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Greetings
from Trail River Huskies Kennel
Jan
14th, 2002
I thought
I'd take a few minutes and everyone know how the race went and how
training is going. Well, we arrived at the Knik bar about 6 am on
Jan. 5th and drove onto the lake and dropped the dogs to relieve
themselves and then back into the box for some extra rest. There
was quite a bit of preparation for the sled and myself as I tried
not to pack everything including the kitchen sink. I eliminated
alot of stuff from the sled to make it easier for the dogs to pull
and myself to push up hill. 2 1/2 hours of getting the sled ready
to go then it was time to concentrate on the team nourishment for
the morning. We prepared a light mixture of fish and a little bit
of kibble for a broth as we didn't want to over load their stomachs.
We then put them back into the truck for some more R & R we
positioned the sled and lines, laid out the harnesses and the conversed
with several of the other mushers we ran some previous races with,
my wonderful friends Dianne and her husband Nick drove from Anchorage
just to help us with the dogs that morning and my other friend Debbie
and her son came out to offer moral support as well. My husband
had been a nervous wreck for several days prior to the race so I
tried to let him know that I'd be okay out there because I had 12
of my best friends watching over me, as well as a great race organization
and the other mushers too.
My posted time to leave the start line was 11:54 am and it was about
11:00 am as we brought the dogs from their holes to stretch and
get ready for the journey to Skwentna and back. Dogs are all ready
to go, I am ready to go, all of the wonderful folks who came out
to help handle for me were ready and my poor husband was still a
nervous wreck, and a young man from the newspaper came over about
10 minutes to leave time to do an interview and to my surprise I
seemed to be calm, usually I'm drinking the bottle of Pepto Bismol
! But I was Okay, I knew we were going to have a great run and have
fun because that's what it's all about.
Up to the start
line and they're counting down, 5,4 I tell my husband I Love him
3,2, 1 GO ! and we're off riding the brake and the drag, boy the
dogs are cooking today, up the hill by the Museum and on our way.
We climbed alot of hills and went down alot of hills, crossed a
couple of roads, swamps, in and out of the trees an d then about
20 miles out I see a sign that says Nome! We are on the Iditarod
trail yipee! I didn't see anyone for quite awhile but kept looking
back as I wanted to keep my team slowed down due the moguls in the
trail and didn't want to injure any team members trying to get there
too soon. My schedule went as follows; every 2 hours I stopped and
snacked, petted team, checked feet for snow balls, and then we headed
back down the trail. It took about 7 1/2 hours to get to Yetna Station
where I took a 5 hour rest for the dogs. The folks who live at Yetna
Station are truly gracious as they open up their home to all of
us and offer all hours of the day or night a wonderful feast , please
go see them if you all get the chance. We only had 32 miles to go
til a mandatory 6 hour layover, so 5 hours seemed at the time to
be enough. I came in behind Bill Borden as we had been traveling
together for some time. GB Jones came in about 3 hours or so after
we arrived as did his handler Matt. There were alot of Mushers camped
out at Yetna when we got there but as time goes most of them left
for Skwentna. Bill and I pulled out about 12:30 am and headed for
Skwentna, we were running on the river and my headlight goes out
so of course I have another one in my pocket ( Battery pack ) and
plug it in and I notice I have a tangle in the gangline. It's time
to stop and fix the tangle but little did I know the dogs were just
waiting to see if I would get off the sled, sure enough, as I head
towards the front of the sled they lunge forward and pop the hooks
out of the ground! As I dive for the sled ( at the moment I wished
I was about 20 yrs younger!) I ended up in the basket and my feet
didn't quite make it all the way in, as I'm trying to stay calm
in a very CALM voice I tell the team to easy whoa easy whoa, they
finally agree among themselves that this was terrible joke to play
on mom and they should at least let me get on the back of the sled
and assume my position as a rider of the sorts.
Bill decided to take lead and we followed him into Skwentna, the
trip from Yetna to Skwentna took about 2 1/2 hrs. We made
really great
time. Skwentna was wonderful, I fed a quick snack, prepared food
for the team ,as their beds were put down made of straw, tuglines
taken off and feet checked, rubbed down team, fed team now it was
time for them to bed down for about 5 hours. Chores took about 2
hours so that enabled me to get some food and nourishment for myself
and a little bit of shut eye.
It was quite warm, so I put on my Parka and bedded down with the
dogs on the straw. I slept about 1 1/2 hrs which is pretty good
and arose to the team still resting. I went inside to find several
of the other mushers sleeping on the couches, chairs and what ever
else was available. My husband was able to get a hold of me just
by pure luck, he seemed a little relieved to know I had arrived
safely. The folks at Skwentna were wonderful and if you ever get
the chance to got there please do as they have some of the best
hospitality anywhere. My departure time was 10 am so it was time
to start some soup for the dogs and get things rolling. The sled
was already to go as I did that before I laid down, I started the
cooker to warm water for them and thaw out the meat. I brothed the
dogs and loaded the cooker in the sled tied everything down, hooked
up tuglines and still had 15 minutes to spare. The checker came
out, I pulled the snow hook from the front end of the team put it
back in the bridle with the other one and picked up the other hook
and as the checker counted down to 10 am I pulled the quick release
and down the trail we went headed back for Yetna Station.
