• Zipper on snowsuit broke.
• Lost team.
• Scratched. Ran 100 of the 213 mile course.
• Frostbite on six fingertips.

The Team

• Chevy & Nikki (Lead)
• Maude & Zeus (Point)
• Snowball & Moe (Team)
• Ahab & Shrek (Team)
• Spike & Luke (Team)
• Capella & Phanty (Wheel)

The Story

The race began with a mass start for the women’s division at 11am and men’s at 11:30am, December 28, 2011.  I was one of the last women’s team to leave the Meiers Roadhouse parking lot. As soon as we got onto Paxson lake (around 1 minute after starting) Phanty’s collar fell off and I needed to stop the team to re-collar him. Stopping the team immediately after starting is a difficult thing to do. My hooks wouldn’t hold the team, but somehow, after several tries I was able to stop long enough to run up to wheel position and put on Phanty’s collar and untangle the rope from his hind legs.

Around 5 miles into the race the wind started blowing and we hit deep snow. Two teams were ahead of me stuck in the snow and I was behind another team that was waiting. It seemed like we waited quite a long time for the teams stuck in the snow to take off. Once they took off they got stuck again. The women were polite, and waited for each other. There really wasn’t anywhere to go because the snow on each side of the trail was deep.  Soon the men caught up to us and they weren’t so polite. They plowed passed us, making more tangles between the teams that were stopped.  I noticed one of my leaders run away. We were stopped for so long that Maude, positioned in point, chewed the lines. Since I was already stopped with no where to go, so I left my sled to run after Chevy. He came to me when I called and I put a new line on for him. Then Nikki, my other leader ran free. I ran after her, caught her and put on a new line. The men kept passing. Finally the women in front of me got unstuck and mushed on.

Once we got off of Paxson Lake, we were on a nice little up/down section that went through spruce. Shrek vomited. Then he vomited again, fell down, twitched his feet and stood up. I had already experienced this with him and had brought him to the vet.  The conclusion was that perhaps he was working too hard and when he vomited he had some kind of vagus nerve response. I decided not to drop him at Paxson Lodge (18 miles into the run). If Greg had been there, I would have dropped him, but I didn’t see Greg and figured that Shrek would be okay. It was hot out and the dogs were working hard mushing through deep snow.

We turned onto the Denali Highway and all was well– for a little while. I’m using a tail dragger on my sled— it’s a device that hooks onto the back runners so that you can store gear on top. Some how when we stopped for a 30 second break, I pinned my right foot under the tail dragger and couldn’t get my foot out. I was worried if the dogs took off I’d break my foot. I spent between 10-20 minutes trying to unpin my foot and finally freed it. We started going and the wind picked up. I felt a draft and went to zip up my zipper and noticed that my zipper on my Apocalypse Design snow suit was broken. F#$%^&K! I had an extra parka packed away– if I didn’t have that with me I’d have to scratch right then and there.

We mushed along for several hours and came across a team in the ditch. Some snow machiners were helping her out. Right when I came up behind her she was out of the ditch and took off (this was Lance Mackey’s handler’s puppy team– and man those pups were fast!)  I snacked the dogs a couple of times and was counting miles to the hospitality stop, looked at my watch and was pretty well on target. The hospitality stop was at 42 mile Denali Highway. I went into the ditch at around 36 mile. I tried and tried to push the sled out of the ditch, but it was too heavy. I took everything out of my sled, pushed the sled onto the road, and repacked. Off we went, only again to go into the ditch. This time I wasn’t so lucky. I tried getting unstuck without taking everything out, but it didn’t work. Once again I took everything out of my sled. I was on the downslope side pushing the sled out of the ditch and the sled freed itself and the dogs took off– without me.  All I could do was walk after them and hope they got hung up somewhere. I was very worried. I walked around 1/2-3/4 a mile when I found them waiting for me. I turned them around, untangled everyone and mushed back to our gear. I turned them around again, untangled everyone and souped them– they were very hungry, and repacked the sled. Then we mushed on to the 42 mile hospitality stop. I arrived at around 10:30pm.

