Heading out of the Rainy Pass checkpoint, she and her howling crew of purebred Siberian huskies woke before the sun rose, anxious to begin their trek over the Alaska Range onto McGrath for a 24-hour layover.

Howls echoed off Puntilla Mountain. They began singing when Kotzebue's Tollef Monson left, leaving just Ramstead and fellow Canadian Clint Warnke at Rainy Pass Lodge.

Ramstead, a 41-year-old musher from Perryvale, Alberta, grinned when her team stopped howling.

"They're such snobs about singing," she said. "They'll never sing when other Alaska dogs are around.

"Believe me, they know the difference."

And if there are two things these thick-furred Siberian huskies love, it is howling and cold weather.

They got the latter Wednesday afternoon about 30 miles east of McGrath.

Having just passed the Farewell Burn, the wind howled. Snow drifted across a massive frozen lake and disappeared into a clump of spruce trees.

Wearing her bright red parka, Ramstead's hood was pulled tight.

"How's it going?" she asked. Her eyes were squinting from the gigantic sundog in the western sky. The tops of her chubby cheeks were exposed and the wind made them bright pink.

"I'm doing great," she said. "Really great, in fact."

If only Warnke, who was born in Saskatchewan but now lives in Two Rivers, could say the same.

"My back is killing me," he said. "A friend came to visit me here in McGrath. His name is Arthur." As in Arthritis.

Warnke isn't getting much sleep on the trail. He said it takes him two hours just to get going.

Michigan-born musher Bryan Bearss, 29, is taking his 24-hour layover here, too. He borrowed a drill from the checkpoint and put new holes in his brush bow. Despite the ear-piercing noise, his dogs lay sound asleep.

Bearss has gotten his sleep on the trail aboard his Jeff King-designed sit-down sled.

"I'm not sure how long I sat there and slept," he said. "My dogs just stopped and looked at me like, 'Bryan, it's time to wake up.' "

Daily News reporter Kevin Klott can be reached at kklott@adn.com.