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2008/2009
DOG SPONSORS
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Rookie’s Journey – McGrath to Ophir
May 16, 2006
Due to my low start number my
24 hour mandatory rest in McGrath was actually 26 hours. When I pulled
into McGrath, this seemed like an incredible amount of time. That
was my first mistake. The dogs were parked along the snow berm, created
when the road was plowed, to shelter them from the light wind. Belle
had not been having fun and wasn’t really contributing on the
run from Nikolai, so I dropped her in McGrath. Belle was in Anchorage
before I got to bed and Jim and Bonnie Foster spoiled her absolutely
rotten ;-). During the check of the team the vet thought he saw something
in Jewels right hip and left front leg. It’s common to have
sore muscles on diagonal legs like that, and Jewels had injured his
right hip in the dog lot last summer. We could never identify exactly
what he did, but I put a coat on him with a chemical hand warmer over
the sore hip. It was cold enough that I put coats on all the dogs
to help them rest better. The vet that was examining Rom commented
that it was so cold Rom had withdrawn his testicles far enough into
his body that the vet could not find them. I told the vet that was
a good thing because Rom had been neutered last summer! After caring
for the dogs I called home and then I lost focus. Instead of sleeping,
I wondered around McGrath.
Team leaving
McGrath on the Kuskoquim River.
Note the clear sky and beautiful day.
That means it will get cold at night.
Platinum and Dash are in lead. |
I have a handlebar bag that carries
the items I want fast access to on the trail, my voice recorder, camera,
spare headlamp, batteries, gloves, neck gaiter, and thermometer. This
bag hangs from the drive bow (handlebar) on the sled by two straps
with snaps. During the run into Rainy Pass I caught the bag on a tree
and ripped the strap completely off the right side. I wanted to find
a seamstress that could fix the bag for me, but first needed a ruling
from a race judge about “outside help”. I’ve been
in McGrath before as a volunteer and knew the logistics headquarters
was in the restaurant/hotel across from the runway. I walked down
there and found Andy Willis, a race judge. Andy said as long as the
service was available to all mushers, like a commercial seamstress
would be, there was no problem. Next I walked to the two stores looking
for a strap. Finally I found a dog collar with a snap that would work
fine. Finally I asked about a seamstress. The owner of the second
store called several people she knew and one of them was at the checkpoint.
So back to the checkpoint and a very nice lady named Lynn offered
to make the repairs for me.
The Takotna River coming into
Takotna.
Leaving Takotna the trail goes over the
mountains in the background to Ophir. |
It was time to feed the dogs again. Next
I did a laundry, and took a shower. I had been in McGrath about 10
hours when I finally went to bed. Remember that I had gone short sleep
in Yentna, the camp, and Rainy. I did get a good night’s sleep,
but didn’t make up for any lost ground. What I did wasn’t
bad, but I could have used more of the time to sleep and been better
off. I got up in the morning, feed the dogs again, got breakfast and
started getting ready to leave. Lycos didn’t eat breakfast and
looked like he might be coming down with something and I needed to
watch him. At 2:17 PM with Platinum and Dash in lead I pulled the
hook and headed for Takotna.
Cabins along trail near top of
mountain leaving Takotna. |
As we left the checkpoint every body
stops to pee and stool. Of course, being dogs, they do this one at
a time. For the dogs in the back of the team we don’t stop and
they just have to learn to eliminate while running. But if I don’t
stop for the dogs in the front of the team, the back of the team doesn’t
stop and we have a major tangle. So a dog team leaves a checkpoint
in a series of starts and stops, somewhat like an old car. As you
get further down they trail they settle into travel mode. It was a
beautiful day, clear sky, about 20 degrees with a bit of a breeze
coming up. The trail was in great shape, some river running and some
cross country through the trees. The country is beautiful and the
dogs, coming off 26 hours of rest, were running strong. This is the
kind of performance that mushers live for.
About 1 hour into the run Lycos
threw up. I stopped the team immediately and ran up to check him out.
The concern is that the dog inhales some of the material while he
is running. This can be immediately fatal, or cause aspiration pneumonia
which can be fatal over time. Lycos looked ok, just not feeling his
best and I left him in the team.
As we approached Takotna the dogs broke into a lope. We came off the
river and ran through town on the streets and the dogs just kept getting
more and more excited. As we came down the last hill into the checkpoint
at a solid lope I wondered how the dogs would handle leaving the checkpoint
without stopping. We hadn’t done that since Skwentna.
