Big mistake - we were 11th for the day - but stayed in 9th position.

Also, congratulations to American Stephanie who moved up to a 3rd place and a bronze medal !

Sadie Therriault took a gamble and went single lead in her 4 dog race and that gamble paid off - she’s kept her 1st place. It was a real gamble as the dog had never run single lead, but her other lead dog almost quit in the river wind yesterday.She’ll be the only American winning an adult class gold medal. Congratulations, Sadie !

Unfortunately, Brittany had 2 tangles with our team and fell to 11th place. The consulation is that the problem was one of our yearlings - Henry- kept overtaking the leaders. Johnn’s now planning on putting him lead in training this week with Rusty.

We watched the relay race this AM. There is one leg of pulk, then a tag off to a team member for a leg of ski-jor, then a second tag-off to a third leg of pulk. Quite interesting.

We’re packed up and leaving shortly for the 15 hour ride home. Next week we will be in Tamworth, NH - then back to Wisconsin.

We had a nice evening visiting with most of the American team - playing pool, beanbag toss, word games, etc.

After yesterday’s unlimited race, the top American is Randy DeKuiper is the top team at 8th, KB Bryer right behind him in 9th. KB went out with 2 less dogs and had a great run, moving up 4 spots. He’s hoping for a good run again today.

Much warmer today, 8 below zero - but no wind. I’m heading out now to get photos of the relay ski-jor and pulka.

Very cold - the wind is howling. So no photos today - I’m not sitting in a snowbank in these temps.

But a good day with the dog team - we’re still in 9th position. Originally we heard we picked up a place, but there was some shake-ups. Tomorrow will be real interesting. Rusty (the single lead dog) was really raring to go today. We harnessed everyone, the put coats over before hooking. Rusty grabbed his coat with his teeth and ripped it off twice. So we gave in to him, and left the coat off on the way to the line.

The open teams are out now. Rudi (the German team)  had a problem leaving the chute. I couldn’t see from where I was - holding out KeithBryar’s 14 dog line. But Johnn said it looked to him like the person holding the leaders tripped or didn’t let go off the leaders and possibly tripped. Anyway, massive tangle of some kind. But he had a pretty big lead, so we’ll see how it goes.

Seems I can still pick out a winning team. That thundering German team is leading the open class by approx 2 1/2 minutes. There’s quite a competitive race behind him though.

I’m not sure how many photos I’ll get today. The temps aren’t too  cold - about 10 farenheit this AM; BUT the wind is picking up and is forecast to be howling by this afternoon.

We’re hoping the trail doesn’t drift too badly for the 4 dog teams - they start out through some woods, but finish on the the Daaquam R iver where it can blow.

Anyway, I gave the dogs a massage last night at the drop and everyone seemed real loose and good. Will post this this afternoon with today’s results.