We are in Charette at the Bellerive's!

Just got her at 6 after a somewhat harrowing driver here - left at 11a and thru the mountains we went to Quebec City - on the way the truck stalled on a very steep hill and Randy had to back the truck and trailer into the side of the road where he did get it started again - after several tries. maybe the battery, maybe the fuel filter clogged, maybe the new starter wasn't working.....maybe whatever, it was scary!!!

Stopped at a Walmart outside of the city and bought a new battery in case that was the problem- it took us a long time in line cause you were supposed to pay for the battery back in the auto dept to get the guaranatee - so I asked the girl at the cash register how to say I'm sorry to the people behind me- they all seemed to have fun having me try to say it in French!

Stopped at the race site in St. Luc to feed dogs and lo and behold, they were just starting to clear the trail so no training there tomorrow!!!

Off to Bellerive's - seems like some of it is getting familiar by the 4th year- and we are here, parking the trailer and Randy thinks he wants to try and drive up the hill to the sugar shack in the dark so we will see how that goes!!

Tomorrow!

Off on another adventure!!

Randy looked at the trail this morning and it's too soft to run dogs on - so the next place to find a hard trail that's been groomed by a groomer is at St. Luc de Vincennes (Claude Bellerive's race site for the next weekend (not this weekend) so we may be staying at the municipal building which does have a bathroom to use (they give us a key to the building) but may or may not have wifi. I am in the process of "battening down the hatches" because, as we know from the tipped over meat/water pail, things move around a bit while on the road. And Randy is out loading up the trailer so we can leave after we drop the dogs from their breakfast. So we should be on the road before 11am.

So we said our goodbyes to Max and Mary Claude and I left one of this year's Christmas homemade presents with her for their hospitality.

Randy thinks we will stay tonite at Bellerive's so you know what that mean......???????? a hot shower!!!!!!!!

Talk to you as soon as I can!!!

Yup......it's exactly what it looks like!!!

He said "do you want to go for a snowmobile ride?"..........bad move on my part! Course he says he couldn't have gotten it out of there without me so I guess it is a good thing I went! The funniest part is that he doesn't know the old nursing trick of pulling together on "3" so it took us a little while to get out - do you see how deep that ditch is (about 8ft.) and how close we were to being all the way down in it?????? With a foot of snow on the racing trail (just overnite) and not being able to turn very good and having to keep it moving to keep it from bogging down, this is what you get! I was lucky I didn't go down it the ditch - of course it's pretty cushioned!! And believe it or not.....it happened again - Randy thought about going the way we had gone around the trail the first time (did you catch that? we actually went around again!) and he says I leaned when I shouldn't have - so I will take this one- and we ended off the trail and sideways again! Luckily Guy was out dragging the trail and he pulled us out of this one with his super 24" track huge machine! After that experience it was time for a nap!

So, in answer to your question Jason - yes the Norwegians and Swedes are still here and going to Woburn (and we are not because Randy doesn't like the trail) and I am assuming they will not all be at Laconia cause they rented vehicles that can't go across the border -Hege Ingibritsen (I know I spelled that wrong) came over to visit tonite while we were feeding and said they would be here 4 more weeks. Do you know that they brought 19 dogs from Norway and thus far the trip has cost them $40,000! I am guessing that's not including renting a delivery type van rental and food and accommodations.

We plan to train here if we can pack it down and maybe to St. Luc de Vincennes (Claude Bellerive's race) trail to train on Sunday - play it by ear.

My extra assignment tonite it to try and find out how to download movies for free (I want to know and Lou Serre is in the trailer next to us and wants to know) So if anybody out there has some suggestions I would appreciate it!!!

Jess, Dad had a new starter, a new belt on the power steering pump because it was slipping, and a rubber flap on the hood at the hinge cause he thought the water that was getting into the engine and causing a stalactite of ice to form (which is not good for the belts when you are trying to start the engine). Today there was another stalactite so now he thinks it is some channell in the metal that separated the 2 front windows. We still have to shift down frequently with the new engine, but we are pulling a trailer with heavy stuff in it, so he thinks it is helping.

Over and out, friends and family!!!

Love you Ocean and Aeja and Caitlin!!

Training day in snowy Quebec

The plan was to train today and we did- 2 teams of 12- the first team we made do twice around the 7 mile trail with no problem - the second team had been the "back up" for the unlimited team and had only run in the 8 dog class last week so they needed some "miles" - so after we did the 7 mile loop, Randy thought he knew a way to add 5 miles - so we went that way (all the time with the snowmobile; not the sled) and things were going pretty good until the leaders turned right where they should not have; the trail did not look groomed and we thought it might be bad for the dog's feet, so we tried backing up the snowmobile without success (figue it was too much forward pull with 12 dogs) and for sure could not turn them into a deep valley to the left - so we went on the trail which turned out to be the trail that the guides use for dog sled rides/ and we did meet 3 teams on the trail which I had to get off the snowmobile to lead by cause most of their trail dogs are big unruly huskies and malamlutes (which I did bop a few of them on the nose as I led out team around them cause they leaned out and looked like they wanted to "confron"!) and ended getting a few more miles on the team than intended.. One thing I neglected to say about the trail is that ther is a portion (like 3/4 mile) where the left side of the trail is Quebec and the right side is Maine!!! all along the trail there are stands for moose hunting-

Soooo while we trained the second team it really started snowing!!! like 3 inches on the trail since the first team had gone thru!! Lou Serre says we are supposed to get 10 inches in the next 24 hours- it's warmer but snowier!!

