Friday, April 18, 2014

Kobuk 440

All I can say is, "WOW!"

The Kobuk 440 is a race unlike any race I have done to date. When I looked at a map before the race, then after, my jaw dropped. We traveled trough some stunning country, stretching from the coast all the way to the interior and back again to the coast. It was a great way to end our racing season.

To get to Kotzebue, the start of the Kobuk 440, the dogs needed to be flown out. There are no roads to Kotzebue. Nor are there any roads between villages in that region of the state. This time of year, travel between villages is done via snowmachines, planes and dog teams.

We loaded up all our gear that would be needed before, during and after the race. This included my 4 drop bags, dogs, sled, food for before and after the race, personal gear, harnesses....everything you would need for a race. Once loaded up, we made the 5 hour drive into Anchorage. We had to be at Northern Air Cargo at 5:00am in order to have everything ready to be loaded onto the plane. There were 2 other teams on the same flight as us; Ed Hopkins and Alan Stevens.
NAC the cargo carrier for the dog teams and gear to Kotzebue
First order of business was to assemble kennels for the dogs to travel in. Once assembled, dogs were walked, loaded, stacked and wrapped. Everyone did a great job of loading up into the kennels. They didn't know what to think being stacked and for-lifted around, but handled it like pros. For half of the team, this was their first time traveling like this. The other half did this trip 2 years ago with Darrin when he ran the Kobuk 440.
Dog loaded, stacked and wrapped like gifts
Nix is ready to get the show on the road.
Drop bags and misc gear was loaded and wrapped on a pallet. The sled, full of harnesses and mushing gear, was also loaded onto a pallet. Once everyone and everything was loaded and wrapped and bill paid, we said bye to the dogs and went to park the trucks and trailer at the Dimond Parking just a stone's throw away from the airport.
Everything is ready to be weighed and loaded onto the plane
Now came the really stressful part...checking the humans on their flight! Security proved to be more difficult for Ed. He had his favorite mostly broken down, dull Leatherman confiscated. Oh well..he ended up winning a hand carved ivory knife as Rookie-of-the Year; so it all worked out in the end. 

Once through security, we had some breakfast and waited for our plane to board. This was the first time that Darrin and I had ever flown together. In all our 15 years of being together, we have never shared a flight. The flight to Kotzebue was humbling. Flying over this great state of ours really puts you in your place. Alaska is so vast, and the terrain so diverse, like it's people who in habit it.
The squiggly Koyukuk River
Flying over the Yukon River, just west of Ruby
We arrived in Kotzebue without incident. My best friend Cathy (also a Kobuk 440 race organizer) met us at the airport. As we waited for our bags to come out, we joked and laughed. Cathy had both my team and Ed's team delivered to her house. The NAC flight arrived an hour or so prior to our arrival on Alaksa Airlines. Knowing they were being taken care of was a huge relief to all of us. 

Another unique feature to the Kobuk 440 is that each musher is hosted my a local family. Sometimes more than one musher, such in our case and a couple others, were hosted by the same family. 

Soon the bags came out. Well, everyone's bag except Darrin's bag. It went to Nome...on a totally different flight. Darrin was going to have to wait until morning to get his gear. Luckily we stuffed his winter gear in the sled. We left the airport and made the short 2 minute drive to Cathy's house. 

There stood towers of dogs and sleds. Darrin and Ed made short order of getting the drop chains put out and getting the dogs settled in. Meanwhile, I was dealing with lost bag paperwork, and ended up zooming around Kotz with Cathy delivering gear, messages and making sure mushers were all settled in.
Dinner that night was delicious caribou tongue and heart stew, one of Darrin's favorite meals. The pot was empty within minutes.
The next day at 10am was meet the mushers at the local radio station. Unlike other meet the musher events at races, this one was broadcasted live and was also available for internet streaming.  This allowed everyone in the region to "meet the mushers." Louie Nelson, race marshal, did the interviews. There were about 12 of the 17 mushers present. It was a nice, relaxing way to share about ourselves and learn about others we didn't know.
KOTZ radio station
After the interviews, mushers visited before heading back to their host families. Pictured below is Mark Nordman greeting Louie Nelson. In the yellow coat is Alan Stevens; blue coat with wool hat is Crispen Studer, and in the red coat and bushy beard is Tony Browning. The young lady is Carmen, a dedicated Kobuk 440 volunteer organizer.
Inside KOTZ station
After the interviews, Ed and I took our teams out for a training run. Kotzebue is located above the Arctic Circle, on Kotzebue Sound (the ocean). The sound is completely frozen and is the highway to everywhere. The Northwest Arctic Borough marks trails that are used for travel in the winter. Willows with reflective tape are used on ice crossing (lakes, ponds, ocean etc) and carbonate markers are used over land. The Kobuk 440 also has their own trail markers out on the trail as well. 
Training run a couple days before the race
Even though the trail is mostly vast white expanse, there are beautiful mountains off in the distance. In the picture below you can see a willow that is used to mark a main trail.
It was a lot different than the trails we have at home. No trees!
This picture was taken at 9:00pm. The sun was setting around 11-midnight. Sunsets in the arctic this time of year are long, drawn out events.


Wednesday was a day of meetings and the start banquet. Even though the start of the race is a mass start, we drew numbers that were used for tags that would be attached to dogs. When a musher dropped a dog, the tag number was used to identify to whom the dog belonged to. I drew 16.
Drawing my tag number
I really hate speaking in front of people
The motely crew of musher before hitting the trail.

Waiting to go the day of the race
The start of the race was in front of Crowley, on the ice. Teams were lined up in order of their numbers. Since I was 16, and Ed was 17, we were the outer two most teams away from the shore.
17 teams lined up for a mass start in front of Crowley
Some teams were tied off to machines, others had hooks set in the ice. The decibel level must have been through the roof as teams waited, some no so patiently, for the "go!" signal.
Glacier and Zane were not very patient and were chomping at the bit to go!
You can see Glacier behind me saying how ready she is to get going. She stayed vocal for the duration of the race.
The "GO!" signal was given, hooks were pulled and teams took off like shots! I waited, watching the chaos that ensued. It was fun to watch all the teams going every which way, jockeying for position. There were about 4 or 5 of us who waited and pulled hooks at the same time. 

We shot across the ice and made our way for the portage trail. People were cheering and yelling the entire way. Snowmahcines and 4 wheelers zoomed along (at a safe distance). People were parked all along the portage trail as we made our way to Kobuk Lake, which is not a lake but is still the frozen ocean. 

It was quite a sight to behold, 17 teams zooming along the frozen ocean. Teams stayed pretty tight as we all made our way to the first official checkpoint, Noorvik. 

Darrin had told me that the trail out of Noorvik was gravel and thin on snow. The trail report we had said the same thing. They were both right. After checking in and out of Noorvik, the trail became more tundra than snow. Luckily I had packed lots of runner plastic.
The trail leaving Noorvik was kind skinny on snow
I was able to find drift and spots along the way from Noorvik to Selewik to hook the team down to snack them and do booties.
We skimmed across the tundra on our way to Selawik
Our next stop was Selawik. I took 5 hours at Selawik after a 9.5 hour run covering 95 miles. 

The trail got considerably better after Noorvik. Huge tripods marked the way over tundra. Foxes came out and danced with the team. The mountains I has seen on my training run were becoming larger and larger as we made our way inland.
Arriving into Selawik.
Arriving into Selawik.
After feeding dogs, and doing other chores, I got a nice nap in. The folks in Selawik were extremely giving. I was handed more Gatorade than I could ever drink and there was enough food to feed and army of mushers. Unbeknownst to me, I had also won some lovely handmade knitted prizes for being the 2nd woman to arrive in Selawik. 

The kids in the villages were always curious as to what we mushers were doing. In Selawik I had two very curious boys watching me change my runner plastic. The teacher in me came out and I ended up giving a mini lesson on changing runner plastic. We looked at the blue I took off and compared it to the white I was putting on. After they asked if they could have my old blue plastic. I said of course. You would have thought they won the lottery! Away they ran with the long strips of blue trailing behind them, high-fiveing and screaming all the while.

We left Selawik as the sun was setting. The dogs zoomed out of the checkpoint, taking every gee and haw, excited to see more new trail.  Our next run was to Ambler. About 40 miles from Selawik is a shelter cabin. I had planned to stay at the cabin about an hour or so, just enough time to get some hydration and a larger snack into them. 

As we made our way down the trail I could feel the power and excitement of the team in the handlebow. Everyone had this amazing, smooth, fast power trot. We glided over the tundra and arrived at the shelter cabin as the sun was rising. There was a group of teachers there with a student, so the cabin was toasty warm. The run had been chilly. Someone said their thermometer read -40 in some of the low lying areas. I thought it was a little cold at times. 

