Lack of Sleep and in Need of a Warm Place

February 22, 2011

Lack of Sleep and in Need of a Warm Place

Totally in need of a warm meal at -35 and 6 hours
Coming into Maclaren

Beam me up Scottie at take off
© Sarah M. Waterman

Next on our agenda, Mike's camp off the Denali Highway. It's about a 60 or so mile run. Mike with 19 dogs and a tag sled, Lindsay on the back, Scott with 14 dogs, and Nick and I on the snow machine with all the gear. Let's go!
It was a great trip out, but I tell you what, you want to talk about some winds! WOW! I didn't even see it when it was bad. I wish I was on a sled, but I had about an hour or more on Scott's while he went on the tag sled with Mike.
I still can't get over the Great Alaskan Beauty! I'll tell you more about that one later. Scott and I have a show here, not a real one, just things that make the time go by. Midge and Stanley's Great Alaskan Outdoor Adventures, we're from North Dakota. All thanks to me talking like Aunt Anna... you'd have to know her accent, we morphed it. Anywhooo....

So yeah, Nick and I got to Mike's camp around 1945ish and had to get the fire going and get some snow melted. Well the cooker was working awesome, then crapped out. So all we had was a coleman stove cooker and the wood stove. On our way to camp, there was some wicked wind before and after we went over the Sustina River. The drifts were crazy too! Imagine taking dogs through that. Nick totally saved my sorry tail from falling off the snow machine. Thank you buddy! Scott was about 30-45 minutes behind us, Mike was about an hour or so after Scott. When they got there, we took off booties, threw down straw, fed dogs, assessed feet, drank coffee, ate food, went to bed. Well, tried to sleep. I slept fine until I heard and felt the aftermath of a kick to the cot. I was sleeping on the floor and Scott and Mike were in cots on either side of me and well, Mike is a wee bit of a snorer. Poor Scott couldn't sleep. Then I couldn't sleep, but I woke up grinning, not cool to do when you only get 2-3 hours to sleep. Scott tried to tie his jacket around his head, man, Mike is really loud, I want to say louder than my mother was. I got him to stop snoring and by that time Mike's, pretty much, mouse sneezing alarm woke him up. You have to admit, a kick to the cot won't wake you, but a feather falling will. I was laughing.

So we ate, got the dogs ready and I left with Mike on the Titanic Tag sled. I hate that thing... Lindsay was still in a coma and I said I would go. What a beautiful... beginning. It was about 0330 and the moon had just passed full and it was so bright I didn't need a head lamp... it looked like there were pots of glowing silver under the snow. At some points you'd swear you were looking out at the ocean. It was so still.

Never noticed till after he passed, he's
changing his boots
© Sarah M. Waterman

Now this Titanic Tag sled I am talking about is made for a damn midget and well, with my boots on, I'm 6'2". My back hated it and the sled is heavy, so when we were going thru a pass, it acted more like an anchor plow then a sled. Scott had to break trail in some very deep snow. He was telling me later on, when we finally got to Maclaren, that he had to set his hook, go up, grab the dog/dogs out of the snow, and try and find the trail. It was like the dog from Alice In Wonderland that swept the trail away. I don't think that any of us were in a, "Hey!!! We're going to Disneyland!!!" kind of mood when we finally all arrived in Maclaren... where it was -30. I love my life.

We filled our bellies and Scott, Lindsay and sat on the couch, as Clint Eastwood told us... how many shots he fired, while the pups rested a bit. Then we headed back to camp, slept... in, damn young handlers and our tight bladders, and then back to the beginning of the Highway. Got some AMAZING photos, but man, everyone needed a time out and a pacifier after that trip. Maybe even a diaper change. Just imagine doing the Iditarod! Hey, it's all a learning process. I can't wait to do a trip when it's not so many people and I get to have a team. What an awesome trip though, something that was well needed.