MONDAY

Well, I am pretty tired and kind of down on losing my snowmachine partner. We had been planning this trip for quite some time now. There is so much to do to get ready with the drop bags and I have a race this weekend. It is a 300 mile race. I started the 100 mile race of the Don Bowers totally exhausted, which is unusual for me. I generally have an abundance of energy. I think that there has just been a lot of stress with the thought of the Serum Run falling apart and then with Ricky getting hurt, that didn't make it any easier.

I really don't have time to run my team with the preparations for drop bags. I cut up and bagged meat all afternoon. We had the musher's banquet this evening and it was a fun time. I received the red lantern. Got home around 10 pm and picked up all the meat that I had cut up and loaded it in the back of the Ford. We are expecting snow this evening. That usually means that the temperatures will go up and that is not a good thing.

I will get up early in the morning and figure out what I still need for my drop bags and run into Wasilla. Thank goodness that there is a Wall Mart that is open early. Then I will go to Buddy's and we will finish the drop bags.

So off to bed I go...as I am falling asleep.

I want to thank all of those who have made donations to keep Serum Run on track. Thank you so very much. Good night.

DROP BAGS...

THE DROP BAG SUPERVIOR

DROP BAGS TO FILL

NOTE THE SUPERVISOR...

BUDDY SEALING THE DURAFLAME LOGS

MMM, MMM, GOOD !

CHECK OUT THE CINNAMON ROLLS ON THE LEFT !

FOOD DROP NIGHTMARE !

FINISHED PRODUCT !

To be continued....

THE DON BOWERS MEMORIAL RACE

TOK AND NED...COMING INTO THE FINISH !

It is nice to see a team look so good at the finish !

Photos by Buddy Giddens

Ricky helped get me off on the Don Bowers Race. I was emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted at the start of the race. Not a good place to be. I knew that my snowmachine partner would not be there when I returned from the race. He would be flying back to Colorado that evening to return home and get medical treatment for his foot.

Originally I had thought that it would be good for me to get out on the trail for the race. I am usually in heaven when I am out on the trail with the dogs and I needed to find that place. I had a very heavy heart and so much on my mind and I had a lot to sort out. It seemed like the longest race of my life....and they must have thought that too....as when they posted the times, they added 24 hours to my time. I was slow....but NOT THAT SLOW. They had me coming in on the 3oth at 2:05. I came in on the 29th.

Usually I have a very hard time sleeping on races. I lay awake for what seems forever and any noise wakes me up. After I got to Morgan's cabin, I took care of the dogs and then I decided to throw my sleeping bag down on a pile of straw with the team and sleep. I climbed into the sleeping bag fully clothed, boots and all. There was a check point volunteer who came by and told me that my leave time was around 3:30 and she would come and wake me an hour before and also give me a 10 minute call.

Well, I only remember the 10 minute before leave time call. She told the musher who was next to me that she thought I was dead... as she couldn't wake me. He said that he had heard me snoring...So she kept shaking me and I woke up.

I think that I had slept 2hours, but slept so hard. I woke up in a bit of a stupor, and was bummed that I didn't have my hour's prep time to get ready to leave. When I was finally ready I watched Christine take off (the only remaining musher). I then realized that two of my dogs had chewed tug lines. I had two extras with me but I was still short two. I had to make two tug lines and then got ready to go. Bootied the dogs and had two volunteers stand by my two chewers. If they chewed another tug, I would be in trouble.

I took off and hit the trail at 5:50am. It was still dark and I was the last musher out. When I was ten miles out on the trail I saw a team heading at us...he passed by and was followed by another team. I yelled out asking if we were on the wrong trail....I didn't think that I was. They yelled back for me to keep going. They were both heading back to scratch.

So, I continued on, and it seemed forever for me to get to the 30 mile check point. I got there and rested the team and changed out a few booties. I decided not to rebootie most of the dogs, as the snow conditions seemed favorable.

COMING INTO THE FINISH !

HAPPY DOGS !

BACK AT THE TRUCK

THURSDAY MORNING

Well after 3 hours of sleep, 6:30 am found me driving over to the dogs to feed and water. Needless to say, after spending 2 days scrambling to keep Serum Run alive, I had frozen solid meat to deal with this morning. Happy to say, as I was chopping up brinks of frozen ground beef with the outdoor chop saw, I kept all of my fingers.