I parked the team in front of the cabin, off the trail, took tugs and booties off. Then I gave them each a nice glop of soaked kibble. They snarfed it up, then settled down for a short break. My stop at the cabin was not park of my "official" resting time. As I chatted with the teachers there, drank tea and munched on lemon wafers, team after team passed through. When I had arrived, they said I had just missed Ed as he had left no more than 5 minutes before me. This, combined with teams passing us up got my competitive juices flowing momentarily. I knew that I would be able to catch team up, maybe not Ed, his team was on fire this race!, and that I was putting time and energy in the bank with the team. 

After about 90 minutes, I pulled hooks and off we went. As we took off down the trail, part of me wished I hadn't stopped. We were moving so well and had that magic carpet ride going on. Part of me knew it was the smart thing to do. Being one of the only teams in the top 10 that wasn't coming off a 1000 mile race, I had to be smart about how I ran the team. Soon enough we were picking teams off and leaving them behind. The team was moving well, and we were back in our groove.
Sunrise at the shelter cabin.
We made good time into Ambler. The team was still strong and happy. Darrin was there, as he was the head of drop dogs in Ambler. I forgot he was out there and was happy to see him. Our parking spot was in the shade and was away from other teams and kids. Coming in I noticed that Jackie seemed ever so slightly off in her gait.

At every checkpoint I rub everyone's wrists, shoulders, biceps and triceps. With the trail being hard and fast, I wanted to prevent injuries rather then managing injuries. I took extra time with Jackie. Rubbing her down thoroughly and stretching her out. She never indicated that she was sore anywhere. I ate some sourdough pizza I had packed with Darrin, chatted with him about the run so far then went to sleep on a mattress in the school's library. After getting some needed sleep, I went back out and brothed the dogs. They slurrped it up and said they were ready to hit the trail. I took Jackie on a little walk to see if I noticed anything. Nothing. No swelling or gait change.

Close to the 5 hour mark, we took off to do the Kobuk loop.
Arriving in Ambler
Getting checked in and having my official time written in my log book
Parking the team in Ambler
Giving Kayak some loving (thanks Jillian Rogers of the Arctic Sounder for the AWESOME pic!)
The loop we were about to do went from Ambler, to Shungnak to Kobuk, back to Shung and then back to Ambler. Since it was shared trail, I knew we would have head on passes with the lead teams. This would give me a chance to see how the top teams were doing. 

Just outside of Shungnak I met Sonny first, followed immediately by Ed, Tony then Jeff. High Fives and happy greetings were exchanged as we passed teams head on.

We rounded the corner, passed some HUD housing and was just about to step on the lake (?) which was glare ice when a team came skidding around the corner, sled sliding sideways and a loud "ALLLRIGHT!" bellowing from the wild man musher on the runners. Hugh. Unphased by the loping team with the slip sliding sled, my team kept the course and passed like pros. Hugh's sled came within millimeters of mine and we exchanged a high 5 and kept going our merry way.

We checked in and out of Shungnak and made our way to Kobuk, which was about 10 miles up river. We had more head on passes with teams making their way back to Ambler. It seemed like we reached Kobuk in a blink of an eye. The trail was fun, windy and fast. 

We arrived in Kobuk and was greeted like rockstars! Kids galore...cheering and yelling! The dogs loved it. I have some friends in Kobuk, and it was good to chat with them briefly and get some hugs. Kid were crowding around the team and sled as I reached in to draw a name out for an Easter basket prize. There was this one cute little girl right next to me. I said to her, "I hope I pull your name out." Low and behold, it was her name! She screamed with delight and hugged me. It was so awesome. After more laughing and hugs it was time to hit the trail. it was a race after all. 

We took off from Kobuk, leaving behind smiling and laughing faces. 

Running dogs in Kobuk was very different then where we started. There were trees. Huge trees. And mountains...close enough to see details. The energy of the area just sang to my soul. I hated to leave. I told the crowd that next year I was going to run through Ambler and come straight to Kobuk and rest there a long time to enjoy the country and the people more.
A tripod marks the trail into Shungnak
The 10 miles back to Shungnak were lovely and the sun was starting to set.I stopped to snap some pics and snack the dogs. The colors were amazing. The almost full moon rising behind us, sun setting in front of us, northern lights dancing on both sides of us. It was magical.
A nearly full moon rising over Kobuk
Zoee and Scooter leading the team back to Ambler
I knew that we were not far from the team in front of us. Martin Buser's main Iditaord team being run by Alan Stevens. From what I saw, we were a wee bit slower than him, but as the sun was going down, I was hoping to catch him up. Going across the lake leaving Shungnak I noticed that Jackie was having a difficult time with her footing. Her gait was off and she seemed tight in the back end. I ran her a little bit more and then decided to bag her. 

