Sled run

We got our first sled run in with the dogs on Wednesday. My best friend, Jodi came over so that I could get all 14 of the dogs I'm looking at for the Cantwell race out for a long run. Knowing that snow conditions are kind of iffy in places, we opted to split the team up into two teams of 7. We'd planned to do a 50 miler, since the dogs have been doing 30s and 40s on the atv for the last few weeks. I took off first and took it real slow, as our outbound trail has a few sharp turns. I was doing great, til I hit the pond turn. Dummy me didn't let up on the drag quick enough, resulting in the sled pulling right up onto the banked turn, dumping me and sled. Stupid! The dogs, fresh from the yard (which is only about .5 miles from that point) yanked the sled out of my hands. Manny was right behind on the atv, so he stopped the dogs right on the pond. But, my snow hook had caught, so they weren't going anywhere. I shook it off and jumped right back on. No worries for the rest of the run...guess I had to get that dump in right away! Ha ha ha! Jodi thought it was comical, cause she had no idea what had happened. She'd stopped before the turn, then did it flawlessly. She and I had a good laugh over that one!! But hey, never said I wasn't a klutz at times. I tend to overanalyze things...my paranoia kicking in. I have to learn things the hard way...and at times, the painful way. I was so worried about that turn (even Manny bites it on that one from time to time) that I had a negative outlook and that's what I got from it...exactly what I had programmed in my head would happen. This is something I'm truly working on.

We headed out towards the road crossing via the logging road...we'd had reports that the trail leading to the crossing was bad, so we ran on the road. Would've been great, but Feather decided to be bull headed and wouldn't take the trail just off the road, leading to the road crossing trail (safer to cross on the trail...as the road is VERY icy and you just can't hold a team for traffic). Dusk and Just decided that they weren't taking that trail straight ahead of them, marked with 2 markers on either side, either. Well, we spent a good 15-20 minutes circling the parking lot...It was actually hilarious, looked like a routine right out of the Three Stooges! But, Jodi figured out what to do...got Feather and Sunshine (leading her team) off the side so she could hook down and get them turned the right way. At that point, Just and Dusk saw where I wanted them to go, so I coaxed them over and down to follow Jodi. Phew! I'm thinking...sheesh, what a fiasco! What's next? Ya know...one should NEVER ask that question! Ha ha ha!

No problems for a while...but then we remembered that we'd have to take the trail right along CHSR, because a new subdivision is going in where the old trail crossed a field. Ok, no problem. But, I had Just in lead and when we got to Lynn O.'s outbound trail, he took that turn (one turn too early). I realized it too late....so went on in figuring that I'd get them turned around. Luckily, Lynn, Swanny a few other folk were hooking up for a run. Lynn recognized Just and quickly figured out what happened. Bless her, she quickly grabbed the leaders and swung them around to another outbound trail, which let me get back on Pleasant Valley road and then turn on the correct turnoff. Just didn't want to leave though...he looked at me as if to say, "But, that WAS home!" (Just came over from Lynn to become a distance doggy, instead of a sprint doggy). The dogs ran great all the way out to the gravel pit/rifle range...which is where we turned and headed back. There really wasn't too much in the way of overflow...there was nice snowcover over most of it...Colorado Creek had it's normal amount, but it caused no problems whatsoever. Closer to the gravel pit, there's a hump of overflow...but even that was nothing to worry about. The trail doesn't look like it's getting much traffic at all.

We stopped to snack the dogs and upon checking feet, we noticed lots of ice balls, so had to booty most of the dogs. No worries though. After a stop of about 20 minutes or so, we were heading back. But, for some reason, my dogs ALWAYS poke along for about 20-30 minutes after a snack stop at the gravel pit. They hate to go back over the same trail and they let me know it...going slow...stopping to poop or pee...just a general "Hey Ma, we just went over this trail already...do we gotta do it again??!?" kind of attitude. However, they soon stopped their fussing and picked back up again. While we weren't setting any records, they weren't too bad. It had started to snow by then...always welcome; but, my headlamp had a faulty wire or something and kept flickering in and out, sometimes turning completely off. I was beginning to wonder if running this trail was a jinx or something, as I had headlight issues with falling snow the last time we'd run it! I just laughed it off and dealt...after all...that's what we'd do on a race. Better to laugh about it than let it get to you.

Going was REAL slow though, once we crossed the road. The logging road was great fun going out...but coming home, it's all uphill. We poked along at like 5 miles an hour (yeah, probably more like 3 mph!). But, once on the home trail, the dogs picked up again nicely. We finally motored in at like 10pm. An 8 hour run! I was so down....I couldn't believe that we'd taken 8 hours to do a 50. Then, we started talking about it. Jodi was under the impression that our house was only 6 miles to the road crossing, when in actuality, it's about 10-11 miles. We did the math...turns out we did a solid 60 miler with the dogs. And, to top it off, we had bags of dog food in our sleds, with only 7 dog teams. All in all, the dogs really pulled off the run (yeah, we were slow for a while, but I don't really fault the dogs at all), going longer and farther than we have all season. Cool! I gotta give a HUGE thanks to Jodi for running with me...Manny had to pick up Conor from daycare, so we couldn't both go. Jodi, you're too awesome!

Tomorrow (guess I should say later today), Manny, Devlyn & I are going out to do a quick 30-some run with the dogs on sleds. Then, I'll rest them for 4 hours and go do another 20 miler...to get them back into the notion of running/resting/running. We'll do another run on Saturday, followed with rest and a couple more runs before the Cantwell race. While I aim at doing alright on the Cantwell...really, this is just a race that we're going to "run"...not really "race", as I'm using it to gear the dogs up for the Quest 300....which is just a month away. The main goal is to finish. On that note, I really should get off to bed. Have a good one!

-Have you been a Rogue today?