I was quickly covered in meat "dust", but it really didn't matter as I was in great need of a shower anyway. After shakedown I jumped in the shower only to find that my clean clothes were at Ted and Paula's...so I have been wearing the same clothes now for 6 days...lol...dogs don't seem to mind. But as soon as I finish this post, it is in the shower I go and I am looking forward to fresh clean clothes.

Today will be busy, as I will follow up on contacts made the past 2 days, prepare my drop bag for the race, and I have a pre-race vet check to do. I hope to load up and run two teams today. Then this evening it is off to the mushers meeting for the race. (I ended up having no time to run dogs.)

Went back to Joe's (where Ricky and I have been staying) and got Ricky up. We headed back to Ted and Paula's. We set up the "outdoor butcher shop" and we really went to town cutting up meat for the Don Bowers and Serum Run.

I used the chain saw and cut the 50 pound blocks in thirds. Then I took those chunks to Ricky who was stationed at the table saw. He ripped them into 4 x 4 x 12 in pieces. I then used the chop saw and cut them into small individual snack size pieces. Mostly I will use this ground beef for meals. It is important that they are cut into small pieces, as I fill the cooler with the meat pieces, and then pour near boiling water over them. I put on the lid and let it sit. The meat thaws out and I have a ground beef soup for the dogs. I add kibble and then feed them.

Ricky went to the musher's meeting with me at Sheep Creek Lodge. We had a nice dinner and got the scoop on the Don Bowers race. They give a trail report and go over how the trail is marked. The race was changed from a 200 mile race to a 110 mile race. It was due to dangerous conditions on the second half of the trail. While grooming the trails, Jim watched his snowmachine fall through the snow and ice to the bottom of the creek bed. Needless to say, his machine was swamped. He was lucky to have been by a roadside and a tow truck came and hauled it out. They took the machine to Magic Mountain and they dried it out and he was back in business for the start of the race.

I drew bib number 6. Don Bowers is always number one. We leave at two minute intervals, with the actual first musher on the trail being bib number 2, leaving at 12:02. Home and to bed.

SERUM RUN ON THE ROCKS--WE NEED HELP

We have lost critical numbers of participants for reasons all across the board. The worst of it was there were more snowmachiners lost than mushers. At this late date, we have to recruit experienced snowmachiners. We can't risk taking on inexperienced ones who have never camped out in the extreme temperatures and gone through the rigors of proving that they can be on the trail for days on end. Every year at shakedown there are participants that realize that they just either can't do it or don't have the desire to do what it takes to be on the trail for 20 days.

We have found experienced snowmachiners who can make the trip, but can't handle the entry fees which have now gone from $2,300.00 to $3,150.00 .

I personally have invested dearly in this Serum Run trip, financially, emotionally and mentally. I qualified for Iditarod 2011, but knew that I was not ready to run that race. For me, participating in Serum Run, traveling with my team across 800 miles, over 20 days would be such a valuable experience that would better prepare me for running Iditarod in 2012.

Then there is the aspect of exploring and experiencing the villages along the way. I was so looking forward in talking with the school children. They so look forward to the arrival of Serum Run mushers and machiners. It gives them the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life. They are very interested in what each of us do in life and what we have done. Their teachers incorporate our arrival into their curriculum. One of my strong loves is children and education.

My love of my team and the outdoors was to be greatly enhanced with the Serum Run.

So......with determination, I have spent the past two days on the phone, recruiting past serum run machiners. and traveling to Anchorage and going from business to business to raise the needed funds to keep Serum Run moving forward.

The good news is that we have machiners...and also have raised most of the money. I am going on faith that we can raise the additionally needed $2000.00. We have a group of snow machiners and mushers who have come from the lower 48 and some have spent upwards of over $2000.00 just in their travel expenses. A machiner from Oregon shipped his machine and flew up to do the Shakedown and had to return to work for 3 weeks and will fly back up for our departure date. Tickets are purchased...nonrefundable....

We as a group are all working together in the spirit of Norman Vaughan...and have hope and faith that we can pull this off.

Serumrun.org has set up a paypal donate button on their website. Every little bit will help keep Serum Run alive.

AWESOME SHAKEDOWN TRIP !

WILL UPDATE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE...TRYING TO PULL OFF GETTING READY FOR THE DON BOWERS RACE...

