When Jere asked “How’d they do?” I had to admit, “They seemed pretty stiff and not really themselves…”

Friday night we fought off the urge to just go to sleep early and went to a house party down the road at Quest-musher Paul Geoffrion’s place. With Swiss, French, German, and French-Canadian influences all there, the party had a very European accent. It was fun to talk dogs with folks from so many different backgrounds. Although I’ve forgotten his name, it was really cool to chat with a fellow from Quebec who is good friends with our Can-Am pal, Normand Casavant. We also met Crispin Struder, a 2004 Quest finisher. The group in general was pretty amazed that I had come so far to run a race. More than a few eyebrows were raised when it came out that I had a purebred team, too. While most mushers think I must be crazy to bother trying to be competitive with siberians, it also is a real curiosity. We had a great time, but Finn and Maible finally got as tired as Bob and I were, although slightly more vocal about it. We all piled back in Moe and Jere’s compact car with two car seats for the kids and headed “home” for some sleep after a very enjoyable evening.
Saturday, we went to a local sprint race. It had a three mile Junior division that Finn was running with two dogs. Pretty cool getting to handle for that team! Ed Hopkins from Tagish was there with his son, who was also running. Ed is a well-respected Quest musher (6x) and I was pleased to make his acquaintance. I’ve “watched” the Yukon Quest through videos, books, the internet, and any other means I can find for years, and it was really fun for me to be meeting some of the folks whose names I always see. In the last day I’d already met several. When the formal races were over, Maible got to race a couple hundred yards with Skeeter, too. (Skeeter is one of two siberians they still have.) She “beat Dave!” Johnson. It was very cute, especially since Dave runs young dogs from Terry and Buddy Streeper’s kennel, perhaps the fastest sprint kennel out there. We drove through Whitehorse on the way home from the Fish Lake race to get some beer and stock up on snack food for the ride to Alaska tomorrow. The Quest office was closed, or I would have gone in to introduce myself. The dogs were waiting in the truck, so we hurried back “home.” Heck, we’d slept in the same place for two nights, it was certainly starting to feel like home.

It was a bright, warm (around freezing) afternoon and evening hanging out in the yard with the dogs. I resisted the urge to pull down my sled and fuss over packing it for the race. Snowball fights across the yard with Finn, Jere, and Bob were way more fun. I spent a lot of time with the dogs, too. They were in a veritable frenzy by now after having spent so much time on the short truck-drop chains and in their boxes. They were ready to run, not hang out in the sun. I was a little nervous when a couple of the dogs had some more loose stool that afternoon. We had avoided any troubles with the dogs so far, but it looked like perhaps our luck was running out. I really considered that a sick team was the only thing that could prevent me from finishing this race. That just wasn’t an option. I had it set in my head that I would finish this race if we had to swim to the line. But, a team can get too sick to run. With the very long leg (250 miles) without re-supply the Taiga required, running out of food in the sled would be the only real worry. I knew I could camp and the team would recover plenty to run, IF we had enough food to wait it out. When I saw the first indication of the team picking up a stomach upset, yup, I was nervous. There was little I could do at this point.

Sunday morning, April first, after a whole 3½ hours of sleep, because we stayed up late eating popcorn and watching past Quest videos, I got up at 4am to drop and water the dogs. Two more dogs were showing signs of not being quite right in the gut. Damn. They still ate well and seemed in good spirits, so I tried to do the same. When Bob, came out in the dark with an armload of our stuff going back in the truck for the day’s short little 700 mile drive, he looked up and said, “What’s that??” There was a bright green streak flowing like a river across the entire sky from horizon, through the zenith and to the opposite horizon. I’d been outside for half an hour and hadn’t even noticed the northern lights display in my preoccupation with the dogs and packing the truck. Moe and Jere came out and watched the aurora with us for a bit. Moe was joining us for the trip to Alaska, pulling herself away from her husband on their anniversary (yup, they were married on April fools day) and calling it a vacation. I had called the back seat, hoping I could get some shut-eye on the days drive. After a fantastic caribou steak and egg breakfast cooked up by Jere, Bob pulled us out of the driveway and headed the StarshipTsuga for Alaska. On the road again!
 

The excitement of starting a new part of the trip fueled interesting conversation and by the time it was light, we were surrounded by some impressive mountains near Haines Junction. So much for sleeping. We dropped dogs in Kluane Park in dazzling morning sun. The border crossing was pretty simple. Having organized and neat records for the dogs seems to earn us points, every time. As soon as a car pulled up behind us, they stopped asking questions and waved us through. I did finally doze on and off for a good part of the next couple hours, only briefly awoken by a large frost heaves and road-crossing caribou. Before I knew it, we were turning on to Lake Louise Road. Sixteen miles up that to Wolverine Lodge, the start point of the race. It was not what I had in mind when we walked in to inquire where to park. I had asked what to expect over the phone from home when I made our reservations. They said, “Well, it’s a homey lodge.” With about a thousand snowmachiners up for the weekend from Anchorage, and every one of them smoking in the very loud bar, it seemed much more of a rowdy roadhouse than a “homey lodge.” I knew I was going to be escaping to the trail tomorrow morning, but I turned to Bob and Moe and asked, “You gonna be alright at this place,” not fearing for their safety, just their comfort. Bob just smiled and said, “Yeah, of course. Why?”
 

