It’s finally snowing here after the worst winter
I can ever remember. We have had nothing but ice and rain for
the vast majority of this “winter.” The dogs are noticeably
happier with some fluff on the ground instead of glare ice and
frozen mud. So are the mushers….
Since the Eagle Lake race that Sue ran over a month ago, every
dogsled race in the northeast U.S. has been cancelled due to
lack of snow. Training trails haven’t been much better,
especially anywhere near home. In a normal year, we would get
half of our training runs right from the gate of our dogyard
here at home. This year, I ran a small team from home ONCE to go
check out the trail on January 10th. It was not good, and I
should not have had a team out there on it. Since then, we
haven’t even tried to run from home as conditions never allowed
it. That means that we have had to be on the road to points
north for all of our training, something that is very time
consuming, resource depleting, and just plain difficult to
maintain for the whole winter. It’s worn us out and used up all
our time, BUT we are as ready as can be for next weekend’s
Can-Am 250, the main event of our season!!
This past week I took the 14 dogs still in the running to make
the Can-Am team up to Pittsburg, NH at the northern tip of the
state for our last serious tune-up training runs. Pittsburg is
the only spot in NH with long loops of runable, snow-covered
trail in the entire state right now and it’s school vacation
week in Massachusetts and Connecticut. That means Pittsburg was
a circus with snowmachiners from out of state. Plenty of neon
snowsuits, SUV’s pulling oversized trailers, and fast
snowmachines were to be found around every corner. Wednesday
morning when I got up there, still in the dark of morning, I
drove through the quiet, but obviously crowded town, and up to
the Magalloway Road trailhead. The trails from here are on
logging roads and go for long miles in many directions without
crossing any roads. Perfect for training big teams, except that
the snowmobiles go insanely fast on these trails groomed 16-24
feet wide. To avoid as many machines as possible, I always run
at first light in the morning.
As light was creeping up from the eastern sky, I unloaded the
dogs, snacked them and set to readying my sled. There was 4
inches of very light snow on everything and the morning was just
beautiful. The 14 dogs and I were the only ones around, except
for a raven who came to investigate us. The sun was getting
almost to the horizon as I hooked up the last dogs to the
gangline. I was running all 14 and the goal was to make
decisions on which two dogs won’t make the 12-dog race next
weekend. Squiggle and Stump took us out on the trail, through
the fluff and despite me standing on the dragmat between the
runners, we were flying, and even on the uphills I kept some
serious pressure on that brake. After about 10 miles, we started
seeing the snowmachines. Normally these early morning riders are
slower and safer than the folks who race around the trails later
in the day. We’ve trained the dogs to run glued to the
right-hand side of the trail (gee-over!!), and the passes are
usually pretty safe. Many snowmobilers slow or stop to take
pictures, some give a thumbs up, a wave and a smile, some act is
if we are not even there and fly by at WAY over the state trail
speed limit of 45 mph. It’s the later that we prefer not to meet
very often, but they’re always out there. Wednesday was no
exception, and we had a couple of machines go by at probably 70+
mph. The dogs don’t like that one bit. After a few really fast
machines, the dogs slowed down drastically. We hadn’t seen many
machines this year, and none at those kinds of speeds and the
dogs were spooked and afraid of the next corner. What started as
a very nice run in solitude and pastel morning light was now a
slog-fest with a constant parade of machines passing in each
direction. By noon when we got back to the truck the parking lot
was crowed with cars, trucks and trailers, but pretty quiet as
people were out on the trails. We had been out for about 5 hours
which was just about what I had set out to do. The dogs got a
wet meal of kibble and chicken and spread out in the sun to
sleep along side the truck. I had met Bill Mattot out on the
trail and decided to wait for him to get back from his run. Bill
is running the Can-Am 250 again this year with his team of
purebred Alaskan Malamutes. We are in a minority running siberians in these distance races, but Bill is the ONLY person
doing it with Mals. He has bred his dogs to be much smaller than
the show-type Mals, but they are still heavier boned and built
for strength, not speed. He spends a lot of time on the trail,
but takes great pride in his team and doing things his way, a
spirit I greatly respect. Anyway, Bill was staying at his camp
just up the road and invited me to stay with him, which was a
much better option than sleeping in the truck, as all the motels
and cabins in Pittsburg had “No Vacancy” signs posted. After he
got back and tended to his dogs, we got some dinner and
eventually, some sleep.