I met alot of snowmachine folks out there, they were all so courteous
and didn't try to scream by the team. There are alot of people who
live on the river and their only transportation is by snowmachine
in the winter. We dodged alot of moguls and deep snow spots, some
more hills but nothing we couldn't handle. We arrive back to Yetna
and plan to only stay about an hour at the most due to our time
crunch and our scheduled rest wasn't for another 10 miles or so.
We thanked the folks at Yetna and headed back down the river towards
Flathorn. I shut the team down about 45-50 miles out of Knik in
a great wooded area and camped with Paul and Wayne a couple of other
mushers heading for Knik. I fixed a good meal for the dogs and let
them rest for several hours and we all decided it was time to head
for home. As we all pulled the hooks and encouraged the dogs to
go forward, the guys headed out and I followed , they were a bit
faster than we were so I lost sight of them as we came out of the
trees and on to the lake. The team and I followed the markers as
they headed off into open water and overflow. As I quickly stopped
the team and setting the hooks, my leader knew that we were suppose
to cross at that point. I managed to pull the team away from the
water and proceeded back up the lake in a different direction thinking
maybe my leader was just tired. Several hours past as we ran up
and back on the lake trying to see if there was a better way to
cross, and finally a wonderful gentleman yelled from his porch that
the trail was over by the mountain near his house. He came down
and used his snow machine to show us where we should be, as luck
would have it my lead dog knew we shouldn't follow the machine and
he really did know where the trail was. I switched my leaders around
and again tried to find a safer spot to cross, I finally noticed
a spot about 100 yds from the snow machine trail and with some maneuvering
of the dogs we were able to cross the open water and the overflow
without too much problem. I was a little wet but not bad and the
dogs were happy that we were on the road to home again. As we crossed
Flathorn lake, the dogs came upon alot of fish carcasses that the
ice fishermen had left behind from Saturday so they had a smorgy
board. We weaved from side to side on the lake trying to find the
markers and finally found them and followed the previous dog paws
and sled tracks into the woods, at that point we were about 30 miles
from the finish line. We traveled at a slower pace just to keep
the team happy all along trying to calculate the time we needed
to be into the finish line so we could qualify. We had alot of pee
stops and of course the dogs noticed that someone had buried some
meat along the side of the trail about 25 miles out of the checkpoint,
you could only imagine how hard it was to unwrap 12 dogs from a
1 inch tree and remove whatever this treasure was that they were
so proud to have found. 20 minutes passed and I finally straightened
out the last dog and on our way we went and of course every tree
they thought there might be something buried under we needed to
make a sudden stop. I kept telling the dogs that we were going home
and they would be able to sleep in their own box as soon as we arrived
. We passed the Nome sign and knew we were only 20 miles out Yeah!
The next 11miles went very well until I missed the turn at the 8
mile and headed down into someone else's dog yard. Oops! I realized
that this is not the trail when I see all of these dogs coming out
of their houses and then apparently here comes the head dog cause
he wasn't tied up he looked at us as enough to say what are you
doing? As I turned my team around another musher came down the hill
and here we had 2 dog teams and 22 dogs to get back up the, we did
just fine and we ended up following Peter down the trail. A number
of sharp curves and declines and uphills and more curves and descends
and here we are on Peters heels, neck & neck for the finish
line, well he beat us by about 30 seconds maybe but we as a team
and rider were able to finally finish a race with all 12 dogs and
they were happy and healthy and I couldn't have asked for more.
And as for my poor Husband; well he was overjoyed when we crossed
the finish line as he told me how proud he was of me and how much
he loved me. Pretty cool. What a Great Guy!
Training for the Klondike 300:
Dogs were off for 3 days to rest up and on Friday we ran a fun run
of 23 miles just to keep them happy. The trail was hard and fast
and as we left the chute, I made the first corner and wouldn't you
know I crashed and burned on the 2nd corner and you know as I was
always told never let go of you sled, well I didn't let go of the
sled and got drug about a mile before I had no choice but to let
go of the sled, ( again at this point I wished I had been 20 yrs
younger ) I tried everything to get the team to stop long enough
just to let me get up but they thought this was really the time
to get the best of mom. My husband heard me screaming as we body
groomed the trail and he ran after us trying to reach us but to
no avail they wouldn't stop. As I walked back up the trail feeling
really bad for letting go and of course worrying about the team
my wonderful husband comes out of the woods with a borrowed snowmachine
from the Hoekmans ( Great Folks who have kept us on the trail this
season ) and off to find the team. We go about another mile up the
trail and lo and behold the Marvelous rollover hook that Rusty Hagen
makes, dug in and stopped my team and held them til we arrived.
Only one tangle and not a bad one, the dogs apologized for dragging
me and not stopping and not listening and... ( plotted to do it
again if they had the chance) so off we go again but this time my
husband who wasn't dressed for the cold followed us for 23 miles
on the snowmachine and upon returning to the staging area ( the
Hoekmans home ) My poor husband was just about hypothermic! We had
a great run and they returned very happy even our yearlings who
had just run the Knik 200. As for my husband he has finally thawed
out and is looking forward to this next weekends race in Big Lake.
Will close for as I have talked long enough...
Happy Trails Bill & Judy Merritt and Team
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