The Dump Run at Sandwich Notch

Sandwich Notch trail is home to me and my dogs and also very much home to Miss W. and her barking brook doggies. As the snow falls, we dream of breaking trail through the notch, inching further than past runs and experiencing more notch moments . The power lines offer mushers a hair raising decent when conditions are not so great. After climbing and climbing, there is a steep decent to a level spot. Following Miss W. on a very cold day with strong winds, following a recent snow storm, we wind our way up and up the trail, carefully following the power lines. Along the way we ran into the groomer who was coming towards us. The snow was quite deep. With nowhere to go other than 'off the trail', we anchored down one team as we both helped each other guide our teams through several feet of deep snow and safely past the groomer. This was hard work, we were trudging through mid-thigh deep snow, holding onto leaders as the groomer's engine roared next to the teams. The team left anchored waited patiently for their turn. When this part of the adventure was over with, we soon came to the 'edge'..... put it this way, you couldn't see what was over the edge. It was wind swept and bare. Miss W. turns to me and says "You had better give me five minutes, I don't think I'll make it safely". There was no turning back. My leaders understood the words 'five minutes' and were not too happy to wait as they saw Miss W. launch herself over the edge and out of sight. I gave her five minutes and not a minute more as now my dogs had a new surge of energy. They wanted to go 'over the edge' desperately, anxious to see what was past the edge and by the way, where did Miss W. Go?? I could feel the power of my team and it was a little scary. I didn't want to get dumped. Typically I would undo tuglines to lessen the power, but the snow at this point was windswept and I didn't want to get off the runners and risk losing the team. So...... with a tentative 'let's go!', we were off. They flew over the edge like children riding 'the runaway train' at Disney Land. We hit dirt and rocks, I was knocked to my knees at one point, but I didn't let go. Pulled myself back up and held on for the wild ride all the way to the bottom. We pulled up alongside Miss W, I took a moment to compose myself, she seemed fine, dogs were good, my dogs, I swear, were grinning, I looked at Miss W. and said "next time, please don't tell me to wait five minutes right at the edge of a steep decent because all it did was wind my guys up!" then we looked at each other and grinned... tempted to go do it again !!!