Day Ten - Snow snow snow, sled dogs and Talkeetna
Overnight we switched to daylight savings time, our clocks went forward an hour.
Breakfast was at 8 this morning. Mark and Kevin didn't arriving until 8.30am, so we were already eating when they arrived. Meena never showed up at all while we were there.
To save space in the vehicles, Jon's wife was going to take some of our luggage with her, so I quickly packed and schlepped my bag down to the lobby ready to go in her car.
We had all assembled in the lobby by about 10 to 11, our scheduled departure time, and Meena had just dashed off to breakfast. But she made to the SUV's on time for our departure, and in another hilarious twist, handed me a small paper bag to give to Claire.
You guessed it, inside were two pairs of toe warmers. We had a bit of a chuckle about that.
We headed off, me, Belinda Claire and Alistair in Chris's SUV and Brett Mark Kevin and Meena in the other, driven by Jon. It was snowing heavily so Chris and Jon were glad of their decision to switch from a van to two SUV's for the trip.
We stopped at a supermarket and got takeaway food from the deli, as lunch opportunites were going to be limited along the way. I was still so full from my Alaskan Eggs benedict with crab and smoked salmon, that I couldn't face food, and instead got a cinnamon coffee cake to take with me.
I ended up chatting to Meena while the others ate lunch, and I found out that she knows Brigette who hired me at ANZ, and she also knows my nephew William from when she worked at Wellington Airport. It's indeed a very small world.
As we got further north heading towards Talkeetna, the snow got really heavy and thick, and at times we just couldn't see Jon's silver SUV in front of us, even though it was probably only 50 metres ahead. The traffic slowed to a crawl and it took much longer than expected to actually arrive in Talkeetna.
We had a really quick toilet stop at a service station just outside Talkeetna, mostly out of consideration for the ladies. It's almost impossible for us to pee in cold snowy conditions. While we were at the service station, there were a few cars getting stuck in the snow, and requiring either a tow or a push. The snow was really soft, but about six inches deep. Too much for a 2 wheel drive car to manage.
We missed the official start of the race, but weren't too bothered about that, we figured there might be better opportunities along the trail where there would be less people. So we headed out some back roads, glad of Jon's local knowledge, all thick with snow and eventually came across a road where the trail crossed. We decamped pretty quickly from the SUV and grabbed camera gear, just as a couple of teams were coming through the crossing. I must have put my camera away still turned on, because my battery was completely flat. Luckily I had a fully charged spare with me.
We walked down the trail a bit, and picked a spot where we could catch the mushers as they came down a little slope towards us. We saw maybe 25 teams go through, each one announced by a shouted "dog sled" to let people know they were coming (mostly so they could get off the trail).
The Iditerod is a family affair, everyone comes out to watch it. They bring thermos's, food, pull kids on sleds, make a picnic of it, all the while yelling encouragement to the mushers and the dogs as they passed. Jon knew quite a few of them and called to them by name.
One of the mushers had an incident with his dogs play out right in front of us. The two dogs closest to the sled got tangled, and one dog really took to the other one it was harnessed with. It seemed to have him by the throat, and there was snarling and barking. The musher had to stop the sled and sort them out. Ironically the offending dog was called Kiwi, the musher was yelling at Kiwi to stop. We reasoned he might have been paired with an Australian. While the musher was sorting them out and checking them for bites and wounds, the other dogs initially turned to see what the heck was going on, and then as soon as it had calmed down, got impatient and started barking and leaping in the harnesses, wanting to be on their way again.
All fascinating stuff. We managed to get some good photos and some go-pro footage.
Once they had all passed, we schlepped back to the vehicles, brushed off all the snow and hopped in ready to head on to Talkeetna.
We arrived in about an hour or so, to the Takleetna cabins, the most picturesque wooden cottages you could imagine, The snow is unbelievably thick here, they haven't had this much snow in a very long time. They have cleared paths to our cabins, and the snow surrounding them is at least as tall as me. It must be at least a metre deep on the roof.
We were shown to our cabins and then unloaded our bags from the vehicles, and had about an hour free to download photos. Then it was a7pm meet-up at The Roadhouse for dinner. This is a family style restaurant across the street from us, where you just grab a seat wherever you can find one, and they serve food, whatever they feel like making on the day. There was masses of it, and it was all really good. Fresh salad, beetroot, hot broccoli and carrot, hot corn, mashed potatoes, breaded chicken breast, bread rolls. Dessert was brownie with cream, ice-cream, melted chocolate and chopped nuts. Fabulous. Then there was coffee to wash it all down with and fill in the chinks.
While we were having dessert, a couple of the local mushers came in with three puppies, about 9 weeks old. It was a chance for us to cuddle them and for them to socialise the dogs. They will become sled dogs, and they start harness training them form about a year old. They will be ready to race in at about 3 years old. We will be visiting them in a couple of days time.
When we checked in, the owner of the cabins warned us that there were moose in the area, and we should keep an eye out for them. With the snow so deep, they are really struggling for food. As we walked back from the roadhouse to the cabins, Belinda spotted one in the snow, eating some branches from the front yard of the house across the street from the cabin where we're staying. it was shoulder deep in snow, and they are big animals !
We ended the evening with everyone gathering in the boys cabin, as they have a lounge area that has seating for everyone.
Meena's camera is not working. It was working fine yesterday, but when she got it out today to photograph the dogs, it wouldn't fire up. We googled for a solution, tried to reset micro-switches, but without success. It's 14 years old, so we all pretty much concluded that it was just dead. She has been kindly offered the use of one of Brett and Claire's cameras, as they have a spare Canon camera body.
Sorry this is just a brain dump of what happened, it's late so I will edit tomorrow.
