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The 2007 Can-Am 250 Race (page 2)
Leg Two: Portage to Rocky Brook
© 2007 Jaye Foucher 
At 4 am I went outside to start getting ready to leave. I checked Jackson over very carefully - he had been limping slightly on the way into the checkpoint and seemed a little sore in the shoulder area when we came in, but appeared to be fine now. We headed out of the checkpoint just before 5 am, in weather that was surprisingly warm for that time of morning.
The run to Rocky Brook was beautiful, but slow. The fresh snow from the night before added to the snow from Friday night made the trail not much better than the day before. Magik wasn't doing so well in lead this morning so I put Anthem up with McKinley and moved Magik back to point. After the sun came up the day warmed up considerably. Jackson was still limping, almost from the start of the run. I tried twice to put him in the sledbag but he was having none of that and I think I managed to keep him there for about a mile before he jumped out. I knew I was going to drop him at Rocky Brook so I decided the easiest thing to do was let him run, rather than fight to keep him in the bag. About halfway into the run I stopped to give the dogs a breather and all 4 yearlings lay down in the sun and closed their eyes. "They're exhausted," I thought. I felt so bad for them. The older dogs were still standing and doing a lot better, but I knew the yearlings were feeling the lack of sleep and extra miles. So I started taking a lot of little rest breaks and snow breaks where they could roll around in the snow to cool off. 
Another 10 or so miles into the run Tristan threw himself onto a snowbank and let himself drag for a second. I stopped immediately and thought, "This is NOT good." I went up and gave him some hugs and scratches, and he wagged his tail and kissed me. He seemed fine, just warm and tired. I decided to take it a few miles at a time. We'd go a few miles, stop for a snack. Go a few miles, stop for some snowbank rolling time. Go a few miles, stop so Mommy can take cute pictures of the dogs on the trail. After about 4 stops the dogs had perked up a lot and we were able to keep moving forward after that, so my plan worked!
At one point when we were stopped I looked down the trail behind us and saw the shadow of a canine moving on the trail, without a dog team behind it. I thought, "Oh god, someone behind me lost a dog!" But then the shadow moved and I saw the big bushy tail. It was a fox, and the fox was just standing on the trail behind us, watching us. I glanced quickly at my dogteam, who by now had turned to look at the fox. The leaders were thinking of giving chase so I ran up and held them, and we all watched as the fox ran off in the other direction. It was a pretty cool moment out there. We pulled into Rocky Brook around 1:15 pm. It was sunny and warm, and I was intending to take a longer rest there than originally planned to give the yearlings time to bounce back a little. Because I wanted them to get the most rest possible I changed my routine a little and decided to feed and put straw down before doing Algyval and wrist wraps. I had a vet come over immediately to check Jackson, and told them no matter what I was dropping him. They determined he either had a sore muscle under his armpit or some soreness in the elbow joint. I signed the dropped dog forms but told them I wanted him to rest with the team until it was time for him to go. 
Meanwhile, before I could get around to putting straw down, McKinley commandeered the straw bale for herself. The checkpoint volunteers had placed the bale near the front of the team rather than back beside the sled, and McKinley decided she wasn't waiting any longer for her nap. So she crawled up on the bale, curled up, and went to sleep. Pretty much everyone at the checkpoint with a camera was snapping photos of Miss Princess on her throne of straw. When it came time for me to dole out the straw and I lifted her off the bale, she actually growled at me!