When we checked in I told the vet that Lycos had thrown up and set
off a very intense response. It turns out that Iditarod had already
lost one dog to pneumonia and sure didn’t want to lose another
(neither did I). The vet said that Lycos lungs were clear and his
temperature, while elevated, was the same as Balu running next to
him. While Lycos seemed ok, they were still very concerned. Since
Ophir was only 38 miles down the trail we decided to have the vets
check him again when I got there. The folks at Takotna knew I wasn’t
going to stop there after a 24 at McGrath and met me with a brown
bag lunch with two sandwiches, cookies, and a soda. You have no idea
how good that was as I went down the trail!
Lavon Barve, the race judge, gave me a couple of tips. First he said
that coming off your 24 hour rest you should hold the dogs back for
the first 50 miles. Otherwise the minor aches and pains you were fighting
going into your 24 would become bigger problems working those cold
muscles. He said failing to do that had cost him a couple of races.
Then he winked at me and said that the team looked like a sprint team
coming into the checkpoint. (I had the 14th fastest time from McGrath
to Takotna. If I had known that I would have slowed them down more.)
He said the trail would climb for 3 miles on the road out of town
before dropping on the other side of the mountains. He said that it
was cold on the other side. Ophir and Cripple both hit -40 last night
while Takotna was -23.
We pulled out of Takotna at 4:27PM and the dogs never hesitated and
were still running strong. Climbing hills has never been the strong
point of this team, but we climbed the next three miles like dogs
on a mission. I’ve always loved being in the mountains and this
was no exception. This is absolutely beautiful country with cabins
and summer homes. The trail goes up a road that is not maintained
in the winter. Near the top it felt like we could see all the way
to tomorrow.
The trail between Takotna and
Ophir near the high point. |
As we came down the far side it definitely
got colder. We were running through mining country for the first time
in the race. There were cabins, old mining equipment, some looked
abandoned, and some looked like they were still used in the summer.
After running for so long through the wilderness with hardly any sign
of human presence it felt funny to be running through what seemed
like very populated country, even if it was a summer only population.
We got into Ophir at 7:05 PM, just before dark. After we got settled
in the vet checked Lycos again and this time he was running a fever.
When I fed the dogs Lycos didn’t eat. I put coats and blankets
on all the dogs. The vet asked me what I would say if she told me
that she wasn’t going to let me take Lycos down the trail. I
just kind of stood there with this incredulous look on my face and
she said “that won’t work for you?” Then she backed
off and started to work with me, instead of dominating me. We put
Lycos on antibiotics and decided to check him after 6 hours when I
was going to leave. After caring for the dogs, the staff told us that
since there were so few of us we could use the empty bunks in the
vet’s heated tent. This was nice because it got down to -30
that night.
View from the top of the trail
3 miles
out of Takotna heading towards Ophir. |
I went from the high of my best run this
race to probably dropping Lycos, who at that time was my best performing
leader. I got into this mental funk, and that just made things worse.
The bunks in the heated tent were just plywood in 2x4 frames with
no side boards. Of course the empty ones were on top. This shouldn’t
have bothered me, but I had my alarm clock on the bunk beside me and
kept knocking it off onto the person below me. I just couldn’t
get comfortable and sleep seemed to be an illusion (not getting extra
sleep in McGrath is catching up with me).
I got up at 1am (COLD) and checked on Lycos. His fever was down and
he ate when I fed him, but he was still listless and just didn’t
feel well. The vet still didn’t want me to take him down the
trail; the next checkpoint was Cripple, 80 miles away. If it had been
closer she wouldn’t have objected so much. She had a good point.
I was still hoping Lycos would recover enough to stay in the team,
and I really didn’t want to leave at -30 into what I was sure
would be much colder temperatures going to Cripple, so we agreed I’d
wait 6 more hours and check Lycos again. I went back to bed, but was
still to wound up to sleep. I was up at 5:30 AM and when we checked
Lycos his fever was back up. I didn’t want to drop my best performing
leader, but Lycos was only 2 and I didn’t want to endanger him
either. Finally I did drop Lycos, but it was the hardest decision
I made during the entire race. I bootied up the dogs and we left Ophir
at 7:37 AM for Cripple.
We were told during the rookie meeting that Iditarod would take us
to the highest highs and lowest lows of our entire lives. I hadn’t
hit that extreme, but sure went from the high point to the low point
of my race since leaving McGrath 17 short hours ago.
Keep ‘em Northbound
Eric
© 2006 All rights reserved
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OUR
2008/2009
RACE SPONSORS
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OUR
2008/2009
DOG SPONSORS
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"THROTTLE"
Sponsored by
Karen
Lederhost
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"THYME"
Sponsored by
Penny, Dennis,
& Adam Sputh
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"PLATINUM"
Sponsored by
Pat Ford
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"MOCHA"
Sponsored by
Pat Schue
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"LYCOS"
Sponsored by
Muzzy's
Place
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"BASS"
sponsored by
William
& Gary Sanders
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"WORF"
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