Re: Nome finish line
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:41 am
Nicolas Varnier is in!
A Dog Mushing Forum That is Free Like a Puppy!
http://iditabuds.com/forum/
John: I never expected that to happen, but she had a really nice team, and we actually ended up travelling together since Koyuk - two runs... two extremely long runs... and her team held up extremely well. Kind of just worked out that way.
Kat: It was awesome - so much fun. And I learned a lot that way. John having been the champion and having done this for so many years, there's a lot he knows and the only way you can learn is by watching and kind of mimicking and being out there. So it was really fun getting to go through some storms with him [see Mats' experience further down the page] and climbing on the hills over here, just to see his way of doing it. So I can take that, and integrate it into my own. It was fun being out there - doing what we love - and it just worked out that we could spend a couple of days on the trail, doing it together.
It'll be tricky now, because I was thinking the loser had to plan the wedding, so now I don't know who will plan it, so it might be postponed another year <laughs>
Wife(?): Oh good, you're here.
The trail, for the whole way - with just a few stretches here and there - was really fast and hard. Which was really nice because we'd had worries about new snow, but that wasn't the case. But a great trip. This dogs have bought up some puppies
What a day.
<son Patrick comes over and hugs him and says 'how you doing?'>
That's probably the toughest day of mushing I've ever had.
It was good... it was great... until after Huslia. And then .... well, I... ...I anticipated to get to the front of the pack and stay at the front of the pack, but I didn't realise, really, what it *took* to stay at the front. And the team wasn't prepared to stay at the front, so I backed off. It was either back off in Nulato, or take them to the airport and that wasn't an option. So that's how it ended up.
It was a good race. I anticipated a little bit more, but wasn't prepared ...so next year I *will* be prepared.
It was hot and there was no wind at all - even through the blow hole there was no wind. And I said "man, I sure wish the wind would blow - at least a breeze or something" and there it was - and it started blowing like heck.
[I presume they asked about the dog riding in the sled]:
At that point we'd been working hard all morning - that was about 1 - 2 o'clock - and it was just too much for her - she was done by then. And then it started to blow. ... this was her first time to Nome, so she got a free ride.
For ID I got four of my Dad's dogs, they're a young group and they're real good. I dozed on and off on the trail <laughs>. But we did good.
Feels so good - beautiful. This country is amazing - every check point, every parts of the trail - sun rise amazing yesterday. Blowing hard, but it was so beautiful. And today come with this weather. It was very nice.
I start only with 12 dogs, so my plan was to try to finish with 12 dogs, and I can't, but - ah - I try something and I can be close to... I was in top 15... I think my team can do it, no problem, but I make rookie mistake - I didn't have any plastic [sled runner covers] for change for two days, so my plastic was total gone, so no sliding the sled yesterday and the last two runs, so I lose the time.
It's OK. These 8 dogs are very strong. Four of them are only 2.5 yrs old. My black leader - I don't know, but she is probably one of the oldest dogs in the ID - she is 10.5 years old. And she do all the race with me for 10 years and nothing happen to her and I always want to take her before retire. She keeps training puppies to go to Nome.
It went pretty well. Just had a little hiccup yesterday when we went through Elim. I'm really happy with the decision we made. ... I mean, *things* could have snowballed quickly, and we made the best of it, and they came in nicely, so I'm really happy with that.
Q: I just saw you up there with your leader, saying 'I couldn't have done it without you'
<Richie grins> yeah, Willy, he was up there the whole race. My other leaders - one was dropped, one was sick the whole race, and the other wanted nothing to do with being up front. [Willy] was put in a tough position the whole race and he did more than expected. It's hard to explain unless you see it - it was cool.
It's been a great journey out there. Lots of long camping trips, but we like it - and this is the best dog team I ever had - loping all the way in to the finish today. Really proud of them, because they are the ones. Everyone is great in weight, they are so happy. This is how you want to be for a long-distance race, keep up the weight and good to the finish line.
This is the fastest time we've had [4th ID], so I'm really happy.
For me it was a totally new trail, so I took it as it went along. It was a little bit of a surprise when I came to Huslia - and then from Huslia to Koyukuk the trail was very soft - softer than I anticipated, so that made me slow down a little. After that it was a lot of fun on the river.
And after that, seeing the coast again - I did this last year and hours on the trail that I knew - that makes everything a LOT easier. So really just enjoyed it from there.
EXCEPT last night - I was going to WM and I was struck by a blizzard, so I just had to hunker down in the sled with the dogs and - I actually slept on the ice - the dogs were sleeping in the sled. So that was a really cold night - and only five miles from the checkpoint. But I didn't get a chance to see anything - just blowing too hard. Just had to crawl in the sleeping bag even though it was on the ice.
Is there someone right behind me? (A: not too far away) All of a sudden I looked back and "oooo" [I guess he saw Rick's headlight]. Just so the lady knows - it's 17 YQs and 13 IDs - so this is my 30th. Amazing! People probably thing 'poor Hugh, he had a bad run' - but people don't realise this team consists of six dogs that did the Quest this year, they've *all* done 7 x 1000 mile races or more, this guy right here - George Costanza - has done 11 x 1000 mile races, so people on the internet world are trying to judge us, they don't realise what we're running. Not all of us are running to win races, some of us are running to prove the greatest of our dogs. I'm just having fun with my babies. These are all dogs that I bred myself, and I like to prove that age is just in your mind. These dogs have been everywhere with me and it's been a real pleasure to share my life with them.
Q: Welcome to Nome <goes to shake Rick's hand>
Rick: "don't squeeze that hand" [ouch - frostbite?]
The first six days were awesome - probably had the best run of my life ever on dogsled from Kaltag to Unk - it's something I'll never forget. I ran 60 miles without a headlamp, northern lights everywhere, literally sitting on my sled, and I've never seen a dog team work so perfectly - ever. It was awesome.
And then the *next* day is when things changed. We got hit with a bug that knocked these guys... it didn't knock them down - they were eating good - but just didn't have it for a couple of days. That's what I've been battling. Every dog in this team has been sick. But they look good.