SHAKEDOWN ! ! ! !

WELL, WE ARE READY OR NOT !

Well, Dog teams start leaving 10 am in the morning.

We will travel about 40 miles day one, 35 day two and 16 or so day three. We plan on being back in Willow Monday around noon.

Tonight we are all camped out in the community center. Tomorrow, Ricky and I will spend the first night in our Arctic Oven Tent and will do the same Sunday Night.

Ricky has the wide body Siglin sled ready to tow.

Will update you all when we return !

MAIDEN VOYAGE. . .

The coffee pot turned on at 6:30...but I slept in til 7:30. Bummer. We got up and went and fed an watered the dogs. Then Ricky crawled back into bed to get some additional sleep. I took care of many little details and then we bundled up and picked up the dogs and went to the community center. I should say that I drove the dog truck there and Ricky drove the snowmachine there.

PREMATURELY GREY...LOL...ACTUALLY IT IS JUST FROZEN HAIR

It was great to have our first outing together. Ricky is getting to know the dogs and today he helped loading dogs into the truck and also unloading them. I bootied while he harnessed them. Chores were done twice as fast. It was great.

When we were both ready, I led our way across Willow Lake. We did a road crossing and then travelled down a long road and then dropped onto Long Lake. We had another couple of road crossings and crossed a few more lakes. Then we arrived to Willow Swamp. We took the Willow Swamp Loop. Dogs were doing great, and Ricky was cruising all over on the snowmachine.

On one lake we had a large dog that chased and harassed my team. Ricky quickly intervened with the snow machine and got between my dogs and the harassing dog. He chased him off. I was really glad to have had the diversion.

We had a great run. It was all of 20 miles, but great for the first time out together. I opted to not run team two. We will take them out in the morning.

We loaded up the dogs back into the truck and then headed to Ted and Paula's and fed and watered the dogs. Then we had dinner with Ted and Paula. We feasted on a wonderful Chicken Enchiladas dinner that Ricky made. Yum.

I foodsavered a bunch of chicken enchiladas dinners and then cooked and sealed up a bunch of spinach and mozzarella cheese raviolis dinners.

THE FOODSAVER MACHINE

OUCH !

This is Ricky's ankle the day after we rolled the snowmachine. He actually says that it feels much better than it did yesterday...but see for yourself, it looks awful. He is being the typical macho guy and won't let me take him to the doctor. At least he is being a somewhat godd patient and is cooperating with the snow packs on it this evening.

SO VERY MUCH TO DO...

We have been filling every spare moment with preparation for Serum Run. We have drop bags due the first week of February. That means that we have to figure everything that needs to be sent out ahead of us on the trail. All of our meals will be precooked, packaged in the Foodsaver food pouches and frozen (that means just setting them outside).

FRENCH TOAST

I cooked up two loaves of bread into French toast. The end result is that they are foodsaver sealed into individual meal pouches complete with butter and syrup...ready to eat. On the trail I melt snow in a cooker to get about 3 gallons of water (that is a lot of snow). I will toss in our food pouches and bring the water to a near boil. We remove our pouches and then use the water to prepare a meal for the dogs.

JAN'S WITH PEANUT BUTTER

RICKY'S FRENCH TOAST SANDWICHES

PACKAGED AND READY TO FREEZE

Ricky...the master of the Foodsaver machine. All his experience putting up his elk and deer has really paid off. Ricky has been cooking Enchiladas, burritos, and is planning on making his elk lasagna. We will eat very well on the trail. He also brought out a huge supply of homemade elk and deer jerky.

WHAT A DAY !

Well, we woke up to the smell of fresh brewed coffee...mmmmm. Got dressed for the cold and took our newly purchased travel mugs and headed to the Dog Lot. We cleaned the dog lot...actually did hockey practice...with the frozen dog poops being the puck. The two of us get through the dog lot so fast. It so nice to have the help.

THE "POOPER SCOOPER"

I fed and watered the dogs, then Ricky went to start the car to warm it up. He started the car and then shut the door and all the doors locked. So, we went inside and visited with Ted and called AAA to have someone come out to unlock the car. The closest service was in Willow, but the guy was out of town til tomorrow. We had to have someone come out from Wasilla. We had at least a 2 hour wait.

