Adventure!

Not a whole lot has been going on this week. The rain came, so we haven't really been able to take the dogs out much because the trail is icy and rather bare. Perhaps that will change though because we got an inch or two this morning.

I'm looking forward to Saturday -- I'm going to go dress shopping with my sister which means I get to go back to Boston. Funny how you don't realize how much a place means to you until you leave it. It's strange being away from the city although it may just be strange being away from people, particularly friends. In all my traveling that I've done before, I don't think I've ever forsaken social contact to this extent.

I always knew that I was a people person, but I don't think I every realized how much of a socialite I was until now. It's strange. Not being in the hustle and bustle has left me rather agitated. Things that normally don't bother me, irk me to no end.

I can't imagine I'm particularly fun to be with. Still, only so much can be said across a telephone wire, because only so much changes. Days come, days go. I still scoop poop, I try and write, I read -- but loneliness creeps in like some pungent odor wafting in through an open window and turns everything sour. Occasionally the cat saunters in to my room and offers me a reprieve, but, well, that's not the same.

Over the weekend I participated in my first dogsled race. It was a fifteen mile race in Wonalancet, NH. We had to get up at 3:30 am to get there. Talk about an early start!
I had a six dog team and was "competing" against twelve other teams. My goal for the race was to let the dogs have fun and to enjoy the experience, not to see how fast I could go. Because of that, I did not push them but made several stops. Two of the dogs on my team had never been in a race setting before.

Getting ready for the race required harnessing and bootying up the dogs as well as driving the team to the start and stopping them at the starting line. This is at least a two person job, usually a three or four person job because the dogs are really rearing to go. The excitement of seeing all the other teams out there really gets them going.

The course was a lot of fun and was my first experience going up really large hills. Most of the course went up and down then up and down some more. The race was incredibly well organized too so that at the few road crossing the racers didn't have to worry. The trail was also incredibly well marked. Green stakes meant you were on trail and red stakes indicated that at the next junction you would turn according to the side the stake was on.

I couldn't have been more pleased with my experience. My team (Lev, Loki, Turtle, Nik, Fineman & Walker) were incredible and did really well. I also had a lot of fun seeing a new trail. Some of the trail was quite tricky. The hills were long and in some places very steep, so I had to help push. There is a technique you use to help the dog which involves standing on one runner and pushing with your other leg. It's sort of a weird motion to do when going up hill. There were also several sharp turns. I also learned how to pass and how to get passed.

All-in-all, I had a fantastic time!

Sunday was when trouble struck -- and of course, trouble strikes in threes.

The First Strike.

First, the thing I had been dreading happened. I got lost, though I don't think lost is necessarily the right word, with a team of seven dogs. I knew where I was, more or less, it just wasn't where I was supposed to be. I was given directions and thought I had followed them. I was supposed to go straight at one section of trail and then take the next two lefts. Except I took a hard left instead of bearing left, which didn't bring me to the correct location. Bummer. I was pretty upset about that because I really don't like getting lost and I wasn't sure if I was taking the dogs too far or not far enough. Turned out to be the second of the two, which is bad because now they are behind in training.

The Second Strike

After that debacle we took out the 5 puppies and they ran really well. Trouble didn't strike until we got home. I was putting the puppies away and was about to put the last one in the puppy pen when I saw Ivan jumping up and down against the door and, to my horror, hit the lock loose. Next thing I knew I had four dogs tearing out across the kennel causing a cacophony of barking and howling. The next half hour was awful. I remembered the time when Samantha had gotten lost in New Hampshire and my mom and dad stayed up all night trying to find her. In some ways, this was worse because they weren't my dogs and they didn't know to come when they were called. I looked around for tracks with my headlamp and Lev got in his car to search for them. He did, thankfully, find them all. Apparently they were almost to town by the time he caught up with them and he had a hard time getting his hands on them. They thought the whole thing was a big game.

After they got back in their pen, it seemed nothing else could possibly go wrong. I was feeling pretty bad about everything however. When I went into the other puppy pen the 9 dogs immediately jumped on me and I slipped on ice and cracked my elbow. The dogs swarmed over me and started nipping at me. One stole my hat, which, I suppose I should be grateful for because the other dogs started chasing it trying to capture the new prize.

Eventually I won it back, only to slip again and the little devils pounced all over me again... I escaped eventually.

Today, it's warm and rainy. Not exactly inspiring weather. Hopefully, the rain won't take away too much snow and the trail won't get too icy.

