I’m not sure how I did it, but before I headed out to the White Mountains I managed to put my sled on top of the dog box all by myself. I was so proud! We (Ilana and twelve Stinkypups) left our house at an early 12:00 noon and were headed to mile 42 of the Steese highway. The plan was to do a 55 mile mush in; rest; and mush out. The team was
- Chevy & Nikki (lead)
- Ahab & Shrek (point)
- Maudie & Zeus (team)
- Capella & Phanty (team)
- Moe & Sno (team)
- Spike & Luke (wheel)
By time we saddled up and left the parking lot it was 2:15pm. Chevy and Nikki were great leaders. We were there a previous year, so they knew the trail. I missed the turn I was supposed to take and Chevy lead me to a cabin we’ve stayed at before…Cache Mountain cabin. I decided to soup them at the cabin (a bit early…but twenty miles) and they were all great eaters! I was ready to head back to the truck if I missed the turn again on the way back, but Chevy listened to my “Gee” (turn right) and off we went. The trail was fine. A couple of icy areas and the rangers re-routed the route around McCay creek– so it was sort of funky with log bridges and turns. The long stretches of hill tired out the gang and I knew we wouldn’t make it to 55 miles in 6 hours, so I decided to stay at Moose Creek Cabin, which made it a 40 mile run (one way). I melted snow, souped the dogs, took a 4 hour rest, and off we went. At around 60 miles into the run Ahab looked bewildered and stopped pulling, so I put him in the sled for around 10 miles. When we fell over, I decided to try to put him in the team again and he did fine. I was a pleasant 80 miles mush and we were all so proud of ourselves, and tired.
Back at the truck, I put the dogs away and emptied my sled and tried to put the sled on top of the truck. I tried and tried and tried, but couldn’t lift that sucker high enough :( It was 5:45am and there was no one on the secluded road to ask for help. I tried lifting, tugging, pulling, pushing for around 45 minutes and gave up! I decided to leave the sled there and go back with Greg later. Greg had to go to work though….so when I got home we chatted a bit, and then he made the three our drive (round trip), to rescue my sled and then went to work. Thanks honey!!!!!
Ilana ended up scratching from the GinGin this morning. She was doing well, but not that confident about continuing. Here’s what the tracker looked like as she headed back to Paxson. I met her with the StinkyTruck at a little after 1pm. So, it was a pleasant 100+ mile jaunt. All the pups are doing well.
