I also decided to take the one hundred and twenty pounds of dog food out my sled that I use to weigh it down, and start practicing with the real items that I’ll be using for  upcoming races.  An action packer filled with my Wiggy’s -40 sleeping bag and parka and a cooker was what I was able to fit into the sled; total weight, less that thirty pounds. I didn’t bring dog food, dog jackets (I don’t have any yet), or an ax and snow shoes (required item in races).  Even with those items, and some extra, I can’t imagine the weight of my sled adding up to one hundred and twenty pounds.

Hookup was a nightmare! Daniel figured out how to unclip the gate and was running around the yard saying “I want to go! Take me! Take me!” Ahab ate the harness he was wearing– the one that I just sewed. Capella chewed Shrek’s neckline and someone chewed Phanty’s neckline. Ahab chewed his tug line.  I replaced the chewed lines and put another harness on Ahab. In order to hook up Nikki I had to let Roo out of her pen and she said “Rah Rah Rah I’m going to put Nikki’s head in my mouth and run up and down the street for a while.” After catching, harnessing, and hooking up Nikki and caught Roo and put her in her pen. I was ready to go, and said so “Ready, let’s go.”

I guess it was the lack of weight in my sled, or perhaps how I packed it, but as soon as I released my snub line the sled and I tipped over.  I felt one of the hooks ( I carry two) hit my head. I felt blood run into my mouth. It didn’t hurt but I couldn’t see out of my eye. “Whoaaaaaa,” I said as the team dragged me and the tipped sled down the street, “whoaaaaaa.” They didn’t whoa. I tried putting the hook into snow, but since were were on the road there wasn’t any snow to hook into. I watched the  hook bounce around and pushed it away from my head. I didn’t want to get impaled by it.

“Whoaaaaa, I said as we rounded the ninety degree turn onto the trail (the turn that I’ve been regularly dumping on). Finally they stopped. The ice hook placed itself into the snow. Now the trick was to right the sled and reach down for the hook. I was using one of Greg’s hooks and the line is a little long. The dogs were crazy wanting to go. “Whoaaaaa!” I said, “F*ing whoaaaa. Chill out.” I inched the sled over to the hook and then righted the sled, took a quick picture to send to Greg so he knew that all was not okay, and pulled the hook out of the snow. We took the shortest route home, 7 miles. I thought about mushing thirty five– the amount I originally intended, but since I had blood dripping from my head thought perhaps I should go home to take a look.

On the way home, I looked for the flashlight that fell off my head after falling/dragging, but didn’t find it. I called Greg from my cell and told him I was injured. He said he’d leave work and would be home in around and hour. We arrived home without incident. I put all the dogs away, went inside, and washed the blood off my face. I was thankful that the 1.5″ long gash is thin enough that it didn’t need stitches, although it’s still bleeding six hours after getting cut.

Greg took a look at the photo I tried to send him and asked me if I wanted some brains to eat? “Huh?” I replied. “You look like a zombie!”

Ice hook gash to the eyebrow.

The team ran okay. A little slow, but I toned it down because Roo went with us and because it was so warm. Mileage was around 19ish.

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. :)

Team “A” is Chevy (lead), Ahab & Shrek (point), Spike & Luke (team), Snow and Moe (wheel). Team “B” is Nikki & Roo (in lead– once they learned how to “haw” out of the yard), Phanty & Zeus (point or team), Capella & Daniel (team), Bruno &  Simba (point or team, and even once in lead!!).

Chester usually runs free with Team “B,” however today he had difficulty keeping up. He’d run run run run up to the front of the team and then slow down; and then run run run run run run run as fast as he could up to the front, and then Nikki and Roo were like, dude, get out of the way. I let him ride in the sled  for a bit; he enjoys being captain.

Decker is still with us.  Her nose is bleeding as I type this. I gave her an ACE which worked very quickly, so she’s somewhat sedate, but is snorting a lot.

Another 100 yards, and Nicki suddenly ran ahead. I saw a mother and baby moose cross the path, then the mother ran left and the baby ran right. Nicki ran after the baby. Immediately, I heard some sounds that were a little like goats, sort of “mmaaahhh, mmaaaahhhhh.” Another second or two, and I caught up with Nicki. She was just off the trail, and had grabbed the baby moose by the neck and was shaking it. I yelled “no,” and went to grab Nicki by the collar. She backed away, then bit the moose on the haunch. All the time, the baby was calling, “mmaaahhh, mmaaaahhhh” and was looking at me with big brown eyes full of fear. I heard the mother in the woods behind me, but she was (I think) afraid of me, and didn’t come close.

I caught Nicki’s collar and lifter her off the moose. The moose immediately ran away, and I hooked Nicki to the leash again. The baby was gone, though I could hear the mother moving around in the woods behind me. I yelled out an apology to the baby & mother, and we left. Total elapsed time was maybe 15 seconds.

Although the baby almost certainly got some puncture wounds, I did not see any blood or torn skin. I hope infection doesn’t set in, since otherwise there didn’t appear to be any life-threatening injuries. We passed the same spot on the way back, an hour later, and there was no sign of either moose.

Two days earlier, I had seen a mother and adolescent moose about a mile further up the trail. After the incident with the baby, maybe 15 minutes later, I saw at least one of the moose in the same area as the earlier day. So, there were at least three moose out that day. I think the baby was 3-5 weeks old. Not much bigger than one of our dogs (maybe 70 pounds?), it had a full coat of hair. It was standing fairly upright and had substantial legs, versus newborns that are very spindly, and seem to not be standing fully upright.

This was a nature encounter I would rather have not had. It looks like I’ll be keeping dogs on the leash, even when we’re in the deep woods. We did hear report of bear sightings in Chena Lakes, which is at the other end of my run if I do the fully 12-mile loop. Plus, there are wolf signs. Many pheasants, squirrels, and hare. Plenty of distraction, and some associated dangers.

Dogs on the trip were: Chevy, Decker, Nikki, Roo, Ahab, Storm, Asa, Higgs, Rocket, Rattles, Luke, Spike and Chester (who ran free or in the sled).

Topo map of route

The route is an active trapline trail– which I didn’t know about until we got there. I probably wouldn’t have take Chester if I had known this.  The sigin at the parking lot indicated no set traps for the first 18 miles, but I saw traps in trees– so I’m thinking that a set trap is one placed on the ground.

Total miles for the 2007-2008 season is around 1180. This is around 5.5 months of mushing; It’s amazing that the Quest and Iditarod folk do this amount of mileage in 10 days.

The dogs and I are getting impatient. Took Higgs, Asa, Frankie and Storm out for a loop around the field last week and they were way to hot.