We asked for it and we got it!!!

Snow to be exact!!

We need some snow to cover up the ruts of ice that several vehicles had left by driving over the trail while it was slush = so we had hoped that by Sunday morning there would be enough snow to cover up the icy parts and we did get a couple of inches in some places and managed to train on of the 2 teams of 9 - it went well and Randy got in a 28 mile run!!!  so he was very happy!!  We don't like to have the weather change our training schedule but he was thinking that we are well on our way to being where we need to be at the end of January for the stage race in Wyoming so it wasn't as "painful"!

So today on Monday we get up and we've been hammered with a ton of snow!!!  Like 6 to 8 inches in some places- so Randy feeds the dogs and then says he needs to go out and pack the trail so the dogs wouldn't need to be running in such deep stuff and that he might easily be gone 3 hours to do the 28 miles of trail and for me to come looking for him if he is out longer than 3 hours...........well that was the first clue that things were not going to go well for the day!!!

2pm came around and he was not back and the 3 hours was up so I got all my clothes on (which at this point with the temp in the mid to high 20's is like 5 layers !!!) and started out on the 4 wheeler to see if he was in trouble=  no sooner did I get across the road and about a mile down the trail and here comes Bruce on his snow machine and Laura running a 9 (?) dog team on the sled behind him, and who should be on the snow machine with Bruce...........you guessed it!!!  Randy!!  The snowmachine that we bought used 4 years ago and that has broken down every year since then (as both Ocean our grandson and I can attest......) broke down again!!!  Just stopped going down the trail 8 miles out and then wouldn't start again!!!  so Randy starts walking back (wearing his white Mickey Mouse boots which probably weigh 4  pounds each or more..........) and gets all the way shy of 2 miles back to the house and Bruce picks him up and is bringing him back to the main road we live off from when I see them going out to find Randy on the 4 wheeler!!!  He is so sore from walking that far and with those heavy boots on!!! When he gets on the 4 wheeler with me he has to stand up and drive because his legs are cramping!!!  and then has to change every layer of clothes when he gets in the house because he sweated so bad walking through the 8 inches of snow and 6 miles in those boots!!!!!

Bruce offered to go out with his snow machine and pull ours back in but Randy opted to take our pick up out and pull it back - when we got to it and turned around to hook onto it we had one big hill to pull it up and then it was pretty much flat going - so I got on the dead snowmaking and Randy pulled me up the hill and even with 8 inches of snow I got a dirt bath with the truck trying to get a grip going up the hill!!!  By the time we got back it was too late to train dogs so we had another lost day and the team that was supposed to run today will have had 5 days off............

More snow tonite and will probably have to pack the trail before we train tomorrow but this time I am thinking I will have to be the "escort" vehicle to make sure he doesn't have to schlepp it back home again!!!!