UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

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Re: UNK TO SHAK

Postby DianneF » Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:49 pm

[quote="elsietee"]Nic in Unk:


SO I made bunches of four [as opposed to two dogs per pile, he had four dogs per pile], and then I hung out with the front bunch - had some all around me, and one on top.

I'm happy with how they're doing. I have a couple that got sore on the way here [Kaltag to Unk]. I carried Kristy [lead dog] since Old Woman Cabin [about 30 miles before Unk] because I didn't want to run her on something that looked sore. She's already starting to look better, so she'll get probably a total of 8-9 hours rest by the time I get out of here. I'll take her for a jog to see if she looks improved or not. It's pretty obvious when it's not improved. But she already looks a lot better.

I'm going to leave Allie here, because she's not going to get the benefit of that much of a rest and I don't want to go down that hill over here with that dog and potentially damage my dog.



Kristy and Allie? Is it just coincidence or does he name all his dogs after other mushers?
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Re: UNK TO SHAK

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:01 pm

DianneF wrote:Kristy and Allie? Is it just coincidence or does he name all his dogs after other mushers?


Hah! I didn't realise that!

He mentions Suzy in the transcription below (Suzy Rogan?) and Jeffrey. I don't know any musher named Jeffrey.

* * *

This is the vid from the shelter cabin:


Nic in the shelter cabin last night/this morning.

He's eating hot rice (?) out of a foil packet with what appears to be a stick? Oh, it's a broken piece of lathe.

Nic-at-cabin3.JPG


N: "We're not exactly going to speed we were at the start of the race. But they're fueling up at every fuel stop. They're eating better than I've ever seen them. Every time I stop and make them a meal, they just devour everything i have.

Stu Nelson, the head vet was "Are they eating?"

And I was "I'll be with you in a minute - first, watch this:"

I fed them a 5 gallon bucket and another 30 lbs of fat and beef and stuff like that.

Q: And that's translating to their performance, clearly.

N: I'm scared to overfeed too. Stu Nelson asking if they're eating - I think I overdid it. They were a little bit lethargic there for a bit.



* * *

Then there's vid of him in a white wind parker working on the team outside the cabin and it's BLOWING like crazy. The dogs have their jackets on and are looking alert and interested. All you can see is Nic's nose poking out of his ruff - he's all hunched up in the wind that is blowing CONTINUOUSLY like a freight train.

He's got them in the lee of the cabin - which is only about 12x12 - so the whole team doesn't really fit behind it - putting down straw for them and they're digging in it and turning around to make it "just so" as dogs do. You can see the cabin in these shots below.


Nic-at-cabin.JPG


Nic-at-cabin2.JPG






* * *

Q: This late in the game, does it concern you that you had to send your lead dog home?

[he was going to drop Allie at Unk, since she wouldn't get to rest, but had carried LD Kristy all the way from Old Woman and thought she'd be better for being carried and the rest in Unk, but it looks like dropped Kristy when he went through Shak]

N: I feel good that the reason I have good lead dogs is I bred the right female and the right males. They all have led at some point - maybe not in the race, but in training definitely. So I get to learn more about my dog team by not having Kristy. So in a way, it's a good learning experience for me and for the ones that haven't done any end of race leading.


Q: did it affect you coming across the ice?

N: Just leaving there [Shak]. I shouldnt' have put Suzy up there, she was messing around a little bit. Jeffrey was going for it. But that guy, he keeps taking off his booties every time I stop for five minutes, the booties are gone - that's kind of annoying. But I guess he likes to have them off as fast as he can. I think he likes to eat the ice on them. But one less to do for me.


* * *

Video is cropped to the next section:

N: There's nothing more satisfying than pitch black behind you. No headlamps.

Q: do you not own a spoon?

N: I use everything. A piece of wood...

Q: Adds to the taste?

N: Yes, more fiber, I can gnaw on it if I want. Maybe I should take a piece off it and put it in my missing filling.

Q: I asked Phil here (other camera guy/driver) if he noticed anything odd about the trail markers and he said "yes, I noticed someone had been writing on them".

N: Yes, that was me. <laughs> They're messages to my fellow mushers - friendly stuff. Jim Lanier wrote a song and sang it at various mushing banquets. It goes "Sixteen dogs and you get another day older and deeper in debt" - so that's one of the things I wrote on those things. And "Hi Monica Zappa, thanks for giving me that food at..." I almost left some dog food behind at Ophir and was yelling "Can someone give me that bag?" and Monica ran over with them. "Thank you!" Hopefully it's a good way into the run where those trail markers are, so hopefully someone that's tired will get a kick out of it, and it brightens their day somewhat.




* * *

Video is cropped to the next section:


Q: Last question - everybody that I've run into - save for you - is exhausted when they come into check points. And every time we run ito you, you seem pretty upbeat and don't seem tired. Are you tired, or just ...?

