I took the stinkypups on the 30+/- mile River Route today. I’ve never been on this route, but Greg did the same route yesterday.
Greg said that the trail was pretty straighforward. Ha! If it weren’t for the Quest Markers I would have ended up in North Pole (which actually isn’t too far from my house).
Duke and Levi were in lead, however Duke wasn’t leading to well so I switched him with Darla. The team was moving very slowly.
Once we got onto the river there were a zillion snow machines. I had to stop every 5 seconds to untangle Monkey-Tail, and once we started moving well, we had to stop for a momma and baby moose.
Only once before have I seen a moose on the trail. This was before all of my neighbors told me stories of how moose like to stomp dog teams. I was a little worried when I saw moose because I couldn’t see which way they were headed. Due to the bend in the river, I couldn’t tell if they were crossing the river or headed in the same direction as me. The dogs were going bonkers and I had to slam the hook into the snow and hold on. Eventually I moved on and there was no sign of moose.
Again I had to stop for tangles. There were another zillion snow machines. The snow machiners are usually very courteous and will stop the snow machine and let the musher pass. After we got going again, I saw another moose. This one was much bigger than the other two. We chilled out for a while and then moved on.
Eventually I got to the Dike and ran along the Dike for quite sometime. I noticed the Quest markers veered to the left. I told Darla and Duke “haw” (turn left) but they didn’t. I had to turn the team around– which resulted in a huge tangle of dogs. After we turned around we got back on the Quest trail. I wasn’t sure I was headed right way, so I quickly called Greg on my cell phone. He told me I was indeed headed home. An hour or so later we arrived home, ate dinner, and the stinkypups took a well deserved nap.