With so much to do, we borrowed Ted's Ford and drove back to Joe's and decided that we would try and get the snowmachine off the trailer. Neither one of us knew how to run this snowmachine and I was just a bit overly concerned about all the smoke coming from it. I told Ricky that we should shut it down. I called Jim (a seasoned snowmachiner) and we were lucky as he was on his way home from Wasilla and was only 15 minutes away. He said that he would come and check out the machine.

When Jim arrived, he started it up and ran it off the trailer. He said it was a great machine and not to worry about it smoking when you first start it up. He gave Ricky some instructions on the machine. We decided that we would take a run out to the river, but first we needed to return Ted's truck and pick up the car.

Well, when we got back to the house, we put on all of our warm gear and jumped on the machine and headed towards the community center. We rolled the snowmachine and unfortunately Ricky injured his ankle. We continued on across a couple of lakes and Ricky's hands were cold. Ted had always told me that if you are cold, to head home. He said that you will never warm up. So we headed back to the house. We need to get Ricky some serious snow machine mitts. I am so glad that we found this out before shakedown. Nothing is worse than being cold.

When we got back to the house, Ricky made chicken enchiladas and I went and fed and watered the dogs. Tomorrow morning I will food saver seal the enchiladas into meals for on the trail.

We have been running the rental car all night long. It sure beats getting up every 3 hours to start it up and run it for 20 minutes. It only burns an eighth of a tank and we get a good night's sleep. I hold my breath every time I start it and shut the door.

HOMEWARD BOUND WITH SNOWMACHINE IN TOW...

Well, morning came early. It was 11 degrees...felt like we were in the tropics ! Such a nice contrast from the cold we left behind in Willow. We did hear that it was -30 in Willow. Hmmm....too bad Homer doesn't have any snow.

Well, I was up early and quietly went into the house and sat in the kitchen next to the Toyo heater...so nice. I was kept company by two cats...one that was hissing at the other. Thought that I might witness an all out cat fight. They kept their distance from each other and soon the house began to wake up. mmmm....coffee.

At first light I went out with Jeanne and we started up the snowmachine. We rousted Joe and started packing up for our continuation to Seward and then back home to Willow. The trailer wasn't a tip trailer. It had a ramp that pulled out and quite a steep run to get up it. I really didn't like the looks of it and went into anxiety mode...well, as the machine was run up the ramp, it collapsed and the machine rammed into the trailer. My heart sunk and all I could think of was "there goes Serum Run". After we got the machine off the ramp that the skis were stuck through, we checked it out. Looks like it will be fine, but I am totally out of my realm...

I wanted no part of trying that ramp again, so Jim found 3 wooden planks. As I looked at them propped up against the edge of the trailer, I asked if we could screw them to the deck of the trailer. He not only screwed them to the deck, but he got some plywood scraps and secured the planks to each other so that they wouldn't separate. First two tries running the machine up failed, so Joe took a longer running start at it. Both Melissa and I shrieked and gasped as Joe was airborne and it looked like he was going to go off the end of the trailer. He stopped it like a pro...I think that I came the closest to having a heart attack without actually having one.

We tied everything down and loaded the truck, said our thanks and goodbyes and hit the road. Our trip to Soldotna was uneventful and we stopped at O'Rileys and picked up an alternator and Joe changed it out. He is one handy guy. We were then on the road to Seward. Yeah ! No flickering red warning lights...and fully operational headlights.
The drive was spectacularly beautiful. The rugged mountains meeting the water was so beautiful. Roads were icy and we passed a few tow trucks pulling vehicles from off the road. One was precariously perched over the edge and it looked as thought it would be an awful drop into thin ice...and water.

When we got into Seward, we went to Joe and Melissa's office where they run their business "Seward Helicopter Tours" leading sled dog tours on the glacier.
http://www.sewardhelicoptertours.com/

Again, the views were incredible. So were the winds. We loaded up the truck with more stuff and then drove through town and stopped at Safeway to load up on goodies for the drive back. Some day I would love to go back to Seward to spend a few days.

Well, we made it Anchorage and because we were so behind schedule, I was dropped off at the airport. I was to pick up a rental car that Ricky had reserved for us. Long story short...and Murphy's Law...I ended up finding a motel with a shuttle and got picked up. It would have been a 7 hour wait at the airport. If I had the rental I would have done many errands that we ended up having to do on Sunday.

