Our Life

Stuck in a Rut – Denali Highway Camping Trip Part 1

Sarah · January 1, 2016 ·

This is the first blog post in a 3 part series.

Well, our camping trip stared off in the most exciting of ways. After an uneventful drive to Cantwell we headed towards the Denali Highway. It was about 10:30 and we figured we’d be hooked up and on the trail by 11:30 or 11:45 at the latest.

But, like always, what can go wrong will go wrong.

Neither Wade or myself are particularly familiar with the Denali Highway. Wade’s previous trip up with Travis ended being somewhat exciting after the DOT plowed the last 10 miles from where they had parked making it an eventful mush to the truck.

Well, we headed down the road and this time Wade knew where the parking lot was. Or, at least, that’s what we thought.

The road looked plowed and Wade knew were they had plowed to the last time, so we figured we were golden.

Wrong.

So we continued down the road in the truck as it didn’t look ideal to mush on and the parking lot where they had plowed to the last time was still up ahead.

It was smooth going on the icy road until, of course, it wasn’t. We had known the forecast for the area had called for high winds. It was part of the draw. Nothing better than training in adverse conditions. We also knew that we should anticipate fresh snow.

What we didn’t know is that DOT reversed it’s decision and was now no longer plowing the 10 further miles. There was a sign somewhere but neither of us being familiar had thought that was wrong. But of course it wasn’t.

Things were smooth sailing for the first 6 or 7 miles. Then, the nemesis of our fun arrived. It was a small, wind-drifted snow birm. From the truck, it looked like a small no-frills give your truck just a tad more gas sort of bump. It didn’t look intimidating and surely this small mound of snow couldn’t get us stuck.

But it did.

The wind had drifted the snow in such a way that the snow was rock-solid. We plowed through it and realized quickly that this was an oh shit moment and we had to be careful not to get stuck. So we rocked the truck gently back and forth at first and had good enough traction that we could free ourselves but Wade’s trailer, loaded with 6 heavy dog boxes, 33 dogs, and two sleds wasn’t having it. We got a little bit backwards but the trailer started to jack-knife. We pulled a little more forward and risked getting more stuck.

Back and forth and back and forth. Minute movements of touching the wheel and giving gas. Eventually, however, we had to concede that we were stuck.

Wade Marrs uses a ratchet strap to try and left the trailer up high enough to grt it hitched back on to the truck — unfortunately getting the truck unstuck was easy, getting the broken trailer back onto the truck proved to be more challenging

We put on gear and went outside to assess just how badly we had screwed ourselves. Overhead the northern lights danced in whimsical patterns. Despite being stuck, we stopped and watched them for a bit. Reds and pinks darted once or twice in small segments across the sky. At least if we were stuck, we told ourselves, this wasn’t a bad place to be.

We decided the best thing to do was to unhook the trailer which was no longer lined up straight with the truck so that we could focus on one problem at a time. We got the trailer off and then had to power through the drift. We used a combination of digging, packing snow down, and laying down straw we had for traction. The poor truck had to work hard, and so did we, but eventually we got it unstuck.

We high-fived our minor success.

The trailer was somewhat perpendicular to the road. Hooking the truck up as-is with no real ability to pull forward would almost certainly land us in the position we’d just spent the better part of an hour getting ourselves out of.

The trailer conveniently had some spots that it was conceivably for us to tie the truck into besides using the ball hitch. It was not an ideal option but given our situation seemed like the best option. We only needed to go far enough to straighten the trailer out and from the angle we were pulling from that shouldn’t have taken much.

We carefully concocted a way to rig things up that would help us achieve our desired goal. We got the trailer straightened out but, somehow in the process, had managed to seperate the trailer from its welded jack. So now we had a 20 foot trailer with 6 heavy dog boxes, 33 dogs, and two sleds with the receiving hitch on the ground and no jack to be able to lift it up.

We had to lighten the load which meant dropping dogs and removing 2 of the dog boxes from the trailer

What followed was several hours of good natured oh this sucks and we’ll what if we tried this and so on and so on. We tried all sorts of things but in the end had to unload 20 dogs and take off two of the heavier dog boxes. We made a picket for our dogs out of gangline and unloaded them, two by two, to sit in the snow and stare at us as we tried to get ourselves out of our self-created mess.

