Open team to the line
The 2009 Tok Race of Champions is over. It didn’t get very cold on Saturday night, so the trail didn’t get a chance to set up after the first day of racing; it was slow and had a lot of soft spots that teams had trouble getting through. Andrea held onto 15th place in the six dog class (earning a whopping $12.50), and Bonnie got 13th place. This year the eight dog course took them along the road for more than three miles so we got a chance to see Bonnie running with her team for awhile. It was cool to see her dogs running next to us, especially since I mostly see them before and after the races.
I don’t know how easily it’ll be to view this, but the following link is a video of her coming out near the road: video of Bonnie.
It was a fun race this year, and we’re at home recovering with the dogs today.
The first day’s racing is over and all the dogs are happy and healthy. There isn’t a four-dog class in Tok, so Andrea borrowed Rubus and Vive from Bonnie to make up a six-dog team. Buddy ran lead with Rubus, Koidern and Piper ran in swing, and Kiva and Vive where at the back of the team. It was 14°F when the first team went out, so the sun hadn’t started warming things up. Andrea went around the track in 18 minutes 39 seconds, which was good enough for 15th out of 25.
Bonnie raced in the eight-dog class, but the results of the first day were thrown out because the first musher on the trail went through a fence, and a series of other mushers failed to make the proper turn with the fence missing. It’s somewhat of an unprecedented move to invalidate the first day of racing.
The photo is of Kiva howling before the race.
Ugh, it's 13 degrees F outside, and is supposed to be above freezing later. We're up watering the dogs on our way to our own breakfast. Andrea goes out sixth in the six dog, starting at 9 AM and Bonnie is third in the eight dog class, which starts at 11.
We're in Tok now, getting ready for the draw. It was an uneventful drive down, except that the truck seems to have zapped our GPS. Doesn't turn on. Bummer.
The photo on the right in our room at the Snowshoe Motel.
A couple days ago I got an email and the photo on the right from a guy named Nathan in Chatanooga. He’d seen my bedside table plans from the Plans page on my web site and decided to make a version of it for his wife’s birthday. His version is made from red oak, and it looks great.
It’s always great to hear from people who have found something useful at my site.