Yesterday Aaron and Scott groomd the trail. I followed close behind with a load of straw for the cabin (where we'll do our camping). It was a fifty mile trip, and I believe I've seen all the trail system I'll be using (at least for a while). Today I'll be doing my first 30 mile run with the yearlings, so we'll see how it goes.
On the ride we saw what I mistakenly thought was a wolf (it was so far away, it was hard to tell), but it was actually a fox. We got to watch it for a while, since it was in a big, open area and running away from us.
The Cabin is a little, one room cabin with a stove. It's on a lake, which is frozen over. There's plenty of room to camp all the teams and, since yesterday, there will be pleny of straw for us to use.
We were about three miles from the kennel when I had an unexpected adventure: I ran out of gas. It was dark and Scott andd Aaron were ahead of me. I remembered how to switch tanks, but forgot to prime the engine before starting it and, thus, couldn't get it started.
So there I was, guessing they'd go all the way back before realizing I wasn't with them. The only light I had with me was a little one on a carabiner that I'd gotten at a race an unknown number of years ago. It worked for me to switch tanks, but I couldn't get it back on after I'd turned it off.
I considered walking the three miles home, since I knew exactly where I was, but remembered you're not supposed to leave your machine.
I won't say I wasn't scared - after all, the Alaskan woods are big woods and I didn't have a faithful dog (or gun) with me. Plus, I'd seen the neighbor's cleaning lady a few days ago and she'd said there were some big wolves in the area at present. I know a wolf frequents the area I was stuck in about once a week - just a loner, who passes in and out judging by tracks. And though I thought it would be cool to see a wild wolf, alive in it's proper habitat, I didn't want to see anything that night! Moose I wasn't worried about, although they might have been a problem if I'd walked home since there's a few that frequent those last couple miles.
So, I did the sensible thing and laid down on the snowmobile and gazed up at the stars. It wasn't completely peaceful, the highway isn't terribly far away and I could hear a big truck every so often. Still, I was able to make out the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. I wish I knew more constellations, the stars were very bright and seemed so close that I could reach out and touch them. I saw a shooting star and my only wish was that the northern lights would make an appearance, but they did not.
And then I heard a snowmobile and Aaron arrived and helped me start up my machine. I felt kind of silly forgetting to prime it, since I'd done everything else correctly. Oh, well, lesson learned!
Made it home without any issues and the experience has only made me like running dogs better - you don't have to worry about running out of gas.
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