Race to the Sky 2014 - Leg 3

    Now we come to the third leg of the 2014 Race to the Sky. I’d like to note that I’m trying to write these races “as it happened” (by this point in the race I suffered from sleep deprivation) – being wide awake now, I can see my mistakes quite clearly looking back. When I look back on the race I see things I would’ve done differently, but one thing I’m learning in mushing is to learn from the mistakes and let them go. The dogs don’t hold anything against you and you’ll never make the same mistake twice (hopefully!). As Scott told me after the race, “The best thing [after having a bad run] is to get back out there and run dogs.” And it’s true – for both the dogs and the musher.

    But let’s get back to the race…

    The first leg through Whitetail and the second leg to Seeley is my favorite part of the Race to the Sky. Huckleberry Pass is really not that bad, compared to what we train on, and it’s always cold and beautiful leaving Whitetail.

    I left towards the end of the pack, due to my long rest, but the team moved well. I knew we were making good time until I bumped my watch…this cost me dearly because I’d planned on doing a 9 hour run through Seeley Lake to a camping spot on the trail to Owl Creek and being sleep deprived doesn’t help estimates! I don’t know how long I really ran and I also think I might’ve messed up because I never changed my watch to Montana time.

    I gave the dogs a wet cooler around my guestimate of 6 hours, coming into Seeley Lake. They didn’t really eat, it was starting to warm up and several teams had left Seeley after their 4 hour rest, so my dogs were pumped to know we were getting near other teams and the checkpoint (for the dogs who’d run it before). But when I asked, they whirled in and out of the checkpoint without any hesitation. My handlers had everything ready for me so it was a quick turnaround (I had another wet cooler ready for my camp out – so they just handed me the bags and we left).

    Blowing through Seeley Lake is tough because that year you had 7 miles of going down into Seeley and, leaving, the same 7 miles up to get back to the race trail to Owl Creek. Then, after a while, you start zigzagging up a steep mountainside, only to go back down the other side. By this time my time was way off and I stopped to give the dogs another good snack; which they ate pretty well. I knew it was probably too much, but I was under the illusion that I needed to keep rigidly to my schedule of feeding like I had in training (the week before I did a 3 day set of grueling, trail breaking – windblown trail – training runs on our toughest hills – 70, 60, 50) Note: as great as the dogs did in training, I now realize it was WAY too much for that time in training…it broke down too much muscle and the older dogs didn’t need that type of training.

    Anyway, we went on another half hour or so to a camping spot I thought was half way…boy, I was way off! Having only run the trail once, I forgot how many times it goes in and out and around the mountain. But it was a nice spot with a view of the trail and somewhat out of the wind. I didn’t see anyone ahead or behind; but settled the dogs down with straw and melted snow. They didn’t really eat so I left them with food in the bowls and snuggled next to Legolas to get some sleep. I was toasty and warm…they best sleep I’ve ever had at a race.

    Garrett Warren passed me at some point and then, to my surprise, Chris Miller from the 8-dog race came up; he’d take a wrong turn – he should’ve ended in Seeley. I helped him turn around and gave him some food and water. I felt really bad – like I should go back with him – because his dogs were tired (and both of us were), but he didn’t want to camp out with me and headed back. The dogs moved away well…Chris has one of the best looking dog teams I’ve seen down here, in my opinion. I love watching his cookie-cutter team!

    Well, after a rest – which I cut short, I think? I don’t really know because I was still sleep deprived. I think I cut the 4 hour rest to 3 and ½… Anyway, some of the dogs were still tired but they moved on well; although looking back I know they’re stomachs weren’t feeling so well because I’d overfed at the camp. We were moving into the afternoon, so I knew they’d perk up as darkness fell.

    I thought we did well down the mountain, but the last 10 miles into Owl Creek take FOREVER! Every single time I’ve run into Owl Creek, it seems like the last few mile markers are wrong. But the dogs are usually moving just fine.

    I head-on passed several teams as we got close to Owl Creek, which was a morale booster – we’d made up a lot of time and I didn’t stop at the checkpoint. The trail was good, night was setting in and it had started to snow (and blow). Again, the dogs left Owl Creek without any balking, I was so proud of them! By now I was back on track to snack 3 hours into the run and I decided to lengthen it as the climb out of Owl Creek is very tough and I thought it’d be nice to give them a break near the top.

    By this time it was really snowing but we didn’t have to break through too much snow, so I figured we would go past our camping spot and straight into Seeley for a long rest…no use camping and having to break more trail on the way back! Besides, we weren’t too far behind the last couple teams.

    What happened on the way out of Owl Creek? There’s so much to tell that it’ll have to wait for a later post…