I was surprised to see so many teams there since I wasted two hours getting stuck. I tended to the dogs (took off booties, put down straw, started to boil some water– I spilled heet on my fingers). When I walked into the hospitality cabin my fingers tingled. This is normal for me, so I didn’t think much of it.  A couple of mushers told me that “everyone was still hanging around because there isn’t a trail.” Then I heard from some other musher that “it took Brent Sass five hours to mush twenty miles because there wasn’t a trail.”  I did the rest of my dog chores, ate some junk that was in the hospitality cabin and went into a cabin where mushers were sleeping. They weren’t sleeping though, they were talking about the trail that wasn’t there. A couple of mushers who had previously run the trail decided to go forward. Lance Mackey’s handler said she was headed back to Paxson. That left Simon and myself. He was planning on turning around and I was still undecided. I walked over to the lodge to see if I could get details from anyone, but nobody was awake– it was around 4:30am. I decided that for the safety of myself and team, I’d scratch. Since there wasn’t a sweep, and the last teams that took off for Apline lodge left hours ago, I’d be way behind everyone. I just didn’t feel safe thinking there was no trail, no markers, and possibly going into water if I couldn’t see where the trail was.

Simon and I mushed back to Paxson. I’m not sure what time we left, maybe around 8:30am.  I arrived a little after 1pm. Greg was waiting for us! We were very happy to see him.  That’s when I noticed my fingertips were not only very numb, but also gray. On each hand, my thumb, pointer, and index fingers had frostbite. Greg packed everyone and everything up and I warmed up inside Paxson Lodge, and then we headed back to Fairbanks.

It’s a good thing that I scratched because I wouldn’t have realized I had frostbite.

Overall we had a good time and learned a lot.

Frostbite

Ilana & Dog, Paxson, AK

The route we took was Ratstack to Mullen Slough and then I trusted in “dog” and Chevy and Nikki led me through the maze of Two Rivers trails to the road crossing at Rosehip Campground. We turned around at Twin Bears– which was somewhat of a fiasco and the dogs ended up in a big knot. We took the Baseline (instead of the slough) to Jenny M and down the third turn.

The line up was:

• Chevy & Nikki (Lead)
• Ahab & Roo (after 30 miles it was Ahab & Moe) (Point)
• Capella & Shrek (Team)
• Phanty & Zeus (Team)
• Snowball & Moe (after 30 miles it was Snow & Roo except when she sat in the sled)
• Spike & Luke (Wheel)

Wow. I graduated to 12 dogs in these conditions. What was I thinking????

When I came home from the mush, Greg had moved the dogs to the downtown yard. :)

Luke also went for a vet visit today. The vet wasn’t sure if he has a torn muscle or if it could be having back problems. Instead of doing ex-rays right away, the vet prescribed Methocarbanol (500mg every 8 hours). Methocarbanol is a muscle relaxant. Luke’s back thighs are very muscular and super tight.

Higgs and Luke added incredible strength to our “A” team. They are both big dogs (70lbs), who usually run in wheel and carry the team. With Rocket & Decker (a great leader) on bed rest due to a shoulder or wrist injuries, and Asa off the “A” team because he doesn’t like to run without his brother and he doesn’t like to run with Greg, we are left with Nikki, Chevy, Ahab, Capella, Zeus, Spike (who has harness rub on her chest), and Roo (who can’t run more than 100 miles). Soooo, my secret plan to run the Chatanika 200 and possibly the Quest 300 isn’t looking good this year.

But Decker has a sprained wrist, and has been off training for over two weeks. We’ll ease her in again next week. She’s a champion lead dog, and seems rather depressed to not be running.

Simba got pulled off the “A” team last season, due to a persistent shoulder injury. So, we eased him in this year, and included lots of stretching and massage. But no luck: the injury is still there.

Roo is good for training, but only pulls for 20 miles or so. After that, she can keep up, but doesn’t work. Definitely more of a sprint dog.

I was worried about Asa (he’s getting older, and had a persistent resistance to running with me, last year), but he and brother Higgs are still pulling strong and true.

The most recent loss is Luke. We are not sure what’s going on, but he did poorly on Saturday, then on Sunday simply wouldn’t pull (he was getting tugged by his neckline). He is sort of limpy, and sort of looks constipated, and we are not sure what’s up. We’ll let him keep resting for a few more days before visiting the vet (we have not had a week without at least two vet trips in 5 or 6 weeks!).