Her hamstrings had tightened up causing her to cramp. She never stopped pulling, but didn't fight being loaded up and riding back to Ambler. Jackie was dropped in Ambler.
 










































Leaving Shungnak, crossing the lake (?) heading out of town
Zoee and Glacier in lead on our way to Kiana
Once again we parked in out spot in Ambler. Dog chores completed, it was time to catch some more sleep. At this point, I had slept about 2.5 hours. An hour in Selawik and about 1.5 hours in Ambler the first time through. Back to the comfort of the school library and the air mattress that waited for me. I got about another 1.5 hours of sleep then it was up and at 'em again.

I knew this next run was going to be a long tough run. We were going to be hitting the heat of the day and we were leaving tree country, so no shade on the trail for us. There was a shelter cabin about half way between Ambler and Kiana that I had planned on stopping at and once again giving a snack and quick break to the dogs.

To help combat the heat of the direct sun, I put on white capes I hade made for the team. Made from rip stop nylon, they reflect the heat off the dogs, while allowing the breeze we had to keep them cool. I stopped along the way, putting snow on their bellies and under their harnesses. Our stop at the shelter cabin was more brief than I had originally planned. We were passed my 20+ snowmachines all carrying sleds. They had stopped at the cabin for a pit stop as well. I stopped the team for about 15 minutes or so there. There is a drop off right past the cabin onto the river leading into Kiana, so I stopped the team before the cabin. The folks on the machines were awesome. Smiling, cheering, waving and taking lots of pictures.

After out break on we went.

The trail was in pretty good shape and we were moving well. Soon the snowmachines from the cabin caught us up and passed us. The trail went from awesome to slush. The heat of the sun was softening things up, but the added chewing up from the machines made it that much slower to go through. We also had multiple head on with snowmachines. Everyone giving us a wide birth and waving. We encountered a guy snowmaching a pallet with a snowmahcine on it. From then on out the trail was extra chewed up.
Headed to Kiana
I don't have a sit down sled. I wished I did for this leg of the race. Instead, I used my Canada Goose anorak as a cushion, and climbed up on to my sled and sat down on top of my food bucket. I took out my thermos and lemon wafers and had a nice snack while cruising down the river.
Riding on top of my sled
The trail into Kiana proved to be more fun that I had originally thought. Glare ice, jumble ice and spotty snow excited the dogs. After hundreds of miles of mainly just running, they now had to listen and pay attention. Scooter and Zoee performed like champs! In fact, the entire team did! Every gee, every haw it was like a flock of birds. Scooter and Zoee did a fabulous job of going around huge bubbles in the ice and finding skiffs of snow to run on.
Getting close to Kiana
As we rounded a bend, I could see the village of Kiana, houses stacked on the banks of the river. We picked our way across more gravel and ice to be met by a throng of snowmachiners and 4 wheelers. When teams come and go from Kiana, they are escorted like royalty through the town. We zigged and zagged our way through town, follow our escorts. I was relieved to have arrived at the checkpoint after a long 11 hour run. 

I was parked right away and quickly began dog chores. 

Everything at the Kiana checkpoint was in close proximity. Hot dog water, sleeping quarters, trash, drop bags and parking. This made things easier and quicker. No hills to trudge up and down while carrying a bucket of water and drop bags. Just a quick 10 steps across the dirt road and back. 

While rubbing down the dogs I began to look around. There wasn't many teams in Kiana. And even less empty straw spots. I did a quick count. 9. Hmmm....that can't be right. I counted again. 9. That meant I was in 10th place. Wow! Then I looked around me to see Sonny, Hugh, John, Crispen, and Ed. I was definitely the odd woman out. I looked at my string of 11 dogs. They were all laying down, but were all watching me. I began to really question what I was doing. There was no way I should be in a checkpoint with these guys still around. Granted they were all in various stages of preparing to leave, and I had less than 5 hours of rest to go at this point. I was worried that I was going to blow up the team. I thought that I had taken way to long to arrive in Kiana compared to others. I had no clue what anyone's run times were, so I asked. 

