Quarry Road Sled Dog Race

I ran Song, Levi and Cass in the 2.5 mile recreational class.  No placements, just a fun run.  Good thing as I've never run three, had no experienced leaders, and Cass has had little mileage.  I cut the course short at the end as the dogs had worked hard enough for me mentally.  I learned that Cass is a creative and adventurous leader.  Some of her choices were not trails at all, but she took the lines with gusto.   

Then I ran Marcus, Pi, Chord, and Jag in the 4 dog race.  They were great.  Ran well, we even managed to pass a couple teams and be passed on the fly.  They had no concept of following the groomed trail.  In fact Marcus said "Hey, check out this awesome snowmobile track down the power lines!" and took us all that way quite quickly.  Got that settled.  We had a couple more of those before the end.   

 The course was hilly and twisty.  My dogs worked their butts off for me mentally and physically.  I held the sled and ran best I could up the bigger hills.  Among the many things I learned was be ready and dressed to do some running.  By the end I'd figured out a few things I was doing incorrectly as far as how to handle the sled on that course.  In particular I was trying to not use the brake so much down hills to save the dogs.  I realized towards the end I need to use the brake enough to keep a taut gang line for them to lean into, and more importantly to keep the sled lined up with the dogs.  Otherwise when the trail curved back up the hill the dogs hit a hard sideways pull.  Getting the balance on braking will take some work.


Pi was my savior in lead.  She does not have directional commands, but I watch where she’s looking.  If not the trail I want I slow them.  She’s learned to make a different choice then I’ll give her the cue to move out again to confirm.  For most of the decisions this worked. 

I’d like to think we could have placed well “if only” we had not had our mishaps and I had not stopped them on the side of the trail while several bunched teams passed (they don’t have commands to stay on the side while running).  In reality, those times allowed my dogs some respite from the hard work.  We  are nowhere near as fit as the teams we were running against.  These mushers are all about conditioning, starting the dogs up in the fall and building the mileage.  

There were 10 dogs in the heat, and we were 7th.  I think our time was decent, but did not think check it in the excitement.  I’ll have to wait till they post the results.   Our competition was mostly sprint dogs, leggy pointers and crosses, some Alaskan huskies.  My biggest dogs were small there.  Good thing I'm a little person.  The guy who won came sweeping by me with 4 rangy dark dogs, striding along like ring wraiths, all business, very impressive particularly since we’d given him little room to pass.  He grinned with a friendly “Hi Border Collies” as he went by. 

The people there were awesome, friendly, relaxed and very helpful for a novice with questions like “to which side of the trail should I pull over to let someone pass”.  Jim and Sharon Perkins came so I have these great photos.  The sun was shining.  The people were friendly.  I accumulated a lot more knowledge.  It was a great day.

 

All photos by Sharon Perkins.  Do not copy.