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The 2008 Can-Am 250 Race (page 4)
Then Dawson started to try and quit. Good lord! I did the same thing with him, but it didn't seem to be working as well. In fact, he looked kind of wobbly and kept trying to throw himself in the snow. I stopped and checked his hydration levels. But he was fine, and besides which he kept peeing rivers at least once an hour so he couldn't be dehydrated. I slowed the team down quite a bit to make things easier for him, and stopped frequently for breaks.
© 2008 Jaye Foucher "C'mon Dawson, you're way too big a dog to bag!" But after another few miles I decided I just had to give in and bag him. So I stopped and tried to make room in my bag. Strapped a few things on the top, put things in the outer pockets. After a few minutes of rearranging I realized that I might be able to fit Maja in there, or Kadee, or maybe even Anthem, but definitely not Dawson! It just wasn't going to work, not without leaving required gear behind. "Ok, Dawson, if you're that tired, you'll be content to ride on top of the sled for awhile." I hooked a neckline to him and tried to situate him on top of the sled and get him to lay down. Yeah, that worked for about a mile! After that I gave up trying to hold him on the sled and put him back on the team, with no tugline again. And we just took it slow until he started to feel a little perkier. Meanwhile, Anthem started trying to quit again, so off his tugline came too. I started to wonder if we'd ever make it to Allagash! We finally saw the "10 miles to Allagash" sign. I found counting down the miles on some of those slower runs really helped. 9 miles to go, guys! 8 miles! Only 7 miles left! All of a sudden the team took off like a rocket, hurtling us through a winding, narrow, wooded section. This could only mean one thing: wildlife. The enthusiasm they were exhibiting probably meant they smelled a moose, and with the deep snow I feared the moose would be right smack in the middle of the trail. I had my snowhook in hand, ready to go, as the dogteam took me on a wild 1-2 mile ride. As we whipped around one curve in the trail I saw McKinley look off to her left and her ears pricked. I looked over and there was a beautiful doe, just standing off to the side of the trail. Thankfully the leaders and the rest of the team missed it and thought the deer was still ahead of them. And I was extremely thankful it was a deer and not a moose. 
The drop into Allagash that I remembered being so steep and curvy last year seemed far less difficult this year. I stopped to hook Dawson and Anthem's tuglines back up about a mile out of Allagash, and despite the troubles I'd had on the trail we trotted into the checkpoint a good hour before I'd anticipated arriving and about 3 hours before the Can-Am website projected we'd arrived.
This checkpoint has a mandatory vet and gear check. As the vets went over the dogs, the bag checker and I went through the contents of my sledbag. Unfortunately I could not find my required rain jacket anywhere. It was one of those $3 rain ponchos, still in the plastic packaging it came in, and I'd had it tucked deep into one of the inside sled pockets. I practically emptied my sledbag looking for the thing in Allagash and it just wasn't there. I couldn't see how in the world I would have lost it, but I know I had it at the starting line. Thankfully one of the vets who was standing nearby offered to loan me a jacket and according to race rules if I can replace the missing gear before leaving the checkpoint I won't get penalized. The gear checker went inside to double check that this was ok with the race judges, then came out and ok'd it. Meanwhile the vets found a few minor issues with the dogs - a sore and slightly swollen wrist on Magik and some harness rubs - but otherwise said the dogs were in good shape. Anthem was one of the dogs with a bad harness rub under one front leg so perhaps that's why he was backing off in harness. They gave me some ointment to put on the rubs, which I hoped would make him feel better by the time we left. I told the vets I was dropping Dawson. I just felt he was way too tired to continue, based on his performance at the end of the last run. He's a big dog who seems to need more rest than the others do. Last time we ran Can-Am I took a lot more rest in checkpoints and that worked for him and he made it to the finish line, but this time I was trying to do less rest (though still nowhere near minimum required rest) and apparantly it just wasn't enough for Dawson. This is one of the checkpoints that handlers can go to and watch. Corina and Scott still hadn't arrived by the time I was done with taking care of dogs but they arrived just after I finished eating. I decided not to try and sleep at this checkpoint as it was the middle of the day and although I was tired it was nowhere near the sheer exhaustion I'd felt a year earlier in this checkpoint. Plus it had taken longer than usual to take care of things outside, with the vet check and bag check, then my food order took a little while to arrive, and by the time I changed my runner plastic (which definitely needed to be done after the massively plowed and sanded roads on the last leg) I really wasn't going to have much napping time left. Plus it was more fun to hang out and chat with Scott and Corina and Bob and Rhonda! Lev had shown up at the checkpoint too and was telling me that I was going to win money for having one of the fastest times into the checkpoint. What? That doesn't seem right! I didn't think I was doing all that well out there, although I was sticking to my estimated schedule so I couldn't be doing that badly either. Still.... I'll believe it when I see it. « Previous Page Continued on Next Page » More Race Photos » | |
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