Sheep Mountain Report
by Jamie West

Donna gave a wonderful description of the Sheep Mountain Race! The mountains and snow make a gorgeous backdrop to the excitement of the race, as seen by her neat photos. Zack Steer's management and his organization make for a  more and more popular race. We got to hobnob with many other very famous Iditarod and Quest mushers and see them in action running and taking care of their dogs. There were 47 teams parked every 6 feet or so down a runway side by side. That's 564 dogs!

Many of the volunteers who were assigned to park the teams had never done this. They learned quickly and did a fantastic job. I got to drive the truck! The famous huge red North Wapiti dog truck! Glad I  don't have to park that thing every day, but it was great fun to drive. It  has a new camera you turn on to see behind the truck from the cab!

A minor thing about loading the dogs.........After years of getting 60 pound dogs into dog trucks I can and did get the dogs into the 2nd row of the dog truck. It does look like it's the top of a 2 story building! The dogs help get themselves in by pushing off my shoulder.

The NorthWapiti Dog truck (a Ford F450) before the 2006 Copper Basin 300 race.

I really enjoyed the time I spent with Mark, Karen, and Donna. Now, I'm looking forward to seeing Mark and Karen as roomies in Feb. And I love having Donna as a down the highway buddy :)

Jamie West
(landlady, musher, and part-time truck driver)

Karen, the Sheep Mountain 150 team and Jamie