Tahquamenon Country 2007
The usual sight (getting passed)
photo by Joy's Sled Dog Photos
photo by Joy's Sled Dog Photos
photo by Joy's Sled Dog Photos
The end's in sight
The Build Up to the Race
Having seen the East Coast of America and Canada suffer from relative
lack of snow in 2005/06 we decided that it would probably be best if we
entered a couple of races in the Mid West in 2006/07 just to get our
2006/07 winter off to a good start. Our plans had been to hit the road
for three weeks, run the Tahquamenon Country 40 mile race in Michigan
the first weekend in January, the White Oak Classic in Minnesota the
following weekend before driving back to Vermont to take part in the
Craftsbury 60 the third weekend. An excellent plan which would not only
set the team up nicely for the Can Am 60 in March but would also give
us the excuse/opportunity to visit some of the kennels that produce
some of our most favourite lines namely Lokiboden, Kraken, Jedeye and
Northome. This really was a good plan but once again a plan that failed
on first contact with the enemy - the weather.
As December progressed and our second Christmas in Canada bore down on
us the East Coast of North America was once again bereft of snow. Apart
from the one major storm that had hit Nova Scotia at the start of
December, about 2 days before we fitted the winter tyres to the
vehicles and had left a dumping of snow that remained for about 12
hours, we had had no snow fall at all. The same problem seemed to be
affecting everywhere across the continent (except it seemed parts of
Alabama and the West Coast). As a consequence of the lack of snow we
first heard that the Tahquamenon was being moved to the third weekend
in January (and so clashing with Craftsbury) due to lack of snow - we
delayed our road trip by a week, frantically trying to rearrange
planned visits. Then just as we were about to set off, the White Oak
Classic cancelled for the year as there was insufficient snow on the
trail. Undaunted, and hearing that the snowmobile trails had just
opened in Fort Kent, we set off in search of snow hoping that at least
either the rescheduled Tahquamenon or Craftsbury would go ahead and we
would get one race in.
On 2nd January we pulled into the town centre in Fort Kent, eager to
get at least one training run in on the sled. (Over the New Year we had
been in communication with the Can Am organisers and they had assured
us that some of the Fort Kent trails would be open). After
driving around Fort Kent we eventually found an access point onto the
Heritage Trail at the ski lodge and having quizzed a bemused old timer
discovered that we could head out for about 7 1/2 miles on this trail
before reaching a road crossing - 15 miles for an initial run would be
ideal (I assumed).
Extremely apprehensive about unleashing the dogs on the sled for the
first time this year, and doing so in the centre of an otherwise
peaceable town, nonetheless we hooked up 8 dogs, i popped the hook,
shut my eyes and off we went. To date all our training had been done on
the ATV, lots of miles but really slow, grinding miles. Everyone had
told us not to worry though, speed would come once we got on the sled.
And so it was with these words ringing in my ears (and drowning out the
more sensible whispers of take it slowly at the start so as not to tire
the dogs or worse still over exert them) that we rocketed off down the
trail. We covered mile after glorious mile, and soon enough the road
crossing came into view, we were still going at an average 12 mph - not
brilliant but good for us. As we approached the road I stopped the team
and called a 'Come Haw' that was then executed perfectly by the dogs.
We lined out, all the dogs got a good word, I released the brake and we
set off back for the truck.
Immediately I noticed something was wrong, the speed wasn't getting
above 7 mph and Poppy did not seem to want to lead the team back down
the trail. I figured she just didn't want to repeat the trail (I had
seen that in her before) and soon she would realise that she had no
choice and would pick up again - she didn't. Eventually I decided
enough was enough and there must be something wrong with her but as I
slowed the team to make a change at lead Poppy seemed to pick up again,
so I let her carry on. This pattern repeated itself constantly all the
way back and it was a very slow team that returned to the van. I did a
physical examination of Poppy, feet, wrists etc., but could find
nothing wrong so I put it down to her having an off day and loaded all
the dogs back into the van ready for the trip to Toronto and the
planned visit to the Lokiboden Kennels.
Having spent a most informative and enjoyable afternoon with the
Gilchrists's, the second kennel on our 'Grand Tour' was to be the
Kraken kennel of Paul and Shelly Whitney. Paul and Shelly have dogs
from predominantly Northome and Kodiak lines and as both Louise and I
had long admired (via the internet) their dogs we were very keen to
visit. Paul had also invited us to go out training with them so this
would give us more opportunities to train on snow before Tahquamenon.
