Tilstede's 1st mushing expedition

[tilstede]

As some of you kwow, I'm going to be educated in the fine art of mushing to be able to help my friend with training her dogs. Here's the story from yesterday's training run, which was the first of (hopefully) many to come.

Preparations
Well, at 10 am I arrived at my friend’s kennel. She had already loaded the lucky 13 of her Siberians picked for a training run. The last preparation was to put and fasten to sleds on the roof of her car.

This is what it looks like when the car is loaded with dogs (photo taken some years ago):

hiace_burene.jpg

Jeppedalen, Hurdal
We chose to go to the Robert Sorlie home trail in Jeppedalen (in Hurdal) for the training run. The weather forecast showed around zero degrees celcius and a combination of wet snow and rain. Luckily we met no rain, but a wet snowfall all day tickled our chins and soaked our clothes anyway

Due to trail conditions – slow, heavy trail – my friend decided to entrust me with a team of 6 dogs. Is was a lot of heavy work to make everything ready for takeoff because we had some walking distance from the car and down to the take off area. After several roundtrips, we were feeling really hot, bur ready to go. Three dog teams departed before us, and luckily one of their handlers, a nice man, stayed close to me when it was time to leave and helped me with my takeoff.

Running!
Everything went fine and we trotted down the trail . My friend were ahead of me on the trail for security reasons. I off course felt very responsible for the team entrusted me and kept a hard grip around the handlebar

Here’s a photo of me and the team (click on he photo for a full view):

Trail, close.jpg

And another one – note the very narrow trail and high level of snow surrounding it:

Trail.jpg

Well, as you can see, the trail was very narrow. That’s not a problem as long as you’re alone on the trail. So, with all the racing teams in the Amunden race and the other teams well ahead of us, we travelled nicely down the trail for almost an hour.

[to be continued]

[tilstede]

The gathering
Suddenly my friend started waving and pointing in my direction and I turned my head and looked behind …. and saw a SEA OF DOGS on the trail. I off course turned my head forward again, not believing the sight.

But when again looking backwards, they still were present …. and I slowly realized that the sight was real - a team of at least 16 dogs (felt like 30 ) were right behind me – and also, that situation would not be lasting for long.

So, then things got a bit busy and partly out of control. I mananged to stop my team twice, but didn’t get my sled out of the trail so that the behind team could pass. I continued a bit further to find a better spot, but then my friend yelled that we were about to reach an uphill area and had to solve the passing before arriving there. Meanwhile the team at my behind seemed very well controlled and I managed to avoid a hysterical mental meltdown.

Luckily I found a new spot, and the behind team jumped off the trail to pass my team and everything went fine. I yelled an apology for being a rookie when the musher passed me, and he smiled back that it was OK, no problem.

The musher where a boy in his twenties, bearing a Team Norway jacket, so I realized that it was Robert Sorlie’s handler Sebastian Plur Nielsen who were out training Robert’s puppy team. A very happy, tail wagging and nice bunch of puppies, (and for sure some Langbein babies, dilli ).

Sebastian, a true gentleman hero!
With my problem fixed, I stood relieved and relaxed on my brakes to watch the show when the puppy team were to pass my friend’s team farther up the trail. Sebastian did the same procedure, jumped off trail and started to pass my friend.

At that point, her team had been parked for quite a while because of my plunder. Her leader, a good boy, but a little too smart and too young, had engaged his brain and figured out that “ If we are not going forward, then we for sure are going backwards”. He then started to turn the team … and by that heading straight into to upcoming puppy team. They tangled up, Sebastian hooked up and he and she hurried to clear the mess.

And what to you think happened then? Exactly … two of the teams that headed out in front of us had turned back and arrived the scene at the peak point  Well, suddenly altogether 5 dog teams (3 going uptrail, 2 returning) consisting of some 40++ dogs where gathered in a tiny spot in the large Hurdal forest. (One of the teams was mushed by Didrik, the editor of Qaqeerlaaaq.com, known as the naughty and funny sibling of hurdal.com).

While watching the scene unfold, I was sorry for not being able to provide you with a photo of the situation. But I later learned that my friend had been as calm, cool and collected as Sebastian, and she took a snapshot on spot.

What you see is my friend’s team, Sebastian and his team and approaching in the distance the two last teams.

Gathering.jpg

After passing my friends team, Sebastian hooked up again, helped the two new teams well out of trail and by that served me and my friend a cleared trail to continue on.

Continuing … and continuing!
My friend were in doubt of how long we were going to travel, but it ended up with us taking the Hadeland trip (were Lars Monsen and Nina Skramstad live). The whole trip is some 32 km (19 miles) and due to a slow and heavy trail, we arrived back to the car after several hours.

As you can see, both me and the dogs are quite exhausted (slide the horozontal bar to see me):

Finish.jpg

My two leaders were Carlos and Yeni. I was very happy to have Yeni, which I’ve known since she was a puppy. She is a very dedicated dog and has from her first run been very eager to go and screamed of joy for the first two kilometres of her debut run.

Here you can see my two leaders (Yeni to the right):

Leaders.jpg

After loading the dogs into the car, we sat down and ate some sandwiches (off course provided by Kitchen King) before leaving Jeppedalen, Hurdal. And we both agreed that it had been a fine day

[Moose]

It sounds like a marvelous day, Tilstede! Those trips when something a bit unexpected happens always make the best stories. "We had an uneventful run on a beautiful day", though a lovely experience for the team and driver, isn't nearly as interesting a story as "The trail was narrow, the snow deep, and caused us to have a 44-dog tangle, after which all went happily on their way!"

So glad your first run was such a positive one. Wishing you many, many more happy miles on the runners with good hard-working dogs on the line. Pats to the pooches.

[dilli]

((((((((((((Tilstede)))))))))))))

WHOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! You survived!!!! What an adventure!!!! THUD.
Sorry .. can't help ROFHOWLing about your 1st hand experiences being passed by TN's handler, Seb and the happy valper huskies of Jeppedalen .. heehee .. maybe passed by some 'baby Langbein's" too ...

HEIA .. Go Team Tilsted GO

Thank you so very much for sharing your tales from the trail! I have a huge grin on my face ... I'm REALLY proud of you!!!!!!!!!!
That was very nice of Kitchen King to make you a tasty picnic lunch! What a guy!

[aren]

Great story tilstede Must have been a wonderfull day. Sounds like the 40+ dog tangle was only a slight nuisance and not a problem at all

[MotorWerk]

Great story, great pictures.

Btw, Sebastian Plur Nielsen is from Fredrikstad (my hometown), so next time you meet him on the trail yell "Årnær sæ!" at him.

(For those of you not from Norway - people from Fredrikstad has a very distinct dialect, most people think it's ugly - but we think it's charming.)

[CynCyn37]

thank you so much for sharing!!!

You are sooooo lucky. What a beautiful time!!!

[flowerpower]

HaHa, sounds like wonderful fun. Love the pictures!

[Another UK Fan]

oooooooo Til what an adventure! And on your first mushing expedition too. Thanks so very much for sharing it. Great pictures

When are you next mushing? Soon i hope

[tanglefoot]

wow great start , you guys did good! hehe must have been a nightmare trying to untangle 40 dogs haha, lovely siberains! well done you! so now you know what its like i hope your gonna get more runs in!