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I left Shageluk at 6:40am and was now over 3 1/2 hours behind Sigird. I new I couldn't give up the chase yet. I wanted to stay close.
The run over to Anvik was problem free - finally a nice and easy leg. That didn't last for long though. Once I hit the Yukon River the wind picked up right away and just as expected - it was coming head on.
That's why many call the southern route more difficult than the northern route. You can always expect wind on the Yukon and it always blows downriver - or head on. This can be mentally very exhausting for a dog team. My dogs don't necessarly like wind, but living in Wasilla, we get a lot of heavy winds and my dogs are used to it.
I quickly stopped in Anvik to water my dogs and pulled out again. Once I got back on the river the wind really picked up. I can't tell how many mph, but it was certainly slowing me down. The wind also picked up a lot of sand and getting that in your face was almost painfull.
Since the wind blows a lot on the Yukon, there's not a ton of snow on the trail and the little bit of snow on the trail that's left was mixed with sand and rocks. My sled just about came to a stop every time we hit a sand bar - and we hit many many sand bars.
I arrived in Grayling about 1pm on a very pretty and sunny day. The village was sheltered and we were out of the wind.
I took care of my dogs and put them to bed as fast as I could and was ready for a rest myself.
While enjoying my fancy meal I had one of the vets also look at my hand again. The swelling still hadn't gone down and I still couldn't grip anything either.
The vets decided I nedded "surgery" or I wouldn't make it all the way to Nome. I didn't even think twice and told them to ahead and do whatever they needed to do.
Since I'm the biggest pansy when it comes to doctors and needles I was pretty nervous about what was going to take place.
John was pretty good, I have to admit that. He took that skalpell, held down my hand and started cutting. A little bit of cleaning up - well, okay - it was a lot of cleaning up, but I felt a lot better.
At 7pm I pulled out of Grayling - back on the river heading north for Eagle Island. |
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Grayling
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