Love you all!
Randy and Cris

Training day in frigid Quebec

Mitz - it was Tahoe that Dad loaded (dog we got from Claude Bellerive and came originally from Lou Serre)- and Sarah did a great job leading!!!! She was really setting a fast pace - faster than the other leaders had (Sylvie and Molly). Dad's only scary feeling is from when she stopped dead in the trail to pee during a race last year!

We trained 2 teams of 11 on beautiful (you should be here Jason!!) hard packed (except in the bog/burn/clearcut where it blew through and drifted shut from one team training to the next where the first team got too close to the edge of the packed trail and then all but disappeared from sight for a second) trail from the race yet - cold but sunny (thanks Mitz for letting me borrow your goggles!) for 7.5 miles, nice easy training fun for the dogs. This time no problems controlling the team with the snowmobile. Snapper still seems to be not feeling well, his line was slack most of the time. Pretty much everybody else ran good.

Pretty much all the people are gone except the Swedish and Norwegian teams and Lou Serre are all still here training. Seems like a ghost town compared to how many people were here all last week. Does mean I get to use the indoor bathroom instead of the port-a-john (can you imagine how cold those toilet seats were in -20 degree F weather??????!!!!!!!)

We had decided from watching the dogs try to eat ice from the ground that maybe they need more water when it is cold so we are watering 3 times a day (once with dinner) and so that means more "dropping dogs time" - like about 6 per day!

Dinner tonite on the "one-burner stove" was mashed potatoes, lima beans and fried fish. Compared to yesterday......a great day! the worst thing that happeded today is my roll of toilet paper fell in the dog water!!!! Still have free internet service and will update tomorrow!! So far I have read 5 books and Randy 3.

Special Loves to Caitlin, Ocean and Aeja who like to see Grandma and Grandpa are thinking of them and "Baby Chavis" who is growing and growing and growing!!!

Today made dog racing seem easy

Extremely cold this morning (I guage the temperture by looking at how much frost had built up on the screws holding the paneling up on the walls = kind of cold = frost on the screw; very cold = frost around the screw on the wood; very cold = frost trail down from the screw in a lonnnnnnggg line! and so it was this morning - the kind of cold that looks like it's foggy in the sunrise, but actually is "permafrost air" ( my terminology) and even your eyelashes frost!! So dog feeding seemed to reveal that the colder air is making the dogs thirstier (they were spending alot of time chewing ice) so we gave them all an extra drink today and they seemed to enjoy (all drank all) then went in to St. Camille for dogtruck maintenance (however things took a real turn for the worse when Randy braked the truck to speak to Max who had waved him over on the drive out; then the 5 gallon pail of meat and water tipped over (which was my fault for not making sure it was down on the floor before we left) on the carpet; then as Randy went out the door to speak to Max he tripped on the lines hanging on the shelves which made him fall onto the snow and pull all of the shelves down that have all of my food stores above the stove; which between trying to dry the rug and fix the shelves and re=store the shelves was about 2 hours (when I had planned reading/rela xing on this day off!) Then we get home to Daaquam lodge and Randy falls over the same lines in the back of the truck onto his back (but thankfully it was on top of the Mother Collard carpeting we had taken out of the truck when we had gotten the water spilled on it) (ps I didn't have a carpet roll to fall on when I was angry and fell outof the back of the truck so I figure Randy got off easy!)

It is cold again and is time to drop dogs from their dinner.
Love you all!

It's not exactly what he wanted.........

But I think it is very good to come in 10th overall, especially when he had to load a dog today!!!! She usually runs up in the middle of the team and Randy says it's like she turned around, saw him and didn't like being at wheel (at the back of the team) and immediately started pulling back = he was gaining on the guy in front of him because he left 2 minutes sooner (in 7th) than RAndy, cause he could see him out ahead, but when he had to stop and load the dog, and then carry her 1/3 of the trail on the sled, he ended up moving down to 10th. It was still very windy and cold so parts of the trail were blown in again today. Randy says it was very apparent that the team slows down after 14 miles so we will be working on endurance/conditioning training some more on the trails here (besides it's great to have a free internet connection!!!)

We went to the closing ceremony and awards and I took a picture (above) of our Czech friends that I babysat for, they are the man and woman on the right of the bronze medal winners (on the far right) and of the fine showing of USA in the 4 dog race.

