Tuesday, February 6,
2018: Rachel in Fairbanks; Cal & Wilbur in Eagle
Rachel’s entry: My breakfast arrived around 7:30 this morning
which required me to get up earlier than I prefer. The gal who brought the breakfast was able to
stay so we could visit. Her and her
husband are a team of award winning ice sculptures. They go to international
competitions too. We had a great visit,
and I saw photos of her incredible work. There work will be in an upcoming
Toyota TV advertisement.
Most shops in Fairbanks do not open until 10:00am and it is often
11:00. That is the case of the antique
shop I did not finish yesterday, so there is no rush for me to leave the house
this morning. After the antique shop I
went to the Co-op in downtown. On the
first floor of this building there are several shops with Alaskan made items –
one was mostly handicraft items, whereas the other one has artistic items. Upstairs there is a Dog Sled Museum which is
nice but could be updated. The Co-op appears
to be an old downtown department store building, that is now divided into
smaller shops and restaurants on the first floor and a few offices on the 2nd
and 3rd floor. The building
has been re-purposed.
Following a lunch break at the Crepery in the Co-op building,
I drove down the street to the Visitors Center and Morris Thompson Museum. We had stopped at the Visitors Center several
times last Friday & Saturday – this is where we warmed up and watched the
movie on Dawson City, BUT we did not look at their museum. Someone along the way, told me I should
return and go through the museum. So, I
did today! It was well worth the return
trip.
After this I checked out the locations of the places I would
be driving to tonight in the dark. I
wanted to be sure I knew where I was going.
I have very little time between meetings, and I do not want to be
wandering around, making wrong turns. By now it is time I returned to the house
for a nap, before needing to be at the West Mark Hotel in downtown at 5:30 for
a Rotary meeting of the Fairbanks Golden Heart Club.
I arrived at the West Mark at 5:20. Golden Heart club
members did not arrive until 5:26! They are
having a Club Business meeting tonight instead of an outside program. This Rotary Club is the smallest of the
Fairbanks Clubs – 14 were in attendance.
They meet in a private room, and each person orders what he want to eat
for the evening from the restaurant.
Only half of us had a meal. The
other half just had something to drink. It is a very informal group. Their Foreign Exchange student from Brazil
was in attendance.
As soon as the meeting was over, I was in the SUV, driving
to a PEO meeting. The program tonight is by one of the Chapter members. She has a Stain Glass Studio and we were in
the studio, where she explained the process.
Cal’s Entry: Eagle
and the Sled Dogs Arrival
The fire in the cabin stove was nearly out when I awoke
around 5:30. I got up and stoked the fire, so it would not be so cold when we
got up. Around 6:30 I went to the house
for an early cup of coffee.
It is -25 F this morning!!
Sandy had a very nice breakfast for us, eggs, bacon and
muffins. After breakfast we put on our
heavy- out-door gear and headed to the old school building/checkpoint to see
what was happening. The word is that the
lead musher, Allen Moore, is still 15 miles outside of town, which at 7 miles
per hour, comes to a little over 2 hours before he arrives. The next musher is still 40 miles out. Everything seems to be in order and ready for
them to arrive. There is a nice fire
burning outside the school building for people to gather around to keep warm, and
the school house is warm. There is a
combination of people at the school - volunteers, race organizers who flew in
yesterday, race veterinarians, and a customs officer for those who fly in from
Canada. Eagle is less than 5 miles from Canada.
Around 10:00 am, I am planning on going to the checkpoint to
get the latest update, and if the first team is getting close, I want to walk
down the trail to meet them when they arrive.
That is if I can stay warm enough!
It is still -27 at 10:00 am!
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| Checking the Trail for Markers |
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| Ready for the first Mushers |
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| Checking Musher Location on the Computer |
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| Inside the Old School |
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| Musher Information Board |
When I got to the checkpoint, the word was that Allen Moore
was due in at 11:30. Wilbur and I stayed around the school house for a while,
then we decided to walk down the trail to where Allen and his team will come
off the Yukon River and start up the trail to the checkpoint. We arrived at the river which was icy. We were wondering how we can make sure we do
not slip and fall on the ice, when I looked down the river, and there was Allen
and his dogs coming up the river, heading toward us. We saw him come toward us and then continue
up the trail toward town. Couldn’t have
planned it better!
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| Musher #1 Allan Moore Heading down the Frozen River |
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| Up the Trail |
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| Vet Check |
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| Allan Moore Ready to Prep the Dogs |
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| Sleep After a long run |
At 2:15 pm I walked back to the old grass air strip to watch
Paige Drobney come up the trail through the woods and into town. The sun was shining, and I have some very
nice photos of her coming into Eagle.
