Broken Trails

Lainey was glad for the weather. The sun had set, and the air was crisp with cold. She snugged her hood closer to compensate, her head lamp illuminating wagging dog tails. With the team burning off their excess energy, anything warmer would have been disastrous for them. As it was, they availed themselves of the fresh snow, biting at it as they ran to quench their thirst.

The ground rose at a gentle angle as they mushed along. Soon the ascent became a bit more extreme, though nowhere near as drastic as previous climbs had been. Still, Lainey jumped off the runners to give the dogs less weight to pull. Besides, running helped keep her warm, as well. At the top, they ran along a forested ridge for a few miles before the trail veered to the right and down the side.

As they came off the ridge and onto the river, she saw Roman perhaps a quarter mile ahead of her. Her team did, as well, and Chibee yipped in glee. The dogs surged forward, and she gave them their heads. By the end of this run / rest leg, they would burn off the extra get up and go. Until then, it would not hurt to allow them a little more exercise.

She heard barking ahead as her team neared his, Roman’s trash talkers beginning to swear at the approaching competition. Montana answered back, echoed by Chibee and the normally quiet Himitsu. Lainey snorted as Montana somehow made his run more of a swagger, an arrogant gait apparently designed to show off his lowly opinion of the dogs they neared.

Roman’s team put on a burst of speed, and Lainey grinned. So that was the way he wanted to play it, huh? “Let’s go!” she called to her dogs.

She chased him down the river and up an embankment. Suddenly they were on a street, and she saw markers indicating the next checkpoint. “Whoa!” she ordered, standing on the drag mat between her runners. As much as she wanted to pass Roman, a five second lead meant nothing at this stage of the game. Her team was adamant, however, and would not stop until they bypassed Roman stopped at the checkpoint.

Lainey laughed as volunteers jumped forward to stop the dogs. She shed her gloves and officially signed in.

“Staying?”

“Nope. Just came off our twenty-four in McGrath,” she said, reaching into her sled bag to snack her dogs. Roman had opted to blow through, and he waved at her with a grin as he pulled out of Takotna.

The checker nodded. “There’s a steak dinner in it if you stay.”

“Really?” Lainey returned the bag to her sled and grabbed booties and ointment. “I ate a pretty hefty dinner when I left McGrath.”

He shrugged. “Oh, well. The villagers like to roll out the red carpet. A few of the mushers take their big break here for the steak dinner.”

Finished with her chore, she repacked her gear and climbed aboard the runners. “If I do this again, you can bet I’ll stay here on my twenty-four,” she said. She put on her head lamp for the impending darkness and signed out at nine thirty PM.

“If I do this again,” she muttered to herself, amused. “What the hell am I thinking?”

This stretch of trail was literally on a road, another easy section since the road appeared to be maintained during the summer months. For the next eight or nine miles, she played tag with Roman as they both climbed gradual inclines. Eventually their dogs settled into a rhythm with less yelling at one another. It appeared she and Roman were evenly matched, and Lainey started considering serious strategies to beat him to Nome.

They left the road, sweeping up to the right and overland for a bit. Then they dropped back onto it, now heading downhill. In some areas, it seemed the trail was more ice. Lainey concentrated her head lamp to see sheets of ice that had frozen across the road from creeks alongside. Once or twice, the trail avoided the ice altogether by slipping into a ditch on the other side. Where bridges were built to span the water, the path sometimes led off the road and past them rather than going across.

Roman Spencer pulled off the trail, and Lainey slowed to pass him. “You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m just going to snack the dogs,” he called back. “I’ll catch up.”

Lainey nodded and urged her team forward. Despite being in the lead, she wondered if there was something ahead that she did not know about, but he did. She frowned as her sled whipped along the road at an easy pace, trying to remember anything from the trail reports she had received. Nothing came to mind, and she finally decided he truly only wanted to give his dogs a break rather than trick her into an unenviable position.

She crossed several different creeks now, some with signs and some without, and followed the Innoko River for a spell. Her light picked up dark structures to the side of the road, evidence of old mining camps and cabins. Then a sign loomed closer. ‘State Maintenance Ends.’ That meant the checkpoint was coming up fast.

In the distance she saw lantern light, a warm glow shining from a cabin window. She smiled as she neared. The place looked like a Christmas card, with snow on the roof and the yellow light emanating from within, promising a grand welcome home to the weary traveler.

Barking dogs behind her broke her concentration and she glanced back to see Roman’s head lamp closing in. Lainey laughed aloud and told her team to hurry along.

They pulled into the Ophir checkpoint a little after midnight, a full minute and a half before Roman Spencer. It was time for another rest.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

THE COUPLE THAT owned the Ophir checkpoint cabin filled Lainey full of hot stew. Volunteers, mushers and drying gear filled most the available space. There was no room for mushers to sleep inside, but Lainey did not mind, wanting to be with her dogs after her extensive rest break in McGrath. She easily slipped back into the rhythm of the race, making sure her dogs were fed and watered and healthy before caring for herself. It took a little doing, but she forced herself to drink two of her fruit juices instead of one as Scotch had directed.

After a three hour nap, her alarm woke her with soft beeping in her ear. She quickly looked around to see if Roman had ditched her, but he snoozed on his sled a few yards away. There were four other mushers taking their breaks here, but she was not worried about them. With careful movements, Lainey got up and began her parting chores. She did not want to wake him if she could help it, though she figured he would be up on his own soon. No reason to give him more of an edge, was there?

She did not talk to her dogs this time, not wanting her voice to carry to Roman’s sled, though she still gave them all the affection they were accustomed to as she fed them. She stepped lightly and tried to make as little noise as possible. By the time she was halfway through her tasks, Roman jerked awake, probably from his own alarm clock. Seeing her in the middle of her preparations, he shook his finger at her and dragged himself from his sleeping bag.

Lainey grinned, moving faster since she had no more need to be stealthy. Before he had time to finish feeding his team, she was booting dog paws and cleaning up their parking area.

She waved cheerily at him as her team mushed past, heading for the checkpoint. She thought she heard him grumbling at her, and she chuckled.

It was about six thirty in the morning as her team left the Christmas cabin. The sky was still dark though the sun would begin to rise in about an hour. Lainey waited until they got away before drinking more juice, mindful of Scotch’s warning. She could not allow herself to be as messed up as before. There were no more twenty-four hour breaks ahead and still two thirds of the race to go.

The trail was still fast and easy, both a gift and a curse to her. Cold weather and easy trails let her get farther in less time, but also gave the same advantage to Roman and anyone else in the vicinity. Within the first few miles, the team crossed the Innoko River twice. Then they went into trees and onto tundra for awhile, paralleling the rivers as they went. The dogs trotted along, still energetic after their long layover, and Lainey could not help but feel proud of them. She had trained them all season and they seamlessly worked together as if they had been doing this for years. Granted, most of them had, but not together in this particular working arrangement.