N: I'm tired, but I don't work behind the dogs so much, I just sit on the sled. Ski-pole once in a while, maybe I'll kick a little bit... but not much. My back hurts already, I don't need to be wearing myself out. And if I save my energy and just keep taking care of the dogs at the checkpoints, we go faster.

Q: What are you going to have to do to maintain this lead?

N: I don't know, because I've never done it. But this year, the races I've done - that's what I've wondered, how am I going to keep it togehter and not let these guys catch up, and I just keep doing my thing and the lead grows. So we'll see if this keeps happening here. Be nice if it did.

But Mitch and Joar, they know how to push. And the others, they're a little further back, but you can't count them out. You can't count out Ray - he's got a good looking dog team - I don't know how many he's got left.

<... thinks for a minute...>

I guess I could look at this piece of paper.... oh, he's got 13 dogs, Mitch has 11... JOar has 13... I'm down to 11... oh, Travis has come in with 12 dogs. Linwood's got 13. Ramey Smyth... now that's a guy I love. At the end of the race, he can really turn it on, and he's got 13 dogs and he pulled into Unk at 10:50... that's a way back... I don't know what time I pulled into there but it was in the morning.... yeah? late morning? early afternoon? I don't know.
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:07 pm

Nic some time before Koyuk:
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:13 pm

Joar before Koyuk:

(I love the dorky looking dog at the back in that last shot)

Joar-NortonSound.JPG


Joar-NortonSound2.JPG


Joar-NortonSound3.JPG


Joar-NortonSound4.JPG


Joar-NortonSound5.JPG
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:33 pm

Joar in Koyuk: 13.01
Nic in Koyuk: 14:10

If Nic was 23 minutes ahead at the spit, he lost 1 hour 32 mins from his detour.
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:04 pm

They say the bandwidth in Koyuk is awful, so it takes forever to upload videos.

* * *

Joar in Koyuk, drinking something hot out of a metal thermos cup:

Q: Did you even see Nic out there?

J: When I passed the shelter cabin, I expected only Mitch to be there and I didn't want to turn my headlamp up there in case they were sleeping. But it was blowing and snowing, I couldn't really see much. Just as I went by, someone shined a headlamp on me. So they knew I went by there, yuh.


[from these comments, I extrapolate that no-one has specifically told Joar that Nic went off trail, and Joar thinks he passed Nic while Nic was resting in the shelter cabin]


Q: But you never saw Nic moving on the trail?

J: No.

Q: So you didn't know you were in first?

J: No, I swear I saw sled tracks and pee marks, and all that, so I thought for sure I was following someone.

Q: That was Robert Sorlie you were chasing. So you dropped that leader, but you made new leaders in the wind, that's got to be a tough lead dog there.

J: Yah. Just to share hours plowing through that wind and snow is tough.

Q: WHat leaders brought you in here?

J: Olive and Olix (sp?). I changed like 5 times.

Q: Did you ever get lost at all or lose the markers?

J: Yah


...

[I'm wondering if Bruce Lee is leading up to explaining how it is that Joar is in the lead. He's softly skirting around the subject]

video cuts. I think they can only upload 2 mins chunks at a time.
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby elsietee » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:21 pm

Nic in Koyuk:

N: On the way to ID it was the same type of deal, but there's trees and stuff, so it's not wide open, with another race's stakes out there. Uh. Anyhow. <he shrugs off the negativity>

Q: Just a mess, eh?

N: Yuh, lots and lots of snow. Careful what you wish for, eh?

Q: Dogs look great though.

N: yes, but mentally they had it rough. It was tough going for a long time.

Q: Musher included?

N: Yuh. But they work harder than me, because I can't do what they do, I can't pull that sled.
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby MelanieGouldFanBrian » Mon Mar 12, 2018 4:02 pm

Nic has dogs that are indeed named after Mushers. He's got a Kristy and Anna (Berington), Jeffrey (King), Lanier (Jim), Libby (Riddles), Ally (Zirkle), Raymie and Joee (Redington). I saw a video somewhere, which, of course, I cannot fond now!
You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot, for the places and people you're lucky you're not."
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby DianneF » Mon Mar 12, 2018 4:37 pm

MelanieGouldFanBrian wrote:Nic has dogs that are indeed named after Mushers. He's got a Kristy and Anna (Berington), Jeffrey (King), Lanier (Jim), Libby (Riddles), Ally (Zirkle), Raymie and Joee (Redington). I saw a video somewhere, which, of course, I cannot fond now!


These are the little things I love to learn coming here. :D
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Re: UNK TO SHAK to Koyuk

Postby JeanieB » Mon Mar 12, 2018 4:58 pm

"When women reach a certain age, they begin to collect dogs. This is known as "Many - Paws""
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