Flexibility....patience...and perseverance.

One AM found me at the airport rental car agency and seeing a bearded Ricky. A ruggedly handsome Ricky...could have mistaken him for an Alaskan.

A short good night's sleep and we were on our quest...to try and think of everything that we needed while in Anchorage. Loaded up with about 600 dollars of food and essentials, we headed to Willow. We arrived at 9: 20 at Ted and Paula's and I quickly introduced Ricky to them. I grabbed our -60 degree sleeping bags and two pillows. Our economy rental car was filled to roof.

We arrived at Joe and Melissa's at 10pm and unloaded. Our basement room was in the upper 30's. Brrrr...equipped with our arctic bags were were very warm, however, every 3 hours we had to go and start our car and let it run for 30 minutes. (I should mention that it was Ricky who climbed out of a warm bag and went out in the sub-tempts to start the car and then go back out and shut it off.)

I have been writing this blog sitting upstairs near the Toyo stove in the dark, waiting for the arrival of daylight. The household is now waking up. Joe just walked out and said that it went down to 35 below last night and it is now 32 below.

THE LONG WAY TO HOMER

I got up early and fed and watered dogs...notice a routine yet? Some days I will actually put on my refrigerware over my pj's and stumble out to the dog lot...and upon returning to the house I climb back into bed for another hours sleep. This morning was a get up and get dressed day, as I was being picked up at 8:30 to head to Homer and I still needed to pack up for the trip.

I was driving with Joe and Melissa to pick up the just purchased used snowmachine. They were needing to go to Seward so I offered to pay the gas to get my machine picked up. Right from the start we were having wiring problems...electrical stuff going on. We would stop along the way and Joe would be making repairs. We would stop at a few O'Rileys and pick up parts. More repairs. We finally limped our way into Homer. The view of the mountains and the water was spectacular...so very beautiful. By the time we got to Jeanne's to pick up the snowmachine, it was dark and we had no headlights.

We were so lucky to have such wonderful hospitality shown to us. We had a pizza dinner with Jeanne, Jim and Miranda and enjoyed sharing stories of life experiences...mostly of Alaska. Jim offered us the use of his RV and we will spend the night here. Our plan is to wake in the morning and load up the snowmachine and siglin sled and all of the accessories. Then we will limp into Soldotna and pick up an alternator for the truck and Joe will change it out. Then it is off to Seward to make a pick up and then back to Anchorage to pick up the Siglin sled that is sitting at Everett Air Freight.

I am supposed to pick up Ricky at the airport tomorrow night, just before midnight. I am hoping that we make it back to Willow safely. I am a bit nervous about how the snowmachine will be loaded and unloaded on the trailer. EEKS ! Maybe I shouldn't watch !

THANKS SKEETER !

Well, I got up this morning and did the usual routine...fed and watered dogs. I was quite excited about the day, as the plan was that I would meet Skeeter at the Community Center. He was going to take me on a 5o mile trip out to Scary Tree. He would be my guide...and show me the way. I am terrible at learning trails and it usually takes me more than once on a trail to know where I am.

I was a bit concerned, as my dogs are really lacking long runs. Skeeter has quite a few more miles on his dogs and his miles are longer than mine. The other thing was that Skeeter runs his dogs faster than mine. I am training for distance and he is running sprint. He assured me that he was OK running my speed so that I could keep up with him and not lose him. He was my way home.

We made it back to the truck by headlamp. It will be interesting to see if I can do that run on my own and find my way back.

The run was great ! We actually went 54.7 miles. Way to go team !

SHIRLEY TOWNE

Lead dogs Ned and Tok

Well, the dogs were quite happy to get out for a run. We went to Shirley Towne again. I would think that they would be rather tired of it by now...I know that I am. That is the only place that we are running right now due to terrible trail conditions. It has been a real challenge to get miles on the dogs. I should be doing 40 - 50 mile runs now. At Shirley Towne, it is about a 16 mile run, but it is good training because of the hills. However, we need to be able to get on some trails were we can build up the miles.

