
following the Can-Am trail even late at night in show storms, of which I’ve
seen at least one each year I’ve run! I’ve
really grown to dislike this part of the trail as I’d watched my team struggle
through it the last two years. Well,
this year was no different. It took
us nearly 4.5 hours to cover the short distance that felt like 50 miles in the
soft, soft, soft, trail that had the dogs wallowing, not running.
I really wanted to get to Miabec at 2:15 pm only 15 minutes behind my
original schedule! Our friend Bill
Bartlett was a race judge at Miabec and it was good to see an especially
friendly and familiar face around as I checked in, parked the team next to Matt
who was still bedding his team down, and worked through my team feeding, rubbing
and wrapping wrists (preventatively), and giving massages to east the dogs in to
a comfortable sleep. I’ve come to
make MANY friends among the race volunteers who do SOOOO much for us so we can
come out and showcase our wonderful dogs, and they are really amazing to us at
Miabec. Before you can get off the
runners, they are asking if they can get you food or anything to drink or if you
need anything at all. It’s a well
run race and it’s so mice not to have to worry about that little stuff so you
can focus on the dogs and their needs. I
guess there was about 6-8 inches of snow when I got there and chores took me a
while. On the run over I had thought
of breaking with the plan (gasp) and taking more rest at Maibec than our planned
4. I was worried about continuing
snow and worsening trail. It was
already so tough and now I had to sit and watch it accumulate more.
I had a lot to think about as I found out that all the teams were still
here except Keith Aili who had apparently stuck with his plan despite the
unplanned storm and had headed out to break trail alone.
I wanted to keep racing as much as I could, but worried I might be asking
too much of them to push out on the long 55 miles of the next leg to the last
checkpoint without a bit more rest. I
stewed over this while having some stew inside after finally finishing with the
dogs. In the end, I gave a one hour
wake-up call and got my first sleep of the race.
An hour is just about enough sleep to make a tired person a grumpy
person. I don’t like to sit still
when I’m grumpy so I figured it was time to head out in to the now full-on
snow storm, which had put a solid foot of snow on the trail that was soft to
begin with. It was gonna be a long
haul through the night to Allagash. I
hustled, but getting my things together took me longer this time so my rest
ended up being about 4.5 hours at Maibec.
The Run to Allagash
I thought this run would
take me about 9 hours in normal Can-Am conditions.
Only problem is, there really don’t seem to be any normal Can-Am
conditions and this night was no different.
Through the beam of a single headlamp mounded on my hat, we set off in
heavy snow just after dark. I had
one major concern as a volunteer led Kobuk and Stump across the snowy yard to
the checker to sign out. Gecko was
acting pretty stiff in his wrist that had been injured early in the year.
I’d been rubbing him with Algyval (a kind of doggy ben-gay) and
wrapping the wrist at each checkpoint, but the miles seemed to be adding up
against him. L:uckily he loosened up
and worked back into his normal trot in less than a mile from the checkpoint.
If he hadn’t, I would have had to turn around and bring him back or
carry him all the way to Allagash, neither of which were very good options.
I had 11 or 12 teams in front of me that had left at various stages of
the storm, but dog teams don’t really pack loose snow, the just kind of churn
it up into something like mashed potatoes, not an easy thing to run in for the
dogs. It’s rather surreal
traveling like this is a sea of white while being extremely tired and still
fighting a cold that had me coughing up blood at times on the trail.
I still had all 12 of my dogs thought, and they were moving along
steadily, if not quickly, with some short rests.
Don Hibbs caught up, although he had a horrible tangle when his team
wouldn’t pass. I was glad for my
well-trained team who stood there calmly while his dogs fought and tangled.
After he got going, I went up to my team, fixed a few dogs that had
stepped over the gangline while avoiding the troubles right next to them, and
snacked the, as long as we were stopped anyway.
I checked a few booties as I had the whole team with boots on in the
snowstorm, not wanting to deal with any feet issues in the middle of the night.
Boots were all fine and I was glad to not have to take the 20 minutes to
reboot the team. After another
little bit of slow travel, it stopped snowing and cleared out to reveal a
crystal clear night that was strangely bright.
I had to locate the big dipper to orient myself to north to figure out
that the far north must have been getting a huge show of the northern lights as
it had the ground lit up enough to see by, without my headlamp.
It was very confusing at first because it looked like the glow of dawn,
but it was in the northern sky and it was only 1 am.
