So I ran a 6 dog team for the first time on a packed road, with a passenger. End result, my brake never dug in, My leader took a sudden left turn back into the driveway and I was slung a good 20 feet off the sled, breaking the stanchions in the process. My passenger was fine and helped me get up as I stumbled painfully to try and catch my team. Thankfully, My friends' daughter caught one of the leaders and my team was safe, as was my passenger (friends soon to be son in law). I however, had road rash and a large cut beside my eye (from my glasses cutting in from where I got thrown) and had bruises and soreness for a week afterwards, kind of like the feeling that someone had kicked me repetitively in the ribs. I loaded up the dogs (we didnt even go tenth of a mile I bet) and was really dissapointed at myself. WHY did I even think about running a crazy 6 dog team WITH a passenger when I had never been on a sled before?! It could have been worse, a LOT worse. It also sucked because I wanted my first time on snow runners to be glorious, not disastrous, AND for the fact that my passenger probably thought that I was a total jerk and didn't know what the heck i was doing. That one bothered me alot. I have been running dogs for near 5 years now and am very experienced, just not on snow. It also pisses me off that some snobby mushers think that you are not technically 'mushing' unless you use a sled and snow. ::scratches head::
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| The long 'slide' back to our temporary home... |
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Anyways, back to my story.I seriously almost peed on myself coming down the hill back to our cabin when I couldn't slow to sled down ANY because it just skidded the top layer. When Lupi made that Haw when i had not given the command, I saw her look, and then a split second and she jerked over, the rest followed and I thought I was going to be the end (I'm sure that's a way i'd like to die, but that's not the point, lol) and I couldnt make the turn because it just happened so fast and I hadn't quite learned to steer yet. I wrote that one down in my head as one of the most scary experiences in my life, Ever.
2 days later I took another stab at it on a forest road that wasnt packed down (good thing for me, means we wont be goin 30 mph as they break trail). This time I hooked 4 up but of course like 20 people came out of nowhere to watch us. I don't really like it when people watch me hook up and take off, because I know sometimes its not pretty. Me and Robin made sure to give everyone the disclaimer that we are usually dust mushers and havent been on sleds too much, so don't expect perfection. We decided to take advantage and make two of them hold our leaders out, lol. Let robin go off first, then I stepped on the runners and pulled the snub. I SWEAR dogs train theirselves to hear the click of the snubline and then SLAM into their harnesses right then. I barely got ahold of the driver bow as my dogs pounded into the snow. It was BEAUTIFUL. I didnt get my foot on the brake untill we actually got on the road (we started off in a parking lot) but it was breathtaking, and equally as scary, but in a good way really. The dogs rushed through the snow as it sprayed backwards, glistening in the sun and shade of the surrounding pine trees. Ears and tails down, going full steam ahead even though I was TRYING to step on the brake (it was digging in, but not much) but I had problems balancing myself. Not to mention I weigh 250 lbs but i felt light as a feather flying down those snow drifts that day in Canaan Valley. It was still very scary and I really had to pee this time (i thought maybe I could pee off the trail somewhere down the line, YEAH RIGHT!) The snow hook couldn't be stomped into the ground because the ground was frozen SOLID. It was like trying to put it through a paved road! This also posed a problem come time to turn around. Robin didnt bring her hook (wouldn't have made a difference anyway's) and I couldn't get off my sled and snub off because there were no trees to do so with, so she had to do it herself, as so did I. That was TOUGH turn around and took a while, but we did it. Miraculously, my leaders actually did listen to my "STAY" command, which I was very happy for.
All in all, Snow mushing was very fun but really pretty scary (for me, atleast for the first time). My dogs still flew even with the brake all the way down and I could never get the steering down all the way. We decided that was enough playing in the snow for now and headed back home shortly after. Although it was heartbreaking that I broke my sled (after I had finally actually gotten one!) but I'll probably get another soon and will have to try again, this time, with better thinking and a new sled, and have more FUN!!. I didn't get any pictures of me running my guys on snow though, I was much too occupied soaking it all in and holding on for dear life, Ha!
Needless to say, I was happier'n a fat kid eatin cake when i got back on dusty trails with the rigs (manual steering and better brakes) but I will never forget Waylon's look when I hooked him back up here on these trails and he looked back at me like "hey now, where'd that awesome white stuff go?" ;)
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