While we were feeding dogs we found out what "feaux d' artifices" in the brochure means: it means total panic for the dogs when fireworks start shooting off 100 yards from them!!!!!!! I got my side in as quickly as I could but they were crazy to get in their box or under the truck!!!

It been an interesting, challenging, controversial and tiring 9 days - tomorrow it's off to St. Camille (next little town over) to have some work done on the truck by our favorite Quebec car mechanics (this will be the 4 th year they have worked on the truck for us!)

These pictures I took on Friday - they show the pulka staging area at the 1/2 way point (really it is the finish line for the sled races) of the Pulka/skijouring race. The person leaves with the dog harnessed into the pulka (which is an exact weight but I don't know how they determine the weight you have to carry inside the pulka, I think it has to do with the weight of the dog) and goes 4 miles and then, fast as they can they un-harness the dog from the pulka and then skijour the same trail. The second picture shows three women coming into the finish line from the skijouring portion at the same time!! very exciting!

We had a very nice dinner (radish soup, pheasant and caribou sausage!) and by the time we were done, I was too! Randy told me to go to bed and he would drop dogs and I didn't hesitate!!!

Claude Bellerive did not have a better run yesterday and is not running today so we won't see them again until we go to stay at their "sugar shack" (the cabin where they make maple syrup in the maple forest behind their house). The opinion of most is that he trained his new dogs that he bought last spring from Ross Sanderson in Alaska maybe too far, fast, and often and they are sour/burned out. It is not as cold or windy as it was predicted to be so that's good for both human and canine racers!! Will write more after the race today.

2nd day of unlimited race

Started off much better - as Harris put it something like "they just used manpower to hold the sleds" and Randy got off to a good start - very windy and very cold!!!!! Like I think I heard 4 degrees F- with the strong wind I don't know! He went out 4th and though there were 3 teams ahead of him, there was still much drifting, especially in the "burn" (as Randy calls it because it's an open area - like a clear cut- that reminds him of that area that was flat and treeless on the Iditarod) and the dogs would try to run in the area that looked most open and ended up off the trail- at times he said 1/2 of his team sunk into the snow and they stopped dead. Then the topper was that (we think it was Molly cause they went off to the left, her side) just before the finish line, the leaders went in between the bales of hay into the crowd (ducking is what Randy calls it) and he thinks the point dogs, Sarah and Patent pulled the team back into the finish line - I saw him coming and then saw him running off the sled and thought "uh oh" - so today he is down to 8th position - but many teams had it even worse so I am stilll very proud and hopeful!! Tomorrow he thinks he will put Sarah in lead (last year in lead she just quit - so it's a scary decision) so he won't have to worry about them ducking again. I don't know for sure if he will cut anybody else. Thanks to Mona we got some more video which I will try to post.

Tonite dinner with the gracious Bellerives and it is the "dance in town" if we are up to it!!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amy Maria your good luck to Randy today helped!!

We will start with the bad............got up to the line going out 1st today a little more stressed than I would like (no lead line on the leaders, not many people to help, GPS not working though I had just rushed into try and charge it, ointment for the dog's feet too hard so I had to put it on the burner in hot water to soften it) then the worst begins...........up to the line, Max (the race organizer) has a release mechanism that he thinks is good and should work, 2 times the dogs lurch forward several feet, I don't know what's going on cause I am at the front with the lead dogs, then they count down to go,"5, 4,3,2,1,0" and I let go of the leaders and the guy holding Sarah in point lets go, Sarah jumps over the line and gets tangled, the leaders get overrun by the point dogs, they don't release the sled for who knows how many seconds, and finally they move ahead with the leaders tangled with the point dogs and Sarah tangled and Randy is off into the trail!!! I was so mad I could have spit nails and though I didn't hear it, Randy was mad also leaving the chute- I went right over to the race marshal Harris Dunlap, and said "that was not fair"!!!!!!! Madd, madd, madd! I was still so mad I went into the back of the truck to look for more glycocharge and stepped backward into the air and fell on my butt!!

The really good news is that Sarah got out of the tangle, Randy had to stop only once for Patent in point to get out of over the line, and he actually came in at 50 minutes and 50 seconds (is what we heard over the loud speaker) and the first time sheet (there might be more because of the protests about the way the race started - and we were not the only ones - 4 more after Randy) says Randy is in 4th with 50 min and 53 seconds! that's out 26 teams racing! So there may be a new update once the protests are dealt with. 2 dogs did not seem to go as fast as he was going .

and will be eliminated for tomorrow.
So the final results are that Randy is still 4th with 50:48 and is 34 sec from 3rd!

We just spent some time talking to Serge Pomerleau's trainers in the lodge and Randy went down to see the Swedish runner specialist (he was brought here to the race just to wax the runners of the Swedish team - both dog sled drivers and skiers with dogs)

The video from my second day of racing finally loaded - even though it is sideways!
Over and out till tomorrow!