Ok. Ciao.

What an exciting week. I have gone out on my own the last three nights in a row. What a blast! Tuesday night I took a six dog team on about a 12 mile run. It was beautiful and the dogs did a great job. I was a little nervous, however, because I wasn't entirely sure of where I was going even though I had done the loop before and was given directions at least 10 times. But getting lost tends to be a common thread with me so I think I was right to be a little nervous.

Before I headed out I had to put little booties on all of them because of all the new snow we've gotten. If you don't booty the dogs, the ice balls underneath their feet and it can hurt them. I'm still not particularly good at putting them on. You have to slip on the booties while the dog tries to wriggle away from you. Turns out dogs don't like wearing socks. Surprise, surprise.

Once I got out on the trail, I went pretty slow at first. The goal is to keep the dogs trotting rather than loping. Trotting is when each of their feet moves. Loping is, well, loping. The dog kind of bobs up and down, like a dolphin playing in the waves. I had good trotters though so I was able to gradually increase the speed little by little. My leaders, Turtle and Lev, were really something. Turtle is going to a new home at the end of the month, but Lev will stick around. He listens really well and is a super friendly dog, so I like him a lot.

Once I was certain of where we were going I was really able to relax and enjoy myself. At one point I passed Lev (the musher, not the dog) which was cool. The dogs did a great job of that. They are also great with getting passed by snowmobiles. It doesn't even phase them at this point.

I ended up getting back from that run, after putting the dogs back home in the kennel, around 4 am. Not what I'm used to. I've never been that much of a night owl (unless I have a good book). The trouble is, regardless of how tired I am, I still have to read before I can fall asleep. (Annoying!)

On Wednesday I took a 4 dog team (Kass, Kheddar, Ollie, and Ruff) out for a short loop. I love these dogs. They are so happy to go out and go at their own little pace. We got passed by a string of 8 snowmobiles... they just kept coming and coming. Ruff didn't really like that, but she got used to it. I missed the turn off I was supposed to take so I ended up going a little farther than normal, but the dogs didn't seem to mind. Ruff (she's a young dog) didn't like the pace I was setting for the older dogs. Too slow for her. She kept leaping around trying to get everyone to pull faster but the old dogs knew what they were doing and I didn't want to tire them out by going too fast.

Last night I took out the team I will be taking to the wonalancet(?) fun run. It's a 15 mile race. I will be taking: Lev, Loki, Turtle, Nik, Fineman, and Walker. I'm really excited about racing. It should be a good time and I have great dogs! Last night I was frustrated trying to set up to go.

The dogs wouldn't sit still for bootying and then the groomer came and sat waiting for me to leave which really stressed me out. Eventually, however, I got going and once I did I started to relax and have a good time. My team did really well and all the dogs looked great. Loki and Lev were great up front.

The trail is also really beautiful at night. Well, I shouldn't say trail so much as the stars which are so incredibly bright and remind me of Christmas. Last night the little little sliver of moon looked like the Chesire Cat's smile telling me to lighten up There is one spot on my trail that is definitely my favorite. I can never remember where it is (I'm so directionally challenged!) but I guess that must be some of the fun of it. The trail opens up out of the forest on either side and as you emerge from it there is Orion standing there up ahead on my left, as if he's waving hello or congratulating me or something.

I forget most of the other constellations but I can usually see the big dipper pretty well from the kennel and Arcturaus, which is the only star I can point out in the sky. I wish I had a telescope because the sky is very clear here. Sometimes, when I am out with the dogs in the kennel I think I can spot some planets but I'm never sure which one is which except for Mars because it's sort of red, but maybe I'm just making that up. It makes me want to be an astronaut again or at least go out into space. What an adventure that would be.


Anyways, I'm tired - I moved 1200 pounds of dog food today! - so I am going to take a catnap which is funny because the cat (Hemmingway) is curled up beside me as I write this.

On Friday, three packages came for me. It was like Christmas all over again! I got a pair of super-warm boots and a replacement headlamp from REI. You have to love their lifetime warranty. I also got a package from my madre. I also went to the library and picked up a few books, including the Golden Compass which I've never read, but feel like I should. That was the day I also finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on my Ipod...so now it's on to The Deathly Hollows. I'm on the prowl for some new books on tape to listen to so if anyone has suggestions I would really appreciate it.

