January 22, 2006

• Unless you’re the lead dog,

  
  …the scenery never changes.

  Yes, it’s that time of year again.  The big dog races have
  begun.  Well, some of them have begun.  Lance Mackey won the Copper Basin 300 last week, a grueling race that climbs up and runs along the
  south side of the Alaska Range.  This year’s race wasn’t as rough
  as last year’s, when at the last minute mushers found out that the
  amount of promised prize money had been reduced and trail conditions
  were terrible. 

  Even the full purse on this race isn’t fat enough to be profitable. The
  take is largely in the form of bragging rights if one finishes
  it.  It is always cold and the trail even at its best is tough,
  with lots of climbing up and trying to keep the sled from running over
  the dogs on the way down.  Dee Dee Jonrowe started the Copper this
  year, training a team of young dogs for the Iditarod, but had to
  scratch when her pups let her know they’d had enough of the trail.

  The Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race
  out of Bethel was due to start Friday.  It was so cold — 23
  degrees below zero F, with wind chill taking it down to more than fifty
  below — that the start was postponed until today.

  Today it was postponed again, with no certain time for the start. 
  Mushers are on four-hour notice, so the very earliest it might start is
  5 PM today.  If not, and the weather warms up overnight, it could start
  tomorrow morning.

  It’s cold and windy out in Bethel, but not as cold here (our part of
  the state is just to the right of that label on the map) as it has been
  for a couple of weeks.  Last time I looked at the thermometer, it
  was 5.5 outside and 55.5 inside. 

  Achieving a fifty-degree difference with our little woodstove is much
  easier than the seventy- to eighty-degree difference we were struggling
  to maintain recently.  Below fifty degrees, especially with the
  drafts on the floors and off the walls, we’re not comfortable in
  here.  Below forty degrees, my tropical houseplants are in
  distress.  Now that outdoor temps are above zero, it’s less
  stressful for everyone.

  Of course, as usual, the warming trend came with snowfall and
  wind.  Last night I listened to big clumps of snow being blown off
  the branches of the trees and slamming into the walls and windows
  here.  This morning, I looked out on a trackless expanse of blown,
  packed and drifted white stuff.  I warned Doug before he looked
  out that it was ugly.  I can see beauty out there, but I’m not the
  one who has to shovel it.

  After breakfast, he shoveled the entire roof.  After lunch, he
  will brush the snow from my car, scrape the windows, and shovel the
  driveway.  First, we make sure the roof won’t collapse on us, then
  we prepare our escape route.  It won’t do any good to shovel the
  driveway now anyway.  The snowplow hasn’t been around yet.

  Sometime later, whenever he has the energy, Doug will shovel the foot
  or so of snow off the roof of the little storage cabin next to the
  house.  Right now, I need to go make lunch.
  

  • 5:45 pm
  • 4 Comments