Cold Nights, Fast Trails, Broken Sleds

December 27, 2001

Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs--Jim Gallea

The mercury is sort of hard to see, but it is hovering at about -5oF.

The weather has been fairly cold recently.  At night, the temperature drops below zero, and during the day, clouds have obscured the sun and held the cool air in the valleys.  The cold weather is very refreshing.  When you walk outside, you can pause, take a deep breath, and feel energized. 

Unfortunately, the clouds have not brought much snow with them.  We have adequate snow to safely run all the dogs we want to, but we don't have any "safety cushion" should the temperatures warm up and melt any of the snow.  Additionally, the trails have gotten pretty hard-packed thanks to the grooming and holiday season snowmobile and dog team traffic.  Hard trails are also fast trails, but hard trails also mean that the dogs' joints get a minimum of cushioning when they run.  A 3-8 inch snowfall would solve both of these problems, but so far no luck in that department...

However, as I said, hard trails are fast trails.  Today I took both of my teams out for a short run just to let them stretch out before we do a 100-mile camping trip run tomorrow.  Both teams were awesome!  Despite the 60 pounds of dog food and chain I was carrying in the sled, we flew around the 15-mile loop.  I didn't time the runs, but I wish I would have, because I think we may have broken the kennel speed record for that run!

I did the first run during the daylight.  The view was amazing.  The clouds had lifted enough to make the Swan Mountains visible 5 miles away on the other side of the valley, and they sparkled in the light.  A thick layer of hoarfrost covered the trees across the valley, and they appeared a metallic silver from our viewpoint on top of a low ridge.  I am kicking myself for not bringing the camera!  I have brought it on nearly every run this year, and, of course, on one of the most beautiful days I have seen, I didn't have it with. 

As we were rounding the sharp hairpin corner a mile from my house (see last half of December 5, 2001 update), I had to lean far to the inside of the corner to counteract the centrifugal force.  As I was leaning in and pulling the handlebar of the sled inward, I felt a jolt and heard a crack.  The handlebar became loose and wobbly in my hands.  I was able to round the rest of the corner, and once we were on straight trail, I looked down to see that the rear stanchion on the right side of the sled had completely broken in two!  The stanchion is 1 1/4-inch square oak.  I just looked at the team, laughed, and said, "Good Dogs!  We're going so fast we managed to break the sled."  With that, we arrived at home.  I used a different sled for the second run.

My second run was done under the moonlight.  The clouds completely cleared at sundown while I was unhooking the first team.  The temperature dropped below zero.  The nearly-full moon was high in the sky.  The stage for a perfect run was set.  I used my headlamp as we took off just so I could clearly see the dogs as the run began.  After a little over a mile, I was getting ready to shut my light off as we descended a hill and began to round a blind corner.  Suddenly, the beam from the light caught a dozen sets of glowing eyes right in front of my dog team.  It was my neighbor and his team! 

Now, head-on collisions with dog teams are not really a dangerous thing because the dogs know not to bonk heads with another dog, but from my standpoint 70 feet away on the sled, it looked just like one of those battle scenes in Braveheart where everyone just collides and then stops.  I put the snowhooks in to prevent the team from moving down the trail, and I went up to the front of the team.  A few of my dogs were tangled with a few of my neighbor's dogs.  We easily untangled them, looked over both teams, and wished each other a Merry Christmas.  It was easiest for me to leave first, and my neighbor helped to pull my team to the outside of his team as we passed, and then we were gone down the trail.  I shut my light off and enjoyed the rest of a run that was so fast that at times I got the same feeling I get on some of those crazy carnival rides.

When I returned, I unhooked the team and placed all the harnesses back on hooks in our shop.  I turned behind me to notice that two tons of dog food had just been delivered and neatly stacked in the corner.  What a great day!  Two awesome runs, a broken sled, a moonlight run, and I didn't even have to unload the dog food truck!

We have a lot of new feature items in the works.  They should be posted within the next week, so check back soon. 

Jim