After settling the dogs down for their nap I went thru the team rubbing wrists and putting on wristwraps, and when I came to Tristan I realized my mistake in not doing this first thing. One of his wrists, which had been troubling him all winter, was now swollen at the joint. Damn, damn. damn! I knew better. I screwed up. I called the vets over again and we decided to see if the swelling would go down over the next few hours with Algyval and wrapping before making the choice to drop him or not. I highly doubted he would continue with the team, but figured it was worth a shot. I spread all my wet gear out on the sled to dry in the sun and went in to the checkpoint building to get some food. I walked in, looked around and spotted what everyone was eating and proclaimed, "I LOVE THIS RACE! There's pasta at every checkpoint!" And here I was worried that they might be serving food on the race that I wouldn't want to eat. :P I didn't sleep at this checkpoint as I wasn't at all sleepy, but perhaps I should have because the time really dragged. We stayed 6 hours. About 4.5 hours into our stay I went out to look at Tristan's wrist and saw the swelling hadn't gone down at all so I signed the forms to drop him there. I hadn't expected to feel sad, but I almost cried as the vets led Tristan and Jackson away from the team. With two dogs less I had to shorten the gangline, which was an interesting task. I asked some checkpoint volunteers to help hold the lead dogs while I removed a section of gangline and then reattached the leaders. Leg 3: Rocky Brook to Maibec At about 7:15 pm we pulled out of Rocky Brook. The dogs were screaming to go, and as I was trying to sign out of the checkpoint I could barely hold them on the plowed road. I wound up kind of yelling at the checkpoint guy over the screams of the dogs, "HURRY UP WITH THAT BOOK! I CAN'T HOLD THEM MUCH LONGER!" as he signed his initials in my race/vet book. I felt a little bad for yelling at him but that vet book was required gear and I could read the dogs well - I knew in less than 20 seconds we were going to be out of there with no turning back! We took off and almost immediately there's a sharp right turn off the plowed road and onto a trail. The dogs took that at high speed and my sled was practically airborne over the snowbank. Thankfully I didn't tip over, but I can tell you my knees were knocking and my legs were shaking! And the fun wasn't over yet. Those dogs were PSYCHO. At one point I thought, "Perhaps I rested them too long?" The trail out of Rocky Brook was winding and narrow through woods, with a lot of sharp corners, and I swear those dogs were determined to dump me off the sled. They were having a blast whipping me around those corners. I was begging them, "Please, please, don't kill Mommy guys!" Then I thought maybe they'd all gotten together at Rocky Brook and decided if they lost the musher they wouldn't have to finish the race? We hit Round Pond and it was all I could do to slow them down as they flew across it at top speed. I didn't want them running full out and injuring themselves or wearing themselves out, so I was doing my best to hold them back. After that they calmed down a hair, but we still made it into the Maibec checkpoint about an hour earlier than I expected to be there, making the run in just over 5 hours. After completing my checkpoint routine, which of course was getting smoother and faster and more familiar each time I did it, I headed into the Maibec building. Hey, they have a drying room here! I hung all my soaked gear up to dry in there, had a cup of coffee, but then after that the only thing I wanted was a bed. The volunteer in charge of assigning bedrooms (they actually had bedrooms here since it's a work camp for the loggers) asked if I minded sharing with Sue Ellis. Do I mind sharing with a good friend? Of course not! Not that Sue noticed. She was already passed out when I got in there. I asked for a 5:30 am wake up call, wanting time to shower (yes, they had showers too) and change my runners before leaving. But after getting up I wished I had slept more. I didn't feel like showering so I settled for washing my face and changing clothes. Then I looked at my runners and determined they were fine; the plowed roads thus far had been pretty well covered with snow from the storms so the runners were barely scratched. And after the difficulty changing the runners prior to the race I was only changing those things again if it was absolutely necessary! So instead I tried to eat, but my stomach just wasn't up to it. The cook made me this wonderful breakfast, and normally I adore eating breakfast food, but I could barely eat it. I wound up just chatting with Amanda, one of the volunteers who showed up at multiple checkpoints and who is a dog musher herself, and some other volunteers, and drinking coffee until it was time to go get the sled and dogs ready. Leg 4: Maibec to Allagash I headed out of Maibec around 8 am, not too far behind Christine Richardson and Kim Darst. By now I knew I was holding the red lantern spot. There was always hope that that would change, but I was kind of resigned to getting it. Kim and Christine had faster teams than mine. Any teams that were slower than mine had already dropped out of the race. Unless someone else had problems, I was taking home that red lantern. BUT, I had made it past Maibec, and this to me was a big accomplishment. Going into the race I wasn't sure if I could make it to Allagash. I'd been nursing injuries on the dogs for weeks now, hadn't quite gotten some of the longer training runs that I'd wanted in because of that, and I started the race with the very real possibility in my mind that we may just have to go as far as we could and scratch from there. It wasn't what I wanted - my only real goal was to finish - but I would do what was best for the dogs. So leaving Maibec I was elated. We were on our way to Allagash! If I made it to Allagash with at least 6 dogs able to continue, we were likely to make it all the way to the finish. And so far noone else on the team was having any issues from prior injuries or sporting new ones. But Maibec to Allagash was reputed to be the toughest leg, so I didn't let myself get too celebratory just yet. We were more than halfway through the 250, but we needed to get through this hilly, long run before I could breathe easily. 
