On Thursday, while packing up to leave for Eagle
Lake, I checked the weather forecast for northern Maine. I
didn’t like what I heard, so I made a couple of calls to friends
up there, and the general consensus was that there was so much
snow, a little rain couldn’t hurt that much. My gut feeling was
to stop packing, ignore the local optimism, heed the weather
forecast and avoid the long drive, cost of gas and lodging and
just not go to the Eagle Lake 100 in 2006. But we are only
planning on racing three weekends this winter and missing a
third of something that takes so much to prepare for isn’t all
that appealing either. Sue and I discussed the weather forecasts
and in the end decided to not trust the weatherman this time
with his warnings of “the potential for a significant storm with
heavy rain and possible flooding.” No kidding, a National
Weather Service warning said that on Thursday about the day on
Saturday and we still left for a 100 mile race through the
wilderness that started at 11 am on Saturday. It’s kind of hard
to really explain THAT decision. The “severe weather alert”
should have had a bigger impact…
A warm and dry day on Friday made for an easy 8 hour drive that
had us pulling in to Tenley and Wayne’s Fish River Lodge only
about a mile from the race start, but secluded and quiet, at
about 2pm. The dogs, and we, were in good spirits as we all
relaxed outside around the dog truck in the afternoon sun. Race
jitters may have been getting to Sue a bit, but she was hiding
it well.
Come Saturday morning, Sue was bib two out and I could watch her
and the team for about 1000 feet before they were out of sight
and off in to the woods and the building storm. At this race,
the handlers can not even go to the checkpoint at Moose Point
Camps, as it is in a remote area that gets plowed out just for
this event. So I did what any good handler would do with a rainy
Saturday afternoon and evening to kill with a bar in town that
had playoff football on the big screen and race times being
posted on the way to the bathroom. As the times went up, I got
my first feel for how the trail had been for the teams. Matt
Carstens was first in to the checkpoint, followed by four
Canadians, any of whom I think most people thought would win the
event. Matt has been up to our camp a few times this winter to
train, and we knew he was working hard with good, fast dogs, so
I honestly expected to see Matt have a great time. Sue’s time
was soon posted and she was in the middle of the pack with a run
averaging 10 miles an hour. Not bad for our team over tough
trail in 45 degree heat and heavy rain. I felt like she was
right about where we thought she would be. I could relax for a
bit, knowing she was warm and dry for a little while after
caring for the dogs and getting inside at the checkpoint.
After dinner, and maybe something to drink while watching the
Patriots loose, I went to the finish area to start checking
times through the two interval points from which times are
radioed in to “race central” where the detailed timing is
posted. Matt had been increasing his lead and coming in as fast
as he went out. Sue’s times were not coming in as fast as they
should have been and she had gotten passed by a couple of teams.
I knew she was having some sort of trouble. Dealing with very
tough weather and trail conditions is hard enough, but then when
something is wrong with one or more of the dogs, things can
snowball out of control all too quickly for a tired, stressed,
cold and wet musher. I hoped that wasn’t happening to Sue but
couldn’t stop imagining her shivering and miserable as the
temperature was dropping and reports were coming in of lots of
water in the trail and “waterfalls where the trail used to be…”
Hearing that really didn’t help my disposition, knowing Sue
still hadn’t passed the halfway point of the return leg and had
lots of obstacles yet to overcome. Then the radio crackled about
a musher coming in to the finish. We hustled back out in to the
dark and driving rain to greet Matt as the winner of the 2006
Eagle Lake 100. As I helped him care to his dogs and stow his
gear, he gave some pretty depressing reports of the trail, and
said it was getting worse. It was half an hour before the second
musher came in, Stephane Duplessis. He was followed by Andre
Longchamps about ten minutes later and Martin Massicotte right
behind. Andre’s wife, Amelie Aubut finished not too long after
them in fifth place. Matt had overcome some recent bad luck and
I give him a ton of credit for his humble attitude and quiet
determination The New Hampshire distance mushing community is
pretty small and we’re very proud of Matt and the Nevahome
Kennel of Kricket, Mitch and Gracie Ingerson in Jefferson, NH.
Well done!!
I lost track of time, but shortly after Matt got in at about
11:20 pm, the rain began to freeze on everything as the
temperature dropped below 32. Each finisher came in with a new
story about waist-deep water in the trail and dogs that had done
amazing things just to get to the finish line. As we continued
to wait, raincoats became like armor with the pelting ice, and
if you stayed in one place too long you risked not moving again
until spring thaw. It was just plain nasty. Finally sometime
after 2 am, Sue came around the last corner, through another
puddle and in to the finish line. I looked up and down the team,
and they really looked about as good as 8 soaked and
ice-encrusted dogs could to me because I was so happy to see
wagging tails. But, wait a minute…, she started with 10 dogs,
…dropped Curly at the checkpoint with a
sore toe and the race officials had already turned him over to
me. She should have 9 dogs here. Once we got the zipper chipped
open on the sled bag, Sue revealed what some of the troubles had
been for her... Maple had hurt
herself and Sue had been carrying her in the sled for the last
30+ miles. The vets looked the little leader over and seemed to
think she had strained her lower back, but not seriously. While
Sue went inside to change and I fed and cared for the other
dogs, Matt and Mitch who had stuck around to see Sue in, helped
clean up sled gear. After a snack and a rub, the dogs were very
happy to crawl in to their boxes and out of the rain for the
first time all day.
In the end, 12 of 15 teams finished the race and Sue came in
9th. I couldn’t be prouder of her and the dogs for finishing an
incredibly difficult race. As she continues to tell stories of
the race and I’ve emptied the contents of the sled bag that
weighed twice what it did dry, to thaw out today, my respect for
everybody who got their team to the finish grows. This morning
Maple’s back seems fine and
Curly acts like nothing was ever
wrong with his formerly swollen and bruised toe. I think we’ll
be drying gear and clothes for a couple of days yet, but we’re
glad to be home safely and have everybody in one piece. When Sue
gets the chance, she’ll post some of her thoughts from the
trail, in the meantime, I’ll glow with pride in my wife and her
continued growth as a musher…