2am trying to figure out how to reattach the trailer after the jack broke off.

Then, we took an industrial strength ratchet strap and had it going up over the tailgate and attaching back in to the framing of the truck to give us leverage. Slowly, we ratcheted the trailer up into the air. We got the trailer at the right height and tried to shove the trailer onto the ball hitch, but given how the whole thing was rigged we weren’t strong enough.

I had suggested earlier that we should cut a tree and use it as a lever. Wade got his ax out and picked a good sized spruce. With his new lever, he began pushing the truck in place. When I said it was lined up from my position standing in the back of the tailgate, my job was to undo the ratchet. I undid the ratchet but we were a fraction of center so it wouldn’t couple. Wade continued to use the tree lever to keep things in place and I hopped in the truck and moved the smallest bit forward.

The trailer hitched in. Sweet, sweet, sweet, success.

Then came the realization that, well, this was not really a parking spot, the road was too narrow, and Wade was going to have to go in reverse the 6 or 8 miles we’d come in.

Leaving the truck where it was, wasn’t an option. It was starting to snow and, if we didn’t get it out now, we might not be able to get it out at all of we just went on a dog run.

Fine. We laughed about how this was probably the worst start to a mushing adventure pretty much ever. We joked. We both took it in stride. We knew getting pissed or frustrated would only make the situation worse so we chose not to.

So then we started backing up. It was slow going, the trailer was not reversing well straight, we were tired, and we just wanted to be done. We’d gotten to the highway around 10:30pm and it was now nearing 4am.

Backing up was slow and frequently Wade had to put the truck in drive. Then, at one point, the truck decided to quit working all together. We shut it off, unsure of how to proceed, shot the shit and then decided to see if we could get it to go again. It wouldn’t. We repeated the cycle and eventually through what must have been some sort of divine intervention, the truck decided it was going to work again. This, of course, was completely beyond our control but we celebrated nonetheless.

Then it happened again. We repeated the cycle and found success once again. Then it happen again. It was nearing 5am at this point and we’d been up all night. I grabbed my parka from the back seat, curled up into a tiny ball in the passenger chair, and fell asleep.

We woke up around 8 and continued driving backwards. It was slow going and we didn’t cover much ground. I wa grateful I wasn’t someone who struggled with car sicknesses. Between going backwards and all our zig zagging, it would have been easy to get sick.

Wade Marrs patiently reversing the truck and trailer

We spent another two hours slowly backing up. We have officially been at the highway and the closet we have gotten to mushing is dropping our dogs.

Well, happy trails and look forward to part 2 when we actually get out on the trail to mush!

Continue to Part 2…

The Little Things

Sarah · December 16, 2015 ·

Today is a rest day not just for the dogs but for me as well. I went to the library and continued to work on our 2016 Kennel Guide which will, I hope, be available for download in the next week or two. The guide is a behind the scenes look at our kennel and includes interviews with both Travis and myself. We also do a recap of 2015 and share some of our kennel highlights. We are hoping to be able to sell this download to help us raise money for dog booties so we can keep our dogs in tip-top shape.

It’s been a fun project for me and it’s hard to believe but it’s almost a full 30 pages of information and interviews. When I complete this, I will work on another that is a guide book about our dogs. I hope people like them and think of them as a fun way to invest and help our kennel.

Max came to the library with me but he sat in me truck. When you stay there for the afternoon it’s funny all thre characters you see. You have your normal library patrons but then you have those who look like old time gold miners. One girl came in wearing jeans and a ripped t-shirt and left in a green ball gown. Oh the questions I would have liked to ask her!

I was impressively able to score some last minute tickets to Star Wars. I wasn’t sure if the boys would want to go but Travis mentioned it today and I was able to snag 4 tickets to the 7:00 showing in 3d tomorrow. I’m beyond excited. When I was back home, we had a marathon watching the original trilogy. Personally, I like to forget about the saga with Jar Jar Binks.

Tonight we are sitting on the couch. I’m drinking tea and Travis has a beer that he neighbor gave him. Our house dogs are sprawled over the floor laying on dog beds and blankets and heaps of dog booties.

It always seems as though there is so much work to be done. It never ends but we have learned, finally, to pause and take time to just be.