My mantra throughout this 4th leg was "One hill at a time." We went up. We went down. We went up. We went down. Over and over and over and over... the hills were endless, and frankly it all blurs together now when I try to remember it. I've never worked so hard behind a dogteam in my 6 years of mushing. I pedalled and poled until my legs were aching and my back was screaming. And still, there'd be another hill. But at least most of the uphills were followed by downhills, and I managed to keep my spirits positive through the entire run. I was still having fun out there, the most fun I've had all season to be honest!
By midway through the run the dogs were getting pretty tired. Every time I stopped for any reason they lay down, curled up, and started to take a nap. It got so that I needed to keep the breaks really short or I was worried I wouldn't be able to get them going again. Still, I took quite a few breaks and snacked them every few hours to keep their spirits and energy up. I swapped leaders a few times during the run. All four of my leaders took a turn up there on this run. Towards the end Anthem and Magik wound up in lead together. Anthem is one hell of a leader on hills; he just keeps trucking forward, and I knew he'd be an awesome leader on this stretch. Around 8 or 10 miles from Allagash we came around a turn in the trail and I spotted a dark shape on the trail ahead, silhouetted by the sun. The dogs' ears perked forward and they started to lope. I thought to myself, "Oh crap, it's a moose in the trail!" and grabbed my snowhook to be ready to hook down the team. But then the shape extended an arm and I thought, "Moose don't have arms." I realized it was a human. Another few seconds went by and the shape stretched out into a dogteam. I was floored. "I caught UP with someone??" But then I saw the musher leading the dogs up the trail and knew that they were having trouble with their team. I could tell by this time that it was Christine, and hoped her dogs would follow me. I figured I'd do whatever I could to get them going again. I pulled up alongside the team and asked, "Will they follow my team?" Christine said she hoped so. We did get them to follow my team, though it was stop and go for awhile until she decided to pull the leader she had in her sledbag back out and put her up in front. After that the team was moving fine on its own and just chased my team into the Allagash checkpoint, which by then was only about a mile or two away. That last drop down into Allagash was pretty intense and a white-knuckle ride. Steep drop, go around a corner. Steep drop, go around a corner. Steep drop, around a corner. Riding the brake for all it was worth just barely kept me from hitting my wheel dogs, and since the team sensed a checkpoint coming up they were suddenly full of energy again. The drops were some of the steepest I've mushed down, and going around corners at the bottom of them made it more difficult. I found myself wondering how that section compared to the Happy River steps of the Iditarod... I'm guessing the steps are worse, yet at the same time I have a hard time imagining negotiating worse and surviving it intact. Have to say I rolled into Allagash with legs still shaking after that section. 
Since the dogs were so tired I decided to rest longer than planned at Allagash. Who cared if we added a few hours - we were well ahead of the cutoff time for leaving Allagash and I knew I was getting the red lantern anyway. I wasn't there to beat anyone, I was there to finish the race with happy dogs.
