8:00 pm – Monday night. I get a call from Kris asking me if I want to abuse myself. I generally love a little self-abuse, so I agree. He’s referring to a training session for his race dogs up on Buffalo Pass, then a few hours sleep and more training. I agree, excited but nervous.

Keep in mind these are his race dogs that he’s heading on the road with in two days for Montana’s Race to the Sky.

I head in with a huge pot of chili for the group and we get some chores done, get the afternoon tour out on the trail, feed and pack up. It’s dark before we get up to Buff Pass. There’s no moon, so the light from our headlights and the truck are all we have.

We get the dogs out of their carriers and onto a line split into two teams. Kris takes a ten dog team and I take eight. We put sand bags in the sleds for a little added weight. First we harness the dogs, then booties for every foot. I’m a bit slow as I’ve never bootied a dog before and have been warned how important it is to make sure they are on tight and don’t fall off in order to protect the dogs.

We get the dogs on their gang lines attached to the sled. Kris takes off first and I follow. All of a sudden it’s pitch black with two headlamps, creating spotlights in the dark, our teams of dogs stretched out in front of us, panting happily as we ascend our first hill.

Kris stops occasionally to check booties. E-bear warned me that’s what we’re checking, so I get off the sled and check my dogs. Down one booty, so I get a new one one. The next stop I replace two and then we’re set for the rest of the trip.

The first part of the trail is an uber-steep uphill that has both of us off the sleds and running beside the sleds to help the dogs up. Considering how strong they are, it says a lot about the hill that we need to help them up already. The rest of the trip, they pull strong and I ride the matt brake to keep us catching up to Kris’s team.

The stars are bright, but I’m so focused on how the dogs are running and staying close to Kris that I don’t pay much attention to the snow covered trees and open meadows stretching out around us.

It’s cold out, but I have so many layers, and toasty toes on that I’m perfectly content. As we get closer to Summit lake, the wind picks up and snow swirls around us. I reach for thicker gloves to keep warm and then we’re turning the teams around. Kris get my dogs headed downhill, then his and we’re off again.

Through glimpses between the trees, I see lights from houses and everything feels beautiful and I’m finally feeling comfortable. We take a few U-turns on the road with a little speed as we’re heading down and I hang on for the ride. A few turns have me a little close to the edge of the trail and a drop-off that would send a sled and the teem careening downward, but I ride the sled to the right and stay away from that.

Then it happens. The steep downhill. We start flying. I’m whipping around ‘S’ turns hanging on for dear life with both feet on the brakes. The straight downhill that I thought wouldn’t be too much trouble crashes me off the sled. Somehow  I manage to get a snow hook in to stop the sled. And we are parked. The hook is in so tight I can’t get it back out. I’m yanking, but need to get off the sled to release it, which I can’t do or I’ll lose the sled down the hill.

Then I see a light in the dark and Kris is on his way to help me. My team wants to turn around and head back up the hill, which I wouldn’t object to, but we’d still have to come down at some point. After untangling dogs we get going again. Kris is turning around and I’m flying down the hill again, swaying and rocking as we pick up speed. I hit a bump, the sled tips sideways and I’m off on the ground and all I see is my sled disappearing outside of my spotlight.

I start running after them, hoping they’ll be stopped around each corner. Kris asks where my team is and I tell him I don’t know. He goes on ahead and I keep running. About a 1/2 mile from where I was tossed off, Kris has them stopped. They are fairly tangled, but all the dogs are there and none seem to be injured, thank heaven. I’m shaky all over, but there’s no time for panic as we have to keep going.

The downhill has lessened and I get back on for the final stretch, which isn’t so bad. I swear the dogs are looking back at me, questioning the sanity of it all. We get back to the truck and get anchored. Denali and Ranger decide they want to do it all over again and try to turn the team back up the trail. I decide they are insane and finally anchor them forward so we can water and feed them.

Kris can tell how badly I’m beating myself up over the whole incident, so he tries to cheer me up, which isn’t working that well. We get the dogs put away. As I get back to my car, I look up and see the stars are still shining.