So in a very short time of maybe five minutes we went from running in a
whiteout where it was sometimes difficult to see my leasers, to running without
the headlamp and being able to see distant hills glowing in the light green glow
of the dancing aurora. While the
light snow continued for hours, so did we. The
trail didn’t get any better, even as the snow stopped, but it started to get
cold fast with the clear sky. I had
to stop and peel off some wet layers and refresh with a dry coat and hat from in
the sled bag. This took a little too
long for the dogs who figured it was a good time for a nap.
I had to make a decision, and stopping here about 25 miles from Allagash
wasn’t at the top of my list. One
call of “ready?” to Kobuk in lead and his faith in me prevailed as he pulled
the team to its feet and away we went. Shortly
after that, I came upon two teams parked on the side of the trail, bedded down.
I could see it was my good friend Matt, and Robert Fredette or
Ontario
. Their teams had needed a break and
they were settling in for a while. It
took me so by surprise to find them, I didn’t even consider it at the time and
just gave Kobuk the “on by”, although I think he might have liked to stick
around for the fire those guys build after we went by.
Matt later told me he got really cold and was glad he’d had the sense
to get that fire going when he did. One
I got by, my very tired team couldn’t seem to get the idea that they might
like to stop for a while too, out of their heads.
It’s a real struggle to decide what’s best for your dog team in this
case. Do you press on, pushing the
team and yourself, or do you surrender to resting when the checkpoint and much
better rest with warm water and straw for the dogs await, if you can get there?
I decided that even though we were still 3 or more hours away, it was
cold enough for the dogs and we’d press on as long as I had leaders to do it.
Kobuk and Stump did great and we actually started to pick up speed once
they forgot about the trailside camping idea.
We finished up the run in to Allagash at 5:15 am Monday after 10.5 hours
on the trail from Maibec on what I think was the hardest single run of my
mushing career, pulling in to Kelly’s Two Rivers Diner and getting to see Sue
for the first time since late Saturday night in Portage, some 10+ miles ago.
With my frosty beard, I greeted her with a nice big kiss, which was kind
of cold and slimy, but I heard someone say as she wiped her face, “he meant it
in the nicest way,” and they were right. The
long slog of a run had put is a big behind schedule bus we had passed a couple
of teams, had our longest rest of the race upon us, and just one more leg to go.
Sue said when I got to
Allagash, I looked “baaaaaad.” Well,
I wasn’t feeling too hot either. My
cough had moved deep in to my lungs and the exertions of working up hills had
sent me in to numerous painful coughing fits that didn’t help anything.
I’d slept one hour in the last two days while working hard outside in
difficult conditions. It’s dealing
with all these things while maintaining an even, happy demeanor with the dogs
that makes a good distance musher. If
it was easy, everybody’d be doin’ it. Despite
feeling like the bottom of the bucket, I had dogs to care for and a mandatory
vet check that can be a bit disruptive to your routine of dog care.
(Just a note on this – We have worked very hard to make our checkpoint
dog care a routine to the point that it’s done the same each and every time
and both the dogs and musher know what comes next by instinct because when you
get this tired, thinking just doesn’t work any more.
Sight disruptions make focus difficult and that is why sometimes mushers
seem a bit “distant” or “cold” to spectators.
I certainly try to be friendly at all times, but sometimes it’s a real
challenge to not just tune out well-wishers.
Sorry.) The dogs ate very
well. (I actually overfed the,
causing some diarrhea in the team on the last run.
My mistake.) The sun was
rising quickly and I had a great parking spot for the team in between some snow
banks which allowed them privacy while still letting the sun bake them to a
sound sleep once the vets finished their check of the team, finding no problems.
I had gotten my full team 200 miles through the race and was having
visions taking all 12 back to
Fort
Kent
. At the checkpoint, Sue and I sat
down to have some breakfast and check the time board with all the racers’
times. Keith Aili had scratched,
unwilling to continue breaking trail by him.
Paul Huska with his Sibes has pulled in only 25 minutes behind me and two
more teams were only another 20-25 minutes behind him.
That group rounded out the money spots as Can-Am pays to 12th.
I was really worried about these
teams having a good last run and catching me, so as I ate breakfast, I thought
about Gecko’s stiffness leaving the last checkpoint and Ambler’s general
worn out state. His inability to
rest properly in the first couple check points had not caught up with him.
With Sue nearly pushing me out the door of the restaurant to the
bunkroom, once my place was empty, I took a quick look at the dogs to find them
all sleeping, left my wake-up call and got another beautiful hour and a half of
sleep. Waking back up at 9 am to
start getting ready for my 10:15 departure, I got dressed and stepped outside to
find bright, sunny skies and warming temperatures.
I decided it best to drop the two question marks (Ambler and Gecko)
rather than take the chance of one or both of them being a problem on the last
leg. I really didn’t want to lose
ground in the standings after working so hard to get where I was, even though
the thought of finishing with all 12 dogs was tempting.
