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!!!!!