There is all this rushing about in the world for this and for that. At the end of it all, most of it doesn’t matter. What matters are the pauses. The in-betweens. Sitting on the couch talking together. Playing another round of cards. Typing a story to share.

Distance mushing is a slow, languid, and meditative. You learn that it is the little things that matter. It is the small stuff that makes the biggest difference.

Fresh Tracks

Sarah · December 15, 2015 ·

Today I worked on speed. We had a bit of fresh snow so it was good to go a little faster because it was soft. It was a good trail to run on because the trails on Iditarod are like that, slightly wind blown with a little bit of fresh powder.

Mongoose stood out to me on this run in particular. This was the first run I’ve been able to run with him in lead on a long run and have him rise to the challenge. Normally, he loses focus but tonight he was on his a-game. It made me happy because he’s a great athlete to have up front. Plus he’s young and spunky.

There was a team out on the trail behind us at one point trying to pass us, I don’t know who it was, but I called the dogs up and we left them in the dust. Doing things like that is a real confidence builder not only for me but also for the dogs.

As usual, the dogs ate well on the trail. My face got cold with the fresh snow and I keep telling myself I need goggles but I never seem to remember. I guess it will make me tougher.

I liked running on the wind blown trail with fresh snow. It was warm so the breeze helped keep the dogs cooler. It’s good running when it’s a little warm so the dogs get used to it. We teach them to roll around in the snow when we stop and that sort of thing so they don’t get too hot.

Justin was driving my b-team and I really enjoyed the fact that they kept up so nicely. Each run, I think my confidence and the dogs confidence in themselves grows because we just conquer everything.

I love the dynamic of my team and how they love to travel fast.

I’d like to thank Tom M. for sponsoring me for a third year in a row. I met Tom during one of my tours and he’s been a huge supporter. Having people like that cheer me on in racing and training always makes each run that much sweeter.

Happy Trails,

Cabin Life

Sarah · December 15, 2015 ·

When I went back home, my friends and family on the east coast thought it was both strange and fascinating that I had willingly adopted a lifestyle with no running water or no power. While I occasionally gripe about the inability to take a shower or other simple luxuries modern life affords most, I find myself not only content but quite happy.

Our days are full, often bursting at the seams as we find our dog runs stretching across the night. At home, life is simple. There is no television available. No phone constantly ringing. And getting on the Internet is a privilege rather than an expectation. Instead, we fill our time with what the day requires.

We chop meat. We get water to feed the dogs. To get water we have to hook our generator up to our well. It’s a bit of a process by most people’s standards but it isn’t hard to do. The most important part of it all is making sure we shut the water off properly so our well doesn’t freeze up. When we feed the dogs, we do it like all mushers, a 5 gallon bucket at the time. Right now we are feeding 2-3 times a day and it takes 8 buckets for the kennel.

After feeding the dogs, We make food for ourselves. We eat a lot of Mac and cheese, pancakes, and biscuits and gravy. It seems that bacon always finds a way into whatever we eat. I’m sure it isn’t healthy but the fat helps us stay warm in the cold.

We find that we spend a lot of time talking and playing cards when we aren’t in the dog lot. Our favorites are monopoly deal, cribbage and uno. We are creatures of habit and don’t change our routines much.

Quiet time is sudoku or reading books on dog mushing. The boys drink a lot of coffee together but I’m doing my best to abstain from caffeine so that it’ll have a bigger effect on me when I need it during races. I drink water and juice and this supplement I started on last summer called Plexus, which has done a surprisingly good job of keeping me in tip-top shape, gotten rid of the allergic reaction that has plagued my hands for years and well energized even on little sleep.

The days are wonderously simple. There is a certain beauty to their routine. Our cabin is small (14×20) and is home to 4 house dogs and 3 cats. Outside, we have our chickens who have adapted surprisingly well to the cold. Keeping everything maintained is a full time job. Charging our one battery so we have lights. Charging our phones so we can stay in touch. When the snow comes, Travis hopes in the side by side and plows.

On nights we are tired we turn the generator on and will use our laptop to watch movies. Last night we watched A Knights Tale even though we’d all already seen it. Most of our days echo the days before.

When my phone is charged, I find that the urge to write is what fills me the most. I want to share what we’ve done or accomplished — even if it isn’t much — because, in some small way, it helps us stay rooted to a world that we otherwise wouldn’t be a part of.

It is a fun life. A full life. There is something about working with a small group of people and dogs that makes what we do so satisfying.

Here are a few photos of the cabin:

We have just enough space to hang out parkas

our cabin stars double as a place to hang dog gear and dog booties to dry

our couch, currently occupied by Perry, and our magnetic dry erase board. We use this to make teams for the day , leave notes, and stay organized

I’m sure our cabin doesn’t look like much, but to us it it paradise. It means we have trails out the door and we can do what we love. Staying organized is a challenge but we somehow manage. Simple things are still hard. It’s hard to want to leave and go into town and do things we need to: check mail, get caught up on emails, return phone calls. We do it, but we do it somewhat reluctantly because the desire to stay and run is so strong.

Unlike last year, running dogs is something that only requires going outside and hooking them up. No driving required!
Life is good

The Ups and Downs of Dog Mushing

Sarah · December 13, 2015 ·

A few day ago my run was, to put mildly, a disaster. I didn’t have a good day to begin with. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and in one of those funks that you just can’t seem to shake. So I decided to drive into town and be productive. We were out of meat for the dogs, so I decided that I would go to the feed store and pick up what we needed. I decided that I would get 500 pounds of chicken, 500 pounds of turkey skin, and 500 pounds of beef. I wanted to have a lot and be able to choose back at the kennel what to feed and when.

Different foods are better for different occasions. Beef is a good fatty meal for cold weather and the dogs always love it. Often, we will use it to broth the dogs — meaning that we will put 5 pounds of beef in a bucket and let it thaw and add water. Then we will feed this mixture to the dogs so that they will stay hydrated.
Chicken doesn’t have as much fat to it as beef, but it is cheaper and is great for snacking as it has a high water content. Turkey skins are fatty and are good for a snack along the trail or when it gets very cold out. The last couple of days temperatures have been ranging from about -10 to -25 so it is important that we have a good quality source of fat for the dogs.

On a normal day, we will feed about a pound to a pound and a half of meat per dog. The amount varies based on the temperature and how much the dogs are running. We don’t want to feed too much if they are running too far or if it is warm because The extra protein and fat can actually cause problems in the dogs if their bodies aren’t using it all.

So I picked up the 1500 pounds of meat and also decided to get 10 new harnesses. I feel like I buy more dog harnesses than any other musher. I don’t know why but we seem to go through them quickly. The dogs may bite them but more often than not they tear or just get worn out. I need to get better at learning how to sew so we can start repairing our broken harnesses but I guess that is going to be a summertime project.

So then I got home, and decided that even though it was getting dark I was going to hook up a Team. Now, what are the biggest problems I seem to have that when I am in a funk and not having the best day Is that I tend to make bad decisions. This of course, results in a snowball effect. And then, my bad day spirals out of control.

My bad decision wasn’t hooking up dogs, it was just my ability to choose what dogs

Bs what team I was going to run. Rather than stick with a tried-and-true combination, I decided that I would go out on a limb and try milliliters new swing dogs and have no back ups in my team.I left the yard with Tamere and Coda In lead.

Now, Coda is a young dog who hasn’t done much leading. Tamere, on the other hand is a tried-and-true Iditarod veteran. Her problem, however, is that she is a little princess. Yesterday, it was cold out. Tamere had spent the last two days sleeping inside because she loves to cuddle and I was trying to be nice to her.

Big mistake.

We didn’t even leave the yard before I had my first problem. Tamere, probably grumpy about leaving her warm palace started fighting with Coda, who happens to be her son. I got that sorted out, pulled my hook and left the yard only to find out that my big fat dog Max, had decided to chase after me.

I had hooked this team up to a different Sled thinking that anything had to be better than the sledI went out with that didn’t have the foot boards on it. Boy, was I wrong! This sled was extremely light, and very Squirrley. As we careened down the hill out of our yard, Max chasing after us, the sled was much lighter and more flexible then anything I’d been on recently and my boot was getting stuck between the break bar and the bed of the sled: not good.

As I tried to pull my foot out, I tipped. I somehow managed to grab the snow hook while getting drug down the trail, Max now nipping at my ankles, perhaps trying to stop me, and jam the snow hook into the snow. The team came to an abrupt halt.