So the current “A” team (in the typical pairs we run them in):

Chevy, Nicki
Ahab, Rocket (who I’m not that sure about…he seems to overheat)
Capella, Zeus
Higgs, Asa
Roo (good spunkiness, but limited miles)
Spike (used to run with Luke)

We might get Phanty trained up. He’s only a yearling, and really doesn’t have much of a clue about anything, but seems to have potential. Also, I hope Decker will get back into training again. Bottom line is that today, we have 10 “A” team dogs, and maybe three others (Decker, Phanty, Luke) who might get back onto the “A” team.

The next day (March 21) we got up late, and eventually left camp at around 1pm. We were following the trail that had  started at the park headquarters. Since this year was such a big snow year, the bad section of overflow and glare ice (around 1 mile after park headquarters), wasn’t bad at all. Soon the trail petered out and we were following a ski trail. The snow was very deep, so I put on my snow shoes and broke trail, then ran back and mushed with my snow shoes still on. Repeat process.

Unfortunately, the ski trail we were following let us to the park road and the road had just been plowed. It snowed a little bit the night before, so the road had some snow cover on it. We cruised down the road to the Savage River camp site. We stopped to set up camp (around 4:00pm), and it took us a long time to melt snow and take care of dogs– but at least this time we were able to do chores in the daylight. We kept Sam and Bruno, with the rest of the dogs, on tie-outs and let Chester and Storm free. Storm was very needy.

After a night of endless whining from Bruno, we woke up at around 9am and began morning chores. After chores, we scouted a possible route back to headquarters that would have led us through Jenny Creek. There was a lot of open water on the creek, as well as no-snow spots, and we didn’t see a definitive trail, so we decided to head back the same way we came out. We saw HUGE wolf tracks and tons of fresh wolf scat; HUGE bunny tracks; and a big fat bird that was waiting for us to leave camp.

We probably left camp around 2pm and were quite bummed to see that the road had been plowed again– and this time it was plowed to the asphalt. We mushed for around 1/4 mile on the road (Yuk) and eventually got back to sections of the road that had some snow. We found the turn off for the ski trail, and with a little maneuvering got the teams to make the turn. The rest of the mush home was uneventful.

Dogs

We brought 21 pulling dogs and one fun dog (Chester).

Days 1 & 2

Ilana

1. Nikki / Chevy (no one wants to run next to Chevy because he nips at his running mate)
2. Ahab / Decker
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Asa / Higgs
5. Peetie / Red

Greg

1. Frankie / Storm
2. Dutchess / Rocket
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Roo
5. Monkey / Pumpkin
6. Luke /Spike

Day 3

Ilana

1. Nikki/ Chevy
2. Frankie / Dutchess
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Monkey / Pumpkin
5. Asa / Higgs

Greg

1. Decker/ Storm
2. Ahab/ Rocket
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Roo
5. Peetie / Red
6. Luke /Spike

Trip Planning
Since I was traumatized by Spot being killed, Greg was in charge of packing and trip planning. I don’t know the exact amounts of what he brought– but it was a lot of food. For dog food he brought two 40lb bags of kibble, a block of turkey skins, Champagne race meat, energy pack, 42 pieces of big fish, some left over snacks from the Serum run (which Peetie, Sam, Bruno, and Chester stole from my sled) and some fat. We came back with most of the turkey, race meat, energy back, and 30lbs of kibble).

Gear

• Our Mountain Hardware winter tent is great, however our 20+F sleeping bags really aren’t appropriate for -20F.
• Once again we had stove problems. Greg purchased a pump for our MSR stove, but there are two separate pumps for the Whisper Lite and the DragonFly, so the pump he bought didn’t work with the stove we brought. We also had issues with our Colman stove.  Note to self: bring fire starter paste!

I visited Ilana and the crew in Manley, which was a nice trip to the end of the Elliott Highway. More news is on the Serum Run site, including a blog, message board (where you can send messages to your favorite musher: Ilana!), and GPS trackers to follow the expedition every day.

Storm and Simba stayed home, due to shoulder injuries limiting their multi-day endurance. That makes for a team of 10 dogs, plus Ilana and Heather. The dogs are all eating well and doing fine. They are: Decker, Chevy, Nicki, Roo, Higgs, Asa, Rocket, Ahab, Luke and Storm. Weather is fine, and the trail has been good so far.

