Race Riviere Ouelle

Left Bellerive’s at about 11:30 am – the big generator finally did start so we were relieved!  Sunny clear day for traveling – had to stop at a gas station to get some gas for the generator at Donnacona (sounds like my sister-in-law, Donna Collard!!) and it took us 4 hours to get there – the race site is in the middle of a quite small farming community in the parking lot that joins both the community center and the church = a beautiful steepled stone church like we see all over Quebec.  It looks like it might only be a private residence though because the front steps have not been shoveled.  I took some pictures of it but who knows when or if I can get the camera to download…..

Saturday morning was sunny and cold but for some reason, it seemed very warm very fast – maybe the sun is closer here??? Cause by the time we helped Melanie get to the line with her 6 dog team and some others, we were sweating!  We did find out from a local guy that the St. Lawrence Seaway (which we are right on at Riviere Ouelle, Quebec, if anyone wants to look it up on a map) moderates the temperature and it gets very warm in the daytime and very cold at nite.  So Melanie came in 2^nd and it was time to get out our dogs for the open/illimitee race.  We started a bit late for some reason (even though we didn’t race until 2p and Randy had number 13 – his lucky number) so were hurried at the end of hooking them up – but made it fine to the start line-  one really nice thing about Quebec races is that they have 4 wheelers to take you to the line and bring you back to the truck.  The trail was pretty soft by now and looked like it would be punchy for the dogs- sure enough it was and along with that there was head-on passing so the young dogs not only went to the far side of the trail when passing, but off into the deep snow.  Randy ended up 12^th (because on racer withdrew).  Still a good experience for the 5 one year olds in the team being only their 3^rd race.

There was a chicken dinner at 6p and what seemed like the whole town turner out!  After eating and visiting with Shane Goosen (who has also done the Iditarod) and comparing experiences and common friendships with people in the dogsledding community, we came back “home” and waited for the dj to start – not a lot of the people stayed to dance, be maybe 50 or so – we danced about an hour and then dropped dogs and went to bed.  They line dance a lot up here – that was the most popular kind of dance – we really enjoyed dancing, it’s been a long while.

Woke up at 8 this morning and dropped – the sick dog Ellis is eating almost normal amounts but we are still spoiling him giving him canned dog food.  Had breakfast and helped Melanie’s team get to the line and several other teams.  It looks like she might have taken over 1^st.  More to come this evening after today’s race!