That afternoon, we ran lots of dogs down on the old train track area and I drove the truck/trailer. It definitely wasn't as intimidating as I thought, but I was still cautious. Precious cargo :). When we got there, I took out a small three dog team (Nik, Turtle, and Lev) down an old logging road. It was awesome! It was really hilly and turny, so I really had to lean heavy on the break but it was great practice because the turns really whipped around right at the bottom of the hills. The good thing was, I held on even when the sled sort of tipped over. I quickly righted it and then continued right back on. Lots of fun.

Nik and Turtle (the leaders) didn't really listen to me at first, so there were a few times when I had to stop and sort them out, but eventually they got the idea that I was the one calling the shots. It was a shorter run but super exciting especially as I had no idea what each turn would bring. The hills were also rather large and had a bit of thin cover in some areas. The sled would hit a root or a log poorly buried in the slow and jerk underneath me. It was a great run.

After we got back, we then took out the puppies who had only been harnessed once before. They all did a really good job. Koka Kola got over her habit of flopping down on the trail and did a great job of pulling. She really seemed to enjoy herself once she got the hang of it and realized that her harness wasn't going to bite her.

Then, Last night we took out a 16 dog string on thin cover. It was a bit of a bumpy ride and a little hard to slow down, but once again I managed to stay on -- even when the sled was really whipping around on the ice. It was a really great run especially because we had a new leader up front (Walker) and he was fantastic. When we got back from the run, the dogs were still rearing to go. They kept banging their harnesses.

Tonight we are supposed to get some snow which will be really beneficial to the trail system. It's really thin cover right now and therefore hard to stop. I'm hoping to take out a 6 dog team in the next few days which I'm really looking forward to.

Later!

Today I finally got a little creative writing done. It may not seem like a big deal (and it probably isn't) but I have been trying to write the same story for... well... way to long. (about a year and a half) I have officially written 3 different openings, the longest being about 70 pages and the shortest about 11. Strangely enough is they all start very different albeit similar stories. I really like two of them but have realized that since they start different stories and are aimed at different audiences (young adult vs. adult) that I can probably get away with writing two separate stories.

I also decided I want to get some chickens this summer. Mostly because I think they are funny and I like eggs. Plus, when you are done with them you can (hypothetically) eat them. I'm of the persuasion if you want to eat meat you should be able to "own up" to the deed. Right now, I'm looking at the Plymouth Rock Chicken mostly because it looks cool. It's this salt and pepper sort of deal. They are also pretty easy to take care of and lay a lot of eggs. Or maybe I will do a few different types of chickens. A sort of compare and contrast experiment if you will. It sounds fun, but I doubt it will be a cost-effective adventure or if I will even do it at all. I also think it's pretty funny that you cet them shipped in the mail. That's got to be one of the strangest packages a mailman can deliver...

Anyways, I played a lot with the dogs today because I had some free time. They're a pretty cheery lot so it's fun wandering down to say hello and scoop the occasional poop. There's something very calming about being down there. My own sort of zen.


ok. happy trails.

It's about 1:00 am and we just got back from a 9.5 mile run with most of the yearlings. We did it in about 56 minutes with two stops. Great fun. The best part was it was my first run on the double-sled where I didn't fall! I felt really comfortable on the sled and finally learned when to use which break and how to adjust during different levels of turning. After a certain point, it sort of becomes a fluid motion. I'm not sure why I didn't get the hang of it at first but it may have something to do with the fact that I'd never driven such a large team and that I was tired / adapting to a new living situation. Who knows.

Anyways, tonight was a total success! Tomorrow, I have to drive the big truck (easy) with the dog trailer (hard). Hopefully, I won't have to back it out of the driveway (near-impossible).

I'm currently reading both Little Women and The DaVinci Code...about as polar opposite as they come which is nice because it provides a nice balance. I sort of decided to read Little Woman on a lark because I have a Kindle and its free. I read Dan Brown because Dan Brown writes best-selling novels and I want to write best-selling novels. The book I really want to be reading write now is "The Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood but I'll read that next. It's the sequel to Oryx and Crake a tremendously well-wrtten novel that I highly recommend. Basically the novel is about how the world ends. I find I tend to really like those types of novels. The Road. The Giver. Atlas Shrugged -- though I suppose the moral of that story is how we should maintain society.

anyways, it's 1:11 am. This is eleven minutes worth of writing.
With that,
I'm off!

