Part 3 Rocky Brook - Maibec 31.11 miles Out RB 11:28:56 in M 15:39:26 At the drivers mtg there was a well known musher who voiced a concern about leaving Rocky Brook. Apparently when you leave you head down a plowed road ~ 1/4 mile and then need to nail a sharp 90 degree turn off the road onto the trail. There is no trail help and over the years many mushers have headed down the road. Ok so this well known musher (high placer) to have this concern made me go ...oh sh**t. We corner tight & hard. Theres a concern if so many others missed this turn could we? Even bigger is if it was that tight... I could really be in trouble. Come to find out the concern was the dogs not making the turn for the others and while corner was tight it wasnt a switch back so once on trail it was straight. That took a lot of pressure off but was still a titch concerning. I snacked the team took their light jackets off ( thanks Cathy) and everyone stood up & was ready to run! I bootied all, grabbed the stuff from my bin needed for next leg ( team snacks, my snacks, hand warmers) and we headed out nailing that concerning section beautifully! It was tight but we rocked it!! 1/2 way down the trail I realized I had not used my bipod once yet durring the race.....wow lol Our game plan time was a titch of schedule ( no big deal) but all was good. Team was totally in synch, rhythm, flow, work ethic and all were eating snacks on tail, meals at check point, no issues, no concerns and feet were perfect! Run was going well (10 miles)and then I noticed Fuel had a slight limp in left front leg. Could tell by the way she was holding her head. I leaned out and could see her extension was off. Stopped the team, checked her and saw a slight inflammation at her wrist. Took off her booties because she has dewclaws and sometimes the rub. That didnt create the inflammation but could now add to it. I put ointment on her feet to keep dry so no fissures would start and then liniment & a wrist wrap on that wrist for rest of run. About 6 miles later Gage starts looking a little off. Slows down a bit and wamm projectile diarrhea. Poor Gage now concerned about 2 dogs but neither is that bad. They both kept working well just a little off. 10 miles before we hit Maibec and I see Super Star is lacking a bit up front. She just seemed off and the boys are almost running over her and Shimmer. Both Shimmer & Super Star had been in lead since start. I stopped the team gave SS a quick once over and she just looked a little off so I pulled her from lead and put Token up front. Team handled last 10 miles well and while there was the ones to watch all was ok. We entered Maibec fast and as the officials checked me in the team was screaming to keep going. Of course Posi always does. Lol They brought me to my spot and drilled a pole into the ground for me to place snow hook over and it would hold tam back. I removed my other snow hook from team line and went forward to put that in front of the leaders and suddenly the team is heading straight for me. They pulled the pole out of the ground. I grab them, 4 men jumped in and I laughed at the guys who drilled the hole and placed the pole because same thing happened at Rocky Brook! I dropped straw for team to bed down, opened the cooler I had sent with meat/kibble added hot water, removed booties, and decided I was gonna wrist wrap & liniment entire team after I fed. Several times many of the team had fallen off main trail and basically dropped into the soft snow hard & deep. Some took nasty diggers ( zig & Gage worst and often) Thats probably what happened to Fuel. Since my plan was to stay here for 4 hrs I had to hustle to wrap every dog because I was totally excited about running with the colder temps coming! Last I knew the forecast was -15 and its why I had packed the heavy jackets in these bins so that we took them with us to Allagash. I then started to feed and... Thats when all changed. Gage, Rogue, Fuel didnt eat! Not good!! My crew never misses a meal unless your Picky Posi or Zig at home because he hasnt run. Rogue looked like hell. Squinty eyes, like she totally felt like crap. Super Star was suddenly favoring her left rear leg. I couldnt find exact issue but she was favoring that leg. I asked the vet to look at Rogue and they couldnt find anything! I went inside thinking there goes the plan & oh crap now what and I saw a friend who decided he was scratching. Next thing I know the radio rooms talking about -30 degree weather and their wondering if vets will let us run. Ok its official now Im starting to freak. My team needs to hit the trail! We would love