Storm Mushing!

[captain]

Tamara,
WOW - you do so much, and I love the pics you take. But of course, living here in the SUN all the time, I had no idea what you would have to take "in case" your team ran off without you.

Has that happened to you at all? Do you tell hubbie which trail you are going on before you go? Do you have mobile phone reception out there?

Soooooo many questions, apologies for that ....

[Glacier]

I had no idea what you would have to take "in case" your team ran off without you.

Has that happened to you at all? Do you tell hubbie which trail you are going on before you go? Do you have mobile phone reception out there?

Soooooo many questions, apologies for that ....

The emergency bag on the sled has paper, matches, a few pounds of dog food, some granola bars for me, a small pot to melt water in, a silver heat reflecting blanket, extra mitts, another hat, and a full first aid kit for human and canines. I also carry extra tug and necklines, booties and a couple spare clasps. I also have an axe and a pair of cable cutters on the sled at all times. The axe is the most frequently used piece of emergency equipment!

Fallen trees aren't unusual! This was last week after I chopped through the tree! Sundin and Pingo ducked under it but there was no way the rest of us were getting through!

The cable cutters are there because most of my lines are cable filled rope. In the event of a serious tangle, it could be necessary to cut a line in order to save a dog from serious injury.

Yes, I've lost a team three times. Fortunately, every time we were headed home and they just beat me back to the yard. Once my neighbor found them and drove the team home. Once they just showed up and Stuart found them waiting by the gate to get back in! The last time, a kid on a skidoo found them, stopped them, tied them off to a tree and then went ripping around until she found me walking! She gave me a ride back to my team who were several kilometres ahead of me by that time! I took her a bunch of gift certificates a few days later to say thanks!

It hasn't happened in three years(knock on wood). When I first started mushing, a friend who has won the Yukon Quest, told me I couldn't call myself a musher until I'd walked home without my team! Once I did that, he told me to come over and he'd show me how to drag behind a team! That's where I learned the hooking my elbow under the drivebow trick. I haven't been dragged much this winter, but I do it quite well now!

I carry a cell phone but reception is iffy pretty much everywhere around here. Even in downtown Whitehorse, cell reception sucks sometimes!

I tell Stuart which general direction I'm planning to go. There's a massive trail network around here and I rarely decide exactly where I'm going until I'm out there! I call him when I get home(he's rarely home until late in the evening) so he knows I made it back. If he's not around, I leave a note for my father in law. He's here pretty much daily and would hopefully notice if I wasn't!