Happy New Year, all! We wish you a great new
year with the reminder, it will be what you make of it. So,
go MAKE it a great year for yourself and those around you.
We’ll be trying to do the same…
After the Gingin race changed it’s course
from the road/wind debacle of last year, to the same leg
that I remember so fondly from my first race in Alaska, 2
and a half years ago, I decided it was time to go racing.
This race runs in really remote, beautiful country and the
whole route is on frozen (or mostly anyway) lakes and
rivers, starting at Wolverine Lodge on Lake Louise and
running 109 miles to Maclaren Lodge in the Alaska Range for
a 8-hour layover and then returning by the same route.
Honestly, as a kid, I was deathly afraid of lake ice. It
still scares me to a point. So, I knew I needed to run this
race…
I had a super drive down through the Alaska
Range and followed or passed a few dog trucks along the way,
heading for the race, too. With just myself and the ten dogs
that would race, the truck was fairly light and the driving
pretty easy. We stopped and took a break halfway and the
dogs were as relaxed as I was. This team has done so much
traveling that they are very comfortable on the road. I got
to Wolverine just as it was getting dark and was the only
musher there, except for race organizers John and Zoya.
Trying to save a bit of cash where I could, I set-up our
Arctic Oven tent and camped next to the truck and the dogs.
I think they appreciated it.
Pee Break |
Mass start lineup |
This race started as a women’s-only race 5
or 6 years ago. Then they started allowing men in their own
division 3 years ago, and that has remained. Personally, I
dislike the division and enjoy the fact that usually mushers
are just mushers and it doesn’t matter what gender, race,
affiliation, or style you bring, it’s just you and your
dogs. But, this is a well-organized race over cool country
with a good format for how we’ve been training. I do hope
they will eventually drop the separation. Anyway, with the
start being on the lake, it allowed them to do a mass start
and the women left at 11am followed by all the men at noon.
When the truck parked out on the ice facing back at us
blinked its headlights, it was time to go. Having parked on
the far edge of the bay to be out of the way with my tent, I
had to call Stump and Trip to go haw through some soft snow
and over to the trail after letting about half the field get
started first, knowing our team would not be among the
fastest at the beginning. They understood we needed to get
over behind those teams and did a great job putting us on
track. With an ice fog hanging on the lake, it was pretty
cool traveling with 20+ teams in a long line, where you
couldn’t see the start or the end. For much of the 23 miles
of lake, teams ran next to each other, passed and re-passed,
chatted, and enjoyed a slow warm-up period over soft trail
on top of glare ice that didn’t really have the snow adhered
to it. With heavy sleds loaded for 218 miles of travel
without resupply, the dogs didn’t fight against the drag mat
too much and settled in to a nice steady trot.
Once in to the Tyone River a few miles, we
got to the first overflow sections. There was glare ice from
bank to bank with water several inches to nearly a foot deep
on it. The leaders did a nice job keeping us out of the
deeper holes for the most part and I didn’t get too wet. I
think it was around zero degrees, so things froze up pretty
quickly and I would have liked to change dog boots, but
around every bend in the river, was more overflow. Most of
it was only 2-6 inches deep and so wasn’t a major concern
for my safety/comfort, but the dogs’ boots got very icy.
Finally at 40 miles from the start, a tributary creek comes
in and the ice conditions changed enough that the overflow
mostly ended. I stopped, snacked the dogs for the second
time, and put dry boots on the whole team, about a 20 minute
operation. The plan was to do the whole 109-mile leg in a
“straight-thru” run. This means that I make lots of stops.
To go that far without a longer rest takes a lot more dog
care on the trail than just doing a 50-60 mile run. Keeping
enough food and water in the team is critical. So is keeping
them happy and focused on the task at hand. To do this, I
never run more than an hour without stopping and walking up
and down the team, giving each dog some attention and care,
replacing thrown booties, and loving them up. Snacks on this
race came every 2 to 2.5 hours and I usually stop for 10-15
minutes at each of them. So you can see that “straight thru”
is kind of relative.
