CHECKPOINT ROUTINE

Tuesday, March 4, 2:00 p.m.

CHECKPOINT ROUTINE

The Manley Checkpoint is a buzzing place this morning. Many teams are coming and going; many are resting. For most teams this is the second rest of the race. For some it is the first major rest; that is, they took perhaps a one or two hour rest along the trail so far, and plan a much longer rest here – or close by.

The teams of Lynda Plettner, Robert Sorlie, and John Baker were the first in between midnight and 12:30 AM. By our calculations it is 120 miles to Manley from Fairbanks. If the teams travel 11 or 13 miles per hour, it would take 11 or 12 hours of running to reach this spot. John Baker arrived about 14 hours after he left Fairbanks, so he couldn’t have taken more than about a two or three hour break along the trail.

One of the things each team is focusing on at this point is getting into their “checkpoint routine”. In this update I’ll try to give you a brief description of what goes on in a checkpoint, and show you some of the steps in our photos. (Some will be in Daniel’s update).

If a team is staying, they sign in at the entrance to the checkpoint, and immediately pick up their drop bags, and a few bottles of Heet (methanol), which will fuel their cookers. They follow a snowmachine, or perhaps a checkpoint volunteer to a bedding area, where a bag of straw awaits them, wrapped in plastic to keep it dry.

Paul Gebhardt snacks his dogs before his planned departure

Upon parking the team, the musher unhitches the tugline, or backline, from each harness, so the dogs are attached only by their collars and necklines. Straw is put down for each dog to rest on. Booties are removed. Then the musher can stand up and stretch his or her back!

Often the race veterinarians show up about this time to give the team a thorough check-up, getting input from the mushers about any symptoms, or problems, they’ve noticed during the run. Sometimes decisions are made at this point that a dog should stay behind.

Usually the next step is getting water boiling. This will be added to frozen meat and fat, as well as high protein, high fat dry dog food. And it will also be used to warm up the mushers frozen rations. No campfires, or two burner Coleman stoves any more! Now mushers use methanol, which burns very hot, but also very clean.

Vern Halter puts booties on his lead dogs. Notice how the team is standing, barking, and demanding to go

Some checkpoints have water available, other require dipping water from a river or lake…or even melting snow. Manley has a hot spring nearby, and last night the residents brought fresh hot water from the spring to the checkpoint, to be available to all the teams equally. This is a BIG treat for a musher….starting out with hot water.

While the water heats, the mushers often attend to their dog’s feet, wrists and shoulders. Various soothing products are rubbed into web spaces, or over wrists and shoulders. You know how good this feels by watching how the dogs love it!

While the hot water/dog food mix steeps, allowing meat to thaw and dry dog food to soak up lots of water…the musher often eats their food. We’ll do more on food later. The dogs are fed as soon as their food is available. When you watch these athletes eat, you know what your mother meant when she said to you: “…don’t wolf your food down!”

After everyone is fed, and medical needs tended to, the whole team typically rests: both musher and dogs. The musher, however, must get up well before the team is due to leave and repack the sled, drink fluids to keep hydrated, and prepare to leave.

Rick Swenson’s team lopes out of the checkpoint this morning looking strong

As the time nears to leave the musher will start to act busy and see if the dogs wake up and act ready to go. Often they will do this by offering a snack. It’s a big reassurance when your whole team inhales their snacks and look for more.

Finally, booties are put on. Nowadays most teams put boots on most all the dog’s feet for the whole race. This isn’t because all the dog’s feet are sore…it’s more like preventative medicine. We’ve learned that keeping boots on keeps the feet feeling good, and that’s way better than trying to fix a problem.

The last thing is to hook up the tuglines again…usually while giving the team (and yourself) a peptalk. This morning the teams leaving were led out by dogs barking and lunging just like at the start line. When you see this you know how great these athletes are.