11:30 am. 32 degrees.

Today was filled with snow showers and warm temps. Kris was out of town, so it was up to Sara and me to lay out harnesses (and we did an excellent job if I say so myself!). Everything was smooth and organized. We had five teams, I was to drive the middle team half way and then switch with a guest. We went with small seven dog teams as the snow was pretty hard packed and fast. E-bear hooked on a snow hook, but hooked it through the carabiner for the main line, which caused the dog line to hook to the right and sled shift left without control. On our first big downhill, the dogs banked right and the sled tipped up over the edge of the hill. I was on my side being dragged, however my propensity for not letting go of things kicked in and I held on till they surprisingly stopped before the bottom. I flipped the sled back up and got on.

At the stop, Stu-bird fixed the line for me and all was almost well, except Snow and Tarragon decided to run on the same side of the line, along with Andy, Yampa and Rimminy. With five of seven dogs running left, it was hard to keep the sled out of the snow bank. On our next big downhill, we again started to tip up. With the brakes fully depressed, you have no control, so I had to let up to make sure we wouldn’t tip which cause us to start to pass the second team. I got them to speed up a bit and all went well.

The guest who drove half way did a great job. We went up on the bank a couple of times, but were able to stay upright and the rest of the trip passed without even. I rewarded myself with a couple of Sara’s homemade brownies which always makes me feel better! Reminder – eight dogs teams are better for balance than seven!