Sibersong Sleddogs - Adventures in Dog Mushing

Rocky Brook to Maibec
I left Rocky Brook ahead of 2 other racers, after 5 hours of rest. I hoped the dogteam would be perky and excited again, but it was not to be. This time Tristan was more than ready to go back up in lead, but Magik was the one who needed a break. Again I had leader issues and started trying different leaders. I didn't want to put Kadee up there with Tristan as I'm pretty sure Tristan was the one who caused her to lose confidence in the fall, so I tried everyone else. Weyekin. Matsi. Anthem. Anthem seemed to work out for a few miles and wasn't doing too badly, but overall the dogteam was just crawling along again. We hit a few sections with massive snowdrifts that the dogs floundered in.

After about 10 miles of trail we hit Round Pond. It was nothing but drifted snow as far as the eye could see. I could see markers across the pond, but the broken out trail was obliterated and unfortunately nobody explained to Anthem and Tristan that they were supposed to stay between the sticks in the ground. This would be fine as long as we were staying somewhat NEAR the sticks and heading in the direction of where the trail was on the opposite side, but the boys decided we were going to head off in a diagonal direction instead. I stopped the team, tried to sink the hook (useless) and walked up in thigh-high snow to the leaders and led them over to the markers. "This way, guys."

Of course without a sunk snowhook the back of the team tried to keep going and made a tangle. And by the I got back to the runners the boys had dragged the team back off to the left again. I went back up front. "No, this way guys." Undo some tangles as the team kept trying to move forward. The leaders dragged us off to the left yet again. Sigh. Ok, let's try something different. "Anthem, Tristan, gee! Gee!" Excellent, they make a sharp gee turn and head to the markers. But oops, they keep going past the markers in the opposite direction now. "Haw Boys, Haw." They swung the team back around and tried to go back the way they were originally.

Ok, this just isn't working. I assumed it was Tristan that was unsure of what to do and kept dragging the team off course, and figured Anthem had done this race before and would know where to go. The neckline between them wasn't helping - they needed to think independently. So I unhooked the neckline and went back to the sled.

"Ok Anthem, Tristan: Gee Over!"

To my surprise it was TRISTAN that suddenly gee'd the team over and brought us between the markers and started to run the correct way. As Tristan led us across the pond, Anthem continually tried to veer the team off course but without a neckline between them Tristan was able to keep the dogteam headed in the right direction. Eventually Anthem got the idea and stopped trying to run in the wrong direction. We made it across the pond and back up into the woods, stopping long enough at the S&R checkpoint at the far end of the pond to grab a bottle of water from the guys there.

Shortly after that, as night started to fall, Anthem started to hang back and act like he no longer wanted to lead. Back to the drawing board. I hadn't tried McKinley yet, but she hadn't been doing so hot in lead thus far this winter. But what the hell, I was running out of options again. She was my last hope and if she didn't want to run lead I was going to hook up an extra section of gangline and run Tristan in single lead.

But McKinley stepped up to the plate and with her in lead beside Tristan the team finally picked up speed and perked up again. Finally!

After that the team seemed to improve as the run went on. Since we'd had such a slow and problematic start I kept looking over my shoulder expecting the 2 racers behind me to catch up, and eventually one of them did about 10 or so miles from the checkpoint.

It was a beautifully clear night; the storm had finally completely passed by. The stars were just brilliant and at the top of one hill it almost seemed as though I could reach out my hand and just touch them.

The only further problem I had on this section was on the plowed roads, where my leaders refused to gee over and instead wanted to run in the center. Which proved to be an issue when we were coming up a hill, approaching a curve to the left, and I suddenly saw headlights coming at us. I thought, "Oh shit, this driver isn't going to see us until the last minute." I couldn't sink a hook or stop the team in any way. I was yelling, "McKinley, gee over!! Gee over!! GEE OVER!" to no avail. At the same time I was desperately trying to get my sled over to the gee side, and wound up slipping on the ice or the road and falling to one knee, twisting my ankle in the process. Ouch! Thankfully the car wasn't travelling too quickly and spotted us in plenty of time and we avoided a catastrophe. I hate plowed roads....

As we got within 5 miles of the checkpoint I could swear McKinley remembered the trail from last year. She seemed to put her head down and get even more focused and the whole team sped up. By the time we pulled into the checkpoint the dogs were loping enthusiastically. McKinley and Tristan ran right over to some of the volunteers, wagging their tails happily in greeting. The vets commented a little while later on how I had the happiest looking team and the most wagging tails that came into that checkpoint. What a nice compliment! :-)

After caring for the dogs I went into "Hotel Maibec" where I laid out all my gear in the drying room to dry off, then went in search of some food. They have a cook here who will cook you up something to order (within reason) and I was psyched to hear he was cooking breakfast food, because that's EXACTLY what I was craving! So I had a big dish of scrambled eggs, french toast and bacon before heading off for the longest nap of my race.

Maibec to Allagash
After less than 4 hours of sleep I got back up and went out to start getting ready to leave. The temps had dropped quite a bit, and there was a nice bite in the air. These were actually the coldest temps we had had on the race so far, and I'm guessing it was near zero if not below.

This was also the longest rest the dogs had had thus far - I gave them an hour longer than I had originally planned on, feeling they needed that extra hour again to really catch up on rest. All in all we stayed just under 7 hours in Maibec and left a few minutes behind Bob O'Hearn. Once again we were at the very back of the race, but upon leaving Maibec the dogs were really perked up. Between the rest and the cold temps they were full of energy and loped for probably the first 10 miles. We caught up with Bob around that point, passed him, and then shortly after hit the mega-hills.

I'll tell you: a year does a lot to diminish the size of those hills in your memory! They seemed a tad steeper than they were last year, but at the same time I definitely felt I had a stronger team this year and that I was physically more prepared for it. I won't say it was an easy run, but I wasn't nearly as exhausted by it as I had been the year before.

About 20 or so miles outside of Allagash I started having to swap around leaders again because Magik wasn't doing so well. I did some leader switching until I finally put Kadee up with Tristan, which seemed to do the trick. It wasn't until later that I remembered that I hadn't wanted to run Kadee next to Tristan; thankfully it worked out just fine.

Then all of a sudden Anthem started trying to sit down. At first I thought he just had to poop, but when I stopped he sat instead. I thought, "Oh no, this is what Snickers did last year." But it's so unlike Anthem to quit. Ever. I went up to him and checked him out: feet, wrists, shoulders. Couldn't find anything wrong. We started up again and a mile or so later he did the same thing.

God, the last thing I wanted to do was bag a dog on this leg, and Anthem is NOT a good rider! In fact, he's terrible at riding in the sledbag. I've only done it once with him and swore unless he was practically unconscious that I'd never attempt to give him a ride again!

So instead, I decided I'd try just unhooking his tugline so he didn't feel he had to work at all. And that did the trick... he happily moved along without pulling, and after awhile I hooked his tug back up and he went back to pulling and working without any problem.

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