Montana February 2010 Part 11

Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010
Restart at Lincoln. I fell trying to step on the steel brake going down steep part on Martin’s  Hill. Hit my face on a tree, scraped my upper lip and bloodied my nose, jammed my left hand between the tree and the handlebar and had to release my hold on the sled. Dogs took off dragging the sled down hill on its left side before it hit a bump and righted itself on the runners with me running behind, trying to catch up yelling stop the team, God stop the team. I thought all was lost when the sled righted itself and yelled again. God stop the team. The sled ran off the trail and hit headlong into a tree, smashing the whole front end, bending the brush bow over the front of the sled and popping all the slats from their lashings to the front cross piece. I ran to the sled and secured the snub line, checked the dogs and began pulling the sled off of the tree, thanking God for stopping the team. Mark Ibsen came along and helped me get it off the tree and make temporary repairs. He offered me the use of his spare sled and I told him I would consider it. I limped on down the trail looking for Chris, but he had stopped, fed his dogs and gone by the time I got to the place we were to stop. I traveled on past the turn to the dog yard before stopping so that the dogs would be tired and easier to control if they tried to turn home, and they did. John was at the turn and I called to him to get some parachute cord and bring it to the White Tail check point, that I had busted the front end of the sled badly. At the top of the hill I stopped, fed the dogs and repaired the sled. I was able to get it almost as good as new and decided that I didn’t need any more repairs. It ran fine and crossed the finish line. Mark commented at the banquet he never thought it would hold up and was amazed that it did.

There is a whole lot more to tell aout the race but you will have to get the book to read about it.