Hope I am not in last place!!

Went out with 5 dogs instead of 6 because Snapper was pulling back all around the trail yesterday and today was a little windier and snowing and I had to pump around the whole trail (which had a touch more snow on it than yesterday but was packed good) and Cyber, the guy who is a bundle of energy at the start ended up trotting 1/4 of the trail - I guess they were too old and too tired from 3 days of racing!! Even 747 (alias the "leg hugger") snow dipped today and he never did that before!

My final place was not last, I was 24th out of 27 that did all 3 days!

The big winner is Kati Degenais from Quebec who Randy says "stomped" everybody else by at least a minute a day! and she only weighs 90# and she was terrified to go out every day just like me cause she falls quite frequently (just like me!) They had a "regulation Olympic-type" award ceremony with the medals and the flags and the national anthems in the big tent they have set up here on the site. Very impressive! Most of all the countries were in there for the awards adn it's always interesting to hear 5 or 8 different languages being spoken in a crowd (Its was so windy during the presentation I thought the tent might blow down!) It's supposed to die down tonite and that's good for Randy cause he goes out first tomorrow which means he may be breaking trail on a blown in trail or good cause he knows the trail and how to make it work for him. He's been awfully quiet - I am sure he is moving dogs around in his head worrying who to put in which position and how many to take (at the Ontario race he hurt feet on 2 leaders that he wanted to run in the unlimited team tomorrow). He is pretty sure on 15 but is not sure who will get the "nod" on the 16th position and was planning to run 18 and still may if the trail is soft. (He will go out in the morning with the snowmobile and check the trail out to make the decision)

It smells a little "doggy" in here right now- it's been cold enough that we have to bring in 4 5 gallon coolers right by the funace to thaw the meat for the next day and we have harnesses in here to dry out that sometimes get "pooped" on! As soon as we have another slightly warm and sunny day I better hang the rug out to dry and air!

I have tried the last 2 days to post the video that Mona took of me leaving the chute - unsuccessfully - I will keep trying!

2nd day of 6 dog race

Note the picture of me with my Mushing USA jacket on and 747 hugging my leg so tight he was pulling my pants down!!!
Not so good as yesterday even though my time was faster ( the trail had been groomed and it was much faster for most teams) because my favorite old time leader Snapper (this is the first year in 5 years Randy hasn't used him in lead in his open team) for some reason didn't want to pull - we put him on the right side because yesterday Spiff was on the right and snow dipped into the banks where it is soft snow bad- so that meant that Snapper was not pulling on his tug line and so I had to drag my heels to slow the team down so he wouldn't get tangled in his tug line - I was ready to "rock and roll" today and am getting my sled driving confidence back so it's too bad I moved down 2 spots to 25th. Plus it didn't help that there were 6 snowmobiles coming at me on the trail today so I had to slow down to make sure that we passed safely! There shouldn't be anybody else on the trail but you can't control all of it. The one good thing that I did catch is that both of the leaders dipped snow in the bank at the same time and all but stopped the team so it was a good thing I was paying attention and put my foot on the brake!!

We found out that the Jamaican guy Damion got disqualified yesterday because he would not allow 3 teams to pass him and Rob Downey got to stay in because there is no IFSS rule that says you have to have the "dog in the bag" just that you have to have a bag!
Last nite we went in to the lodge for a movie = it was about a trapper in the Yukon and his interaction with his sled dogs (fell through the ice on a lake and got saved by his leadeer). We were around the other countries all talking different languages - quite an international treat! Met a guy named Hugo that lives in the far south of Argentina and he has snow because he is close to Antartica!

There is a video of us racing in Markstay-Warren, Ontario on youtube - just put the name of the town and sled dog race in search and Randy is driving my 6 dog team(with only 5) at about 5 minutes and 10 sec on the video and then it finishes up with a picture of our dog truck

Went to the grocery store tonite after I raced - out of bread, milk, eggs and meat - spent $110 and can't figure out if the propane was $60 of it!! First time to town in a week!

Cindy, we would love to have Ocean here, and Aeja.......but it's very cold here!!!

Unofficial race results!

the reason it is unofficial is because there are several protests about today's race!! One (John Perry) guy came in with his dog sitting on top of the sled bag (that's a no no- the dog by the rules, has to be inside the bag crossing the finish line for the dog's safety - he must have had a malfunctioning zipper in the bag - Randy said he did not look happy - he won the 6 dog for this race last year) and there were 2 cross country skiers 2 inches off from the trail today also - don't know if they were just tourists or practicing for one of the events. Sooooooo ta-da-da-daaaaaaaaaa - unofficially I am 23rd out of 33 6 dog teams from 17 different countries!!!!!!!!!!!!!! some of the very best teams - I was telling another dog driver from the US that my dogs were pretty old but had run pretty good and he said he was 19th and his dogs were not old!!! so I guess I did very well for me and my dogs!
Since I raced at 1:30 we put plexiglass on one of the windows to insulate it more- we put it on one already before and have 2 to go.
I took a picture this morning of Serge Pomerlou's bus stuck in the snow next to us and the tractor pulling him out - Randy says that even if you have a lot of money, you can still have bad luck!!! It's like a stark contrast between the wealthiest traveling dog truck and the most creative!! He travels with 3 full time employees that train and race his dogs. That's Randy in the black carharts and red hood directing the project!