There is a mandatory vet check at Allagash. As I snacked and fed dogs the vets went through and carefully checked everyone over. Anthem was apparantly upset that he wasn't given priority treatment, and let the vets know he wanted his vet check NOW by wooing and talking to them. After they finally got to him and moved on he went over to a snowbank beside the team and started rolling around and digging holes in the snowbank. He had the vets chuckling. The rest of the team was curling up on their straw and going to sleep, but Anthem was still peppy. I said, "Geez, Anthem, didn't anyone tell you you're supposed to be tired by now? You just ran over 200 miles!" The vets discovered a sore rear hock on Magik, which was a bit of a surprise since she hadn't been limping. I once again decided to see what 7 hours of rest would do. I hated to drop her, as she was one of my main leaders. Snickers had been running really strangely the last 10 or so miles into the checkpoint, but the vets could not find anything at all wrong with him. We decided he was just tired and needed some rest. I honestly felt 7 or 8 hours of sleep would perk him back up again. After doggie duties were done I headed into the Allagash checkpoint, which is a tiny restaurant. I was thrilled to see my friend Rhonda there; in fact she had greeted me when I first rolled into the checkpoint with a hug. It's so nice to see a friendly face when you get there! I asked after Tristan and Jackson, since Rhonda and Bob were taking care of my dropped dogs for me. We got some time to chat in the checkpoint while I ate before Rhonda headed back to Fort Kent to get some sleep. I was so hungry I ate 2 cheeseburgers in the checkpoint. Chatted for awhile with one of the 60 mile racers (who in fact won it this year), and waited for Christine to come into the lodge so I could chat with her. I was starting to really feel the sleep deprivation at this point. I felt like my head was too thick, like I couldn't think straight. I've never felt quite that tired before in my life. Sue Ellis came up to me while I was in there and told me that if we both finished we would be the first 2 women to finish the Can-Am 250 with purebred teams. Wow. We're making milestones! That made me feel really proud. Of course, Sue finished before I did so really she's the first and I'm the second, but still...we did it on the same year right? I headed off for some sleep and asked for a wake up call around 11:30. My plan was to leave around 1 am. The beds in Allagash were the most comfortable of all the checkpoints and I wished I could sleep longer on it. In what seemed like no time at all I heard some people come into the outer room, and I thought maybe they were there to wake me up. I glanced at my watch and thought it said 11:30, so I sprang out of bed and went out of the room. The people weren't there to wake me up, however, so I asked what time it was. Turns out my eyesight must have been screwing with me because my watch said 10:30, not 11:30. But after that I couldn't fall back asleep. I think I dozed off and on for about a half hour then said, "screw it" and got up. Magik's leg was still bothering her so I signed the forms to drop her from the race and shortened the gangline yet again. I think my tiredness made me move much slower than normal because I wound up killing a lot of time getting out of the checkpoint. By the time we left I had stayed an extra hour, but that was probably better for the dogs. Kim and Christine and myself, the female "back of the pack", had decided we'd leave pretty much on each other's heels so that we'd be running close together in case of problems. Of course, as the one in the rear, who would know if I had the problems, right? But I guess we figured between the three of us that my team was most likely to move forward and I think they were more concerned about their teams being the ones to have problems than I was. Still, I did feel probably more nervous leaving Allagash than any other checkpoint, especially knowing I was the last one out. My dogs were really tired coming in. It was the middle of the night, on a trail I didn't know. And I was dead tired myself and worried about falling asleep out there and falling off the runners. My stomach was really churning and part of me really just wanted to go back in and sleep for another 4 hours and leave in daylight. But I swallowed my sudden attack of fear and made myself get the team ready. A few of the dogs were a little reluctant to get up and go when it was time, but once on their feet they were barking and screaming as usual. As we pulled up to the place where we needed to sign out the checker said my team looked peppier than the two teams before me. Good to hear! « Previous Page Continued on Next Page » More Race Photos » | |
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