Hello from Montana!

Sorry it has been so long since we updated our website - we don’t have internet at the cabin in Montana and get into town occasionally.  Things are going well in Montana, with 2 races behind us in prep for the Iditarod.  Getting here is another story, with the the back tires of the dually coming off on the ranch driveway, and delaying us by a day.  We rolled  into Seeley Lake 12 hours before we were to be in Whitefish for our 100 mile race and with the temp being 22 below zero.  We unburied the dog houses, unloaded the dogs and went in the house to get some sleep, only to find the house covered in dead bees!  They must have gotten in during the summer, and died when it got cold - there were millions of them!  We vacuumed them up and got a few hours of sleep.  Occasionally we will have a live bee in the house buzzing around!  We drove to Whitefish for the 100 mile raced, which consisted of two 50 mile runs , and had a great time with fun trails and finishing respectfully, with Lach in 8th place and myself in 10th.   Our next race, the Seeley 200, was the following week.  The race started with warm temps in the high 40’s and at the warmest part of  the day, 3:00 p.m.  We both ran the same schedule, however, Lach’s team wa about 30 minutes  faster getting into the checkpoints.  We didn’t run together, but saw each other at  the checkpoints.  We both ran an Iditarod schedule, which means we rested the dogs for as long as the run took.   We ran 50 miles at a time before resting.  It took about 5 hours to run 50 miles, so we camped and rested the team for about 5 hours.  The trails were hard and icy, as it started raining.  It rained from Saturday morning until late Saturday night, and was so miserable for the dogs and mushers alike.  Thank goodness for rubber raincoats, because that is the only thing that would keep you dry.  It rained like it was April!  The dogs handled it well, even though I know they could not get comfortable on the wet beds of straw.  The last 50 mile run was worth all the unpleasantness of the rain, as it had snowed higher in the mountains, and the last run is up and over a pass called Huckleberry Pass, which is very well known to mushers as it is very hard on dog teams that are do not have enough training miles on them, and has been know to be a place where dogs decide to take a break on their own!  I am so proud of our dogs, as they motored up the pass without even looking back, and I passed 3 teams and left them behind.   There was a about 4 inches of fresh snow, the sky was clear and the stars were incredible, with Ryan’s Belt always just over the next ridge.  Lachlan finished the race at 1:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and I finished at 4:00 a.m.  It was fun watching the dogs work, and being on the trail with them camping, exploring and seeing what great athletes they are.  Each one bringing something special to the team-whether it was the leaders never missing a command, Cash taking naps when I stopped to pet them,  Geyser loping with a huge grin on her face, Travis kissing the dog next to  him in sheer joy of running, or sleeping with Ollie curled up with me while camping.  Our next race is the Race to the Sky, which Lach will do with 12 dogs.  It is a 350 mile race, and I will handle for him.  Alison Peticolas will come to Montana, and with Amy and Stephanie, our handlers, will run the dogs left behind.  Dave Wurtz, a very close friend and musher is in Montana (I am in Colo. for a week to catch up on work) helping Lach run dogs.  They are heading out for a camping trip, as soon as they can get the trail made with snowmachines.  We have been doing 20 - 70 mile training runs,  with both of us running 14 dogs.  I always said I would never run more than a 12 dog team, and somehow I am now running 14 dogs - alot of POWER!   I will update again as soon as I get back to Montana and keep you posted on our training and the race.  Thanks for being a part of Team Clarke and reading our website!

Linda

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 9:54 am and is filed under Training Log. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.