The address where you can find the picture of me that was in the Quebec City newspaper is : http://lejournaldequebec.canoe.ca/journaldequebec/sports/archives/2009/01/20090114-214730.html

This is Melanie finishing yesterday - in order to get her all in and the finish arch you can't really tell it is her - she had the second fasted time yesterday with only 6 dogs and that's why she moved up into 3rd

So today was the big day for Cris (thanks Mitz for the good luck wish, it worked!!!) I was very nervous (as I always am before racing) even though I pretty much knew the course from having gone over it twice this year. I don't have my results yet but I had a clean run with 6 dogs running their little hearts out!!! Spiff, one of my leaders reached out into the snow banks to eat snow and lost his footing a couple of times and Cyber pooped and shied a bit but not too bad. The day is the warmest since we left home and feels like a heat wave - once I started pumping to help the dogs I actually started sweating! The only time I slowed them down a touch was at the road crossings cause of Cyber shying and coming down the little hill to finish on the river. I will post as soon as I know my results!!

This goes with the last day of 8 dog racing

Ended up being 18th but don't think we got any money - while they were doing the awards we went out training the unlimited team - things started out good and then while I was trying to lead the team to the start line to train on the racing trail from the 8 dog trail today, Randy had the 16 dogs hooked up to the snowmobile and thought we would be able to control them, but they were too strong and led me on a merry chase trying to get them on the trail from the dog truck - so even with the brake on the snowmobile they pulled ahead faster than I could control the leaders and ended up falling twice trying to get them to the trail to train. Melanie finished very good and got 3rd place but we didn't get to see her award because we were out training.

Last day of the 8 dog race

Second day of 8 dog race results

Thanks for the comments, Mitz!! Dad's 8 dog team has no yearlings in it this time. they are mostly 4 and 5 year olds, not quite quick enough to make the open team. All of the good 2 year olds are in the open team and running good, but have only trained once (last Wed) And 747 is going to run on my team (6 dog) because Tarzan's team member (Cyber) bit him on the leg and it's still swollen; From yesterday, Dad came in 19th (mostly because of Maria's foot pad being injured/missing and 4 people dropped from the race because they thought the trail was too soft. A big ruckus about whether Steve Long could race yesterday - he raced the first day (supposedly because Max told him he could) and then yesterday when he had his dogs ready to hook up, the USA Mushing rep told him he could not. Randy had a clean run, just not quick enough.

Last nite I asked Bellerives if they would stay here at the lodge for dinner so we could visit with them and we had a wonderful dinner together (I had a salmon in phyllo dough) and then watched the entire video that the French guys took during the race last year - shows alot of Randy training and racing - about 1 hour (the clip on the Daaquam web site is a part of this)

Today and the rest of the week there will be school kids wandering all over during the day as school trip- including blow up bouncy caterpillar, and the blow up gladiator game, dog sled rides and sledding and fishing for trout in the lake - very fun!! Some are complaining that the prices are a little steep - $12 a day admission to watch the race and see/do all the activities and Melanie got a 2 coffees (one with Baileys) and it was $8.50!!
Randy says he needs a bologna sandwich before he runs today so I better sign off!

Results from today's race

The kids are all back in their boxes having had supper and we got the race results - Randy is 22nd out of 29 racers - even better than he expected since he knew that they would be racing "horses" in the 8 dog class and that this was just a training run for the extra unlimited dogs. I do have a picture from last weekend race to post - just so you can see Randy just before he left to do the unlimited class in Markstay-Warren Ontario. I know some of the pictures are not "photographer quality" and will try to do better.
The Boisenaults were here today and Jean (the father ) said he had seen me on tv and in the newspaper so I guess I will try to see if I can get a copy!

Five course meal for $75!!!!

