We headed down the trail and took the turns along the backside of the riverloop. Neither Bill nor Miriam had run this trail before, so I waited for them on the S curve that leads to the Quest trail. BIG MISTAKE!! I should've went all the way through the turn first, but I didn't as I was afraid they might miss it...so I stopped my team before the last right hand turn...which put me in a bad position for hitting the tree on the corner. Well, I took off and was able to tilt the sled to miss the tree...but unfortunately this tipped the sled sideways a little too much and I found myself doing a header into a snowbank. The team was going so fast, that the sled ripped right out of my hands and I was left spluttering snow. Luckily, the dogs stopped only about 50 feet down the trail, as the sled had righted itself and hit a tree. The bad news was that the brushbow (the same one that came with the sled 6 years ago) must've been brittle, as it busted right off. To add injury to insult, the bridle rope had come apart and the left eyehook holding the bridle came open a bit, too. I'll tell you, this must just be my year to break up sleds, and I'm really starting to hate eyehooks!!! Anyway, after wiping the blood from my forehead (I have a great "snow rash" on the left side of my forehead and face), I rigged a new bridle for the sled, put the broken piece of my brushbow in the sledbag, and we headed out again. Hey, at least I didn't hit the tree, eh??? Ha ha ha!!
Well, with my sled missing the brushbow, which for me is not a good thing, since I've been up close and personal with one too many trees this season, we decided to run out to the firing range...just about a 20 mile run one way. The rest of the run was pretty uneventful. We had gorgeous weather, although it was really hot, which made the snow a little slushy and really opened up overflow at Colorado Creek. The water came up over our boots on the way out & up to my ankles on the way back, but the dogs did great plunging on through with no problems. A little after this, I noticed that Miriam was running a single leader, so I gave her Achilles to run up front with Beano (my old leader). I wanted to show Miriam that her freighters were capable of more than the 8mph speed they do. Achilles gave her a boost, and soon Miriam's team was making better time. Unfortunately, this left Bill back a little bit, but his valiant 6 dog team did a great job of staying up with us. What a nice run it was into the firing range. Bill's leaders executed a beautiful come gee, which really impressed Miriam and I. Too cool!! And that little Streeper leader of Bill's really did great....what a nice dog.
We stayed at the range for 1 1/2 hours, to let the dogs rest and to give us a chance to broth and snack them. Miriam and Bill's teams were only up to 30 mile runs, so we were taking it easy with them. We fired up the cooker, and just chatted as we took care of our teams. Couldn't have been nicer. Once the break was over, I headed out and ended up taking a haw turn when I should've went straight. Lucky I did though, because Miriam's team had popped the hook and by taking the wrong turn, I was able to get my hyped up team stopped and then stopped and held Miriam's team until she caught up to us. Getting our teams turned around, we headed out again. But now we had to make a left where we shouldn't have, so the turn was nasty. I ended up just laying my sled on its side to avoid the sign post and tree on the left side of the trail. My dogs did wonderful and stopped while I righted the sled. Then, we were finally on our way back home.
I soon caught up with Bill and passed him, with Curry balking a bit. But Bill stopped his team and we went on by. Then I came up to Miriam, and we started a running pass. However, Curry balked pretty bad, and caused a tangle in the team. Ody had gotten the gangline wrapped around a leg...so I went up to untangle him, but each time I'd reach for the line while I was pulling back the leaders, he'd snap. Bill came over to help, and in trying to keep Ody from nipping at Bill, I ended up getting a bite on the wrist, which hurt like the dickens!!! Poor Ody! He looked so sorry once we had him undone...and he was completely unhurt, though I was now sporting a swelling, bloody wrist. OUCH!!! Well, the rest of the run was uneventful and went nicely. We stopped at Valley Center for a hot dog, since we missed out on Annette's yummy cheeseburgers at Angel Creek Lodge. Out of Valley Center, I let my team open up on the trail, and we loped the 3 miles to Bill's house. It was totally AWESOME!! After keeping them slow all day to accomodate my friends, my team was ready to rock. We had a blast running on Baseline to Bill's house, ending the run on a good note, with the dogs ready for more.
All in all, the run was really a lot of fun. We had some snafus, but that's just good ole' Murphy rearing his ugly head! The trials and tribulations of dog mushers. Awww...you gotta love it!!! :o)
Tammi