"Oh man, it took me 11-11.5 hours to get her." 
"That was a long run. Took me 10-10.5, maybe 11 hours."
"Yeah took me 11 hours too."

Wow! Really!? It had taken these guys that long to get here too? That made me relax some. We all chatted as we went about our chores, all second nature to us, like breathing. No conscious effort, just rote muscle memory. The dogs all knew the routines well at this point as too.
Getting closer to Kiana we encountered glare ice, jumble ice and patches of snow
I watched Hugh, Sonny and John leave before going inside to sleep.

After a good solid hour and change of sleep, I popped up, feeling refresh and ready for the final long leg into the finish. Darrin had told me that this leg would be the worst leg of any. That teams slow way down, and some quit going across Kobuk Lake. On top of it all, it had started to storm. Snowing was coming down sideways. The big wet flakes blowing around, making visibility in the checkpoint difficult at times. In our discussion before my nap, I had learned that a huge storm was coming in, so  was prepared for it mentally. I had but coats on the dogs before going in. Even though it was warm, it helped keep them dry and helped them to sleep while snuggled into their beds of straw.

The team was covered with snow when I came out. Their eyes popped open, and some raised their heads. Either way, they were all watching me, knowing every cue I was giving meant that it was time to hit the trail soon.

I was excited and anxious to hit the trail. I talked with Kat briefly before she took off with her 5 dog team. We talked about the wind and drifts. She said that John had called from Noorvik and reported that the trail was just as icy all the way there as it had been into Kiana. Hmmm....I had already bootied everyone except the wheel dogs. When I know that there is ice, I usually only boot the back feet. Still allowing the dogs to get traction, but not tons of power where I can't control the team. I wasn't about to remove the booties, so I called it good. Kat took off and I continued to get ready.

I called the team "haw" over to the road out. They eagerly left the straw and lined out, looking down the trail. They knew this was it.

I was waiting for my escort to come and lead us out and decided to go up and give everyone one last hug and rub. As I was rubbing on the swing dogs, the team started to scream and pound their harnesses. Man! If that isn't a warm fuzzy feeling I don't know what is! I made my way back to the sled just in time to catch it as the team pulled both hooks!  Grabbing the handlebow I jumped on and stamped down on the brake yelling "Whoa!" all the while laughing. They were ready to go.

Our escort came and we blew out of there like a rocket.

I like to keep the team slow when we start out. I know that I was kind of stiff after my nap and knew they felt the same way. It gave them time to warm up and stretch out.

We wove our way through town and down a twisting trail to the river. Waving bye to my guide we took off into the storm and headed down the river for Noorvik as the sun set.

I can't tell you much about the trail from Kiana to Noorvik other than there was ice and there was some snow. The wind was blowing pretty good, nothing out of the ordinary for the coast, and snow was coming down and swirling around us. We made our way down the river, marker to marker, and at times I could see 3-4 markers ahead. I let the team have their head, knowing they were much better at this than I was. Zoee and Scooter again found the best path of travel.

We arrived in Noorvik to a crowd of about 10 people. Since it was about 2am, I was surprised to see so many people out. As I checked in and out, the team stood there, staring down the trail, yipping to go.

"You have the friskiest team we've seen!"

I loved hearing that! It made my night.

We made our way through the streets of Noorvik without a hitch and dropped down onto the river. This was the same trail we came in on. No longer were we one new trails. The dogs knew where we were going.

The snow was still coming down and the wind was still blowing. I stopped to snack about every 1.5 hours as I had been. I also stopped to take the coats off, and two more stops to remove everyone's booties. It was warm and wet out and the booties were getting caked up at the cuffs with huge snowballs as we punched our way through drifts.

Soon my headlamp was no good as the sun started to rise and the light became flat. I turned it off and stowed it away in my anorak for the final time this season.
Pressure ridge as we crossed Kobuk Lake
Sometimes knowing where you are on the final leg of a race is a good thing, and sometimes it's a bad thing. Or at least a "Are we there yet?" thing. Kobuk Lake seemed twice as long as when we first crossed it just a couple of day before. I spied the turquoise blue of the ice chunks that had trust up along the pressure ridge out ahead of us. The sun was starting to break through the storm clouds, as the storm lessened and eventually receded.

