The Restart At Lincoln

Getting from Deerlodge to Lincoln was done by truck, but not until after a mandatory dinner and meet the public event in Deerlodge. Then there was a pretty bad blizzard that we had to drive through, so we got to the host family in Lincoln fairly late. The host family program in Lincoln was new this year, and we scored a really great family out in the country.

The next morning we weren't moving too swiftly due to lack of sleep. The race officials wanted us in the staging area by 10 AM, and we were about 15 minutes late. Never mind that the start wasn't until noon, and because of my bib number, I would not be starting until 1 PM. The officials wanted me there at 10 AM, by golly, not a minute later, so I was penalized. They would tack on 5 minutes to my mandatory rest at the Whitetail checkpoint.

When I had unloaded the dogs that morning, Ghost had come out on three legs and seemed to have a sore wrist. There was no swelling, but he was reluctant to put weight on it, so I decided to have a vet look at him to help me decide if I should drop him. I had already massaged it with algyval (a race-approved liniment) first thing in the morning. My handler, Kit, went to look for a vet and returned with a woman that we had never seen before. We never learned her full name, but we heard others call her MJ. She quickly proclaimed that Ghost's wrist was still swollen and that she thought he had arthritis. What the heck?!? The wrist never had been swollen and was definitely not swollen at that moment. He had full flexion, which is simply not possible if there is any swelling. Luckily, the vet who had examined Ghost the day before happened by. That vet declared that the joint felt nice and soft and that he could find no evidence of pain or tenderness anywhere in the joint. As I trotted Ghost around, all signs of a limp had completely disappeared. The vet suggested there was no reason not to take him.

I decided to take Ghost as planned, but I was also prepared to carry him in the sled for most of the leg if necessary. After all, I still did not know what had been wrong with him the day before. I had fitted him into a different harness, but I had my doubts that that would fix him. Twelve dogs is a lot of dogpower, though, so the thought of carrying Ghost did not bother me in the least, especially this early in the race when the dogs were still fresh and energetic.

I put pink ointment and booties on three of the dogs - Breaker, Raisin, and Almond - who had some web splits in their feet, and I also booted an odd foot here and there on two or three of the other dogs. A couple young kids happened by and wanted really bad to help with something, so I let them take a few of the friendliest dogs to the line. Ghost and Fresca went up front for the honor of leading me out of Lincoln.

The Lincoln start involved carrying a passenger for a few miles as a fundraiser. They said it was eight miles, but it seemed shorter. I guess I must have enjoyed it as much as the passenger! We wound around a scenic, hilly section, crossed a stream or two, and had the occasional panoramic view. I know we passed a team or two, but I wasn't paying much attention to that. Instead I was concerned with keeping my foot on the brake so that the team would not overrun Ghost in the lead. While his gait looked okay, he was running much slower than normal, right from the start. He is one of my best command leaders, though, so I really didn't care about the speed as long as I gave my passenger a good ride.

My passenger was having a good time and was very interested in how the dogs seemed to know what they were doing with only voice commands and very few of those. All too soon we were descending down to the highway by a gravel pit and then running in the ditch back to the starting line at the Lincoln High School. That was where I had to drop off my passenger and pick up my handler for the next part of the trail that went right through downtown Lincoln.