Trucking the dogs is a lot more work for me. I have to load up all of the equipment that we need. The sled has to be lifted to the top of the dog box and secured. Each dog has to be walked to the dog truck and then lifted up into a box. Some of the dogs are 65 pounds. I will load the heavier ones in the lower boxes and the lightest ones in the top boxes. I double check to be sure that we have everything that I need and then I walk around the truck and make sure that everything is secure and then away we go. We drive to where ever it is that we are going. Then when we arrive, I have to set up drop chains along the sides of the truck and drop the dogs out of their boxes. The sled needs to be taken off the top of the dog truck and set up. Dogs are bootied and harnessed and the hooked to the gangline and we take off. After the run, the dogs are watered and booties and harnesses are removed and they are put back up into the boxes. Sled goes back up on top and the drop chains are removed from the sides of the truck and stowed. We drive back to the kennel and then each dog is walked back to their dog house. Whew !

Now you can see why I love running from the kennel. The dogs are walked and hooked to a picket line that is right next to where the sled and gangline is. They are bootied and harnessed and then they are transferred right to the gangline that it attached to the sled. Then it is off we go ! So much easier. When we return from a run, we come in and go around the back of the dog lot and the sled ends up right where it needs to be to take off for another run. The dogs are right along the picket line again. However, I don't hook them back to it. I just remove booties and harnesses and one by one I walk them to their dog house.

Ned is a pretty good little leader, but he has the nickname "Pooping Ned" because he does not poop "on the run". He will bring the team to a screeching halt. If I am not paying close attention, and don't see the tell tale signs, I can very easily have a tangled team. It would be so nice if he would learn to just poop on the run like Tok and Thornton ! Maybe someday...

A DAY OFF IS JUST A DAY OFF FOR THE DOGS...as it seems a musher's work is never done...

My day started out like usual..I got up early to feed and water the dogs. On the walk back to the house, I was thinking about how great it would be to go out to breakfast at EagleQuest Lodge. I love that place, the owners are so very nice and their food is great. I thought it would be a nice way to stoke up well for the cold run that awaited me. Ted was game, so off we went. I ordered the sausage skillet breakfast and Ted had a waffle. After breakfast it was time for some fun ! Just look at those claws ! Wouldn't want to have that guy chasing me for real !
On the drive home, I got phone call that turned my day upside down. It was from a Serum Run Musher who just dropped out. She was wanting to sell me a snowmachine.

Last month I had hoped to buy a great used snow machine, but she was there ahead of me. She ended up buying it and that left me scrambling for a machine. I ended up having to make an offer on a new machine. Long story short, now the used machine was available however, I would have to get out of the machine that I had an offer on. It is about $4,000.00 dollars less than the new one. The salesman will be out until Tuesday so I will have to wait until then to find out which machine I will purchase and take on Serum Run.

After spending so much time on the phone and trying to work out details, I decided that today would be a great "catch up day". I would spend the day taking care of loose ends and do everything but run the dogs. My mind would be everywhere, but on the dogs.

An article about my involvement in the Serum Run had just come out in the Enterprise, a local paper back home. We were the 4Th top read article online. Wow ! That was really surprising to hear. I also received a call from the Herald, a larger newspaper back home, and they want to run their own article. I am hoping that it will generate some local interest and bring us some sponsorship to help with the costs of this expedition.

So here is hoping that I can pick up the used machine. The nice thing is that it is all equipped for Serum Run and that would sure simplify my life. Right now I am all for simplifying my life as it is very soon going to get rather complicated. In the next 40 days, I have to prepare for a 200 mile race, shakedown, a 300 mile race and the Serum Run. Organization will be the key.

Running with Angie

I spent the past two days running a different trail system with Angie Taggart. We got in 36 miles each day and I was happy about that. Takes a lot more work for me, as I have to truck my dogs and sled. Dogs did great. The trail was hard and fast and there was quite a bit of ice. We ran out to Shirley Towne and ran the hills. Snacked the dogs and came back.

Tomorrow I will take out team two to Shirley Towne and run the hills with them. It will be a shorter run as I am trying to build up miles.

Spent this evening helping Angie get ready for the Copper Basin. Sounds like a really neat race. Most likely I will run that next year.

We have lost 3 snow machiners for Serum Run. That means that our costs went up from $2,300.00 each to $2,800.00. OUCH !!!! Hopefully we can pick up a few more snowmachines.
My snowmachine partner, Ricky arrives Saturday the 15Th. I will hopefully pick up the snowmachine this next week sometime. I purchased a SkiDoo Wide Track 550 Fan. When Ricky arrives, we will get him out in the swamp and then we will take a trip on the Denali Highway. He will get to practice hauling the Siglin sled loaded with all of our gear.

