White Oak Classic

Deer River, MN

6-dogs, 60 miles

Team:

Tess

Ginger

Bandit

Fritz

Reggae

Dallas

Originally I was entered to run the 10-dog race, but as the date crept closer, I felt we didnt have enough miles on to do it and dropped to the shorter race.  Then our funds were a bit short so I thought that we would have to sit out the race altogether.  Luckily our wonderful sponsors, Tony and Rose Gemignani who own Gemignani's Restaurant in Hancock, MI and also Rudy's Spice came through and helped us out.  So we decided to go about 3 days before the race.

I started out with Ginger and Tess in lead.  Brian Tiura helped me get up to the starting chute since he had over an hour until his chute time.  He held the leaders and took upon himself the momentous task of keeping Ginger facing the right way.  After watching him struggle for a few minutes, I let him know that this was normal for her and that she would turn the right way when it was time to go.

I was a bit nervous about the start because there was not a whole lot of snow and I knew that we were going to have to do some turns to get through town.  Tess has never been much of a command leader and in the past has tended to crumple under pressure.  Ginger’s capability consists of a blank and adoring stare.  The first hitch came at the starting chute itself when the sled handlers stuck my stainless steel hook that Charlie made solidly into the wooden post, not realizing how very sharp it was.  The countdown… 3..2..1 and we are stuck! The man finally managed to get the hook out and all I could think was that he was lucky I didn’t have powerful Goose in the team or he never would have gotten it out!

Right away we were in some tight quarters going through trees and over a few snow covered logs as well.  I was glad that I didn’t have 10 dogs as original planned.  My old beater of a toboggan does not track well and makes a terrible slamming noise whenever we go over any jumps.  I think we ran down a few snow-covered roads and I remember that at one intersection I had no idea which way we were supposed to go.  I was amazed that there were no volunteers to help us out.  There was no way to put the hook in on the road if I happened to choose the wrong way.  I figured that the dogs would be able to tell better than I, so when Tess chose to turn, I let her.  Thankfully, she chose the correct path.

Right away our problems started with Reggae constantly struggling to poop.  He started out in swing and so he would drag the leaders to a stop in front of him.  Then Dallas started this as well.  Looking back, I realize that I had fed them too close to the start time.  I finally put Reggae and Dallas together in wheel so that we could at least keep moving forward.  Perhaps about 6 miles out, Ginger wanted to slow to a trot so I out Bandit up in lead with Tess and a few teams passed us including JoAnn Fortier.  Her team went by at a good clip and I knew I probably wouldn’t see her again.  We ran by ourselves for quite awhile after that, which is the way I like it.  We passed a few teams along the way and I was amazed at how well Tess was doing.  Bandit can be a real ladies man and will stop and “visit” if the other dog lets him, but Tess was on fire and was performing better than I had ever seen her.  Another pleasant surprise was that she took every command that I gave her!  She had a new confidence that I had never seen before and I could tell from her expression that she knew it too.

I also want to mention that I was freezing the entire race.  Somebody had told me that the race course was fairly hilly and so I dressed lightly in only a fleece pullover with a light nylon windbreaker on top.  I had also forgotten my neck warmer back in the motel room, but I had confiscated Charlie’s knit hat and taken my knife and ripped out the top seam.  It actually fit nice and snug around my neck when I pulled it over my head.  There were hills, but nothing at all like I was prepared for so I ran whenever I could to help keep warm.  I had to laugh at myself for wishing the dogs weren’t running so fast and hoping to see a hill coming up!

We passed a few teams and continued on.  I could see a corner coming up and the trail suddenly turned to the right and we were supposed to take the trail alongside the road and next to the bridge.  Naturally the dogs popped out onto the road and my leaders and swing dogs were out onto the pavement of the bridge before I knew what was happening.  I had a few teams behind me and I managed to shoo them the right way.  One of the mushers (I wish I knew who it was, so I could thank him) saw my predicament and jammed his snowhook onto the guard rail and started to come to my rescue. As my team saw the other teams running by on the other side of the guard rail, they were banging and screaming to go.  In my mind I pictured how it would be if the other musher and I managed to get my team turned around.  My team would end up right next to his and my sled would probably be slammed right into the guard rail.  So I yelled, “Thanks, but I guess we’ll just go this way!” to the other musher and we scraped along down the bare pavement of the bridge.  Looking up, I was relieved to see that the volunteer that was waiting to stop traffic on the other side was walking towards us.  I knew that I would probably need help on the other side to get my team back down onto the trail.  Unfortunately, he kept walking past me as I headed for the cars waiting at the other side.  We reached the other side and I managed to scrape us to a halt as we watched the teams we had already passed, go by us again.  Tess finally agreed to give up the nice road for the trail and we were back on track. 