Not long after we’d let dogs down on the edge of the frozen lake, we met John Schandelmeier, who was putting this race on. John is a Yukon Quest legend. He has started the race 16 times between 1986 and 2007. He has never scratched. He’s only finished out of the top ten twice, at 11th and 12th. He has also twice been Quest champion. Moe had met him earlier in the season, during the Quest, when Jere was running the Quest 300. John and Zoya, his wife, were extremely gracious, friendly, and welcoming, and also a little curious about this guy who just drove all the way from New Hampshire to run their race. Sue’s brother Scott and his partner Nicole had made the drive up from their home in Anchorage to see me and the dogs. They decided to brave the night and stay at Wolverine Lodge with us. We spent quite a while out by the truck, hanging with dogs as I set to packing my sled and checkpoint bags. Karen Ramstead, and her handler Gwen, pulled in next to us. We’ve met several times now, and become friends. She’s one of the very few folks running siberians in distance races recently. This was to be our first time “racing” together. I brought Kluane and Togo over to her truck. I had gotten pretty used to those two dogs and it was a little sad to see them go, actually. My worries about them being any trouble had been unfounded. By now, the snowmobiles were largely trailered-up and headed back to the big city a several hours away and were being replaced by a few dogtrucks pulling in. Not knowing any of the other mushers, except Karen, I was curious to see if I recognized any faces. We all eventually made it inside to the bar/dining room to have some dinner. The place had settled down a bit and you could even see across the room under the smoke, as long as you were sitting down. With dinner done, my sled packed outside for tomorrow’s start, and the dogs resting in their boxes, I went to our room. There I fussed with what to wear and what to pack for a while, but finally relaxed, still visiting with Scott, Nicole, Moe and Bob. After a brief visit outside to check out some northern lights, Bob suggested we get some sleep.
Well, we never did get much sleep that night as the party seemed to go all night in the bar, and unfortunately also in the hallway right outside our door, but Monday morning we were up and out to drop dogs at first light. It’s race day!! John went over the rules and trail at a drivers meeting breakfast at 8am. There were only 7 mushers. Bib one, Zoya DeNure, Paxson, AK: John’s wife and kennel partner. Bib two, Perry Solomonson, Washington and Alaska: has run Iditarod a few times, scratched at Rainy Pass this year. Bib three, Becca Ross, Trapper Creek, AK: running a team her partner, Matt Calore, had just finished his first Iditarod with. She has also run the Yukon Quest 300. Bib four, some guy from a million miles away, running siberians, ME. Bib five, Karen Ramstead, Perryvale, Alberta: the “other” siberian team, having just done 700 miles of the Iditarod trail. Bib six, Molly Yazwinski, Fairbanks, AK: she handles for Dave Monson (the late, great Susan Butcher’s husband) and is running a team of dogs that also had just run to Nome. And bib seven, Dan Kaduce of Chatanika, AK: four time Quest musher and fresh off a win at a 200 mile race near Fairbanks. Wow, I was in some pretty experienced company. And many of the dogs were even more experienced than the mushers! I don’t know if I looked like a kid at his first circus, but I felt like one.

Still at the breakfast table, John described the 300+ miles of trail in about 3 minutes. The first leg was to have been a bit longer, but was scaled back to 52 miles (all distances according to John). The description went something like this- Just go east across the south end of the lake, hit the trail into the woods, stay straight on that trail until you hit Crosswind Lake, go south on that until the trail leaves it and hooks back to the trail you were on, follow that back to Wolverine Lodge. Take your 8 hour layover and pack the sled for the rest of the race from your checkpoint bags. Leave on a different “trail” from that same place, this time go 24 miles to the north end of the lakes, get on the Tyone River- it’s the only river off the north end, go 30 miles on that to the Susitna River, go east on “the Su” for 12 miles until you hit the Maclaren River on the right, go up that for 45 miles until you get to Maclaren Lodge. Rest 6 hours. Do a 30 mile loop up there we’ll explain when you get there. Rest 4 hours. Follow the rivers and lakes back 111 miles to Wolverine. “You’d have to put on your snowshoes to get lost.” Ok, I think I’ve got all that…

I needed the fresh air, and hurried back out to the sled and dogs after the breakfast. Moe already had the dogs dropped along the truck. Kobuk had taken himself out of the running with his upset stomach and the fact the weather forecast was for warm and sunny days. That still left me to decide if Trip the puppy, or Gila the dependable leader was coming along. Gila was in heat, but she is so very valuable to the pace of the team over the long haul. She just doesn’t let up. Her experience won out and I apologized to Trip as I put her back in her box. I got sidetracked with a video-taped interview that later got posted on www.dogsled.com. Karen came over to wish me luck. John came over to give official race time and say, “Half an hour to the start.” I was feeling pretty hectic inside but tried to act calm and collected as I harnessed, booted, and hooked the team with help from Moe, Bob and Scott while Nicole took pictures.

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