Solstice 100

Since I will not be able to run the Quest 300 this year due to financial reasons, Manny realized how upset I was. So, he told me that he'd take sign-ups and make sure things ran smoothly and let me run the race. What a great husband, eh?? I was so thrilled! I really felt that the dogs would do well. After all, they'd just come off of the Cantwell the weekend before and really did a decent job. Therefore, the start found me on the runners, excited to be on the trail. For once, I wasn't all freaked out and nervous...I got a full night's sleep, ate breakfast...I was totally ready for some fun. It was SOO nice not to have the nerves fluttering, not have my stomach doing somersaults. Awesome! The dogs took off like maniacs! I had to stand on the drag all the way down Pleasant Valley Road. They did try to go through Swenson's gate, but listened to my 'on-bye' command. We took the sharp right turn onto Baseline quite nicely (I was worried I'd clip the tree on the inside of the turn) and I could see Jessica ahead of us in the distance (she'd started 1st, I was 2nd). That was the last I'd see of Jessica though! Ha ha ha! The dogs were cruising along in this order: Feather & Sunshine in lead, China & Chevy in swing, Zen & Just, Dusk & Ahab, Tricky & Jericho, then Rocket & Inu in wheel.

We were flying down the trail, and I was having a BLAST! til we made the turn onto the Rosser (the really sharp left off of the wintertrail). I had made it around most of the turn and the sled was starting to straighten out. I remember thinking, "Alright, Tammi! You're finally getting this sled handling stuff down" when the sled suddenly lurched sideways and the next thing I knew, I was tossed to the right side of the trail, face first into the powder. Hmph! What the...?!? There must have been a stump or something under the snow that I hit with the sled. Ok, I picked the sled up and off we went. Then, Sunshine (in lead with Feather) slowed way down. I stopped once we popped out onto the wood cutting road before the bridge that crosses Jenny M creek and leads to Mullin's Slough. I switched leaders, putting Dusk up front with Feather. That did alright...but not great. Abbie caught us by Sonny's place...then Jodi Bailey caught us after we passed Pleasant Valley road...then Molly caught us in the potato field by Hipas road, where I switched Chevy for Dusk. Well, that lasted all of about 1/4 mile, as when the swing dogs started to overrun Chevy, he abruptly sat down. Well, Shoot! I stopped once again while still on Hipas to switch Zen for Chevy...then Aliy caught us right before the bridge near the road crossing. It went downhill from there...the dogs had obviously picked up a bug from the Cantwell and were just "off". To make matters worse, the heat really zapped them. We slowed WAY down on the way to Angel Creek. I was getting really bummed out, then Sunshine and Tricky started pulling stupid stuff, stopping to pee and poop...dragging the whole team to a stop. I went through all of my leaders, before settling on Just and Dusk to take us into Angel Creek. The trail was bottomless...mashed potato consistency. I was irritable and got to calling Tricky & Sunshine some colorful names (they knew what they were doing too and had no compunctions...the boogers!!!). They are so big, that if they decide to stop and poop or pee, they yank the entire team to a halt. I ended up getting passed by Carol Blevins (we played leap frog for a while), then Greg Stoddard caught me at the rifle range...then Blake Matray caught us about 5 miles from Angel Creek with his gorgeous siberians. ARGHH!!! At this point, I was calling and coaxing the dogs, trying to get them to pick up...but it was no use. It took us 6 1/2 hours to do a 52 mile run. Pitiful.

The dogs ate & drank wonderfully, then rested great at Angel Creek. When we took off out of there, they were SCARY strong and fast! However, I was REALLY missing Dutchess and Torus...cause both coming and going, when we got to the open water that is always there by Angel Creek, the dogs bunched up and I had to drag them across the open water. Neither Dutchess or Torus ever hesitated over open water...they'd go through anything. Unfortunately, when I planted the hook to take the dogs across the water, there wasn't a whole lot of snow to hook into. The hook came loose and the sled went through the river on it's side. I leaped onto the overturned sled to stop the dogs, but they dragged me and the tipped sled into the deep snow. Wow, only 5 minutes into the return leg, and here I was wasting a good 10 minutes just trying to get out on the river and go!

Once we got going, the run to the finish started off great...the dogs were really loping along, all the way to the rifle range. Then, I stopped to snack and booty...and the bottom fell out on our speed again. It was so HOT! I was sweating...the dogs were plodding, and Blake caught up to us at that point (he'd left about 10 minutes after us). When we got through the overflow, about a mile or two from the road crossing, the dogs finally picked up again, loping all the way to the finish. Greg Stoddard left Angel Creek about 20 minutes ahead of me and we almost caught him, along with Blake. I saw their lights ahead of us before the road crossing and along CHSR...and I'd been poling like crazy for the last 10 miles of the race, trying to catch them (boy did my arms hurt the next day!). Both Blake & Greg beat us to the finish by just 4 minutes. We finished in 9th place. Not as well as I'd hoped or planned...but we finished none-the-less. The dogs ate and drank wonderfully at the finish (actually, the whole race)...but I could tell that the heat had really gotten to them. Makes sense, seeing that we'd just ran a 200 the weekend before in wind and -30F to -40F. That's a 60-70 degree difference! Amazing. Since then, the dogs have been sick...they are eating and drinking; but, they all have some nasty diarrhea. Bleh!! Luckily, the next race will be the Two Rivers 200 for Manny in March. This way, they'll have a week or two to recoup and not have to worry about going out on another race. After the 200, we are looking at the Taiga 300 at the beginning of April, so that one of us can still get a 300 qualifier. Don't know which one yet, or if we can even get the time off of work. We'll wait and see.

In other news, Hilti went in for surgery today. Dr. Olson was thinking that it would just be the middle toes & possibly one of the smaller toes. But, when she was performing the amputations, she was checking the other toes and to her dismay (and ours), she ended up having to take off all of Hilti's toes. Good news is that his large pad is still intact. She checked the blood flow and it appears ok. But, we won't know for sure for a little bit yet. Either way, Hilti is going to be a house dog from now on. He's recovering and though he's a bit groggy yet, he appears to be doing fine. Dr. O and another musher have shared stories with us about dogs they've had who had lost toes and went on to run and even race. But, I just don't know if that will happen with Hilti. If nothing else, he will definitely be a good stud dog for us and anyone else who is interested. After all, Hilti came from Lance Mackey...from VERY GOOD bloodlines. In fact, Lance bred Hilti and got some pups from him right before we brought Hilti to our kennel. Additionally, Hilti proved to us how good of a dog he is on the Cantwell...so this spring, we'll breed Hilti and get some pups. Besides, we've been planning on starting our own breeding program, which is why we got Hilti from Lance in the first place. So, we'll go forward with that and see where it takes us. We won't be out to breed a lot of pups...as we don't believe in doing that. However, we are working to be competitive, so it's time.

Take care all and keep Hilti in your thoughts. We'll keep you posted on his recovery.