After we re-passed the teams directly in front of us, we ran alone for quite awhile again and I had time to enjoy the beautiful trail.  We came around another right-hand corner and were on a trail that was split down the middle by power poles.  Tess likes to run on the very left side of the trail so she chose the left hand trail.  We ran for a little ways, but I could see that no other dog teams had run on this side.  I was worried that eventually this trail would split off from the other and we would then be going the wrong way; so I stopped the team and dragged them over.  I ran back to the sled, pulled the hook, and she jumped back over to the left again.  Worried that I would be re-passed again, I decided that if the trail did split off ahead of us I would be able to see it in time so we kept going.  After awhile I could see two teams coming frombehind us and gaining pretty steadily.  They were ten-dog teams running on the right-hand trail.  When they came up alongside of us, Tess picked up speed and we raced them for a ways, but they eventually pulled away.

I believe it was shortly after we left the power line trail behind, that Jerry Papke passed and we came upon a team stopped in the trail. It was JoAnn, who appeared to be having leader issues.  I can definitely say that I’ve been there too and don’t wish it on anyone!

About 40 miles out, the two males finally seemed to have worked out their bowel problems and were finally running as they should.  Tim Calhoun came up on us and his leaders insisted on trying to pass on the left even though we were hugging that side.  He was running his leaders without a neckline and one leader went to the right and one to the left, so I stopped and helped the errant leader to the correct side.  We were moving along at a good pace now and I was happy to see that it took awhile for Tim to pull away from us.  Bandit was starting to lag a bit but was not holding Tess back so I left him up in lead rather than waste time trying another dog up there.  John Hull passed next with his 10 dpg team, and he pulled away much quicker than anyone else had.  It was starting to become dusk, so I stopped the team and turned on the blinker on Tess’s collar and also switched on my headlamp.

The final homestretch seemed to go on forever since it was a straight shot for quite a ways and I could see several of the 10 dog teams that had passed us way up ahead.  It was pretty dark now and I could tell that the flashing light on Tess’s collar was annoying Bandit which I thought was kind of funny.  About 2 miles from the finish, Bandit started to really fall back and I put Ginger back up in lead again.  Ginger was happy with the slower pace now and also was not bothered by the blinker on Tess.  It was fully dark by the time we came into the finish and there was a bright flashing red light that was a bit disorienting so I was glad to hear Charlie calling for Tess to guide her in.  We stopped at the finish line and handed over our trap, which was part of our mandatory gear for the race and headed for the truck. 

I had no idea where we were at in the standings, but was happy with how the dogs ran.  With the exception of Bandit, they came in pretty looking good.  Overall I was happy with Bandit too.  He did well until the last 2 miles or so and he still made an effort to keep up even though he was so tired.  I was absolutely freezing by this time, and could hardly control my shivering, but I made sure the dogs were taken care of.  They all ate and drank well and were quite happy to be loaded up into their boxes for a much deserved rest. 

We drove back to our motel with the wonderful heat cranked up.  When I went to get out, I found that I could hardly move my knees without crying!  I have always known that my knees weren’t real strong but haven’t had a real problem with them until this year.  I felt like an idiot as I hobbled my way inside the motel and flopped on the bed.  At some point that night, we were told by a fellow musher that we must be somewhere in 9^th or 10^th place.  I was very excited by this especially after the stop-and-go first 40 miles we had!  The awards banquet was not until the next afternoon and was about 60 miles away, but we decided to stick around. 

That next day we were waiting in a parking lot for the awards banquet to start when Charlie got a call from Brian Tiura.  They talked for awhile about the race and then Brain mentioned something about a 15 min penalty that I had gotten.  We had no idea what he was talking about and figured he must be mistaken.  We went inside to make sure, and were told that I had indeed gotten a penalty for having no blinking light on my lead dog!  This penalty put us from 10^th to 14^th place and out of the money.  We waited to talk to the race marshal, Dan Bergerson.  He seemed to know what we were going to say before we could tell him and started shaking his head.  We explained that we knew that the blinker was on because it was on when Charlie took it off at the finish line!  Dan agreed that it probably was on, but he had to go with his race judges on the decision.  I told him that I understood that of course it was my word against theirs, but my major issue was the fact that I wasn’t told right there at the finish line as I should have been.  After all, the team was already stopped while I handed over the trap and my race bib.  Then we would have had a chance to prove who was right!  He agreed that this is what should have happened but then went on to question why we were so upset since after all, we only lost $100 for 10^th place!  No words can express our thoughts on this answer!!!! 

In summary, the trail was nice on this race and I appreciate everyone’s hard work to keep it going.