We have Contact!!! - March 7,2008
Her voice sounded tired but edged with excitement. She was mentally doing great and that is a major part of the race. She decided to take her 24hr layover at McGrath and called Mom and Dad to give updates. As far as the weather, she confirmed that it has been a warm race. There have also been snow storms at the higher elevations and it has dumped large amounts of snow. Laura said at one point she had to pull Petunia (one of her leaders) out of chest deep snow. That would be chest deep for Laura not the dog. The snow dump also had race volunteers snowed into a few checkpoints.
Laura filled us in on the first dog she dropped. Astro had some soreness in his wrists but the deciding factor was his size and his coat. Astro is a large wheel dog (right in front of the sled) and has a really thick coat. With the temps being higher then ideal she didn't want to chance Astro overheating. Astro was returned to Laura's handler, Laura B., and has no signs of wrist soreness but I know Laura would rather err on the side of caution than cause injury to her babies. Another dog, Prince, was dropped at McGrath. He also had sore wrists and Laura wouldn't have wanted to chance making it worse. I feel like I need to reiterate what sore wrists are and how they affect the dog. There have been some nasty posts on some sites saying that the dogs probably running on their sore wrists, bearing their pain in silence until someone finally notices. I want to tell you how Laura finds sore muscles. She spends so much time in training studying each dog’s gait that she knows them by heart. As the dogs run she is not just sitting on the sled enjoying the view. She is constantly scanning the team watching for the slightest difference in any dog’s gait. Each one is an individual and has its own way of running. If that changes at all Laura will stop the team and check the dog in question. Sometimes a check will reveal nothing. I will note here that the dogs love to run and they are adept at covering up pain in order to stay in the team. Many times the only indicator of pain is a shift in the way the dog runs. If Laura finds nothing she may let the dog run again and watch it closely. At this point any abnormality is reason to "bag" the dog. Now before anyone starts having fits over that word it simply means that the dog will ride in the sled bag until the next checkpoint. I wrote before that a sore wrist/shoulder was just like a sore muscle following a tough workout for us. In itself a sore muscle is not a big deal but when we/the dogs are sore in one area we/the dogs tend to compensate by moving differently. By moving in a way that is unnatural to our bodies the human/dog will actually cause injury elsewhere. By dropping a dog for being sore the mushers are preempting injury. A musher avoids running a dog into injury at all cost. That dog has had so much time, money, energy and love poured into it over the years it takes to train a competitive dog. The dogs are not disposable, if anything the dogs are taken better care of than the musher themselves. With that said, you will hear about the occasional abuser. On that subject mushers will agree it is unacceptable. I have witnessed one such musher being told by the mushing community to place his dogs in other kennels and never to return to the sport. Just as there are people who should never have access to children there are people who should never have dogs.
I'm stepping off my soapbox now and will continue Laura's update. She reported that all dogs were eating well which is important in a race. Calories have to be replaced constantly. She also noted that she had taken a shower, a luxury on the trail. Laura was excited about eating a "home cooked meal by the wonderful ladies with the dishpan hands that take care of us all". Physically she is pretty battered. I wrote of the treacherous trail after Rohn and Laura experienced it first hand. Going down an ice chute into Davell Gorge she was drug trough some stumps and bruised up her right leg. She then proceeded to barrel roll her sled and get her left knee caught under the brake leaving that leg severely bruised also. After these accounts she exclaimed passionately that she is, "having the time of her life". I would like to interject that in order for this to be the time of your life usually I would insist that you were dropped as a baby but as I was there I know that is not the case. I have no explanation for this. Sorry.
Glare ice has been a major obstacle in the last few legs. There are countless small lakes that the trail passes over. Each one is a smooth, slick sheet of glare ice. She took the dogs booties off so they could use their nails to gain traction. "I've never seen this much glare ice, "she told my dad. Helens (Mt. St. Helens) and Petunia were leading during all of the lake crossings. Laura was so proud of them. They are not command leaders (meaning they are not proven to follow voice commands) they are trail leaders (meaning they don't mind leading the team down an obvious trail). For them to lead over lakes they had to be following voice commands because of the lack of trail on a sheet of ice. Laura says "her girls" did a great job.
She was raring to get back on the trail after 2 naps and switching out sleds. She is now running a sled with a bicycle seat attached. The last half of the race is a lot of flat, straight running, perfect for a seated sled. The seat folds up so that she will be able to maneuver in the rough spots. After a well deserved 24 hr rest the team Laura took off for Takotna at 3:30am. It is only 18 miles away and will be a fast night run. She was pleased to be leaving at night because the heat has been tough. After Takotna it will be on to Ophir, another 25 miles. The temps have dropped to approx. 21 degrees so it should be a comfortable run for all involved.
It was great to hear from her and hope that we'll be able to have contact when she takes her 8hr later down the trail. Until then, stay cool but not too cool. Laura does enough of that for us all!