d g ksh
Skrevet av: Jeff King
Dato: 16.03.2011 17:42
Today I was asked to ride 50k with the trail breakers, to inspect the trail between the Sirma and Levajok 2 checkpoints. This entire section of trail runs up the Tana river that serves as the international boundary between Finland and Norway in this area. Apparently several locals questioned the condition of the trail for the sled dog teams, siting glare and rough ice as concern for the teams. However their concern was appreciated, I can assure you that the trail was well marked and safe. While driving down the trail we did stop once to examine an odd addition to trail marking.
Hundreds of willow wands had been stuck in the snow forming a long sweeping arch for several hundred feet towards the river bank on the Finnish side of the river. The main trail was clear, and marked straight ahead, but the effort that had been put into this apparent detour was significant and caused our lead guide and trail breaker, a man born and raised within miles of the checkpoint, stop to dial up a friend from his cell phone. As he cupped his hands over the phone to shout out his trail questions to another local expert. After the exchange of information, he laughed loud and said something into the phone like "Ya Ya Ya!!" and hung up. What's going on we asked?
"Reindeer races soon", the barricade was to be used as a guide for racing reindeer who would be towing a skier at break neck speeds, in what is the Finnish equivalent of Ski-jouring! I can only hope we're still here for that!
Back on the race trail, Roger Dahl still leads, with Robert Sorlie, Sigrid Ekran, Gorm Engen and Ralph Johannessen! Of the four challengers, the men have slowed down and Sigrid has moved up. Much will be known within the next few hours! Stay Tuned.
Jeff King
Previous Kings Corner: