Getting ready for race day always seems to take longer than expected. To be fair, I’m one of those people who thinks that their is always more time to be had then there really is. We have 3 teams going to the Copper so outfitting ourselves with the necessary stuff has been quite the process.
First there is the getting the kibble ready and bagging that. Then chopping meat and bagging that too. And finally, fat. Fat is an essential component of a sled dog diet, especially during times of heavy training or racing.
We straw dog boxes. My truck is getting an oil change. We dry dog coats. We get our gear ready: snowshoes, cooker, ax , sleeping bag.
I order booties because we don’t have enough large or small and a friend is delivering them tonight. We go through sleds and gangline and check everything once and then check it again.
You can never be too careful.
We trim nails and go over dogs making sure that our rosters are all set. Dog jackets. Pecker protectors. Dog bowls.
We have lists of things to do and thing to pack. Then we have lists of our lists.
We slowly conquered them all and left for Glennallen, Alaska around 11:00 this morning in two seperate trucks. Travis towing the 24 foot dog trailer and his 8 dog box. There is a lot of driving in the Copper Basin. His rig is the dog hauler. Dwayne and Travis will then take my truck, with dog kennels in the back, around the course to pick up dropped dogs.
We got to the race and had to go drop off our drop bags to get sent out to the different checkpoints. We go through vet checks. The vets tell us what they think of the dogs. They all look good but one of the dogs on my team is a little skinny. She is always skinny. Like that gangly 17 year old kid who eats and eat and eats but nothing sticks. The vets see it all the time. “No big deal, some dogs are just like that.”
The race and the people have Glennallen have been so welcoming so far. There was a great feast before the mushers meeting. The meeting basically goes over the trail and things that may be of concern. The trail is mostly dry – meaning hopefully we won’t have any open water to deal with. But it is quite icy.
Expect fast times for the top teams.
I have a pretty lowkey race plan. Again, I am only taking two adults (Madori and Bud) and the rest are puppies. I spent tonight getter ready, taking my first shower in almost a week, and trying to relax.
Outside our hotel room, other people are dropping dogs. They are noisy and I am looking forward to bed.
Here are the line ups:
Justin’s team
Flo Fergie
Mongoose Kurm
Teddy kip
Bruce Cuervo
Thunder Thor
Wrangler Marlow
Wyatts team
Granger gremlin
Cricket fidget
Zeus Tamere
Star shark
Havock aldawin
Ray Monroe
Sarah’s team
Penny Madori
Coda dolly
Lena Athena
Hoover Crazy
Pippa Varden
Check bud
Sleep is key. This post wasn’t edited but I figured it’d be better the share something then nothing.
