Weekend before last I was down near Chulitna playing in the powder and enjoying the warm temps and sunshine. Then last Friday and Saturday I’m helping to mark the trail into Fairbanks for the Iron Dog racers and have to admit it was a blast. Just cruising down the trail, stop put up a sign, cruise a little more. It was much of a ride as far as miles go, but it was easy and enjoyable.
During the week Melissa bring Tyler and Mason over, Tyler’s been riding with me for the last 2 years and is doing pretty good for 10. Mason at 3 is just now getting to consider the fun it might be. He isn’t 100% sold on sledding at this, but I figure with “big brother” doing it, he’ll fall right in to being another sled head.
So here’s his first real experience on actually riding a sled and not just a passenger behind me.
Humm, not sure of that thing, is he..
Now as I said, volunteering for the Iron Dog was fun when I was riding along and enjoying the day, then came the station duty part. Not my favorite part of volunteering, but someone has to do it. So I’m sitting on Noyes Slough where the racers have to cross the Chena River to get into town. Hey what’d ya need a guard for, let them run. We’ll as you can see below I was more of safety net than anything else, just in case one of them didn’t make it. All that nice frozen river opened up and added a little extra obstacle for them i.e water skipping over a very deep hole.
So to top my weekend off I blew the engine in my Cat. Darn it. Down the river about 7 miles or so she just gave up the ghost. Turns out my crank shaft busted right in half and I’m down for the count. Fortunately there’s about 9 folks behind and Larry, bless his kind soul, volunteers to give p his run to the Monderosa for lunch to tow me and back to my rig and a big repair bill. We’ll it turn out kind of on the good side, my darling and oh so loving wife has decided that me without a sled is like a refrigerator without food, so I got a new sled…. Stay turn for those stories..