Race Update! - Bet

In what the Eagle Cap Extreme organizers are calling "too close to call" all three of the 200 mile participants are now taking their 6-hour layover resting period in Ollokot.

Musher	Start Time	Salt CreekMile 9	Ollokot Mile 48		Ollokot 6hr Layover Mile 114		Ollokot Mile 152		Salt Creek Mile 193	Finish Mile 202
			In	Out	In
2 Richard Todd	13:03	14:05	18:40	21:39	10:04
3 Steve Madsen	13:06	14:04	19:05	22:56	10:02
4 Karen Ramstead	13:09	14:11	18:42	21:39	10:03

If you are a long-time North Wapiti supporter, you'll know what a layover means... yep, the Musher will either lose or set fire to her pants.  We have high hopes that Richard is similarly flammable, so just wait for that update.

In case you need a visual, here is where they are on the big race map:

I added the circle and arrows so you could see where they were, instead of squinting and looking at squiggly black and red lines.


Hats off to Eagle Cap Extreme for this really cool video of the start of the race

Richard is very handsome, and the Musher looks wonderful, so do the curly tails!

Of course there is no rest for the guard dog and the handler. We have to make sure the truck is safe, and provide updates, and drink coffee, and eat, and stay warm, and sleep. Its a rough life, but someone has to do it.  This morning we had to find some interwebs so we could update the blog, and here we are in action:

Helen (who smells like cookies) is a fantastic writer, but her spelling... eeesh.  She had a whole bunch of stuff about how wonderful the view was, and how the weather wasn't as cold as the curly tails are use to running in, and how nice the people were, and yaaawwwwn, I sent her off on a mission so I could punch up the blog entry a bit while she was gone.

Helen sends a shout out to the volunteer Ham radio operators who are very nice and informative.  I was very excited about the Ham radio operators until I found out that they don't talk on radios made of ham. 

More stuff later, Helen and I are going shopping.... um, I mean we're doing Handler stuff.

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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.

Picture courtesy of Eagle Cap Extreme Website

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!

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A Change Of Plans.... - Bet

I bet you are wondering why I'm now posting instead of Kara... don't freak out, nothing is wrong with Kara, its just that I'm pleased to announce that I am the 25th dog on the truck for our trip to Oregon!  I'm so excited I may even piddle a little!

The Musher said that she needed someone to guard the truck while she was out racing with Richard, and I really did think that Cricket would get the nod, but the Musher gave that awesome responsibility to me, and I hope to herd the truck well before I use it to nap.

The Musher was waaaay too busy preparing for our trip to post this herself, so she asked me to provide everyone with an update.  She said something about a house of cards that usually falls, but this time they didn't, something, something, dinner.

She also said that Mark is going to stay home and deal with some work commitments, so Richard, Musher, and Helen are hitting the road, with me and 24 of the curly tails all the way to Oregon.  Some of you may remember Helen, who was the handler for the 2009 Caledonia Classic in Fort St. Jame, BC, and she smells like cookies.

About that "change of plans" title, apparently we won't be heading up to Elkford, BC to race the weekend after Eagle Cap, the Musher decided to pass on that for this year and head home for a few days.

The Musher also said that it was a difficult decision on which dogs to take with us, and she knows its been on everyone's minds as she's received some e-mails asking.  There was a lot of debate and discussion about the whole thing (that I slept through), and even though she and Richard are still training 32 dogs, just because a dog isn't going with us doesn't mean they won't get on the truck for the next trip, so don't get all concerned.  Actually, some of the girls didn't make the cut because they're in season.

So for the Eagle Cap race Richard's team will be:

Dasher
Bingo
Billie
Wonder
Irving
Wifi
Turtle
Utin
Runner
Astro
Hector
Herman

The Musher's team will consist of -

Jinx
Bang
Rocket
See
Tess
Roscoe
Shooter

um... you're really going to hate me for this but... I totally zonked out when she was reading me the list and I can't remember the rest of them.  Don't yell at me I'm sensitive!  Besides, we're now going to play a game, where if you've been paying attention to the blogs, and all of the pretty pictures... then you know the 32 dogs that are in training... and by process of elimination, who can be the first to tell me who the 5 dogs are... I'm pretty sure I can come up with a really cool prize of some sort to send to you, so get to work and figure it out.

Meanwhile, I need to look at my notes and get ready to tell you all about our fun visit to Joe Hall Ford in Lewiston, Idaho!