Trail Stories
The photo above sums up so much about long-distance dog racing. This is Cole after being awake for about .2 seconds this morning. We slept on the floor in the mechanic shop for the village, along with about a dozen other mushers, some of whom snored and others who slept in not much more than their whitey tighties. It was quite scene, yet it was the most rest Cole has had while on the race, and likely the most she’ll have till the end, still a week away.
Before napping she caught me up on some of the more outrageous stories from the trail, while gobbling up goodies in the community center of the village, surrounded by walls covered in colorful pictures the children drew to wish the mushers well (see above). She elaborate more on the nsowstorm she got caught in in Rainy Pass, and we talked with others (such as Newton Marshal and Tom Lesatz) who were in the same storm, but a few miles back. COle said the dump was so severe that the dogs were breaking trail through a foot of snow, and off the trail the powder was chest deep. She knows becase a few times the dog’s lost the trail and just couldn’t understand where to go. As she stepped of the sled to help, she literally sunk.
At Rainy Pass Cole said she got a bad parking spot for the team, but not as bad as some others, like our friend Warren Palfrey. She said his team was further to the side of her, nearest where the helipcoters were parked. It being a storm, about once an hour, the helicopter would fire up it’s engines and try to lift off, fail, and then return to the ground This of course was freying all the dogs nerves, when they should have been getting restful sleep, but the straw the broke the camel’s back came when finally during one lift-off attempt the helicopter emitted a deafing backfire. Cole said that Warren’s entire team literally jumped over our team in an effort to get away and a massive tangle ensued.
This same snow storm also claimed Cole’s dinner at one point. OUr friend Deb made Cole some delicous meals and COle had pulled one out to drop into her boiling water to warm up. HOwever, as a foot of snow fell, while COle tiredly waited for her water to boil, enough snow fell that it buried her meal, and despite numerous attempts to locate, she couldn’t find her dinner.
We also spent last night swapping stories with Newton (the Jamacian musher and a friend Cole made during thukon QUest last year). Newton complained that no matter how much clothes he put on, he still was cold and wet all the time. As Cole asked him about his layering system, we wound out ALL of his base and mid-weight layers were 100% cotton. We honestly couldn’t believe he made it this far in minus 30 degrees, so COle quickly dug throug her belonging and gave him a few synthetic layers to change into. She also taught him how to use the coin operated laundry machines, which he had never seen (see below). HOpefuly the rest of the trail wil be a little warmer for her Carribean friend.
All the dogs looked good, and got even better during the 24 hour rest. COle’s oncly concern was her sled had taken a bit of a beating in the Farewell BUrn, and one of her runners had taken some damage (see below).
That is the beauty of wooden runners though: they can brake and still be run for hundreds of miles, where as metal runners tend to snap clean. As I left for my flight this morning, she was still deciding what to do with the runner, but after I touched down and IMMEDIATELY checked her GPS tracker, she was 13 miles out of the checkpoint and traveling at 9 mph, so I hope it all got worked out. Below is my parting image of the McGrath and the snaking Kuskokwim River, along which the village sits.
