January 14, 2007 2007 La Ronge Neckbone Race – Karen’s Story

When we contacted the race organizers for the Neckbone, they were thrilled that we wanted to come out, but made sure to inform us that this was an informal, ‘low key’ race. I guess maybe they were worried I would expect a Ceremonial Start, a 1200 person pre race banquet and such!! Fear not!! Neckbone was exactly what we hoped for and wanted – a fun weekend with the dogs!

 

In the weeks prior to the race, I had actually thought it was a 12 dog race, so when I figured out it was only a 10 dog race, I had a bit of scrambling to do about who was going and who was staying home. Draco was first cut, he just didn’t need the experience compared to the other dogs – and with his ‘more senior’ status, injuries, even slight ones take more time to heal, so you don’t want to push those ‘oldies’ too much.

Next cut were Jinx and Olena because they were in standing heat – well, in Olena I call it the ‘Spawning stage’ – but either way it just means they were going to be a big distraction to the boys.

Last to be cut was Barq. Although Barq is definitely having the season of his career, his feet were a bit tender on our last runs and I thought time off would do him a world of good.

 

So, my team for the Neckbone was going to be:

 

Kara	Snickers	Q	Watt	Herman
Dasher	Spider	Crunchie	Charge	Jr

 

 

The drive to La Ronge, like most drives through Saskatchewan (just kidding Colleen) was uneventful, well, except for the time in Prince Albert when we all accidentally got split up. Luckily that big red truck is easy to spot and Colleen and I made a mad dash out into traffic to catch a relieved Mark.

We had been paying the bill at the restaurant and Mark went off to fill up the truck. The pump we were going to meet at didn’t have diesel fuel, so he headed off to find another one and ended up in heavy rush hour traffic. 

All got resolved though and we were grateful to see the city getting smaller in our rear view mirror.

 

When we arrived in La Ronge, race marshall Tom Charles had spotted the truck and came over to welcome us. Great guy with a  wonderful, dry sense of humor. He told us where to find the meetings that were scheduled for the morning and gave us some suggestions for place to drop dogs. All very appreciated. 

Jackie and Rick arrived shortly after and a casual evening was spent with friends and dogs!

 

In the morning I was disappointed to draw bib #1 – I hate going out first, but #2 was a former Neckbone champ, so I figured my leading wasn’t going to last long anyway. 

Sure enough, Stefan caught and passed us about 4 miles out, however the dogs were moving strong and steady and we didn’t see another team for many, many more miles.

 

The day was cold and I had not been thinking when I tossed my wind bib pants into my sled bag – good judgment would have had them on my body. About 29 miles in my legs were feeling pretty numb and I decided I should put them on, however realizing that would require getting my bib and parka off, I decided to tough it out. If the team had been getting passed by everything in sight, I would have taken the time, but I hadn’t seen a team since Stefan passed and I wasn’t going to mess up a good run with a 10 minute wardrobe change!!

 

Just as I was coming into sight of the Besnard Rd safety checkpoint, Gerry Walker came into sight. We both blew through and continued down the trail.

 

Shortly after that Kara began to back off a bit in harness. She had been setting a blistering pace for the first 30 miles and I decided she needed a little bit of a break. Young Spidey was pressed into lead dog duties. She ran like a little pro, although the pace was definitely slower without Miss Wonder Leader up front. 

We actually had a few more teams catch up and pass us – still I was the 6^th team to pull into the finish line that day. That didn’t, however, mean I was the 6^th fastest time – start differentials needed to be considered. It turns out my run time was the 9^th speediest for the day and very close to the teams in front of me.

 

Race organizer and fellow musher Sid Robinson came over as Colleen, Jackie Wepruk (who was waiting for Rick's team to come in) and I fed and tended to dogs. “Are those the fastest Siberians on the planet??”, he asked. Seems he figured he would catch us in the first 20 miles of the run – and ended up not being able to pass me at all on the 57 mile run. I was all smiles.