I hadn’t even gone 100 yards and I had already wiped out once. The team was amped, pulling hard against my set hook. I shook myself off and got ready to go again, sending Max back home with Justin who had run after the team when he had noticed that Max was chasing us. But as I was getting ready to leave, Travis came zooming by me with his 18 dog tea and our neighbor in tow, yelling about how the trail had been plowed in. Great, I thought to myself, just great.

With no other choice, I pulled my hook and head forward down the trail. My sled continued to bounce down the trail like a pinball off of snowbanks and trees as I tried my best to steer it. It didn’t matter that I had a 50 pound block of chicken inside my Sled acting as weight, the thing may as well have been empty. I managed to stay upright and felt as though I had some control over the team as we merged off of our out trail and onto the main trail that goes alongside the Parks Highway. Still, I noticed that my brake was not as effective as it should’ve been and I struggled with keeping the team at a comfortable speed. As I got anxious, the dogs got more rowdy. That’s what happens, when you run dogs. They play off of your fear and off of your anxiety. That is why it is always important to project control and confidence. Easier said than done.

As I continued down the trail I told myself that I was going to have a great run, building up my confidence and doing my best to project it. I settled in to the pace of the dogs and got them under control at a nice steady pace. But, unfortunately it doesn’t last for long. Tamere does not want to run today and she makes it abundantly clear in every way possible. She turns the team around, she deliberately ignores commands, and the more I try to assert my role as team leader the more she gives me the middle finger. Now, Tamere and I have a long history of not getting along together. It’s why, I don’t usually run her. But, unfortunately for Tamere, she has been demoted and will not be on Travis’s race team this year. So although she pines for Travis, the love of her life, she is stuck with me. And she isn’t very shy about telling me how much she hates it. This is why I was determined to run her. But I digress.

The trail continued to deteriorate and I quickly Found the large snow berms that had been plowed onto the trail that Travis had shouted about while running past. They were Frozen solid and hard to steer around but equally difficult to try and go over. At one point,Tamere decided that she thought the correct trail to take, due to all the berms, was the Parks Highway. And for a few terrifying second I thought I was going to be running down the road.

Fortunately, Travis had alerted Wyatt to the deteriorating trail conditions.Wyatt had driven out in his car to come lend me a hand in getting around the berms. He helped me get my team back on the trail and then out of a good sense of judgment decided to stay and watch how the team faired.

We did not fair well. I tipped the sled once. No biggie, I got it up right. Then, my goal was to take the team onto a lake where we hadn’t been before. Tamere used this opportunity to show how much she wanted to go home by turning the entire team around. I was having none of it. I kept trying to line her out. I would get her back in front of the sled pointed in the direction we needed to go, only to have her turn back around as soon as I got to the sled.

Now dripping with sweat, I was growing frustrated. The thing about dog mushing is, the dogs are never supposed to be in charge. So here I was out on the trail with this leader who didn’t want to listen and no real alternative as to who to put upfront. To make matters worse, I didn’t have great control over my sled. The break wasn’t digging in enough and my snow hook ropes were too long. This resulted in a very frustrating pattern. Either I would get the team going and then the snow hooks would bounce out of my sled, catching on the trail the whole team would come to abrupt stop or I would set my snow hook and then have to awkwardly reach behind me to get it out of the snow.

I really was mad at myself because as much as I preach about setting yourself up for success and the importance of doing it in dog mushing, I had done everything but. In my haste to get out on the trail and put my bad day behind me, I had forgotten the basics. That’s why they are the basics I’ve told myself since: if the basics aren’t done properly then your run is going to inevitably deteriorate into a shit show, which mine had.

In the end, I cut the run short. I was miserable and I needed to regroup. It’s not something I’ll be able to do on race day, and I’m keenly aware of that, but sometimes you just have to listen to your gut.

So, the next day it was all about doing everything right. Checking and double-checking and making sure all the basics were covered. It was all about getting back on the horse, and going back at it.

I went out with Travis, Justin and Wyatt. We all had clean runs. We had fun. We ran dogs and came back and played Uno. We went to bed happy and succesful, waiting for tomorrow so we could do it all again.