I gathered on all of my layers that were drying around McClaren Lodge. It was a little over an hour before my mandatory 6 hour layover was over. The 5 teams in front of me were already getting ready to leave. I grabbed the cooler of food I had soaking in the back room and headed down to the river where the teams were parked. I fed the dogs the mix of beef, kibble, and hot water. They ate like monsters so I threw them a chunk of fat each too. They were pretty active, paying close attention to all the activities of teams preparing to go. I bootied all of the dogs and hooked their tuglines. The five teams before me left, and we were waiting for our count down to leave too. The dogs were barking impatiently. Bridgett Watkins was the only female musher due to leave close behind me, I overheard her tell the checkers she wouldn’t be leaving at her scheduled time. Cool, I don’t have to worry about her. The Gin Gin began as an all women’s race, but the guys wanted to play too. So they changed the race so that now the women race against each other in the “pro race” and the men against themselves in the “amateur race.“ I know I am just trying to qualify but its hard not to be a little competitive.
Off we went into the darkness. We were starting our run in the depth of the night. I had heard before I left that it was 42 below at McClaren and typically it would be colder down on the Big Su River, where we were headed. Honestly, I wasn’t that cold at all. I kept the coats on the dogs. Occasionally I would get a little chilly but I would just push the sled for a little ways and I would warm back up again. That means my gear was passing the test. What wasn’t passing the test was the dog coats. They kept getting built with ice. So part of my hourly stop was to beat, break, chip off the ice in the dog and the coats. It was pretty lonely out there for a couple hours. It wasn’t bad, just a little boring, its kind of like tunnel vision at night, just being able to see in the narrow beam of light cast by your headlamp. It was also very easy sled driving, flat and straight river travel. I imagine during the day this run would be absolutely amazing. Finally about 25 miles in I saw a headlamp coming from behind. The headlamp put out more lumens than a spotlight, so I knew it had to be Jeff King. He always has the latest and best in gear, he’s one of the only one of us that can afford it. Later we would ask him about that light, to find out it could be purchased from Cabela’s, his sponsor, for $459.00. Ouch! Most good headlamps cost about $80.
Jeff caught me and passed. We kept up with him as we traveled. Looked like he had the same game plan, frequent stops and take your time. Then 2 more teams from behind Sebastian Schnulle and Lance Mackey. At least no women, I was happy in 6th out of 18 for the women. I had figured myself in at 10th before the race started. We all were traveling in a pack for a while. All these big names, they weren’t that much faster than me, at least at this point, so I was in good spirits. The trail was nice. Eventually we came off the McClaren River and onto the Big Su, but at which point I can’t tell you, it was to dark to tell. Finally the “big 3” pulled away from me. I stopped to snack and replace lost booties and “de-ice” the dogs. We were going along just fine when suddenly my leaders stopped and turned back into the team. I got on the sled to see what was up. As I approached the front of the team I found myself knee deep in water. You couldn’t tell it was water because it was full of slush. Then Brent Sass came from behind.
“Brent! There’s water up here!”
But we were all pretty bundled up so he had no idea what I said. He went to pass but his dogs got confused and turned into my team. After walking back and forth in knee-deep water about 10 times we got our dog teams sorted out and through the overflow. Neos (my water-proof overshoes) don’t fail me now! Darn! I had just de-iced the dogs, and fixed the booties now I had to stop and change all of the booties and try to get all of the ice off the water soaked coats. We went on. The trail got a little bit punchy and I just wanted to be off the river. I was a crusty, frosty ice monster and so were the dogs.
Sunrise came magnificently over the mountains. No end to the river in sight. Every bend I would come around I would think its going around this one, I would come around, nope! This went on for some time. Finally! The bridge, and there was a team stopped. It was Judy. She followed me for a while then we popped up on the road. Only 40 something miles to go. The traveling was painfully slow. The road went up and down and up and down. It seemed like we were going forever. I saw a mile marker sign ahead. When I read the number my heart sunk, mile 67. Uggg! I though for sure we had come further than that. Later I found out that every musher felt the same way when they read that sign. The lodge was at mile 42. This was the longest run I had ever done and it was taking its toll on both the dogs and I mentally. I keep upbeat for the dogs. Yes I am asking a lot out of you, but it will end….sometime. I had to do a lot of maintenance just keep the dogs thawed out. The coats were coated in ice from the water. I came to the decision that they were doing more damage than good, the ice was rubbing them raw. But I had to keep their “privates” warm or it would be bad news. Finally I cut my coats so that they would hang down to keep “under there” warm without touching the dogs. It seemed the end of this run would never come.
Finally I could see the lights of McClaren Lodge down in the valley. Yes! We made it. We pulled in to our previous camping spot just to find most of the straw gone. At this point I was very concerned with getting the dogs warm and well rested. Something that can’t be done on river ice at 45 below with no straw.
“Is there any straw left?” I asked the checker.
“Yes but you are only supposed to have the straw from before.”
