After 430 kilometres or about a quarter of an Iditarod race we started to get seriously worn out by spending hour after hour in a Japanese pick-up truck. They are not made for long distance journeys for persons over a certain height. I think the dogs had had a more comfortable ride than me. Anyway, we drove through Drevsjø and arrived at Femundtunet around 8 o’clock on a Thursday night. And what a sight welcomed us in the light from our headlamps; dogs everywhere! Under cars, in cars, behind every bush and tree, between cabins and a number of other places. A new world for us who earlier had just seen a minor concentration of dogs at a husky-meeting in autumn the year before. At the last moment we had decided to cancel our reservation for a cabin 5 kilometres further south, and try out what the lady on the phone had described as “-a tiny cabin which really wasn’t meant to be used during winter”.
The annual Norwegian Husky Club’s Vintersamling was to become the arena for the family’s first race, and I was picked out to be the musher. 2×8 km sprint race at full throttle. We therefore had to attend a driver’s meeting and do all the necessary paper-work the first night. At the meeting we quickly went through the trail and how it was marked(which I had forgotten by the time I left the meeting). My starting time was 10.02 the following morning. After the meeting we tried to make ourselves “comfortable” in the tiny cabin. We soon found out that a controlled use of the hot-plate on the oven could make the temperature rise …a bit.
Friday morning came after a reasonably pleasant night with 5 degrees Celsius in the cabin. My nervousness regarding the race was about to “take off”. Everything could go wrong! What if I took a wrong turn, what if other teams passed me,- what would our dogs do? While these minor worries seemed to have settled in my stomach together with the butterflies, we prepared the sled and the dogs. We were ready at the start at 09.35,- far too early!! Rule number 1! Arrive on time, not long before to reduce stress in the dogs! But we got off, and everything went fine! The dogs did their job, and only one passing of another team can be described as somewhat chaotic. With the serious work out of the way before lunch, the rest of the day was used to observe other team and drivers. A lot of useful racing strategy was being stored in our brains and the big teams were impressing to look at. We might compete with more dogs next year! Nice people, beautiful weather, cold hot-dogs and a lot of great dogs to look at made our day the perfect rookie experience. The afternoon and early night gave enough room to talk to similarly disposed people.
Kari went out to water the dogs at 7 o’clock in the morning on Saturday. What a luxury. My daughter and I lay head to feet in the lower bunk and dozed off. The team around the great dogdriver functioned well. This day we only arrived 10 minutes early. We now knew the trail and my intention was that the Swede who started in front of me should sweat a bit. And everything went according to plan! It’s a good feeling when you see your dogs going for it as one organism, making their necessary toilet visits in full speed and increasing speed on command. We made it round the course faster then the day before, and were very proud of our “super-dogs”. The only problem was to get my hands loose from the handle bar due to cold weather and thin gloves.
At 3 o’clock it was time for the children’s race to take place. This was clearly a climax for us with children at this gathering. All the children had patiently been watching the adults for two days. Finally, it was their turn. And it went well, even if some of the dogs had used most of their motivation earlier in the day. I must admit that I was a bit worried when I saw our daughter disappear like the “the speed of light” out of the starting chute, but she survived. As she said after the race:” I only fell off twice” Next year we will bring a helmet. Saturday night meant big dinner and prizes to take home . The children got a diploma and a husky souvenir each, before we sat down and enjoyed a lovely dinner. Then it was the adults’ turn to take home their well-deserved prizes. The lottery then lasted a full hour.
Sunday arrived and it was my wife’s only chance of a trip with the dogs, and she went for it ! If anybody met a woman in a very big down parka driving a 5 dog team, it probably was her. She was only to be gone 30 minutes , but arrived after 2,5 hours. The organizers of the race had taken down the marking, and my wife had never been there before. So, instead of driving the 12km trail as planned, she probably drove through the 8,12 and 18 km trails both backwards and forwards. After we had cleared out the cabin and had some trouble getting the car on the road, we said goodbye and went home to Telemark. Even if the cabin had been so cold that we felt it necessary to go out to feel warm(or stick our hands in the fridge)it in no way made Vintersamlinga a disaster. We learned a lot and our dogs had a 2 days course in hyper socialization together with all the other dogs. Hope to see you there next year!
Ulf
