WEDNESDAY--LOST ??

Well, when I asked Ted if I could take the dogs and go running with Kathy on her trails he wasn't so sure about it. He originally said that I should stick to my trails. I was disappointed...but he said that he would sleep on it and we would talk about it in the morning. So, I didn't call Kathy last night and cancel. When I got up this morning Ted said that I could go.

I had a lot to do in just 2 hours. I ran out and started "Whitey". I got dressed for running dogs, went out and watered the dogs. Then I drove the truck up to the dog lot, unhooked my sled gangline, loaded the sled atop of the dog truck, packed up the harnesses, dog snacks, a quick release, my gangline, I had my old spare headlamp. Loaded up 8 dogs. (originally the plan was to take 16 dogs and run two teams...I decided to just run one team.) I was right on time...it was 9:00 and we were planning on meeting at 9:30 at her dog lot. Since we had no water I stopped at her house, which is just a mile down the road and made a pit stop. I then followed Kathy to her kennel.

The plan was that we were going to do about a 25 mile run. There would be Kathy, Caleb, and me. We were each going to have an 8 dog team. We were going to be running in that order.

I hooked my sled to the hitch off the back of my truck, with my dogs on the trail through her dog lot. To make a long story short, it ended up that Kathy took off and I followed and Caleb was supposed to be following me. We were traveling slow and Kathy thinks that Caleb just wanted to be off on his own...He ditched us with the good map and the young eyes...(Kathy and I are both small print vision impaired.)

It was a beautiful run...so nice to be out on new trails, for both me and the dogs. I stayed right behind Kathy, as I would have never found my way back on these trails. I had no idea where on earth I was, but these were her trails and she knew. I will say, it was comforting to notice that Kathy was very diligent in checking to see that I was always behind her. My thought was that if I were following Caleb, that may have not been the case.

After we had been out there about two hours, Kathy stopped her team and hooked down. I did the same. She looked at me and told me that she had no idea where she was. All I could think was "Oh wonderful...I don't have extra clothes, my sleeping bag, my good headlamp, food, and I only have a partially charged phone". Very poor planning on my part. I asked Kathy what she had in her sled. She was in the same position. She said that she had just planned a short run and that she had not loaded the sled. I told her that this should be lesson to both of us. We decided to continue on the trail that we were on for another 30 minutes and see where it took us. I did see a sign that said "Sweet Cream"...sounds like a nice run, huh?

Well, Kathy knew of "Sweet Cream" It was one of the most challenging runs on her trail system. She wasn't sure just where on the loop that we were, but we found out real soon. We hit the hills and windy trails and then we came along a ridge that had quite a steep drop to the swamp...I noticed it and thought that we may have quite a hill to go down. Well, it was just up ahead. I could tell immediately that my sled was not positioned all to good for the upcoming hill to the unknown. It was a sharp 90 degree turn at a tree before I could even see the drop. It is interesting...the dogs totally disappear and the sled spins and then you get to see your fate !

At the bottom Kathy was hooked down waiting for me. I hooked down and she said she was surprised that I made it without dumping the sled. She said that she now knew where we were. We looked at the map...and saw the notes on it...don't run in this direction...and the turn was marked with a bunch of xxxxxx.

She said that she was a bit worried that with Ted's apprehension...she gets us lost and we end up on the most challenging trail on her system. I laughed and said it was quite an adventure that turned out well.

We ended up running about 40 miles. I did have snacks for my dogs and plenty of extra so I was able to share with Kathy. But in the future, I will have my sled loaded no matter how short a run.

So were we lost?.....no....just temporarily confused.