 

Mark’s team rolled in an hour or so after mine. I helped Colleen and him feed, but finally had to excuse myself to find a bathroom – trails that run along highway ditches don’t give female mushers a lot of opportunities to pee!

 

Dogs fed and tucked into their boxes on the truck we headed over to the Weyakwin school for chili, fry bread and neckbones – the traditional ‘Neckbone Race feast’. For the record, the neckbones served were pork ones. I found them a little gristly and fatty, but Mark drove into a heaping plate of the things and pronounced them delicious.

 

When we dropped the dogs after dinner, Kara was sore on one of her front legs. I showed Colleen how to care for it and she took over Kara drops and massages for the evening. Kara was very pleased to be assigned her own personal massage therapist.

 

The town had opened a local gymnasium for mushers to sleep in, so we dragged out cots and sleeping bags and set up ‘Camp Ramstead’. Hanging gear to dry and sorting out new gear for morning before dropping dogs again and then getting some sleep.

 

The morning came COLD. Tom said that in the dips and valleys his truck thermostat had dropped down to –40. In town it was hanging about – 37.

We filled up on a wonderful breakfast at the school before piling on every bit of gear we had with us (you can bet I was wearing those wind bibs today!) and heading out to the start line. 

 

They had us leaving in reverse finishing order, so Mark was out 3^rd and I was out 4^th. It took some fancy footwork to get us out three minutes apart, but aided by Colleen and Jackie (who had already seen Rick off), we got it done.

 

The dogs didn’t start off as spunky as the Saturday, but they were still moving nicely. I caught and passed Mark and then a faster teams caught me.

Although Kara had looked good at the truck this morning – with all swelling and tenderness in her wrist seemingly gone, she was backing off in lead after about 5 miles.

I took her out of lead and put her back into the team to see if that would help. It didn’t. Finally, after about 5 miles of fussing and fiddling with her, I stopped to load her into the bag. As I was putting her in, I noticed a team bearing down on us and just quickly closed up my bag.

Kara was NOT pleased at being ‘loaded’ and as we started to move shot up and out of the sled and onto the trail. I threw in my hooks and collected my wayward leader. As I was arguing with her about getting back into the bag Gerry Walker passed – or attempted too. His sled caught one of my snow hooks and everything was suddenly in a big mess. As we tried to sort it out, Stefan caught up and came running up to help out. Unfortunately, his team didn’t feel like a break and popped loose his snow hooks. He just caught them as they roared by.

After what was probably only a minute or two, but what seemed like ages, things were all straightened out and all three teams underway again. No one to blame, but one of those things.

 

My team started to ‘click’ a bit now. The spark seemed to be starting to ignite. I had Dasher and Snickers in lead and they were really moving steady. We traveled with another musher for a bit and then she stopped to snack prior to the Besnard crossing. I pulled into the safety checkpoint, very quickly turned Kara over to the race officials, pulled the hook and was gone again. Once out of sight of the crossing (so the dogs didn’t think we were taking a ‘real’ break), I stopped and tossed each dog a chunk of lamb sausage. Just before I pulled the hook Jess Allen came over the hill. I slipped in behind her and we traveled that way for a number of miles. I stopped to put a bootie on Charge and the team was screaming by the time I stepped back on the runners. I pulled the hook and it was like I entered the Twilight Zone – that team was ready to rock. They quickly caught up with a 6-dog team that had passed us while we were stopped. I wanted to just follow them for a bit, but Snicks and Dash had other ideas and just pulled out and passed. They pulled strongly away and now had Jessica’s team in their sights. They loped up behind her, we passed and then they loped on down the trail. I was slightly concerned that they were going to burn themselves out, we still have about 25 miles to the finish line, but then decided it was just time to see what these puppies could do.

 

A number of miles later we spied another team ahead and they kicked it into overdrive. The team was Sid’s and he had a number of nice comments about my team. Sid had a bit of a tangle in some deep overflow, but my team skillfully edged around the water and around him to continue their charge to the finish.

 

I continued to be in awe of the way the dogs were driving – I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face if I had tried.

