A Much-Needed Vactation

October 21, 2001

Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs--Seeley Lake, MT

The Swan Mountains at the edge of the Seeley-Swan valley tower above Snowcrest Kennel.  The mountains are blanketed in snow from last week's storms, and more snow is forecast.

Whew!  This past week of college has been extremely busy for me.  It felt great to be able to get back in the woods and out on the dog trails.  In my last update (October 12), I talked a bit about the reasons we spend our lives with the dogs.  My busy week has inspired me to elaborate a little bit more on the subject.  Not only can the dogs bring clarity to my thoughts, but they also greatly help me to simplify my life and appreciate the things that are truly important.  How many times can you remember having a hectic, busy week with lots of projects requiring attention, family and friends wanting to spend time with you, and a seemingly endless list of little "details" to attend to?  Everyone has these times.  They are a part of the culture in which we all live.  However, all of that--the stress, the rush, the feeling of the world bearing down on you--disappears on the runners of a dog sled.  

Running dogs requires absolute focus on the dogs.  Whenever I'm out on a training run and catch my mind starting to wander toward the hustle and bustle of the outside world, I immediately block out those thoughts, look over my dog team, glance in all directions around our little moving island of fur and energy, and get back into that absolute focus.  

Some people go on vacations to exotic lands with palm trees, olives, and foods with names that I can't pronounce; and they use those vacations as a means to do exactly what I am able to do in my back yard while my dogs and I silently glide across the snow.  I know of many Iditarod mushers who view running the Iditarod as their ultimate vacation.  My mom told me a story of a fellow musher in the 1998 Iditarod who was beaming at the thought of not having to chop firewood, haul water, maintain his house, and deal with the details of the world while he was on the Iditarod Trail.  His life was solely the Iditarod.

I know that I felt the same way when I ran my first Iditarod.  I can clearly remember seeing a TV set showing the Anchorage news when I was in the village of Nikolai.  For lack of better words, the TV was incomprehensible to me at that point.  The dogs were my life, and my life was centered on the dogs--caring for them, feeding them, running down the trail to the next checkpoint, watching their every step along the way--all of my thoughts pertained to the tasks directly in front of me.  My life was reduced to its simplest elements, and the Iditarod truly became a vacation in that way.  And that is another reason we are mushers.  

And now for news of training.

Jim's team (left) passes Cindy's team (right) during the training run.

My family owns two four-wheelers that we use to train the dogs when we do not have snow.  Today, my mom and I ran all 28 of the dogs I am training for the Iditarod by simultaneously running two 14-dog teams.  The run was great fun.  We ran 11 miles and took turns passing each other and driving each other's team, and even went opposite directions around loops in order to practice passing head-on.  The dogs really had fun chasing each other up and down hills and around corners.  For dogs, being second is no place to be, and a team that gets passed immediately speeds up and tries to catch the passing team, even if the passing team is faster. 

One of the most funny experiences today came right at the start of the run.  We took off out of our dog yard with me driving the font team and my mom following right behind with the second team.  Once we had gone about a quarter of a mile, I turned my head and signaled a thumbs-up sign to my mom to make sure everything was good.  She motioned to me that she was having trouble with her four-wheeler engine.  Apparently it wouldn't start, so she just let the dogs pull it with the engine off (which we do intentionally at times to give the dogs a good muscle-building workout).  About three minutes later, I looked back to see if she was able to get the four-wheeler started, and as I glanced back, her four-wheeler gave out a loud backfire--kind of a "CRACK"--and her team, who are not at all accustomed to such noises, immediately "kicked it into high."  I remember the look on Misty's (one of the lead dogs in her team) face.  Misty heard the noise, looked back at the rest of the team, and started into a wide-eyed driving lope.  My mom's eyes were equally large.  She had to ride the brakes to prevent her team from running right past me.  We both were laughing pretty hard, and all she managed to say was, "Hmm...Must be the beans we had last night." 

Cindy's team running down the trail.

The Western Larch trees were golden, the air was cold, the dust has been settled by rain (and even a bit of snow), the dogs were great, and needless to say, today was another great vacation out in woods.