I filled out the dropped dog forms with the vets and they marked the dogs
out. As I watched these “tired”
and “sore” dogs drag Sue over to the truck, I wondered if maybe I should
have kept them in the team.
The Home Stretch
I had the team ready to go 5
minutes before our earliest time out, and we got the count-down to go out across
the frozen
Allagash
River
and on to the last leg. The team
started slow as they worked out the kinks and relieved themselves in the first
half-mile of travel. The bright sun
and still soft trail didn’t help our pace and we crawled along while I was
already looking over my shoulder, expecting to see teams gaining on us.
I decided the best I could do for the team was just push myself
physically, by pedaling and running up all the hills to take weight off the sled
for the dogs. I’m usually very
active, unlike a few drivers who just kind of hang on for the ride, but I really
pushed myself hard this last leg. The
dogs know when I’m working hard and they seem to respond better to that than
any verbal encouragement I could give. After
about 15 miles, the trail gets it to some nice forest and out of the wide open
logging roads we’d been on. The
shade and interesting trail sparked the dogs and we began to pick up the pace.
It’s a glory to see a team of dogs you’ve trained working together as
a unit and I was brought to tears several times on the last run by the simple
sight of our team moving smartly down the trail together towards the finish
line. I never did end up seeing any
teams on the whole last leg, and just as it started to snow, I came over the
last hill as dusk began to settle and the team led me out on to the ski slope
that leads down to the finish chute. With
50 years left to go and Sue in sight, Kobuk, who had led the entire race and had
shown strength beyond the call of duty, shied from the crowd, and the swing
dogs, Maple and Mugs, actually pulled us across the line to clock us in as
official 9th place finishers. After
hugs and kisses for all the dogs, we did our final sled bag check for mandatory
equipment and the team trotted down to the truck for post race snacks and vet
check, still wagging their tails.
As it turned out, we
finished less than 4 hours off of the winning time of Martin Massocotte and only
1.5 hours out of third place. We
posted the third fastest time of any team on the last leg and got it just before
dark and the third snow storm of the week. We
met and exceeded our goal, taking over 14 hours off our 2004 time despite very
rough conditions. The whole last run
I had been dreaming of a nice steak dinner and only 5 minutes after I got in,
David Mitchell informed us that they would have dinner ready for us by the time
w got the gods taken care of and gear put away if he only knew how we liked our
steak cooked! We finished with dogs
and gear and had a great dinner with our fabulous host family.
I didn’t quite fall asleep at the table, but after a heavenly shower
and the third beer, I was ready for bed!
My congratulations to all
the mushers who had the faith in their teams to even start this event.
It’s a huge undertaking and I’m proud to call many in the field
“friends.”
I do want to mention that our kennel is at a serious crossroads at this
point. We need to find ways to get
some help in the form of sponsorship if we are to continue to grow and be
competitive. We are unable to set
higher goals at this time because this year saw us at our absolute limit of
resources. If any of you have ideas
for how we might acquire any levels of sponsorship to assist the team, please
let us know. We have dreams of
running the legendary distance races in
Alaska
, but we’ll need a lot of help to get there.
Our Thanks
Of course, I’d like to
take a minute to thanks some folks…
To our only sponsor and biggest fan, Thanks Mom and the dogs thank you for
all the booties.
To the rest of our family for support and love.
To the Mitchell family of Fort Kent, Tammy, David and their great kids,
Alex, Adrienne, and Isaac who put us up for the fourth year running and treat us
like family.
To our friends that share their camps with us for training locations with
great company, the Lallas, Mattots, and Joys.
To the rest of our friends that give us strength, encouragement, and help,
expecially Krickit and Mitch Ingerson and Matt Carstens.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WE COULDN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU ALL.
Most of all, I need to thank my precious wife Sue who has jumped into this
insane lifestyle with me just because I asked her to.
She rounds out this team and makes it whole.
Thank you. I love you.
And finally, thanks to our wonderful dogs who constantly amaze and flatter
us with their selfless effort and relentless love.
This year’s team was Kobuk (Most Valuable Dog and leader of every step
of the way!), Squiggle (leader), Stump (leader), Mugs (leader), Jim, Maple,
Romeo (tightest tug award, again!), Gila, Hawkeye, Curly, Gecko, and Ambler.
Zirkle and Wink were alternates and tough decisions to leave home.
Old timers Wyatt, Birch, and
Summit
and puppy Molly all keep kennel life fun and we wouldn’t be where we are
without them.
Confidence. Trust.
Faith. Respect.
Thanks – Team Tsuga.
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