So within minutes of arriving at the Kraken Kennel in Thunder Bay,
Ontario, we were out with both Paul's team and (gulp) our own.
Again things didn't go well on our training runs, Poppy would not lead
at all; normally highly consistent on her Gees and Haws it seemed that
now she would not take a single turn straight off; she even came very
close to leading the team over a bank/cliff - luckily Paul who was
following close behind on an ATV, managed to stop us in time and hauled
the dogs back up the bank to safety. On our second run at Paul's Poppy
even did the unthinkable and tried to lead the team back in the
direction of the van rather than do the second loop that was proposed
by the musher. Enough was enough on the leader front, for the remainder
of the training runs I swapped Poppy for Paris and resolved to work
with Paris and Medea at lead.
Another common problem for this winter, we were once again blighted
with van problems whilst staying with Paul; this time the van wouldn't
start after one particularly cold night (-20°C). The CAA resolved that
the van needed a block heater to be fitted and proceeded to tow the
van, the dogs and myself to a 'friend' in Thunder Bay who specialised
in knackered and clapped out (or should that read imported) European
vehicles. As a result of the problems with the van our "Grand
Tour ' was held back by a day so we changed plans and decided to drive
straight down to Duluth to visit the Northome kennels. Upon arrival at
the Siberian Kennel of Ann and Al Stead we once again were lucky to
have the opportunity to run the dogs, this time under the knowledgeable
eyes of Ann and Al. Having been suitably embarrassed by the poor
performance of the team in front of Paul, I decided I had nothing to
lose now, I would run the yearlings Medea and Paris at lead on this
run. They went like a dream, leading out nicely and taking every turn
on command; this was my 'dream' lead partnership. This being the case
you would think I wouldn't consider putting Poppy back at lead for the
foreseeable future. Anyway more of that below.
The next point of call, after a most enjoyable couple of days at the
Northome Kennels, was the Manitou Crossing kennel of Blake and Jen
Freking. We had been planning to spend a day with Blake and Jen and get
the dogs out for one more run before the Tahquamenon. Unfortunately the
van intervened once again; despite the new block heater that had been
fitted in Thunder Bay at some cost and inconvenience, the van's
battery was still not able to crank the engine over if it was too cold.
I did consider warming the van by placing a match in the fuel tank but
then thought that this plan may be a bit drastic as we were about 2500
miles from home. Eventually we got to the Freking's late in the
evening, just enough light to view their dogs, far too late to run our
guys. So we hung around for a couple of hours and as we were so worried
about the van (Manitou Crossing was off the grid and so probably not
the ideal place to be messing with a dodgy block heater and battery) we
decided to head back towards civilisation and begin the journey back
across Minnesota and Wisconsin to Newberry, Michigan and our first race
of 2007.
Tahquamenon 2007
As with the previous year the musher's meeting for the race was held in
the American Legion in the centre of Newberry on the Friday evening.
Undoubtedly affected by the weather and the need to reschedule, the
originally planned 60 mile, 12 dog class had been dropped leaving the
20 mile sportsman and the 43 mile 8 dog pro as the two main classes for
the day. Having always intended to use the race to build up for the Can
Am we had entered in the 8 dog class. Pulling into the car park of the
Legion, and careful not to have a repeat of the previous year where we
were towed out of a snow bank, we were pleased to see that it was
snowing, a good sign considering the relatively snow less conditions we
had been driving in for the last 48 hours.
The meeting was not as well attended as the previous year (a sign no
doubt of the reduced numbers of classes), nor were there as many trade
stalls however the meeting was treated to a rendition of the
"Tahquamenon Country' song composed and performed by a couple of the
handlers. After this it was down to the serious stuff, rules, bib
numbers, course and trail conditions. More fresh snow was expected
overnight but the trail was reported as being good, if a little punchy
in places; nothing to be concerned about. I studied the map of the
course and quickly realised that there was the potential for a lot of
head on passing. Now compared to the previous year, and probably as a
result of getting some American dogs into the team, we were now much
more proficient at running on the wrong right side of the trail.
However this did not mean we always ran in the right place and despite
lots of training at Boot Camp and at Tara's we were not all that
practiced at head on passing. Still, we would be OK (I hoped).
As seems to be the norm with me the night before the race was to be a
limited sleep night. I quaffed a couple of Blue in the hope that that
would send me to sleep and then lay in bed all night listening to the
group in the room above us partying until 2am - how I wished I had that
luxury.
More to follow...
