The Waiting Game
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
I have an idea for a movie. It could be called “Escape From Anchorage” and instead of Kurt Russell it could star me (Joseph) trying in vein to get out of the city. O.K. So I’m not handling the waiting game well!!! Yesterday we (my dad and Lynn and I)tried to get home to Kasilof, but after not snowing all winter, another huge snow storm came in dumping FEET of snow on the only road to home. We got about 1/3 of the way, but the white out conditions seemed too dangerous for two Floridan drivers (following me in their car) so we turned around and came back for the day/night.
We got up early this morning to hit the road again, and as I was warming up the truck a friend called to say their way an avalanche on the highway, so the orad is closed for another 5-6 hours. So now I’m stuck here, with four of our own dogs that are tired of sitting in their tiny dog boxes. I also have five other dogs from two mushers friends, since we are “dog pooling” to save everyone from having to drive to Anchorage daily to get dropped dogs.
Oh, and did I mention that during the night a plow truck hit our dog truck, destroying the spreader bar on one side and breaking the drop chain. So now I only have one chain to drop all these dogs on. And of course, this being the city, whoever hit my truck didn’t leave a note or anything. See photo above of the bent bar. (What really irks me is the spreader bar only was out as far as my bumper, so whoever hit it had to be about 6-inches from my truck. WTF?!?)
I really want to get these dogs home, but also I want to get home to relive the person who is watching the dogs left behind at the kennel. I would also love to run those guys, since they are just sitting day after day at this point. I’m sure our Dunkel puppy also is far overdue for some play time and running around the yard.
As to Cole, I’d love to say how her race is going, but yur guess is as good as mine. She is working her way through one of the tougher sections of the trail. She had climbed Rainy Pass (at 3,160 feet it is the highest point along the trail) and is now dropping into the notorious Dalzell Gorge off the backside of the mountain. It’s tough to tell what is going on from watching a blip, but she is doing a LOT of stopping, which would leave me to believe she is having some kind of problem, but who knows of what kind or how bad. She’s hours behind the next closest musher and trail reports are of FEET of snow, so she may be breaking trail. Or she could be having dog trouble from the incident I wrote about in the last post. Or possible she fell off an ice bridge and has somehow damaged her sled. I wish I knew, because the wondeirng and worrying from the hotel room that has become my prison cell for the last 48 hours is starting to consume me.
I’d love to say I’m just being paranoid, but for anyone who is unfamiliar with this section, allow me to post the Iditarod’s own offical trail description of this section. Enjoy:
“You’ll see a “Watch Your Ass” sign; immediately beyond is a steep 200-foot hill down into Dalzell Gorge. It can be your worst nightmare come true. The worst-case scenario is minimal snow and lots of glare ice and open water. Hopefully you’ll have some warning if it’s really bad.
Once you’re down into the canyon, the trail will start jumping from side to side, crossing the creek (which always has open, running water) on sometimes-narrow ice and snow bridges, some of which may be collapsed. Even under good conditions, keep up enough speed to cross these bridges cleanly—if your dogs cut you across them or slow down at the wrong time you can find yourself in big trouble quickly, sliding down ice ledges into the water. (The water isn’t much more than a foot or two deep in most places, but it’s usually at the bottom of a nightmare of sloping ice.) At some points the canyon is barely wide enough for the trail and the creek. There are also lots of very big trees down in the gorge; the trail wraps tightly around a few of them. “