It's currently 8:50 and Lev isn't back yet. That means we probably won't get out to the trail til around 10:30 -- if we are lucky, which means another night that I spend up until 2:30 or 3:30 am. But no complaints, well not really anyway. The trail is beautiful in the dark and there is something to be said about traveling at night with only the lone bright spot of your headlamp lighting up the darkness ahead. It's also kind of like a roller-coaster. We travel so fast down hill it's scary. On average the team goes about 13mph downhill, however, its much faster.

So when you can't see and you go down hill into a sharp turn, things can get pretty interesting. I'm learning however to hang on for dear life. It helps that hauling around poop all day has built my upper body strength back up, though it could still use some work.

I spent another afternoon driving to and from the vets. Poor Hazel.

The dogs are outside making a racket probably because they know it's well past their dinner time. I can't blame them. I don't actually know if I will go out with Lev tonight. He only had me water eleven dogs... then again, they only go about 11 miles so I probably will go.

I spent the afternoon trying to fix my headlamp and failed. Instead, I ordered a new one knowing I can return this broken POS to REI when I have some free time. Sure, I could live without it and use one of Lev's head lamps but I like mine. Plus, his required wearing battery packs on your hip and when you fall off the sled and land on one of those it's probably the most painful thing ever. It's only happened once so far, but once is enough. Anyways, if you need a good head lamp get the black diamond icon from REI that way when it goes all hay-wire you can return it, no questions asked. I also ordered some new carhartts. Guess I went on a little bit of a spending spree. Seeing, however, that I spend all day in the same nasty little pair of snowpant that have turned this nasty shade of reddish-grey from chopping meat and having puppies paw at me all day.

Willow is outside and has been barking for about two hours straight. For the most part, the dogs are really quiet and mind to themselves. Randomly the choir will start up, but it usually only lasts ten or fifteen minutes. I'm tempted to go out and see why she's barking, but I know she is just being Willow. She's probably annoyed because when I gave out broth earlier this evening she didn't get any and she's sharp enough know that that means she won't be running tonight. Tough luck, kid. Plus, I'm warm in my bed and am going to have to get up in about 20 minutes to start feeding when Lev gets back.

Anyways, I've become a bit of scrabble addict on facebook so I"m going to go check my games and see how I'm doing.

Au revoir!

I just spent about a half hour hacking at a 50 pound block of frozen meat. I go at with this huge ax. It's a great way to take out aggression or get a work out. I have to break it into 10 semi-even pieces. It's quite fun though picking up the "shards" is kind of nasty. This meat is basically everything that people don't eat, bones and all - so naturally it smells hideous.

I'm also currently trying to thaw a frozen bucket of dog food. So far I have boiled water to put in the bucket 3 different times but to no success. I have now filled up the tub with hot water and letting the bucket soak in there. The downside is, I now have to take a shower with the dog food. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that it stinks. Oh well.

After that's done I get to shovel more poop and try and make the doors to the kennel work again... I don't think I will have much success -- there is too much ice frozen to the ground for me to break through. I will do my best though!

Well! I have been up at Team Ollie for one week and am having a great time. I really enjoy the daily routine. I get up around 8:00 and then head straight out to the dog yard and am greeted by 49 wagging tails. I then spend approximately an hour and a half shoveling poop. It's awfully glamorous. Actually, it's quite fun because, you know, you get to stop and play with each dog with some exceptions.

There are a couple of dogs here that really don't like people: Turtle, Willow, Nick, and Loke. The first two, no matter what you do they aren't going to come near you. Turtle is called Turtle because she hates getting out of her dog house and when she does she only stick out her front end. The only time I've seen her outside of her box completely is to eat or when she is in harness. Willow never really goes in her dog-house but always gives herself 180 degrees of separation. Nik and Loke, however, are quite different. They don't really enjoy being pet, but if you come up to them with a leash, a harness, or food then they will be your best friend. Interesting enough, every dog but Willow runs in lead.


My favorite dogs so far are Ghost (or Mr. Ghost), Planck, Texas, Johnny, Walker, Ivan and Slew. Of course, I love the puppies but the only one who I can actually tell apart is Bear and that's mostly because she is just so friendly. She also has the disgusting habit of chewing on a poopsicle and then coming to lick your face, tongue still brown and all. Pretty nasty.

Most of the dogs will try and eat their poop if it freezes. I guess they like the hard crunchy texture or something. Today when I went to pet one of the dogs, I put the poop bucket down too close to another dog, a little white girlie named Ensign, and she started picking turds out of the bucket and hiding them in her house. They all do this. Some of them, like Texas, have also learned to poop after I have already come by once so that I will come by and pet them again. I feel like I am encouraging this by petting them, but they are just so happy and cute!