Back at the checkpoint, I wanted to see what was
happening. It was extremely interesting
to watch the mushers take care of their dogs.
They first take the booties off each dog and a wool insulator (fox tail)
that was around their flanks on their tummies.
I could not figure out why the wool insulator was needed, so I
asked. It is only on the males, to make
sure their penis did not freeze. I had
no idea, but it made sense in this extreme cold! The next thing was to get straw for the
dogs. Each dog was given one section of
a straw bale. The musher just gives the
dog the bale section and the dog would spread it out themselves, before they
would lay down. After the straw, Paige
went from dog to dog and spent time with each one. I was very impressed with how she handled her
team. Next came the Vets. They worked in pairs checking the dogs
completely. I asked a former musher how
they feel about the vets. For some
mushers, the vets are a problem, but for the musher I talked to, he said, “it
was a cheap way to get good vet service”.
While the vets are checking the dogs, the musher is cooking the food for
the dogs. No one can help the musher
take care of the dogs. The food mixture is different for each musher. Paige had quite a concoction she made for her
dogs. She added several supplements to
the food while it was being cooked. When
she fed the dogs, she added some additional supplements for each dog as they
needed it. One of her dogs was in the
sled when she arrived. Soon after arriving
she pulled a bag out of the sled with the dog in it. She took the dog out of the bag and hooked it
onto the line with the other dogs. After
inquiring about this dog, we found out that the dog vomited on the trail. Race dogs seem to have problems with stomach
ulcers, and that is what they think was wrong with the dog. The vets checked the dog, and all seemed to
be fine at this time. One of the vets
gave the musher some medication to help with the ulcers, if there continued to
be a problem.
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| Paige Drobney Coming In |
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| Dogs Making their Nest |
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| Massaging the Dog's Legs and Paws |
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| Prepping the Dog Food |
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| Feeding the Dogs |
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| Discussing the Dog with the Vet |
After the dogs ate they would curl up in the straw and
sleep. While the dogs were sleeping the
musher would either get some sleep themselves or take care of their own
personal things. They needed to dry any wet clothes, charge their light
batteries and prepare whatever they would need until they reached the next
check-point. If the musher would like to
sleep, they had a room in the old school set aside for them to sleep. There was a chalk-board where they would
write down which bed the musher was in and when they wanted a wake-up call. Of
the first two mushers, Allen got some sleep and Paige did not sleep. The school house had food for both the
volunteers and the mushers. Before the
musher left for Dawson City they would cook food for the next stop. The distance between Eagle and Dawson City
was 150 miles, so the musher would have to stop two or three times on the trail
to rest the dogs and feed them. This
would happen out on the trail with no check point around, it is just the musher
and their dogs. The word is that it will
be -40 to-45 degrees F when they arrive at Dawson City. Eagle has a mandatory 4-hour rest and Dawson
City has a mandatory 36-hour rest. Allan
was in Eagle for around 6 1/2 hours and I am guessing Paige was there for
around 5 ½ hours. From years past Allen
Moore has a history of starting out fast and not winning the race, so it will
be interesting to see how things work out this year. He will have around a 2-
hour lead going out of Eagle.
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| Vet Station in the Old School |
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| Putting New Booties on the Dogs |
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| Getting the Dogs up for the Next Run |
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| Leaving the Check Point |
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| Heading out of town |
At 5:30 pm the town favorite, Matt Hall, who grew up in
Eagle, arrived. There were at least
12-15 towns people there to greet him when he came in. Matt’s parents still
live in Eagle. Matt was last year’s winner of the YQ1000.
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| Matt Hall Coming in |
We went to the new school for dinner again at 6:00. After dinner Wilbur and I went back to the
check point to see what was happening.
Paige was cooking her next meal for the dogs. After it is cooked the musher puts the food
in an ice chest, so it is ready for the next stop along the trail. The next morning, I saw on the board that
Paige left soon after 9:20 pm. The
fourth musher to arrive was Laura Neese.
Laura was working with her dogs, and the vets were already checking
them, when we returned to the cabin.
The vets come from all over the world. Cal talked with vets for North Dakota,
Australia, Germany, Alaska, etc. Vets
have to be at each checkpoint 24 hours a day.
There were at least 6 vets at Eagle during the day. The vets would fly ahead each day so there
were vets on hand when the dog teams come in.
We think there are at least 24 vets committed to the YQ1000.
By 9:00pm, the fire was stoked, and we went to bed, calling
it a great day!
