Friday 7 January 2011

The Trip to Eagle Cap Extreme - Bet

Before I tell you all about the really fun trip we had down to Oregon, just wanted to update everyone on the race:

There are only three teams racing in the 200 mile event.  There had been 5 teams, but I'm pretty sure that when they saw our big red truck pull up and got a look at the curly tails, one of the teams scratched and the other decided to run the 100 mile race.

Right now the Musher and Richard are running together and here are the standings:

Musher Start Time Salt CreekMile 9 Ollokot
Mile 48




In Out



2 Richard Todd 13:03  14:05  18:40 21:39





3 Steve Madsen 13:06 14:04 19:05 22:56
4 Karen Ramstead 13:09 14:11 18:42 21:39 

So, our trip was pretty uneventful except after gassing up at one point the truck just lost its get up and go.  I suggested that it would be faster to just hook the curly tails up and let them pull the truck the rest of the way while I steered, but the Musher managed to limp the truck into the friendly and helpful Joe Hall Ford Dealership, where we all were lavished with praise and goodies, and the Musher put on the charm and the service people pulled the truck right in to take a look at it. 


Of course, the curly tails had their own ideas about what was going on, and tried to be helpful so the repairs would get done quicker.
I decided that it would be best for me to lounge in the lounge (what else would one do in a room called a lounge?) so I could better guard the truck.


It turns out that the truck's computer was fried... I told the Musher she needed to go with a Mac instead of a PC, but nobody ever listens to me.  The repair guys managed to duct tape it back together to last until we get home again, and then off we went to the race.




Of course everyone flocked to the truck when we arrived because they had never seen such a wonderful Border Collie truck guarder before... ok fine, they wanted to see the curly tails.

The start was a bit warm with temps over 10C (that's 50 degrees F for you non-metric types), but the Helen Handler (who still smells like cookies) hopes that the temps will drop as the mushers climb in altitude.

Helen Handler is taking pictures, but they had to use her camera cord thing to fix the truck... or she forgot it or something, so we'll get you some pictures of the action soon.
Oh, and for those of you who participated in the "guess the last 5 dogs" contest:
Crunchie, Barq, Charge, Wolvie, and Q
After my nap I'll announce the winner!

Bet

5 comments:

BADASmusher said...

WOW 50 is warmer than it has been down here in California...

Have fun Bet and good luck to the curly tails!

djqhusky said...

Thanks for the update Bet---now go take a nap! :)

granimar said...

I answered on the FB page, but guess it doesn't transfer backwards, what do I know, Bet. What a great job you are doing, what a truck guarder, what a dog !!!
Looks like the Musher is zooming right along, although the trail is a little hard to figure out--at least for me. I see that she has reached the top and turned around. Not sure about that 6 hour rest thingie--on the way down???
50 [F] is really HOT, bet NW was glad to get up in the mountains higher and hope for cooler. We were hot here in Montana, yesterday too. Would have been nice to have had that arctic air blast.
Go NW go

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update Bet! I'm so glad you are there to oversee everything on this trip. What on earth would they do without you?

ElizabethMC said...

Wow 50 degrees? What is going on?? We are barely above freezing here in MO.....Good Luck and best wishes to you and the NW Team!