TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15TH

Well, I got up early again and watered the dogs. It was still snowing and so beautiful out. Had a hearty breakfast and then got an earlier start on hooking up the team. We took off out of the dog lot and onto the road and out the end of the road...when we got onto the trail, we spooked a moose and thank goodness the moose was startled and ran! He went crashing through the brush and trees. Whew ! Well, when we crossed the road and came down onto Ruth Lake, again we spooked a moose and it went running into the trees. Further on the run I saw 3 moose way off in the distance. I think that the moose are out early in the morning.

We had a great run and went out onto Lake Stevens again. There were other mushers out on the lake and I am wondering who they are. When you pass it is hard to tell if you know the person...when all you can see are eyes peering out from under hats and faces covered from the cold. We went 31 miles. It was a great run and the dogs are working well for me.

Well, a quick lunch and then back out again. We took the same route out to the road crossing and then past the two small lakes and up onto the power line and then the cutoff to Steven's Lake. Around the lake we went...well, as we were heading back to the power line trail, I was experiencing a funny feeling with my right foot...like it didn't want to stay on the runner...I finally stopped the sled, set my hooks and turned the sled over to inspect the right runner...I had broken it off at the brace right under the sled bag. Oh my ! Hmmm...what to do. I decided that I would try and run the sled without being on the right runner. I experimented with all kinds of ways...both legs on the left runner, left foot on the left runner and right foot on the right base of the sled above where the runner was broken off. The runner has a groove in it and through that you slide a plastic runner. That was what was holding the piece of broken runner. I did call Ted to let him know that I was coming in on a broken runner. I was about 10 miles out. Well, after I got across the road and back into our swamp, I called Ted to let him know where I was and he told me that he was heading out with the snow machine. I saw his headlights when I was about 4 miles out. He followed me back to the dog lot. I was able to run the sled all the way back to the dog lot without ever losing the broken runner...it was just dragging all the back.

I put the dogs away and when we went into the house I found out that a set of runners cost $450.00. Ouch ! Well, we had to decide what we were going to do about the broken sled and the upcoming race....We would talk in the morning.

I went to bed a bit bummed out...