 

We caught glimpses of one more team ahead, but I just couldn’t reel them in. We loped across the finish line as the fourth team, with a time that turned out to be the 4^th fastest for the day. Placing us in 8^th overall. More significant to me was the fact that we were only 25 minutes out of 3^rd place!

 

That evening we dined again on chili and neckbones, visited with other mushers and swapped trail stories. A lovely end to a lovely weekend!

We will be back!!!

 

 

Karen

 

1	Gerry Walker, Pierceland	5:03:15	4:50:18	9:53:33
2	Stefaan de Marie, Christopher Lake	5:21:55	4:54:50	10:16:45
3	Charlie Conner, Meadow Lake	5:44:35	5:51:51	11:36:36
4	Quincy Miller, La Ronge	5:56:00	5:46:32	11:42:32
5	Charlie Noltcho, La Ronge	6:05:52	5:39:14	11:45:06
6	Jessica Allen, Minnedosa, Manitoba	5:50:01	5:56:20	11:46:21
7	Sid Robinson, La Ronge	6:03:58	5:51:31	11:55:29
8	Karen Ramstead, Perryvale, Alberta	6:15:07	5:45:18	12:00:25
9	Jeff Thomas, Minnedosa, Manitoba	6:03:33	6:11:38	12:15:11
10	Mark Ramstead, Perryvale, Alberta	6:56:05	7:03:09	13:59:14
11	Irvin Wai, Carstairs, Alberta	7:22:42	7:00:02	14:22:49
12	Rick Austin, Lacombe, Alberta	7:57:01	7:38:08	15:35:09
13	Blake Charles, La Ronge	7:46:18	8:02:14	15:48:32

 

January 10, 2007 Kennel News and Training Updates

So far this winter mushers throughout North America are whining about lack of snow and races all around being cancelled or in danger of cancellation. We here in northern Alberta cannot relate!! We are in the midst of our snowiest winter in over a decade. 

This morning we woke up to drifts piled up against the front door and the wind and snow still raging around us. 

The F450 (aka - The Dog Truck) was taken to Athabasca for an oil change yesterday and I was going to have Mark drop me off at the dealership to pick it up on his way to work this morning. He headed out the door to start his little Ford Escort and quickly turned around and came back in. No way that little car was getting out of the yard, forget up the big hill to the highway. 

I had to wake up Colleen so we could all unload a pallet of dog food that was on the F250 (aka - The Old Dog Truck) so we stood a chance of getting into town and getting Mark off to work.

Well, we got out of the yard and a ¼ mile down the driveway before the F250's fan belt was pushed off by the snow, leaving us without headlights, power steering, etc, etc.  The driveway was the worst I've even seen it! We plowed up the hill and to the highway, just to 'break open the trail' before turning around and heading back to the yard. We got within sight of the house before the truck slide off the road and into a snow bank. 

We are now waiting until daylight before heading out to dig, plow and stomp our way out of all the white stuff - so I thought I'd take this bit of 'down time' to bring everyone up to speed on the happenings around here in the last few weeks since we got home from Sheep Mountain. 

As many of you may have heard, Mark came down with 'Norwalk Virus' the day after we got back from Alaska. It was so bad, he actually spent one night in the hospital on IV. As the nurse was hooking up his IV, she looked at me and said "This is HIGHLY contagious, you know". Well the morning of December 24, I knew. I never ended up in the hospital (as most of you know, I'm petrified of needles and I'd have to be next to dead to agree to go in and have an IV hooked up), but Christmas was not a festive occasion here. 

The greatest gift we got over the holiday season was from the Husch family. Markus, Anna and their Mom, Gabby, all took turns coming down to help feed and shovel the yard while Mark and I were so sick. It was very kind of them to take time away from their family time to work here. The dogs, Mark and I were all so grateful. 

Runs on the dogs didn't get too behind, as it seemed when Mark was the sickest, I was still able to train and vice versa! It took almost a week for both of us to get back to 100%. 

Around New Years we trucked the team over to the Blackfoot Grazing Reserve, east of Edmonton for a run. The trails started out excellent, but we somehow ended up on the equestrian trails - and let me tell you - horses and dog teams don't mix!! Luckily, everyone walked away fine from our horse encounters, although Herman was proudly packing around a mouthful of tail hair from one of the horses. 

Our efforts to get back to the 'multi use' trails had us careening down plowed roads, scaling snow banks and crashing through blown in trail before getting back to the nicely groomed stuff. It was a challenging day, but none the less enjoyable - and great experience for the dogs. 

I've been training at home on both the 4 wheeler and the sleds and the team is looking FABULOUS!! Charge, Watt and Tess continue to amaze me. They are well beyond good. Charge, in particular, cannot seem to get enough. The more I run him, the more energy he seems to have. I am in complete awe of him.

Charge

Watt

Tess

Dasher is having a tremendous season. Both Mark and I had runs over the holidays that had us standing in the dog yard with our jaws hanging open at the end of them. The common denominator in all those runs was Dasher in lead. Watch for her to be one of our key race leaders this season.

Also shining in the leader department are Kara (of course), Snickers, Jinx, Spider, and Q. Standbys like Hilda, Olena, Hector, and Draco are also putting a lot of time up front. 

Kara

Snickers

Jinx

Spider

Q

Hilda

Olena

Hector

Draco

 

All 24 dogs that we took to Sheep Mountain are still solid, healthy and looking great!

Matt left to be with his girlfriend shortly after we got back from Alaska and that left us scrambling around the yard. Luckily, Anna was out of school until well into January and came down a bunch of times to shovel and help out.

 

Colleen Hovind, who rescued us by flying up to Alaska last year to help out after Mark broke his leg, again came to our rescue and came out last week. Her help and friendship has been a real blessing during this busy time.

 

I thought we had a new handler coming this week, but her plans changed and she had to back out on me. Not sure what we will do for the rest of the winter without help (Colleen heads back home this weekend), but we are looking at scaling back our racing plans some. Just not enough hours in a day to do yard chores, keep the dogs training up, and properly get ready for multiple races without kennel help, I'm afraid.

 

I'm very disappointed, because our training conditions have been so good and the team is looking so great - but unless I come up with a way to add more hours to the day, it's just not happening.

Anyway, that is the news around here. We will spend today digging out and getting ready to leave on Friday for the Neckbone Race in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Plans are to run 2 teams. We will be back on Monday, I'm sure with tales to tell.

Karen

December 28, 2006 Ch Chuchinka's Pathfinder

"CHESTER"
Ch. Chuchinka's Pathfinder
2001 & 2004 IDITAROD FINISHER
December 12, 1996 - December 28, 2006

 

Of course, we have known the time was coming. We've had more then a month (Nov 22, Dec 3) to relive old times and tell our friend how much we loved, cared for and valued him. This morning it was time to prove it to Chester - time to show him by adding pain to our worlds, but removing it from his.
Last night as I was crawling into bed, with Chester's 10 am vet appointment looming over us, I was caught up by the small space between the mattress and headboard on our bed. I well remember Chester being so small that he would slip through that space and thump to the floor in the middle of the night. I'd fish around in the dark until I found fur and haul him back up onto the bed. He'd quickly settle back in between our pillows. It seems like yesterday.

 

Yesterday, when he was so full of promise and potential. He lived up to all of it and more. He was a great dog and he had a great life. He saw a lot of places, made a lot of friends and sampled some great food (very important to Chester) along the way.

He was one of a kind.
Karen

 
Chester & Grover in lead - Iditarod 2004 - Nome, Alaska

Offspring at NorthWapiti
Trigger	Shooter
(The "Winchester" Litter)

December 23, 2006 Handler Needed

As many of you know, Matt left this morning for warmer climates and to be with his girlfriend. We really enjoyed getting to know him - and his help in the kennel will be sorely missed.


This has left us in a bit of a bind, as it is hard to find a handler for just a short amount of time. What we are looking for is help in the kennel for the month of January. You would receive room and board (small private cabin, although you would be sharing a kitchen and bathroom with us) and a small stipend.

If anyone is looking for a month long adventure - please let me know! It isn't a glamorous job, the work is hard and the days are long - but the food is good (so I'm told), there is plenty of dogs to snuggle, and there is lots of opportunities to learn how things work in a 'big' kennel.

Please be advised that our kennel is at capacity right now and we would not have any room for anyone to bring their own dogs with them. Sorry!

Karen

December 23, 2006 Karen's 2006 Sheep Mountain 150

I must admit that in the days prior to leaving for Alaska for the Sheep Mountain race, I had some trepidation. Maybe driving 3 days for a race was insane - even by my rather warped standards.

However, once the truck was packed and we were underway, the routine clicked into place and I knew we were making a solid move for the team.

Our drive from Fort Nelson to Whitehorse threw a bit of everything at us. From heavy snow to dense fog to bright blue sky - we saw it all. Wildlife was plentiful with moose, elk, and caribou all making us slow down or stop at one time or another.

The Yukon welcomed us back with an amazing display of northern lights as it got dark. Much of the time we were feeding dogs just outside of Teslin, our eyes were cranked upwards! Greens, pinks and even a bit of red moving in rapid waves - gorgeous!!

The dogs, for the most part, traveled very well. You have to know that when we drove up to Lac La Biche to run, Watt and Charge were making such a fuss in their boxes as we drove down the road that cows stopped grazing to stare as we went by - not a word of a lie! So, we were prepared for the worst on this drive! However, the boys were remarkably well behaved. Odie is the one that has been shhhh'd' the most on this drive. Someone needs to give that dog a wake up call and remind him how old he is - but it's not going to be me!

We arrived at Sheep Mountain Lodge late on Friday evening. The warm welcome from a number of mushers instantly made me feel I was back where I belong - surrounded by like-minded folks where everything revolves around DOGS!

Zack Steer's cheerful staff got us all checked into one of their lovely new cabins. I think that cabin rates as one of the nicest rooms I've ever stayed in - and I've stayed in some pretty swanky places in my day!

We were the first mushers up and tending to dogs in the morning. We enjoyed the dark, quiet morning knowing that everything would be noisy and jumping in the parking lot soon.

I lingered over breakfast, mainly do to my interesting dining companions - Mark Nordman and Hans Gatt.

The morning flew by with meetings, race preparations and the arrival of Jamie
and Donna. How good it was to see them again. Soon enough I was standing at the
starting line behind -

Olena	Dasher	Jinx	Q	Moses	Herman
Hilda	Kara	Snickers	Crunchie	Jr	Barq

One of the great things about the Sheep Mt race is that it is put on by mushers, for mushers. Pretty much all the race officials are mushers themselves, so they know what's what. I was chatting with head timer/Iditarod finisher, Bryan Bearass about the showers in Ruby while waiting for my countdown, when I glanced down at my sled and realized that I had hooked my snow hooks up to my sled wrong. Damn! Bryan asked if I wanted to attempt to fix it in the moments I had left, but it wasn't something that was going to put the team at any risk, so it was just going to have to wait. What a bonehead, rookie mistake!!!

We were off. Sure enough, right out of the start chute I was fighting my snow hook lines that kept slipping under my runner. I was happy to finally get onto the straight trail on the old highway and let the dogs stretch out and blow off a bit of steam. Just before the trail headed into the backcountry, I stopped to see if I could fix my hook lines, but it wasn't a job I could do safely on the trail. The problem was that I had neglected to feed the lines through the hole in the front of my sled, instead hooking them straight to the carabineer. That meant that they were free to slip under the runners of the sled, creating drag and affecting the steering.

We banged and crashed through the tussocks and rough trail. Although I stayed on my runners, neither the dogs nor I were having an enjoyable time. The dogs missed a well-marked corner and wouldn't come back onto the main trail. When I went up front to pull them back, I used a spare neckline to 'McGyvor' my snow hook lines. That seemed to work and the dogs and I took a couple deep breaths and settled into the business of running, rather then struggling with the sled.

We were moving along nicely, and I was really enjoying the handling of my new Gatt Sled (which steers like NOTHING I've ever driven before - even my other Gatt sleds), even so a number of other teams caught and passed us. No sweat, we were here to do our own thing and that's what we were going to do.

The trail detoured off of last years route and up and over Turtle Mt - I believe it was called. It was a tough climb and the reward at the top was a lovely view, once we were out of the ice fog that had enveloped us much of the morning.

We slide down the mountain and twisted and turned through the valley on the other side. There was a bit of overflow ice, but nothing to write home about.
 

At one point the trail swung left and then dropped down onto an icy patch with a patch of open water in the middle. Another team was on the far side getting reorganized, my team headed straight for them and I was heading straight for the hole. My attempts to convince my sled to swing left just put me on my side and I hit the water runners and feet first. Luckily, the dogs kept pulling strongly and I was quickly out, though my boot and legs were definitely wet.

I stopped right behind the other team. Moments later Jessica Hendricks drug across the water on her stomach and came to a stop beside me. Poor thing, she got much wetter then I did. Another musher was dragged into the pile up before the front team got straightened away and we all got moving.

A couple miles later, Lance Mackey's well-oiled 'machine' of a dog team powered by us. I would have been surprised if he hadn't won this race.

We continued to wind and snake through mountain valleys as daylight slipped away. I stopped and put The Amazing Kara in lead with Hilda. The team strongly drove up over the last big climb of this leg, past the '4 Corners' road signs (out in the middle of nowhere) and down towards Eureka.

We spit out onto a lake and I was surprised to see a dog team 'right in front' of us. Then I remembered that Zack had warned that they had skirted the trail around one of the big lakes to up the mileage of this leg, so in reality, I was about 1/2 mile behind that team, even though they were only a couple hundred feet from me. Oh well!

A race judge was out there on a snow machine to make sure no one was cheating and cutting across the lake! He greeted me warmly by name as my team passed by. Everyone can always tell who I am, even in the dark because of my dogs!

Alittle later then I had hoped, but with the dogs still looking strong and spunky, we pulled into Eureka for our first mandatory layover.

Jamie and Donna were on hand to help me get parked. It was nice to have friends to visit with as I went about my chores. The first thing I did after the dogs were fed and bedded down was to properly reattach my snow hook lines to my sled. It was a relief to have that mistake behind me!

The dogs were all on their straw, but few were actually lying down - they were all sitting up staring at me. I headed up to the lodge, knowing they would finally settle down if I were out of sight.

I had been in about an hour when Zack Steer popped by to mention that Mark wasn't in yet and to ask if I was worried. I wasn't, so he wasn't - however when another 45 minutes or so had gone by, I confessed I was getting concerned.

I have every faith in my husband's abilities on a dog sled, but I've been around long enough to know that often things out of your control can go wrong out on the trail.

It was a huge relief when fellow musher, Michael Salvisberg came over to tell me Mark was in.

I tossed on my parka and still damp boots to head out to check on him and the team. All 13 of them were in good spirits.

Weird things had indeed happened to Mark, but he kept his head and made good solid decisions that were in his and the dogs best interest. I was very proud of him.

So much for sleeping, it was time to soup the dogs again. They all inhaled their soup and looked expectantly at me for more. I told them they were going to have to do some more running before they got to eat again.

Just before I was ready to leave another musher came by looking for a headlamp bulb. Hers had blown and she hadn't packed another one for the race. I always have all kinds of spare bulbs, batteries and headlamps on a race - I learned that one as this young woman was - the hard way! I gave her another and told her that I was leaving just a few minutes behind her, so if she had any further problems to stop and wait for me.

Finally it was time to leave. The dogs had lots of energy, but Kara wasn't too interested in leaving her straw bed. She twice attempted to head back to the straw before resigning herself to heading out into the night. That's my little
princess.