Will also upload photos tomorrow, it's going to get harder to keep up as we pile more stuff into each day.
Breakfast was at 8 this morning. Mark and Kevin didn't arriving until 8.30am, so we were already eating when they arrived. Meena never showed up at all while we were there.
To save space in the vehicles, Jon's wife was going to take some of our luggage with her, so I quickly packed and schlepped my bag down to the lobby ready to go in her car.
We had all assembled in the lobby by about 10 to 11, our scheduled departure time, and Meena had just dashed off to breakfast. But she made to the SUV's on time for our departure, and in another hilarious twist, handed me a small paper bag to give to Claire.
You guessed it, inside were two pairs of toe warmers. We had a bit of a chuckle about that.
We headed off, me, Belinda Claire and Alistair in Chris's SUV and Brett Mark Kevin and Meena in the other, driven by Jon. It was snowing heavily so Chris and Jon were glad of their decision to switch from a van to two SUV's for the trip.
We stopped at a supermarket and got takeaway food from the deli, as lunch opportunites were going to be limited along the way. I was still so full from my Alaskan Eggs benedict with crab and smoked salmon, that I couldn't face food, and instead got a cinnamon coffee cake to take with me.
I ended up chatting to Meena while the others ate lunch, and I found out that she knows Brigette who hired me at ANZ, and she also knows my nephew William from when she worked at Wellington Airport. It's indeed a very small world.
As we got further north heading towards Talkeetna, the snow got really heavy and thick, and at times we just couldn't see Jon's silver SUV in front of us, even though it was probably only 50 metres ahead. The traffic slowed to a crawl and it took much longer than expected to actually arrive in Talkeetna.
We had a really quick toilet stop at a service station just outside Talkeetna, mostly out of consideration for the ladies. It's almost impossible for us to pee in cold snowy conditions. While we were at the service station, there were a few cars getting stuck in the snow, and requiring either a tow or a push. The snow was really soft, but about six inches deep. Too much for a 2 wheel drive car to manage.
We missed the official start of the race, but weren't too bothered about that, we figured there might be better opportunities along the trail where there would be less people. So we headed out some back roads, glad of Jon's local knowledge, all thick with snow and eventually came across a road where the trail crossed. We decamped pretty quickly from the SUV and grabbed camera gear, just as a couple of teams were coming through the crossing. I must have put my camera away still turned on, because my battery was completely flat. Luckily I had a fully charged spare with me.
We walked down the trail a bit, and picked a spot where we could catch the mushers as they came down a little slope towards us. We saw maybe 25 teams go through, each one announced by a shouted "dog sled" to let people know they were coming (mostly so they could get off the trail).
The Iditerod is a family affair, everyone comes out to watch it. They bring thermos's, food, pull kids on sleds, make a picnic of it, all the while yelling encouragement to the mushers and the dogs as they passed. Jon knew quite a few of them and called to them by name.
One of the mushers had an incident with his dogs play out right in front of us. The two dogs closest to the sled got tangled, and one dog really took to the other one it was harnessed with. It seemed to have him by the throat, and there was snarling and barking. The musher had to stop the sled and sort them out. Ironically the offending dog was called Kiwi, the musher was yelling at Kiwi to stop. We reasoned he might have been paired with an Australian. While the musher was sorting them out and checking them for bites and wounds, the other dogs initially turned to see what the heck was going on, and then as soon as it had calmed down, got impatient and started barking and leaping in the harnesses, wanting to be on their way again.
All fascinating stuff. We managed to get some good photos and some go-pro footage.
Once they had all passed, we schlepped back to the vehicles, brushed off all the snow and hopped in ready to head on to Talkeetna.
We arrived in about an hour or so, to the Takleetna cabins, the most picturesque wooden cottages you could imagine, The snow is unbelievably thick here, they haven't had this much snow in a very long time. They have cleared paths to our cabins, and the snow surrounding them is at least as tall as me. It must be at least a metre deep on the roof.
We were shown to our cabins and then unloaded our bags from the vehicles, and had about an hour free to download photos. Then it was a7pm meet-up at The Roadhouse for dinner. This is a family style restaurant across the street from us, where you just grab a seat wherever you can find one, and they serve food, whatever they feel like making on the day. There was masses of it, and it was all really good. Fresh salad, beetroot, hot broccoli and carrot, hot corn, mashed potatoes, breaded chicken breast, bread rolls. Dessert was brownie with cream, ice-cream, melted chocolate and chopped nuts. Fabulous. Then there was coffee to wash it all down with and fill in the chinks.
While we were having dessert, a couple of the local mushers came in with three puppies, about 9 weeks old. It was a chance for us to cuddle them and for them to socialise the dogs. They will become sled dogs, and they start harness training them form about a year old. They will be ready to race in at about 3 years old. We will be visiting them in a couple of days time.
When we checked in, the owner of the cabins warned us that there were moose in the area, and we should keep an eye out for them. With the snow so deep, they are really struggling for food. As we walked back from the roadhouse to the cabins, Belinda spotted one in the snow, eating some branches from the front yard of the house across the street from the cabin where we're staying. it was shoulder deep in snow, and they are big animals !
We ended the evening with everyone gathering in the boys cabin, as they have a lounge area that has seating for everyone.
Meena's camera is not working. It was working fine yesterday, but when she got it out today to photograph the dogs, it wouldn't fire up. We googled for a solution, tried to reset micro-switches, but without success. It's 14 years old, so we all pretty much concluded that it was just dead. She has been kindly offered the use of one of Brett and Claire's cameras, as they have a spare Canon camera body.
Sorry this is just a brain dump of what happened, it's late so I will edit tomorrow.
Will also upload photos tomorrow, it's going to get harder to keep up as we pile more stuff into each day.
Comments
Post a Comment