What are the runners doing up there?!!
Well it seemed like a good idea at the time. As we have 17 dogs in
training, Rob has recently moved up to running 10 and I have just moved
up to 6. This means of course that someone gets left out. But today Rob
planned to run 11 for the first time. As I say, a week ago I moved up
from 4 dogs to 6, a move taken with much trepidation, but which had
turned out to be rather easy. So easy in fact that on yesterdays run
with 5 of the yearlings and Poppy I was bemoaning how slow they were
going and wishing that I had some more dogs in the team. I mentioned
this to Rob on the drive to our training area, and so he suggested that
I take 7 and he would take 10. ‘OK’ I said, without hesitation. In
retrospect the word ‘foolhardy’ springs to mind. For my 6 dogs I
planned to take Poppy again, 3 yearlings in Mannie, Joe and Koko, plus
a couple of the older boys, Nero and Lewis to provide the ‘oomph’ that
was missing yesterday. ‘Who do you want as your seventh dog?’ Rob
asked. After a little deliberation I chose Eclipse, the youngest girl,
still a puppy in fact. I certainly didn’t want any of the big, strong
boys.
So it was that my 7 were hooked up on one side
of the trail while I held Rob ' s team and waited to set him off. I
kept looking over at my team, bouncing around and yelling their heads
off. I started to become a bit apprehensive. Maybe this wasn't such a
good idea after all. I am still very much a beginner when it comes to
riding a sled and I manage to fall off with monotonous regularity. My
worst experience – thus far – had been on our first sled ride of the
year about a month ago when my 4 dog team had managed to dislodge me at
the start of the trail and had dragged me on my side for about 100
yards. I then fell off several more times during that run and told Rob
quite categorically that I was never getting on a sled again. (I seem
to remember having the same problem with the rig about 10 years ago and
also vowing never to run dogs again, which makes me wonder why I am,
these days, hurtling through the woods on a sled with 7 dogs hitched
up…………) However on that first run the trail entrance that day was
particularly icy and rutted due to some pillock who shall remain
nameless (lets call him ‘Rob’) getting a VW van stuck down there for 4
hours the day before. This despite the fact that his much more
intelligent and insightful wife (lets call her ‘Louise’) had strongly
advised him not to take it down there as it would get stuck. There then
followed an awful lot of pushing, pulling and swearing, during which
poor ‘Louise’ had her fingers run over, got crushed between the van and
an ATV and missed not one, but TWO Christmas parties, neither of which
she wanted to go to anyway, but that’s not the point! Apparently. So I
was told. Anyway the damaged trail provides some mitigation as to
my original falling off.
Anyway, back to today’s catastrophe. The trail was in much
better condition today, even I could stay on this couldn’t I? I let
Rob’s team go and started over to my team. When they saw his team go
they started to go REALLY ballistic, slamming in to their harnesses and
screaming. I was quite perturbed by now, but it had to be done, so I
stepped on the runners. With one foot on the brake I pulled the
snowhook. The team surged forward but was stopped by the snubline. The
quick-release is some way behind me, so with one foot still on the
brake I have to lean back and release it………..at that point, brake or no
brake those dogs are going. I’ve never been behind that much power
before. Unfortunately my starting place is right next to a two foot
ditch, and as the dogs took off and I frantically tried to go with
them, I slid sideways into the ditch, followed by the sled. I got
dragged a little way along the ditch upside down, until I got wedged
into a tree that had also fallen into the ditch, no doubt with a lot
more elegance than I did.. I opened my eyes and all I could see was
grey, I was completely buried under the snow. I brushed the snow away
and looked up………..at the sled runners above me. “This isn’t good’ I
thought. I then became acutely aware that I hadn’t actually let got of
the sled and was still clinging on to it with one arm, an arm that 7
screaming hellhounds were doing their best to remove from my body. I
must have lain there for 20 seconds or so, wondering ‘how the hell am I
going to get out of this one?!’ It’s at moments like those that I yearn
for one of those husbands that make scale-models of the Houses of
Parliament out of used lollipop sticks for a hobby. ( I was also
thankful that I had declined Rob ' s offer of a ski pole, no doubt it
would’ve disembowelled me by now.)
Anyway, I was in quite a predicament. The snowhook
was lying by me and I tried to dig it in, but the snow in the ditch was
too powdery and useless. So I carefully unwedged myself from the tree
and the dogs, being so released, proceeded to drag me on my face for
about 30 yards before ‘Louise the Human Snowhook’ was so buried in snow
that it brought the whole lot to a stop again. The sled of course was
still on it’s side. I knew that if I could get it on to its runners
they would be off, with or without me, and I’d have to get on quick.
The dogs were going CRAZY. I somehow managed to get the sled upright
and to cling on to it. I went to put my foot on the brake/dragmat, and
sitting there was the snowhook, lethal points facing upwards. I just
managed to get a toe onto the brake and get it down a bit, but they
were still flying along. ‘If I can just make it over the bridge and up
the hill, then I can slow them down enough to sort out the snow hook’ I
thought, ‘If I can just hold on……” WHAM! At that moment the snowhook
bounced off the sled and dug in hard. Coming to a complete and instant
stop when you are travelling at over 20 mph is unadvisable. I flew over
the handlebar and landed about 10 feet in front of the sled. I
distinctly remember thinking ‘wow I didn’t know you could do that on a
sled!’ Well at least the team was stopped. I got up, collected my
thoughts, said a few prayers and prepared to let them go again. Only
one problem, the snowhook had gone in with such force I couldn’t get it
out. I did briefly consider taking each dog off and taking them back to
the van, but it was about 200 yards away by now, and I was loathe to
leave the other dogs in the team, knowing my luck they’d pull the hook
while I was gone. So after much kicking, pulling and swearing I finally
got the hook loose and we were off again, all of us screaming, or maybe
it was just me by that point. The rest of the 23 miles were reasonably
uneventful, apart from coming perilously close to falling off several
more times. And, despite standing full on the dragmat every time we
went down the slightest hill (these dogs had me terrified by now, and
for some reason while yesterdays trail seemed to be all uphill, the
same trail today seemed to be all downhill!) we still went round almost
2 HOURS faster than yesterday. I was so glad to get back to the van,
never have I been more relieved to get off the sled. I think I’ll stick
to 6 dogs for a while!
I’m off to lie down in a darkened room now…………..
Louise