“Look at my spot then look at that one, “ I pointed at Judy’s spot, “Or that spot.” I pointed at Bridget’s. “I think when the other teams were leaving they might have gone through here because I was one of the first mushers out and drug their brakes through my straw and drug it off.”
“ Yeah, there is quite a difference.” He let me get more straw. They could fine me, penalize me, I didn’t care I just wanted the dogs taken care of.
The dogs ate well again. Going through them I found no injuries but quite a few rubs, mostly from ice. I applied ointment and massaged all of the dogs with emu oil on their shoulders, wrists and thighs. I took off the worst iced up coats and put them in a garbage bag. The only place I knew of to dry things out at the lodge was by the woodstove in the main room. I didn’t think they would appreciate me melting the ice off my dog coats being that some of the ice was yellow. Pee yoo! I thought maybe I could get them part way melted in the bag and go from there. I felt sick about the dogs going so far and I couldn’t keep them warm in their coats so they would get good rest. I asked about the coats they had a generator shed that I could hang them in and they could dry in the warm exhaust. It worked well. I rotated the coats so eventually I got them all dried and back on the dogs. This made me feel a lot better.
As I ate some food and talked to other mushers I discovered that everyone had runs similar to mine. I was feeling like I had really made some mistakes. But I found out it was just the conditions.
Most everyone decided to leave the next morning instead of right at the end of their 6 hour layover. The winds that we encountered at mile 10 through 22 on the highways were still blowing, maybe even worse. No one wanted to go through it at night. Jeff King decided to scratch and just run home (his house is back the other way on the road) he was in first place too. I was nervous but more importantly I really felt I pushed the dogs a little too far on that 110 mile run and I thought they needed more rest. But another part of me was wondering how good of quality of rest they would be getting on the river ice at 45 below. I went down to check on them. They were resting and they looked warm in their DRY coats and under their blankets.
Aliy and Michelle figured they only had enough food to give their dogs a 12 hour rest so they would leave at 12 hours together and make their way over the pass together with Ed Hopkins. This made sense to me, over 12 hours would be a waste. Maybe I could leave so that I hit the pass at sunrise then I could see well. Tom and I talked about it and decided that that would be a good idea. We tossed around the idea that if Aily, Michelle, and Ed weren’t leaving until 12 hours we could leave at the end of our 6 hour and we would both get 3rd (in the money) in our divisions. I didn’t want to risk the dogs being tired and balking in the wind. I didn’t want to sour them, we had bigger races later in the season. I decided to get some sleep. I fell asleep on the couch, my favorite place to sleep.
I was awoken by Michelle, Aily and Ed getting dressed to leave. I got up to and ate some food. After getting some rest it was all clear. I would leave at my 12 hours too. That time came quickly. I went outside and fed the dogs. Still eating well, that was a good sign. I massaged all the dogs and walked each of them individually on a leash up and down the river to stretch out their muscles a little from such a long rest. They seemed lively. I bootied and packed my sled. I hooked up their tuglines, and though they weren’t barking this time they didn’t look miserable either. The checker helped me weave the dogs through the resting teams to the trail. He let go….it was the moment of truth….off we went. The next mile or so we had to stop a few time to let everyone poop, but after that we started cruising. I timed us between mile markers on the road. We were going about 10 mph, not bad! I was elated, 42 miles to go and we were done, and in 5th place! Better than I had ever hoped of doing. Still in the pit of my stomach something was churning. I was worried, almost to the point of being sick, about the wind. What was the worst that could happen? We could be blown off the road and have to hole up until help arrived. No! We would be fine.
When we arrived at Tangle Lakes, the beginning of the wind area, the wind was blowing but only enough to make you cold. I saw a falling star. Guess what my wish was? The wind increased and there was less and less snow on the road. I had to teach the leaders who are always taught to run on the right side of the road to run on the left on the upside of the wind or else my sled would be blown off the road. They eventually figured it out. I was only blown off the road once. It wasn’t nearly as bad as on the way out.
Johnny Schandelmeier, the trail boss said that once you get to the dead snow machine on the trail you were in the clear. As we passed it a felt a sense of relief. We made it! Just 10 miles left to go! The dogs slowed down. That wind took a lot out them. If they only could understand how close we were! I was still happy. The last 3 miles are all down hill into Paxson Lodge. Sunrise was gorgeous! A final reward for all of our hard work. I always felt this was one of the most beautiful places on earth. We crossed the finish line in 5th with all ten dogs!
Honestly the finish was pretty anti-climatic. No big crowd, no handler to tell me how good I did. I just drove the dogs to the truck, praised and fed the dogs and loaded them into the truck. Packed up and went inside for some food. It didn’t matter though, I felt proud of the dogs. They did great. I had so much confidence in them now for future races. We learned a lot, and have some new experiences under our belt. It was truly a qualifier. And though I didn’t think I needed one when I started, now I realized that I actually did. I wonder what is in store for my next “easy” qualifier, the Klondike 300.
