Leaving Laconia

Sunday – had a delightful Valentine’s dinner – both of us had prime rib– in case I didn’t mention it last nite –

Today Randy had to make one of the hardest decisions – one that he has never had to make before in 42 years of dogsledding!  He scratched.  After thinking about it all nite he decided that it was unfair to ask the 6 yearlings to go out on such a difficult trail (what with all the people and noise) without solid leaders.  On top of it all it was a terrible weather-wise day – I don’t know the actual temp but the winds must be 40mph at least – I noticed a little bit of frostbite under my eyes that I thought had healed but now is back.  So instead of getting the team ready and Randy having to battle the elements, we helped other teams get out and then went to the part of the trail where many people had trouble with their dogs wanting to jump the trail and take a short cut back to the dog yard (including Randy) because the final loop of the trail goes right by the start line on the opposite side of the road!! so we were trail help and thankfully none of the teams tried to go off the trail today.  It was so windy out there I almost blew over…and I am no lightweight anymore!! We did see some pretty exciting head-on passing and at one point 3 teams were balled up neck and neck on the trail!  Went to the awards ceremony and Melanie Bellerive got 2^nd place and Claude was 7^th because he too had leader problems yesterday and more problems twice that we could see from where we were on the trail today.

Will spend the nite here in the race site – still windy – sounds like a tornado out there!!!  Tomorrow do some shopping before we head north and make our way to Bellerive’s.  No race this next weekend because they postponed the Ile aux Coudres (the island in the middle of the St. Lawrence Seaway that has the 8% grade in ½ mile going down to the car ferry!!) so we will probably just train at Bellerive’s and see if we can’t “cultivate” some stronger leaders!

Well we spent about an hour trying to protect ourselves better from the wind – saran wrap on the vents, rugs and blankets over the windows and door (even though I did make some buffalo plaid flannel curtains for all the windows, the wind is just too strong..)  Finally some time in the middle of the nite the wind died down so we didn’t feel like a tin can waiting to blow down the road and then the generator quit – hadn’t done that since the race weekend at Kalkaska.  So Randy got up and dressed and had to go out and fill the generator with gas again because the add-on siphon tank wasn’t working!!!!  What’s new???!!!