Me a Musher?
I call myself a Musher. Most people think that’s strange. To look at me you would see a 65 year old grandmother, a retired teacher, living on the eastern shore of Md where the climate is described as a “warm humid temperate climate with hot summers and no dry season.” And the average temperature in February is 50F. Add to this strangeness the fact that I didn’t start mushing UNTIL I moved to the eastern shore when I retired at the age of 58. But that’s what people like me do. People with ice on the brain who love to breathe in cold crisp air and look up at a brilliant winter sky full of stars while peering out from under the hood of your Trans Alaska Parka. That feeling is so invigorating it’s hard not to keep needing to get back to it.
The cause
Blame it on ice on the brain, a northern soul or the call of the wild, it doesn’t matter. But if you are victim of either of these ailments at some point in your life you succumb and you answer the call. For me that happened when I retired from teaching and my 4 children had gone off on their own. Now I finally had time to indulge myself and what I wanted to do was run a sled dog team. When I honestly admitted that to myself, my age and place of domicile seemed a small impediment to making that happen. Oh and did I mention that I have one of the most understanding husbands in the world? Of course initially as I started “gathering sled dogs” he thought this was a passing fancy and I’d be over it before his golf season was over. But no. Twas not to be. As I started learning about dog sled driving I became more and more sure that that was what I was meant to do. And the dogs we brought into our home quickly worked their magic on my husband and bonded with him as well as me and we became The Powers Pack: my 4 husky sled dogs, myself as the Head Musher (as my husband calls me) and my One Man Pit Crew, the name my husband has taken on as his duties have increased.
Now keep in mind that there are a lot of experienced professional mushers out there who are leagues above where I am. Mushing Magazine is full of stories from all over the world of amazing individuals who love to run super fast with their teams and others who travel miles and miles with their dogs over terrain that we can still call Wilderness. I don’t pretend to be in their league. I do look up to them for inspiration and counsel but I am a recreational musher whose main goal is to explore this wonderful world on the back of a sled powered by 4 of my best buddies :
Fenway, Aura, Chinook and Kodiak.
That for me is what it’s all about. And that is what has brought me once again to New Brunswick Canada where my dogs and I are exploring, training, and getting stronger and stronger so we can take part in the Can Am 30 in March.
Maybe it’s the teacher in me but I love setting goals for myself and so I enter races from time to time just to see how much we’ve improved and I love the camaraderie of events where I always meet other people like myself who have ice on the brain or a northern soul. And the Can Am is a great mushing event put on by the town of Fort Kent Maine and this seems like as good an excuse as any for me to get back to my home state.
Conditioning for the Cold
So when many of my Maryland friends head south for the winter The Powers Pack heads north apotheke-zag.de. In the 10 days we’ve been in New Brunswick the temperatures have dipped down to a low of -25F. That’s nippy even for the locals! My concern when we first arrive is to make sure the dogs adjust gradually to the cold. The first day I ran the team the temperature was -10F so we did a nice easy 10 mile run. Mother Nature had just dumped a ton of rain on the eastern seabord so the trail was hard and icy in spots. That meant the dogs could run fast so I spent a lot of time on my drag brake to slow them down. The last thing I wanted was to hit an icy spot and fall off the sled and I didn’t want the dogs to injure themselves. Once I got onto the main trail there was a slight dusting of snow on the surface. This made slipping less problematic. In the photo below you can see the hard packed trail and Aura, my white Alaskan in wheel position, is wearing a red coat to help transition her to the colder climate. She is also wearing booties on her paws. This is to prevent any snow from forming snow balls between her pads and causing irritation.
The dogs were quite happy during their run and they finished strong which told me we were good to go for a longer run tomorrow. This is how we looked at the end of our run. Chilly and cold on the outside but warm and fuzzy on the inside. =)
Here is a picture of Fenway and Chinook after our run. The frost on their whiskers is a tribute to their hard work.
And later that evening in typical husky fashion The Pack loves chilling out in their favorite “hockey puck” position on the couch resting to be ready for the next day’s run.
Couch space is often shared with a tired musher who appreciates a little rest in anticipation of tomorrow’s run.
The second day was slightly warmer, a balmy 14F so we set off for a 20 mile run. This time I borrowed 2 dogs from my Canadian musher friend Gino Roussel. The Can Am requires mushers who run the Can Am 30 to have 6 dogs on their team so I need to get used to running a 6 dog team. Snow flurries during the night made for a nicer and smoother ride with icy spots on the trail no longer an issue. Being able to run under different conditions during the winter helps the team and musher build confidence and during my first 4 runs on snow I’ve been able to experience 4 different sets of conditions. This is one of the reasons I like training in the north.
A week after we arrived in New Brunswick the Blizzard of 2013 hit the east coast of the US. As luck would have it the area we were in was spared the brunt of the storm. We got a total of about 6 inches of snow which added a nice cushion to the base we already had. New snow is a great opportunity for training. By breaking a fresh trail the dogs work on strength and conditioning. It’s hard work but the effort is worthwhile since it’s not uncommon to find yourself running in a snowstorm during a race. And of course there is the added benefit of mixing work with pleasure when rest stops give you an opportunity to pause and breathe in the beauty that is the wilderness under a fresh cover of snow.
As I type this we are preparing to travel to Qubéec province for a weekend Sled Dog Race called the Odyssée Appalachienne. The weekend festivities are a reflection of how Canadians organize activities during the winter to get people outside to enjoy the season. Winter in Canada is a long season but that doesn’t mean people stay indoors. On the contrary, Canadians love doing things outside and events like those going on in St. Pamphile Québec are a message to Mother Nature that life goes on not just in spite of the cold and the snow but because of it. The Powers Pack is looking forward to exploring a new area of Québec as we take part in a 2-day sled dog race over the weekend. This adventure will be especially meaningful to me since my maternal grandmother was born in this region over a century ago. It’s a great chance for me to connect with my heritage.
As we say in French, until next time!
A bientôt!