Sibersong Sleddogs - Adventures in Dog Mushing

October 2001 - Eating Dirt
I took Kodi and Mikayla out training at 7:30 am. Started off real well - nice & chilly - we even saw a deer! A real deer!!! Ran across the path about 50 feet in front of us. I've never seen a deer or any sort of large wildlife outside of a zoo before. I was so excited...my first wildlife! :-)

Luckily the dogs didn't take off after it. They ran a little faster but couldn't figure out where the deer went so they weren't tempted to chase.

But about 10 minutes later we were getting close to the end of the run and all of a sudden they veered off the path to chase a squirrel. For some reason - it all happened so fast I'm not exactly sure HOW it happened - I lost control. I think the bike went into a skid and they managed to pull me off balance. All I know is I saw the ground rush up at me at a gazillion miles an hour and then THUD!

My face hit the ground so hard that I seriously, honest-to-god, actually ate dirt; as in, I was spitting it out of my mouth. I lay there for a second and then started to get up but I couldn't - my ribs sort of felt funny and I couldn't seem to breathe. I thought for a second that I bruised or On top of that, everything was spinning. So I lay back and just stayed there on the ground, holding the neckline between the 2 dogs so they wouldn't run off. They were walking all over and around me, trying to determine what was wrong (I think they knew mommy was injured). The whole time I'm thinking, "Where is another biker or a jogger when you need them?"

Eventually my head felt less like the size of a watermelon and I was able to breathe again, so - already a crazy musher, even with only two dogs - I thought to myself, "Let's just finish the training run." We could have taken a shortcut back to the truck, but I was determined to tough it out. So we continued the training run until the end, with me gritting my teeth over every bump.

We got back to the Blazer and I went about the business of watering the dogs, giving them a treat, taking the harnesses off and putting the gear away. By then, I was walking very carefully so as not to jar my head, and I discovered praising and kissing the dogs was a little difficult because I had a fat lip forming. I looked at my reflection in the car window and discovered an enormous lump was protruding above my eyebrow....I mean, we're talking totally deformed-looking. A little while later I looked down and noticed my pants were sticking to my knee and there was a dark stain there. I pulled up the pant leg to discover I'd ripped up my knee too - I hadn't even felt it over the throbbing in my head.

As the adreneline from running dogs began to wear off I realized I had a mild concussion. The drive home made me a little nauseated and I spent the better part of the morning feeling somewhat confused, unable to concentrate, and slurring my words. (In other words, it was a lot like being drunk!)

For the next week I had to field comments from everyone I met: "Oh my GOD, what happened to YOU???" The bump on my head turned into the hugest black eye I've ever seen. But when I showed up at a rig race the following weekend, every musher just looked at me and said, "Been training, huh?"

November 2001 - The Training Run From Hell
Last week was incredible...we trained with Tenley's team on Sunday, then on Thursday we got to chase a team at a training area in Carlisle (the dogs always do better when they chase); on Saturday we trained up at the Auburn working day, once in a team with Kodi running lead (he did amazing!) and once chasing a big team of dogs. And then on Sunday we met Becki down at Arcadia and practiced passing. Both dogs were running amazingly well, and really seemed to be working together as a team.

But from there it went downhill again. The next 2 runs we did weren't all that great, with Mikayla and Kodi getting distracted by everything and anything. And today's run topped 'em all.

We had just started out this morning on the little multi-use trail we use in Concord MA when we came across a woman walking a poodle. Kodi decided poodle would taste nice for breakfast and in the process of trying to get off the bike to grab their lines and walk them past, they got away from me. Dragging the fallen bike behind them, they charged at the woman & her poodle, wrapped their lines around the woman's legs, and just as I caught up with them Kodi was grabbing for the poodle with his mouth. The woman snatched up her poodle and got the hell out of our way (of course, had she done that in the first place maybe there wouldn't have been a problem!) but when I went to straighten out the bike I discovered the dogs had totally screwed it up.

I ended up having to detach them from the bike and hook their lines to a tree while I tried to do some bike repairs. The rear brake line was sliced partway thru, one of the brake handles was broken, and the front wheel refused to straighten out because the front brake line was somehow tangled up in the frame. I have NO idea how they managed to do so much damage so quickly! In the end, I had to yank the front brake line out completely in order to get the wheel to straighten. So we had to do the rest of the run with only one partially-working brake, which would slow down the dogs but not stop them.

Meanwhile, poodle-lady had walked on ahead with her dog, so we had to pass them AGAIN once we got going. (author's note: as I read this now after a few more years of experience, I realize just how clueless and reckless I really was those first 2 years! Kids, do not attempt this at home.) This time we got past without incident, but the woman was definately staring daggers at me. She looked like the uppity sort that would have an "in" with the town fathers...I wouldn't be surprised to see a large "NO SLEDDOG TRAINING ALLOWED" sign there next time.

Not 2 minutes later we're on this long wooden bridge that crosses over some wetland/marsh-type area, when Kodi decides to take a shit. This is a "clean up after your dog" kind of place, and while I'm in the process of trying to break off a tree branch to scrape it off the bridge with, Mikayla decides to jump OFF the bridge into the marsh below, dragging a startled Kodi with her. Luckily it's been a dry fall, so it was pretty much just dry ground and weeds down there. However both dogs are now about 5 feet below me exploring in the weeds, I have no idea how I'm going to get them out of there since it looks too far for them to jump back up, and to top it off I hear the poodle-lady approaching again. After I finished cleaning up after Kodi I had to jump down into the marsh, unhook their neckline, and then lift each dog over my head onto the bridge again.

By this time at least 30 minutes have elapsed since we started our run, and we haven't even managed to get 1 mile into it. Aaaargh! Luckily though, that was the last of the trouble, and we encountered no more dogs (thank god, because I didn't have the brake power to stop them).

So for the THIRD time this fall I had to bring my bike into the repair shop, where I swear they are starting to know me by name. I've spent $50 in bike repairs so far. The kicker is that I JUST had the rear brake line replaced a week ago, and now I had to get it replaced again. The shop guys are probably wondering what the hell I'm doing with the bike.

I can't wait to get a rig.....

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