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| The Sun isn't even awake yet... |
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| Athlete's Kia Sportages all lined up |
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| Course set up |
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| Awaiting our turn thankfully in a warm car |
Each team went together as one partner acted as the co-pilot
as the other drove. Chantal (despite
what I predicted in my head) was a great driver… J She passed the course 100% clean. When I went, I’m pretty sure Chantal
opened the window and pushed one of the golf balls off so she could say she
beat me. Regardless I lost 10 points and finished in a tie for 2nd
in the men and Chantal was 1st
for the ladies. One win for her today…The
Kia Sportages took a solid beating but held out extremely well and aside from a few
scratches and dents they kept us moving to the next event.
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| Ready, Set, Go! |
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| The road to the next challenge |
Event # 2 on the day was the snowshoe race. We had a debriefing prior to driving out to
the course, where we asked the mountain men if we should
expect difficult terrain. He said, in
broken English, that it was ‘pretty flat’…I think he meant to say that it was
up the side of a dang mountain and then back down. About 6 Km’s all told (uphill, in the snow,
both ways, as my father used to say)..
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| View from the 'Top of the World' look out |
This was to be the last endurance event, so I would be happy
when it was over. The start was uphill,
so I marched (vs. running) and it felt like I was the Terminator chasing
someone while walking. I had a good
chuckle at this. I didn’t have a chuckle
at the top of the mountain, when we had to leave the trail and enter the
trees. I was right behind 3rd
place and looking forward to the run down, but like a bull in a china shop, I
tripped, stumbled and crashed my way through the forest while letting 3rd
and 4th place slip away nicely.
Lucky for old Ryan, the real rock star in this team was
kicking butt behind me. As I was
hyperventilating over the finish line and looking back at the person I thought
was a guy behind me, it turned out it was Chantal, she had won another event
in the ladies division!!! That was 2 wins on the day and this one was
worth
double points.
With only 2 events to go we were very close in the team
standings. Chantal led the women’s division and I was in 3rd place
in the men’s. Germany # 3 and the Swiss
are ahead of us, so we need to win both the lumberjack challenge and the canyon
cross to have a chance.
The last event of the day was the log sawing challenge and
was held in front of the historic Diamond Tooth Gerties Casino in Dawson.
The challenge was to see which team could saw a piece that fastest while being closest to 1.5kg. Chantal and I went for it all and despite the
sawhorse jumping around due to lack of weight, we took this challenge
down. Our time was fastest and our piece
(which we are keeping) was .18 grams off of the mark.
So Chantal was perfect today with 3 victories and I was 2nd,
5th and 1st. Thank
goodness we have her!
Last event tomorrow should prove the decider in the team
event. Barring anything crazy, Chantal
should win the women’s division and I’ll be in a fight for 3rd place
with Martin the Austrian fellow.
At night we had the opportunity to take a different kind of
challenge, a Dawson City tradition, called the ‘Sourtoe Cocktail.’ This is when
a preserved human toe is placed into a glass of Yukon Jack Whisky and the brave
soul who chooses to take the challenge, in this case both Chantal and I, shoot
it back with the toe still inside. The only catch is the toe has to touch your
lips… for this challenge we came in 1st… but is there really any
winner when drinking a cup of Yukon Jack with a toe in it?
We have to drive back to Whitehorse tomorrow morning and
cross the canyon as soon as we arrive.
I’m told it’s pretty far, so hopefully we can make this happen.
Thanks for all the support on Facebook so far everyone and
we can’t wait to update again later.
Ryan and Chantal
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