Texas is a huge (and I mean huge!) dog. When he gets up on two legs he is easily my height He lives next to Mr. Ghost who likes to bite the tails of other dogs if they get to close. He just latches on and then doesn't let go. Strangely enough, the other dogs don't really seem to mind.

This past Saturday, I went to my first race as a spectator / handler. I didn't have to do a whole lot but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. It was quite fun seeing and hearing all the dogs as they got ready to go. There were 8 teams there in the 8-dog class which is what Lev ran. His goal was to come in last because he was taking out all his puppies who had never raced before and wanted to go slow and just let them have fun. Although the dogs had a great time, he didn't meet his goal of coming in last. He came in 3rd and is still baffled though very impressed with his little pups. I am too. They're great dogs.

I also helped harness break five 9-month old dogs who are all named after songs/lyrics from the Clash's London Calling album: Cadalic, Jimmy Jazz, KokaKola, Ivan, Rudi. Everyone got it which was great. Kokakola, however, that it was a game and started flopping over, almost as if she were dead and let the rest of the team drag her about as her tail wagged furiously. It was interesting watching this process as even though sled dogs are born to run, the concept of being in harness frightens them at first and they have to gradually warm up to it. Most of those dogs had never even worn a collar before so that in itself was frightening.

Dogsledding itself has been a blast though I fell off a lot at first and managed to break my brake and my sled, I'm now quite adept at hanging on for dear life. Just kidding. I'm now used to they way the sled handles going around curves and down hills and how to best brace myself to take those. It's definitely not easy, especially when you are behind a 15 or 16 dog team.

Anyways, I guess that's it for now. I jsut wanted to catch up because I said I would write down everything here in this blog but I've just been so tired! We run the dogs at night and usually don't get back til 1 or 2 in the morning and then up at 8. The day of the sled dog race it was up at 4 and in bed around 10:30... Long days, long nights.

But I'm doing it! I am following my dreams!

My my, how times flies. Its strange how my trips from this summer seem so close and so far away. I now find myself in a completely different climate as I begin to pursue my dream of dogsledding and the Iditarod. I am working with Team Ollie based out of Winchendon, Ma. Yesterday I filled the Sass-machine and drove up here, arriving around 4:30. I quickly unpacked my car --which was mostly filled with cold weather (four winter jackets!) while the cat, Hemmingway, meowed and kept me company as I was the only one home.

Now for my adventure:


By the time we had fed and watered the kennel (consisting of approximately 55 dogs) and had our own dinner, it was 10:15 at night. Then, we loaded up the dogs in the dog trailer, drove to the trail, harnessed and hooked up the dogs. Now, normally this is sort of easy but I had't harnessed a dog in over a year and I'd certainly never done it in the dark, so it presented an interesting challenge. I also learned how to change the runners on a sled because mine were broken.

If anyone ever tells you that dogsledding easy than they aren't doing it right. It's terrifying. Especially if you are double sledding (which is what I was doing). Double sledding means hitching up one sled behind the other, so that the second sled takes every turn with an amazing amount of whip lash. Needless to stay, I fell off within the first two miles. I stayed on for the next sharp turn but had a major wipe out on the next one. I ended up landing on the battery pack of my headlamp (attached to my hip) and breaking it, requiring me to mush in the dark. (Lev forgot about his spare head lamp in his sled.) Then, by about mile 7 or 8 and numerous more falls my brake broke. Sleds have 3 different ways to brake: there's the bar, the drag pad, and your feet. My bar broke, so I had to resort to using the other two methods which are fine but less effective when going down hill.

I can't even remember how many times I fell off the sled last night. All I know is, my only thought was "I can't wait for this to end. I can't wait for this to end." and "I am in so much pain. I hope I didn't break anything. I can't wait for this to end." But when all was said and done I had amazing time: despite the fact that our run lasted until 1:30. We went just under 22 miles with the team. It was pretty amazing. By the time we snacked the dogs, drove home, housed the, then fed and watered the dogs, it was 3:30 in the morning.

I woke up at 7:45 today then after lolling about for a bit, headed out to the dogyard to scoop poop and say hello. Sounds simple but it took me about an hour and a half. Then I had to take out the old straw in the dog boxes in the trailer and put in new straw, which took another two hours. Good thing I have an ipod with Harry Potter on tape. I'm done with work for the day until we go run them, so I'm going to eat lunch and take a nap.

I would say more, but my eyes keep closing.