Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Race to the Sky 2014 – Stuck on the side of the mountain

   I stopped to snack and the dogs didn’t eat. Not worried, knowing they could miss a meal and be ready to eat later, I went back to the sled and said, “Alright.” They didn’t budge. They’d been moving really, really well when I stopped so I was surprised. I gave the command again. Some of my team and wheel dogs jumped, but two of my older females lay down. Legolas and Urchin just looked back at me.
    Something no one had ever talked to me about, even in Alaska, is what to do if your team quits. I guess I’d heard vague stories of musher’s having trouble on a couple notorious Yukon Quest passes, but I’d never thought about what to do – and hence, had never asked what to do – and didn’t realize what it looked like. My first thought was they were all overheated or all dehydrated or something terrible like that. My first thought was to make sure they were ok; and they all seemed fine.
    Still, on the side of the mountain in the blowing snow my leaders told me they’d had enough. And I didn’t know what to do. Mambo had always driven the team; dragging them out of the straw at a word. Legolas and Urchin detested each other and were not cheerleaders themselves. The challenge with dogs is they are not like a human athlete – since I’ve taken up running myself I understand the desire to quit. But I can tell myself to keep going, because I know what’s ahead or how far it is…when the dogs get tired and want to quit you have to motivate them.
    I tried leading them. They followed me eagerly enough; but would get all bunched up in a tangle because the wheel dogs overtook the lead dogs. I didn’t realize I should take off my layers and run ahead of them as long as it took so I tried changing leaders.
    I’m sure my indecision didn’t help. I had a yearling who was jumping to go; as well as Nibbs and Summer in wheel, but rather than listening to them I tried some of the “cheerleader” females. No go – the wheel dogs kept balling up the team. Looking back, knowing how Summer and Nibbs CAN lead; I kick myself for not giving them and the yearling a chance to show their quality…after all, Nibbs had all the experience Mambo had.
    But I didn’t and noticing how warm it was (I was sweaty now) and that the dogs were still panting, I decided to camp out with them. This, I later learned, can be another option to get a team to go again – you just camp until they’re ready to go again (for however long it takes). However, it’s usually best to walk with them until they go on their own (which they will, eventually). Since the dogs are weary, this is not the time to use discipline – keeping an upbeat, happy attitude is key.
    I wasn’t worried about time at this point. I knew there had to be a team or two behind me, so hoped my team would go with them when they came along. It was snowing harder now and I camped out under a tarp. The dogs had their coats on and we waited. I was tired but, having gotten sweaty, I got cold. Again, if I’d have been smart I should’ve just walked…but I didn’t.
    After a couple attempts to get them to go on their own; I tried turning them around without any success. I was very tired now and decided to see if I had any cell service. I had almost no battery and texted my mom that I was stuck. Then I laid down and waited. Again, I did not realize the camping or hiking options would work – I thought I couldn’t get them to go.
    Hours later Bryce passed us and snowmobiles came close behind. My dogs wouldn’t follow Bryce or follow the snowmobiles back to Owl Creek, so we had to tie them to the snowmobile at first. After a few miles, sure enough, they started trotting along just fine. Sweetwater was in lead. Legolas was rather grumpy at having to follow a snowmobile and I let him trot by me at the sled.

    We made it to Owl Creek where everything was loaded up and I had the hard experience of scratching. Looking back, I’m thankful for the learning experience but I wish it’d ended differently. In the next post we’ll look at what I learned and what I should’ve done differently.

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