Before even reaching the Susitna River at
the halfway point of the leg, we had passed 5 or 6 teams
that had stopped to camp already. Wilson had been moved up
to run with Stump in lead as Trip was having some trouble
passing parked teams, of which we were now seeing in some
large groups and scattered along a couple back sloughs and
river bank. The trail on the Su was a little rough for a few
stretches where it went over rocky, gravel bars and the snow
was not consolidated and set-up. The dogs’ feet went down
between loose rocks and the runners grated on the rocks,
feeling like I was braking to the dogs. This really slowed
our pace and it took us two hours to go the 13 miles up the
Su to the mouth of the Maclaren River. With 42 miles left to
go to the checkpoint, we were crawling and I almost let it
get me down. But the nearly full moon was so bright I didn’t
need to use my headlamp, I was in doG’s country, all ten tug
lines we tight, and we were moving steadily along. Knowing
that trailbreakers had been down this far from Maclaren, I
made the gee turn up the Mac, and was very happy to feel a
surge in the team as we hit much firmer trail. A smile grew
across my face as I checked my clock (9:45pm) and passed a
couple more camped teams on our way to Maclaren Lodge, back
up to a 8-9 mph pace.
Camped at the far end. |
Staring line camp |
We made our way through the Maclaren Canyon,
over some pretty scary sections where the trail ran within a
few feet of open, rushing water that would make a quick end
of anyone that fell in. I turned up my iPod so as not to
hear the flowing water. The dogs recognized the danger and
picked up the pace, forcing me to ride the drag mat again,
after having gone so slow 20 miles back. Just past a small
cabin that is a 20-mile landmark from Maclaren, we went in
to 10-12 inches of overflow for a hundred yards. It was time
for a snack and I made another longer stop to change booties
again and give another snack. They devoured the snack,
enjoyed the fresh boots, and rolled in the snow like we were
10 miles from the truck, not 90. Again, I smiled.
Not long after getting moving again, I saw a
headlamp a ways behind us. I could tell it was someone on a
sit-down sled and figured it was either Mitch or his son
Dallas, Seavey. With a little pedaling from me, we went the
last ten miles or so with that team back there but not
really gaining on us. Darrin Lee signed me in to the
checkpoint with Dallas coming along three minutes behind and
parking next to us on the river, below the lodge. I was in
some pretty fine mushing company with Mackey teams parked to
my right, Lance just in front of us, and two Seavey teams to
my left, as Mitch had come in as I finished up my chores
with the team. I spent a little extra time giving rubs and
putting on wrist wraps before flipping up the sled and
knocking about 20 pounds of ice from it’s underside. Then up
to the lodge for a cheeseburger and a nap, after spreading
out wet mitts and boots around the woodstove, soaking the
dogs’ next meal, washing up, and saying Hi to Susie and Alan
who own the lodge that has been a checkpoint for me in this,
my third Gingin as well as the 2007 Taiga. It’s nice to know
your way around a checkpoint, especially one as nice as
this!!
Back up and at ‘em, I fed the team another
meal at 8am as the moon was setting. After getting some
breakfast myself, I was back down with the dogs, giving some
rubs to sleeping beauties in their straw. The sun was coming
up now and the Alaska Range was glowing pink and white. It
was simply amazing. After watching Cain and Newton head out
about half an hour before we could leave, I didn’t really
think I’d see those two teams from Lance’s kennel again
before the finish. And with Dallas leaving just 3 minutes
behind me, and Mitch less than an hour back, I had teams of
some of the very best sleddogs in the world around me. I
resigned myself to not worry at all about position and just
get the team back to Wolverine in great shape. Wilson and
Merlin pulled us off the straw and headed us down the river.
Within only a couple miles, Dallas caught
and passed us, just as I expected. Logan was a little stiff
getting going and I kept our pace slower than the dogs
wanted to go, although I know I didn’t have to brake as hard
as I could tell Dallas was. I was really surprised to see
Dallas stopped and pulled off the trail just 20 miles down
the river at a cabin. I was even more surprised when he told
me I was gaining on Cain and Newton and they were less than
10 minutes ahead of me. I smiled, again.
We got down through the ice bridges and by
the flowing water without mishaps although I was sure a
couple of those ice bridges were even closer to the water
than before, having caved in a bit with all the traffic. At
one spot where we were near, but not too near, an open
channel, I stopped to snack the team. Confront your fears!
The dogs didn’t wait for the “let’s go” when I said “ready?”
The team’s speed was a little up-and-down through the
daylight hours and as we got to the Susitna. I worried about
getting back to the soft trail and having our pace drop
further, but was pleased to find the trail had set-up
considerably and we maintained a decent pace, even through
the rocky sections. Thankfully, the snow was now holding the
rocks in place and keeping the sled above most of them, so
it was a much smoother ride for dogs and sled. At one place
where I could see a long ways down the river, I saw a team.
I tried to pick where they were and timed how long it took
us to get there, and the best I could do was 15 minutes. So
I figured we were back to loosing time on them and I forgot
about any idea of catching them. We turned in to the Tyone
River at 4:19pm, having gone halfway home in under 6 hours.
I smiled a big smile.
