90th Laconia Sled Dog Derby!!!

9 am on Friday:  Left Bellerive’s at 10am for what was supposed to be 4.5 hour drive to Laconia, NH – well…………that is never the case with the DeKupers…………..we got here a 4 mainly because we stopped several times because one of the trailer tires brake kept locking up so we had to come to a full stop, back up and then go ahead!

The gps drove us directly to the country club where they are having the start of the race – it is a different site than previous years but they are trying to make the best of what little snow they have and that’s what they came up with – for us it’s great – a bathroom and restaurant within 25 yards!!!! We did have to park across the street for the first nite because someone had accidentally plowed the parking lot of the club and so they had to bring in snow on Friday morning and cover the parking lot with it.  We got up on Friday to a crisp morning and watched the very few (there used to be 40 plus teams when I ran this race!!) 6 dog teams (only 9 of them) take off – the trail looked pretty good but Randy was soon to find out the real story……………….

As usual, it took longer to get things organized for the open teams to race – they have a very nice ceremony of giving the bibs and placards advertising local businesses to put on the sleds, and the singing of both the Canadian and United States anthems- so we got our dogs out waaaaay early – it was pretty chilly with wind in the open and we should have waited until after the ceremony to get them out – but Randy likes to be sure they all have a chance to poop………………and I put oil on their feet (Zeus Juice – which is aloe and tea tree oil and some other secret ingredients) as I take them out of the trailer before they get snow on their feet- so all of that take a little bit of extra time- but not the time we gave yesterday  = I said today we aren’t going to take them out until after the ceremony cause it’s even colder today!

So Randy left and when he got back (faster than I thought – I was still getting warm in the trailer when he came across the finish line!) he said he had had to stop on the trails 4 times – that the trail was a “young man’s trail” !!! When I got the details, it was a very hairy trail with lots and lots of corners and he went off the trail once, dragged once and lost his team and had the matt down the whole trail!!!!!  It was lucky that he even came in 10^ththe way things went!!!

He is going to use the same runners today that he used yesterday and not wax them cause he doesn’t want to go any faster and with it colder today the trail will be faster -

I didn't write last nite because I took a "nap" at 7 and just got up long enough to do a final drop of the dogs and then back to bed for the night!!!  Will try better today!!!   Randy will hopefully go up a couple of places or more!!