by elsietee » Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:48 am
OK, last one and then I'm to bed:
Katherine Keith at Eagle Island:
I'm loving being out here. It's great that we've got so much snow - way better than rocks and sand. We're just plugging along. I'm trying to follow the lead of the dogs for my run/rest schedule that they seem to be preferring and we're having fun.
Says she stopped there because she's never done the southern route and wanted to check out Eagle Island.
Team are doing really well. Very happy with leaders - this little guy who's the misfit of the team, but he manages to drag them all the way across the state singlehandedly. They have great attitude, strong dogs to pull the heavy sled.
I love being out here - the miles you get away from the city, you can shed all the stuff... Great to be out here, enjoying the night sky. And I just get more relaxed as the race goes on. I *am* being competitive, but we're where we want to be. We wait for it all year.
Q: Anything memorable?
I got to use my snowshoes! For the first time in a dog race, so that was extremely memorable - trying to break trail for a couple of snowmachiners <laughs>. That was really fun. It felt kind of old-school.
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Cody Strathe was describing his most challenging run - between ID and Shageluk. He only left ten minutes after Lars, but the trail was blown in as soon as they left the treeline and he couldn't see Lars' tracks. He said they were in white out conditions but the dogs did great finding the markers and finding the trail. He said you'd see them step off the side of the firm trail (under two feet of snow) and drop down, so they'd veer back onto the firmer stuff, and then go off the other side, and veer back again. He said it was amazing to watch, but very hard on the dogs, so eventually he stopped and camped because they were getting tired. He didn't want to, but it was the right thing to do, and he carries food, so he could.
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elsietee AT ponyhill DOT org
Repotted english person in the Sierra foothills, CA
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))