Holy cow were we surprised when we got to the door of the opening ceremony of the International Sled Dog Race (Les Championnats Du Monde) and I thought it was $25 for the dinner and NOT.
It was delicious!! Wine tasting of some regional wines prior to and then linen tablecloths and 5 courses- soup (don't know what but it seemed like a creamed vegetable much like the carrot soup I had at the old hotel in Quebec City) then salad (like a picture out of a cooking magazine) with some slice of what looked like spam but with lots of other things imbedded) then a cheese plate (with reaaaaaaaaaaaaal blue cheese and many other cheeses I did not recognize) then the main dish, caribou in gravy over noodles (also a picture perfect plate you may be able to see in the picture below) then dessert made with ice cream and maple syrup!!! So even if it was not in the budget, it was worth it to me to network with the other countries and with the USA ( estats unis) team! We almost didn't make it because Randy had shown me and another US musher (Jennifer Probert from Alaska) the trail and then the Serge Pomerlou and his trainer guys and then ran out of gas on the trail and then had to change spark plugs on the trail so he was late getting back and felt really bad so it was pretty easy to convince him it was a good idea to go!!!
Then back to the lodge/race site for fireworks shot from across the river , very close and beautiful and then Indian dancing (and when they invited us to dance with them on the dance floor the recognized the Randy had Indian danced before by his "moves"- something he will have to teach Caitlin, Aeja and Ocean!!!)on a stage set up in a huge tent with heat with restaurant then a group of tap dancers doing like "Riverdance" type dancing and then Randy decided it was time to drop and go to bed so we missed the accordian players!!! We have made good friends from around the world - probably most notable is the Jamaicaan dog sledder Dameon!! (borrowing a team from here)

Today has been cold again (it got too cold for the regulator on the propane tank to work so we had no heat for 1/2 the nite and Randy just lit the coleman lantern for heat and then the stupid alarm on the clock went off at 6am for I don't know what reason= so needeless to say I took a nap before Randy raced at 2:15 (was supposed to start at 1:30, things move at a different pace here in Quebec). Randy had a clean run (this is really just training for the dogs he usually runs in his unlimited team) and was glad he had a neck gaiter to cover his face with parts of the trail. He was not really surprised to find out that even thought he went out 3rd, the trail was starting to break up already (not enough packing of the snow) and he felt bad for the next 31 teams!
Got to see our friends the Bellerives today and many more of our racing group!! Time to feed and re-charge!!

My experiences with the Quebec media!

Before I get to the "yesterday stuff", Cindy (our loving, wonderful daughter-in-law) reminded me that we didn't report what place Randy finished in the open class at Warren- it was 4th - and knowing what we know now about him not having a runner surface probably both days, he may have finished 1st, so he is very happy with his team. If ever you want to see the results of the races, you can go to sleddogcentral.com and look in race results, sprint, Canada (or wherever we happen to be racing). And we want to say a special hello to our grandkids, Aeja and Ocean!!

So, yesterday was very cold (as is today) the dogs don't really like getting out of their boxes- I think -3 or 4 in F. We got up and fed dogs breakfast at 8 and Max the owner of the Daaquam Lodge and the man behind the whole World Championship came over to Randy while we were out and asked him if he would please come to Quebec City with him to do some interviews being gone from 9am to 6p. Randy said no he wanted to train dogs that day so would Max like me to go and to ask me - well I knew Randy really didn't want me to go either because it is so much harder to train by himself but he wanted to help Max out with advertising for the race, so....I agreed to go, slapped some makeup and clean clothes and my Mushing USA team jacket and and after driving around the town for an hour trying to help the guy from the Czech Republic get his motor home fixed (he and his little "devil boy" - the 2 year old I babysat were actually supposed to come with us for the day which would have been a nightmare!!!) we (Max, his wife, Mary Claude and I) headed for Quebec City and the provincial tv station, late and going down the road over the speed limit on snow covered roads in Max's Suburban (starting late set the tone for the day in being late and in a hurry through the rest of the day) over very, very, very mountainous terrain!!! .......and yes, I got my seatbelt on!
At the tv station the guy who interviewed was supposedly the best sports newscaster in the province and he had more make-up on than I did! Real Turmel was there with his dog truck and 3 sled dogs and Max brought one of their Siberian huskies from their dogsled ride business. They had invited Real because he is an unlimited driver racing at this race and lives in Quebec City and of course speaks French. So they did a live interview of Max and Real outside in the bitter cold and I tried to keep warm (not having dressed for being outside) and watched. Then we went into the station to get warm and waited until it was time for a second interview, this one with a guy interviewing them from inside with Max and Real wired to hear his questions. This one I stayed inside and watched and much to my amazement, while they were talking, they showed clips from the same footage that we saw Sat nite on the levillagedemusher website, so Randy and I were on provincial tv too!!! (they showed the parts of me leading the team to the start line and Randy racing).
So next was lunch at old Quebec City- very touristy but very pretty and quaint with all of the old ornate buildings. We met 2 reporters (from the 2 biggest newspapers in Quebec) at an old hotel (built in 1640) and they took some pictures of Max, Real the dogs and me - though I don't know if they will use the ones with me in them) outside in the cold again! Mary Claude had ordered lunch for us of carrot soup (surprisingly delicious) and hamburg with french fries. I couldn't figure out the flavor of the hamburg and didn't want to ask, but did figure out half way through the burger that the other funny flavor was cream cheese!!!! Never heard of that one! The reporters did take my name but didn't really interview me much, mostly talked in French (try having lunch with 8 people and not understand anything that is being said- only guessing from bits and pieces of words and hand gestures!
After lunch off to the radio station and then to another radio station, and then to pick up a fixed computer at a friends and saw myself again on the 5:30 news, and then to pick up signs and then to pick up the kids school food from Mary Claude's mothers house, then drive fast back to the lodge at 7:30 when Randy thought I would be back by 6! A delightful, long day!! Mary Claude speaks good English so we talked a bit but her cell phone was constantly ringing - her trying to find a special brand of dog food she promised to provide for someone from another country and trying to find out where the other Czhek team was that should have arrived 24 hours ago but no one had heard from and she was going to report it to the police if they didn't show up by 5p (which they did!). Went in to the lodge for a bit after eating in our cozy motor home and met the Norwegian team- I will never be able to remember all these names, especially since they are so foreign to me!
Today no training, washed my hair in the bathroom sink in the lodge, borrowed a truck from a friend and went to the little town of St. Just- de- Bretennieres to the hardware and manged to communicate what Randy wanted from the guy who spoke absolutely no English!!