those temps BUT with 3 dogs not feeling well who didnt eat or drink and SS off me running them so soon in the cold could make all worse! But laying there in the extreme cold may not be comfortable! I must have tossed that around 100x. Go dont go, oh crap this could be the end, go, not go. I was so glad I packed their heavy jackets & blankets. I walked outside looked at team and... I got slammed with oh no! To see your dogs not feeling well after all theyve done and remember Im probably to damn tired to be thinking straight! Not to mention were from CT!! Coldest for us is -15 and at least then they have dog houses stuffed with straw. All of a sudden I feel slammed by OMFG Zig!!! Zigs an Alaskan he gets cold quick. Sibes can handle cold team is pretty damn good but Zig at -10 in the yard he has to wear a jacket. What will -30 do?? I went back inside and honestly I was starting to think...were done, I wont make them go threw this! I walked back in radio room and there was another friend an older guy from Canada who was already talking about scratching because his dogs wouldnt handle those temps. I listened to him and suddenly said NO way. Were both tired not thinking straight and NOT thinking as high of our dogs as we should! Suddenly I was seeing the other side and decided we could fix this. I asked the officials if we could have an extra bail of straw per team. If we put that around them it would help a lot! My crew had jackets & a blanket. Thats when I threw my planned game plan out the window and decided long rest try to get Gage, Rogue & Fuel to eat and see how we look in am! I asked the radio room if they could radio down to lodge and let Dave know all as fine & we were staying the night. All of this was decided by 7pm, temps were now-11 dropping fast. I offered food & water again ( Gage, Rogue & Fuel still had no interest) I put heavy jackets on them all, sat with each for a while, blankets thrown over top of them. I went to lay down and take a nap. Well that didnt last long I couldnt sleep was way to worried and second guess my self. I went to main room and hung out with some cool volunteers & few musher. 9pm I went back out side, hung out with team, offered more f/w to all but the 3 still said No. I really dont know what I did with all this lay over but I can tell you I didnt sleep. I hung out with my team, watched the canam tracker, chatted with many. Finally at midnight I got Fuel, Rogue & Gage to eat small amount. And then they did again at 3 and 6. And that when I decide it was time to leave! In distance theres a time where your team no longer jumps up and is raring to go. Its kind of like they are cardboard. You gotta pick them up, Bootie them and often theyll trying laying down 1-2 more times. I starred at the team thinking oh boy this could be bad especially with this cold. Why would they want to get up? They all had jacket on and the were totally covered over by blanket. Funny thing I was talking to one of the officials inside earlier the night before. He asked when my plan was to leave and I said for once its not up to me. Its up to them and me knowing them & how to read them. I removed all blankets, stood one at a time to bootie and once they had booties, removed jacket and they all dropped back down. This happened all the way down the line until I was on number 9 of 11. And suddenly the entire team stood up started howling and pulling on the line! No matter what had happened or how concerned I was there was this amazing warm, fuzzy hell yeah feeling that came over me. Because I know my dogs!!! I looked up and there was the official I had talked with earlier he said well thats a good sign I of course corrected him and said NO that an awesome sign!! They kept going from howl, to harness banging and after I had shimmer booties on the were pulling on the gangline, harness banging and zig almost went threw all the tugs in front of him. They asked me if I wanted 1 person to walk us to the line or if I thought id need 2 to help. I laughed and said 2... Can you make that 3. He laughed and sent 2 over and it was my team dragging them to the start. When we got to the starting line same official had to stand on my brake with me to hold the team back & 3 other people had to jump in. It was so awesome to see the energy, the passion in my guys and to know that I was smart, I did what needed and what was best for them! Screw the original game plan! When that official ever looked at me and said omg they are raring to go and looked happy to see that...I was wicked proud of us all!!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 23:41:46 +0000