white mountains, take one

The forecast last night called for two days of snow. This morning the clouds were low and promising, but not delivering. When it started getting light, I packed a duffel bag full of emergency cold weather things (extra socks & layers, a sleeping bag, a fire-starter kit, a hatchet) and threw that in the car along with all the dog bowls and two thermos' full of hot water and a baggie full of chicken scrap. By ten AM, all four huskies and I were on the road with the sled strapped to the roof, headed for the Wickersham Dome trail head in BLM's White Mountains NRA. I was hoping that the higher elevation (2700 ft, the tallest thing anywhere within a reasonable drive of here) would mean more snow and make the two-hour round trip worth it.

We hooked up in the parking lot, and Leo once again proved his worth. He held the line out despite Sawyer, Pico & Dottie trying to haul the rigging in every possible direction and around every possible entanglement. I didn't have to untangle a single one of them as we got going. The duffel worked great as a DIY sled bag. It's the perfect size for this sled, with room for even more gear once we go on longer runs further from home, and even though I just tied it down with some webbing from the ratchet straps from the car it didn't budge.

The biggest problem on this trip was technological. The video camera froze after about forty-five seconds, and the regular camera froze after one picture, which was unfortunate because this was just before it got a little big scenic. It was only about 10F, so I'm going to have to rig up some kind of battery-warmer for these guys since most of our runs are going to be solidly in -20F territory. My busted old GPS, which generally shorts out on me after five minutes regardless of the temperature, managed to hang in there for exactly half the run. Since I really wanted to get my mileage right and not overwork the dogs while we get sorted out as a team, the inevitable malfunction timed itself perfectly. We did almost exactly five miles total, and since the last half-mile or so is a gentle downhill, they finished strong and ready for more. I think we could have easily done seven, but at this point I'm glad to have under-shot their capabilities. The trail was also nice, as the rolling hills gave me plenty of opportunity to both run and ride so I got a nice work out, too.



I changed the line-up for this run, putting Dottie back with Pico and letting Sawyer run out front with Leo. Dottie isn't a very confidant dog, and I think some of the uncertainties of the first two runs were a little hard on her being out front. She ran well and pulled better in the back, so I think I'll leave her there for now.

My post-run snack scheme worked, and I was able to mix up a nice chicken-chunk broth for the dogs in the back of the car and spend time giving them all a good rub-down while it cooled (those thermoses are a little too good at keeping things hot.) They gobbled it up, loaded like champions and slept all the way home.