We were back to the trailhead not long after first light on
Thursday for another run. I tried Maple and Mugs in lead for
this run. They have both done a bunch of leading, but usually as
a “second” to the main leader next to them. This time I was
asking them to step up and handle the pressure of a big team
behind them, fast trail, and the heavy responsibility of keeping
us safely tucked to the right hand side of the trail. There were
already people in the parking lot and all of the usual questions
had to be answered. I put on the “hurry-up offense” and got the
team hooked up quickly and out of there. There had been another
inch or two of snow overnight and everything had a fresh cover
of snow through which we got first tracks for a while. The
machines seemed a bit farther between on this run and the dogs
didn’t seem as bothered by them. The team never let up and I had
one of the fastest runs I’ve ever had with our team. The two
girls had done just fine in lead. I came back to the truck
smiling ear to ear and as happy with my team as I could be.
That’s a good feeling with the big race just around the corner.
We’ve still got plenty to do before the race next weekend with
packing checkpoint bags, taking the dogs out for a couple short
runs, and getting ready to head to Fort Kent, but the work of
building the team is over and now it’s a matter of performing on
a couple of days to define a season. It’s a lot of pressure with
all that we put into being ready for this one weekend and I’m
feeling it now. I hope the team (including me) can perform to
our ability. We’ll see. You can “watch” the race on the
Can-Am
website. They do a very good job reporting the times in and
out of checkpoints. They also have “Track” feature that allows
you to see roughly where everyone on the trail is at any one
time. Hope
you enjoy it!
The field for the 250 is very tough this year, again! I think
that at least half the entrants think they can win the race and
all but a few I think expect to be in the “money” (top 12
finishing spots). I’m surely one of those. I can’t control what
any other team does out there, so we’ll just do our best and see
where that leaves us in comparison. There are SOOOO many
variables that we must deal with that predicting a dogsled race
is a total crap-shoot, but names to watch for the win are the
Canadians who seem to have a hold on this race, including past
champs Langmaid and Massicotte. Longchamps, Casavant, Duplessis,
and Marchildon all have teams that could win, too. With good
runs, our friends Amy Dugan and Matt Carstens could both compete
for the win as well. I don’t know much about the handful of
Midwest teams coming to race this year, but we are most looking
forward to meeting Jen and Blake Freking. They run one of the
very best Siberian distance kennels anywhere right now. Blake
has run both the Iditarod and Quest. He’s won the Beargrease 400
and they have a kennel of nearly 100 siberians. She’s a vet and
has a very impressive race history as well. I don’t aspire to
own that many dogs, but I do envy their experience and
race-record. I think Can-Am is tough on rookies, but Blake has
the experience and team to win it on his first try. Ward Wallin,
also from Minnesota, is back again this year, and I bet he’s
looking to improve on his 6th place from last year. Nine of last
year’s top ten are in the race. It’s going to be extremely
competitive.
Other than those names to watch, keep your eye on the weather,
the checkpoint strategy, and what teams can maintain their speed
the best. Can-Am is notorious for “bad” weather. They say it can
“flurry a foot” of snow out in those hills and it often does.
We’d like the weather to be cold and snowy to best suit our
team. With anything above 20 degrees, expect to see our team
slow considerably. If the daytime temps are high, you’ll
probably see our team take a longer rest to sit out the heat of
the day and try to make up some time under the cooler
temperatures of night. Saturday we have no choice but to run in
the heat of the day, and it’s a long, hilly 70 miles to Portage.
Dealing with this leg and not getting the dogs too tired and hot
right off the bat is key. I make numerous stops and keep the
dogs as happy and fresh as can be. Once at Portage, I think a
lot of teams will take a fairly short rest. Last year’s winner
proved it can work and more are sure to try it this year. If
their teams aren’t ready for it, you’ll see their average mph
drop significantly on legs 2 and 3. Some folks will skip the 2nd
checkpoint and push on through 30 more miles to Maibec, the
third checkpoint. This is gutsy, and makes an 80 mile leg right
after the first 70 miles. I think the prudent mushers will
probably pull up and at least water their team at Rocky Brook,
checkpoint two. Last year, only two teams took the minimum rest
of 14 hours plus start differential because of the difficult
conditions. Unless significant snow falls in the next week, the
trail this year should be much faster and I think probably at
least the top ten teams will all take minimum rest. How they
break it up between checkpoints will likely determine the
winner. We’ve had good luck finishing strong the last couple of
years and hope to continue that. This is my fourth year running
the 250 and I will be bib #4. Any sort of karma there? Each
musher must run his team the way they’ve trained them and deal
with the trail and conditions as they find them. I haven’t raced
since Can-Am last year and I can’t wait to Hit the Trail….
It’s snowing, and nothing makes our dogteam happier!
