2/14/2011
Today is my 24th wedding anniversary, so I told everyone I won’t be back next year unless Matt could come too, because there’s no way we would not spend the silver together.
Last night Pat made chicken and noodles for us for dinner, and it was so good that I thought I’d overeaten afterwards, because I had that I’m-uncomfortable-because-I’ve-overeaten feeling, but it turned out I was wrong. I woke up around 2:00 AM with stomach gurglings so loud that I was seriously worried it would wake the other two sleeping in the cabin. After a knock-down-drag-out with myself, my stomach won, and I begrudgingly rolled out of my sleeping bag, donned my slippers, gloves, hat and headlamp, and stepped out into minus 50 degree air to go to the outhouse. (If you saw the photo of the one-holer on my post a couple days ago, you can imagine why you try to hold it as long as possible, and when you finally go there’s no dawdling in the toilet.) If I could bottle an instant 100-degree temperature change, I’d be quite rich. It’s way better than a strong cup of coffee or any 5-hour energy drink.
Afterward, I came back into the cabin, and knowing I was now wide awake with an upset stomach, I decided to go ahead and gear up and head down the trail to the roadhouse. (I’m grateful for the bright moon we had most nights out there, it made that 500 or so yard trek a lot more pleasant.) I arrived to find the night shift folks, Jennifer and Michael Rafaelli, awaiting the next group of mushers, who were expected at any time.
Jennifer is a permanent full time employee of Denali National Park, and she and her husband Michael run the dog kennels there. She was a rookie running the Quest last year, and therefore a subject matter expert. They were perfect, good-natured and hard working, never missing a beat as the teams came through.
I spent the morning feeling nauseous and trying to get it under control. I didn’t want to be “the one” who got everybody sick this year. At the same time I was wondering who’d given me this bug. It had to have been one of the mushers, because everyone in our crew had been healthy before we arrived and up until now. Normally the smell of the pancakes Michael was making on the propane stove was mouth watering in a good way, but right now I just wish the smell of food wasn’t everywhere.
The morning and early afternoon was spent tending to the three teams that arrived. Jodi Bailey, Dave Dalton and Mike Ellis were travelling together. Pat Sanders having now taken over the day shift was busy getting the mushers fed, while Chris Ciancibelli, an NPS Archaeologist volunteering at Slaven’s, took care of the outside chores like splitting wood, parking dogs, putting straw out and raking it up, etc. The veterinarian, Mercedes Pinto, checked over each and every dog of each and every team that came through. Mercedes works in Fairbanks at the 24-hour emergency vet clinic. She says it’s a bit different working with sled dogs, because she mostly sees house pets that are critically ill by the time they get to her. I would imagine it’s a bit like comparing an Olympic athlete to a little league baseball player.
The vet’s assistant, Paul Atkinson, is always on call as well. Where you see her, you see him. Paul is an I.T. Specialist for the NPS, and volunteers here every year. He used to work as a sled dog handler years ago, and is very good with the dogs, not to mention he works like a dog! Constantly looking for something to do.
Also checking over every team and musher is the Quest Race Judge stationed at Slaven’s, Wayne Valcq. What a fun guy to be around! He has a great big smile and jovial laugh, and reminds everyone of their grandpa. Imagine one of those Alaskan old timers that you’ve heard about that always has a great story or a funny joke and has seen and done it all, and there you have him.
As they get the last of their gear together and linger for one more cup of coffee, Bailey talks about her experience thus far. “This race sounded like a really good idea in the sauna a couple months ago.” A middle distance champion, she says there’s a learning curve associated with being a rookie in a long distance race. “Every time I think I have it all figured out I find out I don’t.”
One of the things to get used to is the cost of preparing and entering a race like the Quest. As we watch one of his dogs relieve himself through the window, Wayne Valcq teases Dave Dalton about his skill in acquiring funds. “How do you get so many sponsors to be able to turn all that money into dog shit?” Dalton replies, “I use bull shit.”
As they get ready to head out the door for the last time and prepare their dogs for the long stretch ahead, Dalton boasts that he has the record time for getting his team’s booties back on. Bailey says her hands don’t work so well when it’s this cold so she’s slower. Valcq suggests she ask Iditarod and Quest veteran Ramy Brooks for his secret, as he was fast with the dog booties. Dalton asked, “Does he have a bootie shoehorn?”
This afternoon, Pat said I could use the sat phone to give Matt a call and tell him happy anniversary. I was able to get through to his voice mail and leave him the message. It was so ass cold outside that I got the shivers from just standing out there for a few minutes. When I went back inside I couldn’t get warm and just kept shivering. I still had an uneasy stomach, so I went upstairs to lie down for a bit on an empty bunk since the next group of mushers was still a ways out. I started to hurt all over, and thought it was from shivering so much that I’d made my body sore. I felt worse after I got up, and still couldn’t get warm, so I decided to go up to the Public Use Cabin and crawl into my sleeping bag for a bit. I rested there for several hours, and it became clear to me that I’d had a fever, and that it had broken. I got up around 11 PM and went back down the hill, feeling better by the minute. Whatever it was, it only lasted 24 hours.
When I woke up, I got the shocking news that our front-runner Hugh Neff had run into some trouble and lost a dog. Neff has a reputation for starting out strong, and invariably having some disaster keep him from winning. This race was his to lose, but he won’t escape the curse this year. He had to withdraw. Worse than that, his lead dog Geronimo died from a freak incidence of aspirating on his stomach fluids. We are all disappointed and sad for him.
On top of that, the second place contender ran into trouble as well. Hans Gatt and his team fell into overflow on top of the ice. The dogs were submerged and Gatt was in water up to his chest. Luckily Sebastian Schnuelle was not far behind, and helped Gatt and his team out of the water. Remarkably, the dogs are all fine, but Gatt had to scratch and is being treated for second-degree frostbite.
Schnuelle lost about four hours helping his friend, but is at least able to continue on to finish the race. As I pick my jaw up off the table after hearing of this surreal turn of events, a discussion ensues about why people would put themselves through such a miserable experience. It’s hard for some of us to understand what the attraction is, when it’s a big enough ordeal just to go to the outhouse when it’s -50. Michael Rafaelli’s theory is that mushing is about contemporary people wanting to recreate and understand the challenges that earlier men faced on a daily basis. “You have to remember that people used to do this all the time, the race route is based on the trail that was used to deliver the mail.” He goes on to say “We’ve become so comfortable with all our modern conveniences that we think of things in terms of what we have to do versus what we are capable of.”
If there’s one thing I have learned it’s that we are capable of much more than we think. On the other side of the coin is whether or not our desire is strong enough to commit all of our might to reach the goals that seem unattainable at first. Though this is admittedly turning out to be an exceptionally tough year, this race wouldn’t be my personal cup of tea, but I am impressed by those that are determined to do it.
Before the official end of the day, we greeted the last cluster of mushers traveling together - Tamara Rose, Jerry Joinson, Kyla Durham and Johannes Rygh. Just one more lone musher left on the trail before Slaven's now. “Lights outside! Teams coming in!”
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