It was time for another break and I stopped
to snack some meat and chicken broth cubes to keep the dogs
hydrated. I poured some coffee from my thermos down my
throat and got going again. A few more miles of winding our
way down the Tyone and I we came around the corner to find
Newton and Cain stopped in the middle of the trail. I
stopped behind and tried to decide if I should pass now and
try to get ahead of them, or to hold back and follow until
we got closer to the finish. Knowing that the overflow
sections were just ahead, I decided to use this stop to
remove all the booties and let the dogs run barefoot until
we were through the anticipated 15 miles of slush and water.
Before I finished with my team, Cain and Newton had left and
pulled away. Moving again, we caught them and I decided to
just hold back and let them lead us along, reducing stress
on my team and allowing me to take a few extra short breaks
to keep them ahead of us, but within sight. I was surprised
to see them pull off in to the cabin 40 miles from the
finish and it appeared they were going to camp their teams
for a while. “Later, Mon!” was what I heard as I said “on
by, boys!”
I was quite pleased to find that nearly all
of the overflow had frozen up and was just jagged, re-frozen
ice to negotiate. I was pretty tired by now and my body
wasn’t working at 100% or even very close. I slipped and
fell on the ice a couple times. One of the wipeouts was a
real acrobatic thing as my feet somehow went out to the side
of the sled, in front of me while I held the handlebar and
did a trapeze sort of move to land flat on my back and pop
back up on to the runners in a single movement that made me
break out laughing. I had barely got myself back under
control when I came up to another team that had stopped to
camp. Stump and Merlin took us on by and I asked the musher
if they were ok and had everything they needed, as my sled
was still heavy with extra gear. Jason Mackey replied he was
all set and just asked me to tell his wife Lisa that he was
going to camp for three more hours and he was fine. “No
problem.” Just after his camp, we passed the last of the
overflow and I stopped to re-boot the team for the last 30
miles in.
The team kept up a nice pace through the
rest of the Tyone, past a small bull moose in the willows,
and on to the still fogged-in lakes. With a bright moon
overhead and fog all around, but not above, it was a really
cool ride across the lakes. Expecting to see a Seavey or two
coming along from behind, I kept up a steady kick to help
the dogs and had my head nearly screwed on backwards. The
only thing we saw the whole way across was a couple of
snowmachines that scared me because they were much closer to
me than I would have liked before I knew they were there.
They gave us a wide-berth as soon as I could get my headlamp
turned on and signaling them. We came around the last point
and in to the bay to see the lights of Wolverine Lodge with
no headlamps visible behind. I smiled.
As the Mackey clan was expecting Jason to be
next in, the large group of them was down on the lake to see
me come in. I don’t think I have ever finished a distance
race with so many people at the finish. This time, not a
single one of them was expecting me. They had to erase where
Jason’s name had already been written in on the sign-in
sheet to make room for my name. After checking for my
mandatory gear, I went up to thank the dogs for a job very
well done. Lance, who had won the race, was standing at my
sled when I got back to it, and I told him about his teams
(Cain and Newton) and his brother and that they were all
well, just camping. He congratulated me with a firm
handshake and a look in the eye that said, “Yeah, I was
expecting my brother, but nice job, Mike.” I couldn’t help
but smile. Brent agreed to take my leaders to get me past
all the other dog trucks and over to ours where he
congratulated me and I him, for his second-place finish.
Thanks Brent. One of the Wolverine guys came over and
offered to bring some hot water from the lodge and put in an
order for my first cheeseburger. Thanks.
The team had done the return leg in just
over 13 hours. It had taken us just over 14.5 on the first
leg. The whole race of 218 miles took us under 36 hours,
including the 8 hour rest in the middle. It was good enough
for 5th place in the men’s division and there were just two
women who had faster times. With dogs undressed and fed and
put to bed in the truck, I started a fire in the tent
woodstove and went to the lodge for some burgers and beers.
We’d had a great race and I wished Sue was there to
celebrate with me, but I had a beer for her.
Back up in a few hours to drop dogs and
water them again, I watched a steady stream of teams
continue in throughout the day and right up into the
finishers meeting that afternoon. Our friends Cody and Paige
came in and were happy to have finished their first race
ever, together. Nice job guys. At the awards meeting we were
very honored to win the Vet’s Choice Award!! AGAIN!!! I
really smiled. Thanks Stump, Merlin, Wilson, Mugs, Trip,
Lotus, Logan, Hood, Ambler, and Hawkeye. You guys rock!!!
Now on to the Copper Basin 300 next weekend
and Quest is just around the corner. Let’s hope we can keep
smiling…