We will have so much to do to get geared up for the Serum Run. We have to equip the snowmachine with spare parts, tools, straps, etc. We will also have to figure out just how we are going to pack that sled. That will be Rick's baby and I will leave that up to him. I will just worry about how I will pack my sled.

We have shakedown coming up soon. It will be on the 21st of January. We will get together with all of the Serum Runners and hit the trail. It is shakedown...hoping to get all the bugs out and a chance for the newbies to learn from the veterans. We are both newbies ! We will spend the night in our Arctic Oven tent and get to find out what that is all about. Erin said that she is going to find the coldest place to camp.

Coming up the following week I will have my second race of the winter....the Don Bowers Memorial Race 200. I am looking forward to that. We are hoping that Ricky can get on with the race groomers. It will give him the opportunity to learn a lot.

Well, it is late and I am going to get some sleep.

Sewing the Night Away...

The team was down today, due to conditions of the trail. I went to Talkeetna this morning and went to church with Serum Run friend, Buddy. Then it was back home to feed the dogs and pack up my sewing to go to Angies. We spent the evening sewing and laughing and sharing mushing stories. Angie is running Iditarod this year and we were making her wristies to pack in her drop bags.

The past two nights my friend Angie Taggart and I worked on making wristies (you are able to put a hand-warmer in your palm to help keep your exposed fingers warm. It easier to boot a dog without fingers on your gloves) and neck warmers. We had a lot of laughs!!!

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TREE FALLER...

Got up early to water the dogs. It is far too warm out...in the upper 30's.

The biggest concern is losing our creek crossing. At times it can be so frustrating just trying to get in the much needed training runs. Well, on yesterday's grooming run with the snowmachine, there were small trees down and it looked as though many more may come down, so the plan was that at first light Paula and I would go out with the chain saw and take the small trees off the trail and also cut down any trees that we could. John was supposed to be in Anchorage all weekend with sprint racing, but just as Paula and I were taking off he called to tell us that the races were cancelled. I told him that we were just heading out to tackle the fallen trees. He said that he would change out the chain on his saw and join us.

So off Paula and I went, and we took down quite a few trees, and cleared the trail. When John showed up, I took Paula back to the house and returned to the trail. It was 5 hours of falling trees and bucking them up so that we would hopefully not have to deal with any downed trees on our trail. There were a few trees that were left in hopes that they would not come down. They would be easier dealt with in the summer.

So, back to the dog lot I went and selected a team and away we went. I had planned a short run as it was New Years and I didn't want to be on the trail in the evening with many snow machiners out there. The run was fabulous and I was thrilled. We were going to be home before dark and then in the morning I would take out the dogs that I didn't run today.

We turned onto our trail off the swamp and the team was strong. Then suddenly one of the trees that we didn't take down, had fallen across the trail. Oh my gosh ! Hmmmm. Why didn't I take the hand saw? It was so windy that it was actually kind of scary on the trail. As I looked up into the trees, they were dancing an ugly dance...with so much weight on them from the wet snow that it seemed that they could fall at any time. I had the feeling of running a gauntlet, hopingto make it through without any trees falling on you.

As I was clearing some of the branches out of the way to try and make a crossing over that tree, my leaders had turned the team around behind me...so I had to go back and grab my leaders and bring the team back around. I ended up with tangles and finally I unhooked Amber, as I knew that she would stay close by and I removed two tugs from my gang line and tied off two dogs that were being trouble makers, each to their own tree.

I was then able to lead the remaining dogs up and over the tree, dragging the sled behind us and then lifted the sled up and over. With everyone across the tree, I straightened out the gang line and the dogs and started re hooking the dogs and tugs. I had called Ted and Paula and they just arrived on the snowmachine. Ted had brought the chain saw and I bucked up the tree and cleared it from the trail.

By then it was dark and I was glad to be on my way. I got to test out my new head lamp and was very happy with it. We got back to the kennel and I fed the dogs and Called Angie. I was about an hour and a half late.

I spent the evening with Angie, sewing neck warmers and wristies. I had to laugh because it seemed like I spent more time ripping out seams. It was a fun evening even though not all that productive (as far as the sewing went). It is always great to get together with other mushers and share what works for you.