Sent: Sat 3/06/10 4:14 AM
To All:
Tonight, I'm in Whitehorse, Yukon terr. holed up at a hotel for the next two days. There are no flights out of this town on the weekend - so I have to wait until next Monday. It's cold here at about zero or a bit above that mark. I packed all my winter clothes to be shipped by auto back to Tenn in order to reduce my carry on baggage, I dressed in Nashville weather friendly clothing. Now, I'm freezing and had to buy a sweater to stay a bit warmer.
Yesterday, while traveling to Watson Lake, we stopped at a hot springs. Most everyone jumped in the steamy stuff. I didn't because as a miner years ago - in Idaho, Phil and I did a lifetime's worth of getting parboiled in these things. Our web site shows pictures of the antics.
This morning, we put the sledders in the surrounding forests on a logging trail that had a minimal snow cover. The sleds were to go about 150 miles this afternoon and spend the night in a primative lodge. We truckers would hole up in a town about midway between Dawson and Whitehorse.
This evening, it was quite an emotional event as I said goodby to my fellow truckers. They turned out to become my very best friends here in the wilderness. We had fun bullshiting and drinking endless coffee while awaiting sled rescues. I also said goodby to my team of riders this afternoon. Although, I am glad to get this behind me, I did feel sad to let go of this three week adventure. With the exception of my "Knights of Columbus" buddy, I'll never see these guys again. The truckers did promise to visit me when in a "passthrough" of our Tennessee region.
We exchanged email addresses and promised to communicate with each other.
The sledders are on their last legs. Tempers are short and except for riding sleds and having a beer or two, life is a standard routine day to day - getting up early at 5:30am, fixing sleds, talking about sleds and getting on the snow, repairing sleds in the evening and then going to bed early - usually it's "lights out" by 8:30pm, then repeating the same behavior the next day. We truckers get up even earlier to open the trailers and prepare the rigs for all the baggage, start engines etc. We are also the last to quit for the day because we lock up everything and later, hook the truck up to engine heaters. Usually, we have to move the rigs to better locations because we park temporary in fire lanes to facilitate unloading of baggage. I have gotten a lot of practice backing up with these monsters. I have complete confidence with the maneuvers now.
Tomorrow, they will spend a day at Dawson and then take a short ride with all the groups (those that started before and after us) going to Tok for a ceremony. Then they regroup and drive home. Three of us drivers will leave a bit early and by air. Driving back will take at least 5-7 days.
It's quite amazing to see how the group has a collective great store of repair knowledge and the tools to fix after sledding. Most are in just "T" shirts in zero weather fixing belts, bogies, tungsten sliders, plastic sliders, laying the sleds on their sides for better access to the drive belt etc. - and they take the time to help each other in "wrench turning".
The anger usually comes from failing to maintain good order in the "lineup" of snowmobiles, i.e., the continual accordian behavior that makes following almost impossible. Accidental bumps or getting a sled stuck in soft snow and having to wait until the rider get's out slows the entire process. So, as the riders put their sleds back into the trailers for the night, they recount the infractions of the day and some loose their "cool" by yelling or cussing at each other.
There is more snow here as we move into the Yukon, so sledding has picked up after the disasterous warm weather in British Columbia. The mountains in Whitehorse are mostly covered with snow, but are not sharp peaks as in the U.S. Rockies. These Canadian mountains are smooth round types with a gentle roll. The forest trees are skinny - like the growth we saw in Alaska. There is no farming here in the Yukon. At least we didn't see any evidence of farms. The basic industry is logging and tourism. We continue to see beautiful lodges out in implausable wilderness - made of gloriously finished logs as attractions for wealthy types. They offer bush pilot rides to isolated camps for fishing or hunting - like in the movie (the "Edge") about a grizzly chasing three men.
If you go to our website at Michcanska.com and go to Group 2, Team 3 you can see a picture of me with my trailer. I wrote the comment for the day. It was well received.
In the next several days, I'm going to reflect on what this trip meant to me as I get on with my life. I really would like to write a book about the great race and raise the feelings about this kind of quest. As Jack would say, there's a story in this caper.
Take care for now.......Tom