Heather’s snow machine is ready, and will haul a huge sled with lots of gear. Ilana’s dog sled will also have days of booties, first aid (for dogs, people, and the sled), food, dog jackets, and more. It’s a major expedition, and both challenging and fun.

These dogs were all immunized with broncozine, against kennel cough, but we didn’t have enough to give their second shot. Usually the vaccine requires a second dose the first time they get it, then a single dose in later years. This vaccine is great for keeping kennel cough outbreaks to a minimum, but doesn’t prevent all cases. Since only the new dogs have relatively light symptoms, I think the vaccine did help, but not prevent. They should be ready to run in a few more days, although the extreme cold seems to make healing slower. No mushing for them, until they’re better.

We kept Luke inside overnight, but he didn’t like it much. Ahab is getting antsy, after being inside for a few days, which is a good sign he’s getting better. We also had Monkeytail inside overnight, since she always has breathing problems in the cold.

The route is 50 miles one way, then a 4-hour layover at Angel Creek (mile 57 Chena Hot Springs Road), then the same route in reverse. From the starting point at the Pleasant Valley store (mile 22 CHSR), we headed west to trails that Ilana and I use quite a lot, for a loop around the Jenny M. hill, then back east through the extensive (and confusing!) Two Rivers trail system. From there, a road crossing at mile 27 puts us on the winter trail (the Yukon Quest trail), paralleling CHSR all the way to Angel Creek. So, about 30 miles from the road crossing to Angel Creek, and about 20 miles in the Two Rivers trail system.

Temperatures were as high as 10 degrees or so above zero during midday, but mostly were -5 to zero until the return trip, when temps dropped to -15 or so. Very nice weather for mushing. I saw some northern lights on the return trip, though they were faint. This was the shortest day of the year, and in fact I had great views of the sun barely climbing above the horizon (around 11am) and then setting (before 3:00 pm). There was one incredible photo moment when I was heading directly south, with another musher ahead of me, into the midday sun — with the sun barely above the horizon. Too bad I didn’t have a camera.

Overall, I finished #25 out of 27 mushers who completed the race (two mushers scratched during the race, and there was another field of 5 mushers who did a one-way 50 mile race instead). I was quite pleased with my team, and happy with my times: about 5h 25m for the first leg, then about 6h for the second leg. This is a steady pace of 8-10 mph, which is the speed we’ve been training the dogs to run. It was a field of mushing luminaries, including Jodi Bailey, Lance Mackey, Ally Zirkle, and many other competitive mushers. Also some less competitive ones like the StinkyPups. A good time was had by all.

The snow was great — we had some fresh snow that was packed, but not too hard. There was literally zero overflow (open/flowing liquid water), which was a first for my use of the trail to Angel Creek. There was a little open water in the slough (where I took my bath earlier in the year), but the trail bypassed it.

My mush was free of incidents, but I did get to help another musher who lost his team (his main line broke, so his team ran off without him and his sled). The trail was exceptionally well marked.

The team lineup on the way to Angel Creek: Dekker & Chevy in lead, Ahab & Storm, Higgs & Rattles, Rocket, Luke & Spike, and Nikki & Roo.
On the way back: Dekker & Chevy in lead, Nikki & Roo, Rattles & Ahab, Rocket, Luke & Spike, Higgs & Storm.

Dekker & Chevy are very steady leaders. The only dogs who had trouble on the way back were Spike (who seems to be the new Pumpkin: she likes to lollygag, and doesn’t really pull much after she’s tired), and Rattles, whose missing toe seems to be bothering him. Rattles is probably not going to be continuing with hard training for the SerumRun. Back home, Storm was limping a bit, but this isn’t unusual and she did well during the run. We’ll try to find out what’s bothering her over future days.

My last note on this is the incredible amount of time we take to put on booties. Before the race, Ilana and I started to put booties on dogs 40 minutes before my targeted start time, and didn’t finish all 11 dogs before I needed to start. Mid-race in Angel Creek, I allotted 30 minutes for the job, and ended up leaving 10 minutes after my earliest start time, to finish the job. This is for booties on 5 or 6 of our 11 dogs, not all 11. Back home, we only have a few dogs who always get booties (because they have sensitive feet, or get ice balls), while most don’t regularly get booties. So when we try to give booties to more dogs, it’s slow: they don’t cooperate as well, and it’s just a lot of work. This is something we’ll get better/faster with, over time.