First Mother Nature blessed us with extremely cold temperatures. With the day time highs in the mid -20's and the lows in the -30's with wind chills in the -40's. These temperatures caused vehicle starting problems which we unable to correct until Thursday when we finally got the truck started.
Due to the problem with the truck & the frigid temperatures we were unable to run the dogs. With these extreme temperatures, you can run the risk of frost bite of the dogs lungs if they are run.
We also experienced snow machine issues with the electric starter blowing up. This was disappointing as it is a 2010 machine with very low mileage. I am still awaiting a response to my request for assistance from Bombardier, as I found out they had starter issues with that year's machines.
However, we did go the race last weekend at L'Epiphanie. The organization had prepared a supper trail with very fast conditions on a very technically challenging coarse.
Saturday, we were lucky enough to draw the first start position & left to the cheering of large crowd of spectators lining the main street start. It was very exciting!
The dogs ran great on Saturday with some of the fastest speeds of the season. This speed & the hair pin turns made for a very exciting ride on the sled maneuvering through the tight turns. We had one momentary stop on the coarse when one of the lead dogs stopped to answer the call of nature. She had never did this before , so it caught me by surprise. Luckily we had no tangles and finished the run without further instances.
Sunday was a different story, with the trail being chewed up with over 100 teams passing over it before us. With these conditions & the lack of training runs , the teams speed was down. The section through the golf coarse, which was unique to the Open Teams was great & the team responded with a speedy run. The lack of training was also seen on the teams performance as the result having to stop the team over seven times due to tangles & issues again with natures callings. The dogs were telling me that I didn't do my job in preparing them. So all I could do is laugh at the silly situations that happened.
RUNNING DOGS CAN BE A HUMBLING EXPERIENCE!! HA! HA!
I would like acknowledge the great assistance of my handlers Michele & Ben and the assistance from the Gonsolin Family for getting my team to the Starting Line.
Overall, we had a fun weekend & weather providing, prepare the team better for the next race.
Until next week.......