Lisa and Steve, our e-mail address is dekuiperkettlekorn@gmail.com
Amy, I am answering all my emails!
Mitz and Kathi- yes Randy is going to be checking runner surfaces from now on!!
Jess- as cold as it is here, 69 sounds great!!! Dad just bought plexiglass to put an extra layer over the windows and just tried to start the truck and it wouldn't and the hot water line outside of the lodge is frozen!!

PS- Please post a quick comment if you are reading the blog so I have more fun knowing who is out there reading!!!!!!

Stay warm, love,
Cris and Randy

Update from Daquaam!!! the international dog sled race (like the Olympics for dog sled racing!!)

Finally made it to Daquaam!!!!!!!!!!! Worst day of recent memory (note that probably tells you that there have been many on the road that have been bad!!)- did leave Warren, Ontario and had a pleasant surprise to have our friends from NH (Keith Bryar and his wife Claudie) pull us over on their way back from dog racing in British Columbia to visit a few minutes on the roadside. Before we left Warren I did go out for a walk on the trail for about 1/4 mile to see if I could find the "illusive" sled runner, to no avail. We did get a bonus from the race sponser that had the concession stand, 10 gallons of french fry oil!!! The dogs' coats were looking dry and I thought oil might help!

The roads were good, made it through Montreal (after a really bad rush hour in Ottawa) and stayed in the same town we did last year overlooking a night-lighted ski area on a mountain 2 hours east of Montreal (Randy made a good choice to feed 2 hours before we wanted to stop for the nite and then we were for bed) Then the bad started.......I thought the last time we came to Daquaam we went through too much hilly/mountainous country going north and east of Quebec City........well the way I chose was much worse and to further stress my husband, we went through the city of Sherbrook because we missed my intended turn-off, and ended up getting lost twice in the city and having to stop and find someone who could speak English and tell me how to find our way north!!!! the worst of it was coming up on a really steep hill with Randy trying to hold the dog truck and the trailer at the crest of the hill trying to wait for the light to turn green- one of those experiences he hopes never to repeat!!! and in spite of it all.......no bad words, no blaming (though there were certainly some close moments!)

Made it to Daquaam just at "sunset" and Max was very happy to see us but as usual, very busy getting things ready which this year includes, an International Dogsled Race and trying to finish the remodeling of the lodge that got flooded last spring! Several dog people alreay here and I know it's going to get crazy!! already Max had forgotten that all the dog drivers need hot water for feeding so he told the plumber working on the lodge that he needed hot water from the women's bathroom plumbed outside by tomorrow ( that's Randy's interpretation of what he said in French!)
Aeja, Caitlin and Zen - there are horses here this year!!! So Grandma will be able to go over and pet them- may be even ride them while we are here 2.5 weeks!!

We have excellant computer coverage here so you will hear lots over the next 2-3 weeks!!!

End of the first race

I will be trying to get some writing done before we leave the building here (they gave us free internet access for the weekend) and I know i willmake many mistakes cause Iam in a hurry and extremely tired!!!!
My 4 dog team did very good today = no stopping to pee and had no problem until I caught the team ahead of me and had to pass , then the 1 year old was nervous and jumped over the other dog and ended up with her leg in the other dog's harness!

Randy had no problems with all 3 of his races and found out amazingly that the runner ( the plastic piece that allows you to slide smoothly on the trail on the bottom of the ski/runner) was gone from his sled when he finished today - so the runner that I saw this morning was his and he ran the unlimited team yesterday and today without plastic on one runner which not only slowed him down alot by probably cost him at least $200 in prize winnings!!!

WE are exhausted and will be leaving tomorrow I thing for Daaquam for the next race in Quebec!

I mentioned the people from Czech republic - I baby sat for him again this morning (always ready to promote good international relations!!) while his mom and dad skijoured raced and he was much better this morning - didn't throw anything at me today!!!