Once we got by all the straw piles and onto the trail the team began to click. I have to say that that run gelled into one of the nicest runs - a lovely night, a strong dog team and a fun trail. That's about as close to heaven as I know.

Kara and Hilda were stars. They powered up even the steepest of climbs and zipped along the trails through the woods.

I never even bothered with my iPod, we just 'danced' down the trail to the music of the night.

Sure enough the team in front of me again had headlamp troubles and I came across them in the dark. I gave her a new bulb and a backup. We ran together for a bit before my team pulled away from her young dogs.

About 10 miles from Eureka I blew a headlamp bulb. I quickly switched headlamps and kept going. Six miles from Eureka I blew yet another! Go figure. I had to fumble around in my sled bag for a while to locate my backup backup headlight (I try not to change bulbs on the trail unless I have to). Maybe giving away 3 of those darn bulbs wasn't the smartest move! Oh well, only 6 miles to go and then my next run would be almost all daylight.

Coming back across the lake into Eureka I called up the team and they moved readily into a solid lope. (Donna Q told me that Mark's team, which was in the dog truck at the checkpoint, started to howl moments before I pulled in. I'm assuming they heard me call up my team!).

Jamie had kindly raked up all my straw into a long skinny pile while I was gone, so I just pulled the dogs into their parking spot and they all were able to immediately bed themselves down.

They ate like starving wolves and then sat and stared at me. I expected them to be more tired - they were at this point last year. I wasn't sure this boded well for the last leg. I was worried they weren't getting enough rest.

I left them alone to settle down and headed up to the lodge with all my headlamps in tow. Time to swap bulbs and toss all the blown ones.

I had a huge omelet once the kitchen opened - too huge actually. I was uncomfortably stuffed after eating it.

Again, I just wasn't up to sleeping. Really going 24 hours without sleep isn't a big deal for me.

I was right ready to go when my time was up. In fact, the dogs and I were all up and raring to go long before our 5 hours were up.

I had decided that Hilda had earned a break and put Snickers up front with Kara for the last leg.

Jamie and some volunteers came by to lead my team over to the starter. Despite both my feet on the brake, the team blew off the help and charged up to the checkers on their own.

They were much more jazzed for the leg home then last year and I fretted over whether this meant we were going to have a good run or not. I was worried they would peter out over that last 50 miles if they left really strong. Our usually pattern is to start slow and finish strong.

On the count they charged out of the checkpoint and back towards Sheep Mt. I pleaded with them for a while to ease up a bit, but finally figured - what the heck - and just enjoyed the ride.

Kara set a blistering pace around the lake and loped the team up the start of most of the hills, but eventually began to back off some. I stopped and tossed Dasher up front with Snicks. I looked Kara over for problems, but could find none. She was keeping up with the team, but not contributing. I worked over the puzzle in my mind as we moved along. Finally, I remembered much the same thing had happened to her last year on this race and booties had helped. I stopped and bootied all 4 of her feet. In typical Kara ritual, she took 2 steps, wiggled her whole body and then bounced forward into her harness. Within about 2 miles I had my little leader back out in front of the team and we were loping up hills
again.

The last leg passed by remarkably quickly. It seemed like much less then 5 hours when we pulled onto the stretch of old highway that is the beginning of the homestretch.

The dogs sailed across the finish line and pulled to a stop with smiles and wagging tails. Bryan asked if I wanted help to my truck and I declined. "Go to the truck Kara" I asked after I was checked in and off we went.

Overall, I have nothing but good things to say about the team. Kara, of course, was the star of the group, but I was also very pleased with Hilda's leadership. Barq did his first race ever with me and I have nothing but great things to say about him. We are now reaping the rewards of our patience with him over the years! Waiting for him to 'grow up' is really paying off!

'Youngsters', Q and Jinx did a great job too. Out of the veterans, I was most pleased with Herman, who was in tremendous form for all 150 miles, although I have nothing bad to say about any of the dogs on this race!

Definitely a weekend worth the drive!

Karen