Middle Earth

It's story time, children. Come, circle around. Bring me some hot chocolate. Ah hell, I'd rather a beer. Go children, fetch me a beer.
The snow was leaving very quickly. There were two days in a row of warm wind where we lost almost a foot. We were down to about 4 feet at the beginning of this week, which is wayyy down from the 17 feet we had on April 30th. We had heard rumors of "camp move," due to the lessening snow, but rumors fly around like crazy when you're stuck on a chunk of ice with the same 12 people for 8 days straight and you learn to ignore them.....or invent your own. We had to re-route our existing trails AROUND crevasses. With the snow being so low, the true shape of the ice was revealed. The crevasse part was actually super fun because we joked that we would take our unsuspecting guests out and stop right over a literal crack in the ice. We would yell back and forth to each other things like "Is this where you lost your water bottle?," and "You're right, it HAS grown." Mwahahahaha. (The managers ended up warning us that we had better not try it.)


Our destination: Middle Camp. And now the fun part......
We had a meeting about the big move. We discussed how it would work, the 15 hour day that would be necessary, the fact that we would receive a sack lunch ("like on a field trip to the zoo," I added), and blah, blah, blah. Somewhere in the conversation, Paul mentioned that he wanted to get to bed early so that he could finish his book. He was reading Lord of the Rings. I laughed and said "and now we're ALL going to learn about Middle Earth." The name stuck, thus "Middle Camp" is now and forever "Middle Earth." Amen.

Anyway, today was the day. We were scheduled to move 3 miles up glacier beginning at the friendly hour of 5am. I shit you not, we were on the clock at FIVE IN THE MORNING. After feeding dogs and eating breakfast, we were in the kennel at 7am. Most of the gear was transported via helicopter, but we were allowed to have our fun with the doggies. You see, we've been running the same 1.8 mile loop for almost THREE months now. On a busy day, each dog will run the loop four times and each musher will run it eight times. I'm not good at math, but I think that three months plus full tours equals a shit load of laps. The most exciting part of our move to Middle Earth? WE GOT TO MAKE TWO TURNS! That's right. You heard it. There was a gee AND haw involved. Oh man, the pressure was on.
For my first team, I chose Noppers as my main leader. He's a Plettner male with a great personality. Take a look a the picture, he's a cutie. He's been my main man all season-- I've got a good eye for excellent leaders (and I'm entirely modest). Next to Noppers I put Daisy. She isn't very fast, but she's a solid girl up there and she's more happy in lead than anywhere else. Plus, they're two of my oldest leaders, so I figured she could be a backup if he needed it. The others on the first team were: Gadget, Beaver, Tonka, Kona, Simple, Shadow, and 12Guage. We left the chute just like normal....except for the fact that our camp cook was riding my tag sled and her German Shepard was in a crate bouncing around in the basket. Our left turn was hardly visible. It was marked only by a stick. The outgoing trail had been used by snowmachines for a few days, but it was hard to spot. Our usual trail had banks on either side, so to leave it, we had to jump up nearly a foot. I wanted to time it perfectly. Did I mention that Noppers is a kickass man in front? It was a textbook maneuver. "Noppers, haw!" He literally looked back and me with the biggest smile and turned on a damn dime. They started to swing back, but I called it again to reassure him and we didn't have a problem. I was grinning from ear to ear. We were only the 2nd of five teams to make that turn without incident. Three miles later......this time I was looking for a stick marking our gee. There were five sticks, and I needed to turn at the 2nd one. I pulled up and Keith pointed at my trail. I could have called Noppers around and written my name in the snow! Daisy was dead set on going straight, but Noppers saved the day. We rolled into camp as the crowd cheered and the cameras snapped....oh, wait...
Round Two. I rushed back to Lower Camp to give a tour. I pulled up at 12:15 and my guests stepped off the aircraft at 12:24. Luckily, I have the best coworkers on the planet and they had my team bootied and almost harnessed. While on the trail, I munched on a bag of pretzels from my zoo-like sack lunch. After seeing my guests off, I threw in my last few dogs and prepared to make my second run. I planned to put Ratchet up front. I've been using him a lot lately. He's fast, sweet and honest. I usually run him alone, but I ran him with his mommy, Marla. She was my favorite leader for a while, but I had stopped using her up front the past few weeks. Today was her day to shine. This time I only had nine dogs on line. Serac, my 10th monster, was a passenger. I elected to carry her instead of run her because she is having a foot problem as of late. The muscle was: Cheyanne, Doty, Lupin, Charlie, Denali, Wolfy (aka Mr. Favorite), and Montana. Onward. Once again, we leave the chute. This time, my tag sled person is a coworker and Serac is riding very well, but she's barking like crazy. Also, the team ahead of us knocked out the stick, so I had no idea where the haw was. When I figured we were there-ish, I called it. Ratchet swung, but only halfheartedly. Marla shoved him over so hard that he yipped. I have never loved her gusto more! After that, it was smooth sailing. The only exciting thing was...well, if you're good, I'll tell you the story very soon. Okay, the moment of truth....turn number two: the gee into camp. Once again, dumbass teams (okay, strong language, I know) ahead of us have run over all of the sticks. I rock into camp and yell "Gee! Somewhere!" Ratchet spots Keith and our gee is complete. We have arrived at Middle Earth.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY INCLUDE:
The quote from my very own lips, "I ate lunch on the back of a dogsled on the way to Middle Earth."
The 5am part. Oh wait, that's a joke.
Feeling like three miles was an intense run..(which means I've become pathetic).
Literally driving them at what felt like 4mph.
LOVING NOPPERS.
Looking so damn good.
Dropping out of college so that I have enough money to BUY NOPPERS AND ALL OF HIS LITTERMATES/OFFSPRING/ANYTHING HE HAS EVER TOUCHED OR SNIFFED.
Working 11 hours on OVERTIME.
ROTATION, rotation, rotation.
And that, folks, is how it's done.