Time to go feed the employees!!!!
Love, Cris and Randy

Greetings from Warren, ON, Canada

Verrrrrrrry cold - didn't really hear the temperature but several people got frostbit out racing this morning!! By the time I went out for the 4 dog (here's the deal- yesterday we went around the trail on the snowmobile and found out it was very flat - like no birm to keep you from going out into the field instead of on the trail and very hard and fast and lots of curves so RAndy suggested perhaps I would be less panicked if I went out first with 4 dogs and then could decide if I wanted to run with 6 faster dogs - my horses) so things went pretty good but the dogs tried to get on anothe trail with another team passing by us and I did fall when the yearling I was racing for her first time shied at the people at the finish and I crashed into a bale of hay, fell, the dogs stopped, I got up and took off again and finished 12th.

I decided not to run the 6 dog team and so Randy ran them, an 8 dog team and the best story of the day is that he came in 3rd in the unlimited class (his preference/expertise) with lots of very good competition in the mix!! (38 minutes and 27 seconds for 12.5 miles - 14 seconds behind 1st place!! Of course tomorrow could be a very different day - today he did almost hit a fence post and doesn't remember how he was off running behind 16 dogs instead of on the runners just before a curve!! so his knee is very sore tonite and hopefully will be OK tomorrow with some wrap, Tiger balm and tylenol!

1/9/09

Friday, Jan 9
Just after I left you yesterday we had the fastest customs crossing of our lives!!!!!! We don’t know where he was going or if it was just the beginning of his shift or the end but the customs guy just asked us where we were going, how long and if we had any firearms and said OK (he was putting on a flack jacket at the same time so in our imagination we thought perhaps he was in a hurry to confront some drug lords trying to cross the border and us trying to smuggle dog meat into Canada was just “small potatoes”!
Amazingly, the currency exchange was in our favor this year ($560 for $500) so that must be a sign I should buy some “stuff” while we are in Canada
We arrived at Warren , Ontario about 11am after sleeping in the parking lot of a mall just outside of Sudbury. It was pretty quiet until about 4am when the front end loader started dumping snow on a huge pile right next (like 20ft. right next) to our bus! Not to mention the engine noise, he banged the bucket 4 or 5 times to get the snow out and it sounded like a gong being bonged in the bus!!
The setting for the race is lovely farm country- fairly flat and we are parked right across from 2 horses in their corral.
The drivers meeting took way longer than it should have –the times and drawing for place for going out today were goofed up and what should have been over in an hour took 3 – the most fun was seeing friends we don’t see except when we race. And we met some new people – they’re from the Czech Republic (flew in to Boston and drove here in a rented motorhome) and their little 2 year old boy.

Oh does my head hurt!!! My crash yesterday left me with a strawberry rash on my cheek and a headache that hasn't totally gone away yet!!! As I said yesterday, it sure seems to take longer getting ready the older we get - got up at 6am and had to water and drop dogs we left on the truck last nite and then didn't really leave until after 9:30 and here it is 1:20 and we are about to the bridge (Mackinac). For sure will get to Bruce Mines to pick up our sled and maybe a bit further down the road after that (have to feed about 6p and then drop them 2 hours later and then again before we go to bed) It took me an hour to put everything away in the "doggy motor home" so far and I am about 1/2 done!!! It's surprising how much stuff I can jam in here and I still don't know where I put the digital camera (that's the 2nd time this week!)

New departure date!

Thought we would be leaving today but had some problems training this afternoon - and it seems like it takes twice as long to pack up as it has in previous years!!! (could it be because we are a little bit older????) So now the plan is to leave early in the morning and still get over to Canada (up through Sault Ste. Marie) by afternoon tomorrow.

Found out today talking to AT&T for wireless card service that for the money (limits on KB I can access and pay per KB thereafter) I will have to be a little conservative blogging - so I may wait until we get to a WiFi location every other day for me to update. So I am thinking that I will send out an email to let you know when I have posted updates - actually it may work out best for me to document in a Word file and then add them all to the blog every few days!

Whatever - this is a new experience being able to communicate by cell and computer in Canada - have to learn the ropes to make the best deals!

Update on travel plans

Talked to Lou Serre last nite and he tells us 2/3 of his racing trail in good and that they are supposed to get 5 inches of new snow tonite and so the race should be on.. Our plan is to leave on Wed, stop in Sault Ste. Marie and pick up the Gatt sled that we ordered and head over to the North Bay, Ontario area (Markstay, to be specific) for the race Sat. hoping that we don't run into the cold weather.

I did some Cris training yesterday behind the snowmobile (too icy on the trail to run the dogs) so we hooked up the sled to the snowmobile and went from our house down to the Benton Lake training trail (about 10 miles total) so icy!!!!!!!! only fell 3 times - it was different/harder than riding behind the dogs and I never knew when Randy was going to slow down for sure (the dogs never slow down) so most of my problem was going around the corners - regardless it brought back a little of my dogsledding confidence!!!