Once we passed the ice blocks, the team picked up some as we headed for the next landmark, the cabin. Then on to the portage trail.
There's no place like OTZ
As soon as we saw our first carbonate marker labeled OTZ (Kotzebue) it seemed like time stood still, and we were on a treadmill going no where. Up and down the rolling hills of the portage trail which seemed to go on forever. "Where is that damn ocean?" I kept asking myself. Even though we were moving well, it seemed to take forever.

I heard the whine of a snowmahcine in the distance, a sure sign that OTZ was just over the next hill, or two, or three. The snowmachiner came out and lead us in.

We dropped down to the ice, the skyline of Kotzebue in the near distance. I told the team, "Alright guys, let's go home!" I felt a surge of power go through the sled and handlbow and through my body. Off we went.

The closer we got the more excited they were. There were people lined up all along the way in. Once again snowmachines and 4 wheelers followed and lead us as we made our way to the finish line.

Lead by Scooter and Zoee, we charged across the finish line come to a skidding halt. Tails wagging and smiles all around. I did a final gear check then snacked the dogs, giving them all some well deserved loving.
Arriving in Kotzebue in 10th place.

Snacking the team at the finish.

In Ambler my sunglasses broke. I used a bootie to keep them in place for the rest of the race. In Kiana they broke in 2 more places. Good thing the finish line was near, they couldn't take much more of a thrashing.

Vic transporting the dogs, sled and myself back to Cathy's for a huge meal and a long nap.
After I snacked the team, and gave loving, we loaded them up into a dog box attached to the back of Vic's snowmachine. There were 12 lines and snaps in the box, allowing each dog to be secured low in the box, keeping them safe and sound. We tied the sled off to the back and off we went.

Darrin arrived from Ambler later that day with the drop dogs. I don't remember much from the rest of that Sunday. Only sleeping, feeding and eating. Oh, and laughing...lots and lots of laughing as Ed and I shared tales from the trail and Darrin told stories of being in Ambler for 3 days with drop dogs.
Ed, me, and Darrin....headed to the finish banquet in the back of a pick-up truck.
Monday was spent taking care of dogs and more storytelling. Reliving all moments from the trail. Monday night was the finish banquet. The final event of the Kobuk 440.
Members of the local native dance group sang and danced
The finish banquet was full of laughter and gifts. Everyone went home with some sort of homemade gift from the ladies in the villages. I won several knitted items from Selawik being the 2nd woman to arrive as well as a pair of beaded moosehide slippers from anna Minnie (an elder) in Ambler for being the 2nd woman to arrive there.
The snowstorm turned into rain after I had finished, flooding the streets of Kotzebue.
This was the scene in front of Cathy's house.
Our flights were Tuesday morning. The dogs had to be ready to go by 7am. The FBX boys came by and picked up our teams and delivered them to NAC. I cannot say enough wonderful things about the Fairbanks boys and how awesome they are.

Two teams and gear ready to fly back to anchorage.
Once the dogs and gear were taken care of, we had some time before our AK Air flight left. We went to Bayside for some breakfast, Ed, Cathy, Darrin and myself. We had the whole place to ourselves. We told more stories. Cathy was out on the trail as a trail breaker, Darrin in Ambler as the dog drop person and Ed and I...everyone had their own perspective of the race. We laughed, as we always do, until we cried. Our sides aching from laughing so hard. Given the fact that we were all still some what sleep deprived, everything was all that much funnier.

We were joined by another musher. Soon we had him rolling and laughing as we sucked him into our merriment. 

I would like to thank him again for his generosity for picking up the tab for our breakfast that morning. We owe you one ;)
Flying out of Kotzebue
As they say, all good things must come to an end. And so it is with mushing. We gathered up our belongings and boarded the plane. Hugs all around and "see you next year!" being shouted as we boarded the plane.
See you next year OTZ!










































4 comments:

  1. Heidi, this is absolutely awesome! Thank you so much for sharing the details of your adventure north, for those like me who will never run this race, your beautiful telling of the story is the next best thing!

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    1. Thanks Helen! I love sharing our adventures with everyone. Running dogs is a solo journey, but is to be shared with all.

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  2. That was so, so fantastic - thank you! You should win a special award just for that report! I volunteered at the 2006 YQ and haven't been north since - I loved this! Thank you again !

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    1. Thanks Jay. I enjoy sharing our life with dogs with folks.

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