Another race weekend

Looks like we'll be getting another race in. We went and looked at the trail for the race this weekend in Walker,Minnesota and it looks ok. There will definitely be some challenging parts but it will be a great experience for our young dogs. It will be a mass start race. It starts on a lake and then immediately goes up a hill on to what I call "The Avenue", (like where the Rondy starts in Anchorage but you don't spend as long on the streets). So then after you leave the street you have 3 road crossings and a tunnel to go through. Then the teams are on a really nice wide snow machine trail. The 6 dog turn around is incredibly sharp, pretty much a u-turn in the trail. I hope everyone can hang onto their dog teams for that. Then it's the same trail back home, except the finish line is up on the streets instead of back down on the lake. Nathan will be driving the 6 and 10 dog teams from our kennel. I'm going to chicken out after seeing the trail plus we have a few hurt dogs. Electra hurt her back feet training here on Tuesday at Eddy's so it's best she has a few days off to heal. Loon is still out from his shoulder injury at Daaquam (BUMMER!) We will do better just putting all the best dogs in the 2 teams rather than trying to have 2 6-dogs and a 10, which was our original plan. I'm also going to offer to be trail help with our snow machine after the teams take off. I'm concerned about the teams on the streets where they won't be able to stop of course. It will be a super opportunity for us to see how our dogs handle that kind of race trail. It will be fun to see how they do.
I think today we'll train the few leftover dogs we have that will sit out this race weekend and then we'll head into town for a bit to have a look around. Love & Hugs to all our friends and family at home.

A good day of training

We are at Eddy & Amy Streeper's place in Osage, Minnesota. We arrived here late last night (January 26th). We got all the dogs on the truck out for a training run today. The trail was real nice and in good shape. We ran the 2 main teams 10 miles and took the pups and "Loon" out for a short 4 mile run. As of the last drop Loon looks like he might be limping again on the same shoulder he hurt in Daaquam. We'll give him a good look over again in the morning. Hopefully he won't be out for long since he's one of our best race dogs. The pups are doing great with the traveling and harness runs. Today we ran "Guardrail" in lead with "Cinzia". He does super in lead for only being 8 months old. The other race dogs look like they might be starting to feel alittle better. On the last training run in Daaquam they seemed a bit flat, like maybe they had picked up a bug. No surprise considering how far we have traveled and how many other dogs they've been around. Nathan drove the teams today and said they looked alot better than the last training run.
Tomorrow we are going over to a town called Walker to check out their trail. They have a 2 day mass start race this coming weekend with 4,6,&10 classes.If the trail looks good we may stay and race it. The only down side is if we do that then we really have to boogie home on Sunday. We were planning to do some visiting with Hartum's and Saunderson's on the way back through. It would be nice to get another race in though.
We are having a great time here with Eddy & Amy. It's fun to hear all of Eddy's stories and just to talk dogs all day. Stay tuned tomorrow for our weekend plans. Hello to all at home, were hoping to bring the snow home with us!

Heading Home

We are in Marquette, Michigan right now. We woke up to nice blue sunny skies although it's not very warm. I think it's about -5 right now.We are taking the drive home a little slower than what we did on the way to Daaquam. On the way up there we would sometimes drive for a day & 1/2 without stopping, trying to make up time lost from the truck breakdown.
We left Daaquam about 5AM, it was snowing and blowing all the way down the hill. Then we stopped the first night at North Bay, Ontario and then yesterday made it to here. The roads have been ok. We hit a pretty good snow storm when we crossed the border at Sault Ste. Marie. We had an uneventful border crossing which is great. The plan is to make it to Eddy & Amy Streeper's today and train there tomorrow. We are going to run over and check out the Casino here though before we leave town. Hope all is well with everyone back home.

Final Day of 6-dog World Championships

I have to say, I'm glad it's over. I'm ready to get home now. Day 3 went ok for us. The trail was not as fast as yesterday. The wind was just howling too. I can't believe how hard it was blowing out there today, in some places it would darn near blow the sled over. I ran "Finch" & "Dewalt" in lead again today. Looks like we'll end up in 8th place overall, still the top USA team though. We may stay here one more day and train tomorrow morning before heading out. The training trails are super. It's a shame the race trails couldn't have been just as good. We are looking forward to getting home and doing some racing there as long as the weather gets better.
We will write more later when we have internet. Thanks to everyone back home for all their support. Happy trails!

Day 2 6-dog World Championships

All the dogs looked real good this morning, so everyone will go again today. The plan is to try "Finch" up in lead with "Dewalt" today. They were my leaders back home for the 8 dog races. The hope is that she'll get them movin a bit faster than "Makita". Don't get me wrong, "Makita" is one of our fastest dogs she's just been running a lot further so she doesn't believe me yet that we'll be going short.
Day 2 went super for us. Finch & Dewalt were great in lead today. The trail has really set up nicely. It was so much faster today. I wish it could have been like this for the 8 dog. Looks like we have the 6th fastest day time but still in 7th place overall. I'm happy with that, especially since we weren't trying to be competitive in this class. My fellow Alaskan, Jennifer Probert was in 10th for the day and moved up to 12th overall. She had to drop a dog from yesterday. We are the fastest USA team so far!
After the race we went and trained all the other dogs. The training trail is so unbelievably nice. We just rode on the sled together and trained 2 teams. We threw the puppies in with the race dogs just so everyone could get to run. Have to go feed. Look for the final results tomorrow. Then we'll be heading home.

Day one of the 6-dog class

We decided to go ahead and try day one of the 6-dog class after carefully checking out the trail yesterday after the final heat of the 8 dog.
The team is "Dewalt" and "Makita" in lead, "Lani" & "Hula" in swing (yearling sisters and pups of Makita) and my house dog "Finch" and yearling "Dukker" in wheel. Not an easy choice to pick the team with so many good dogs just sitting on the truck. The weather warmed up so that's why we left "Kodo" out. He was a little behind on miles from an injury earlier in the season. After seeing how Makita paced herself today thinking she was running 15 miles (she led the open team both days at Ft.Nelson) I may have been better off with someone else in lead with Dewalt. Suprisingly however we are sitting in 7th place. I'm pleased with that especially since we are a bit over trained for this particular race and I expect if we have good clean run we may be able to move up a spot or two. Funny though, I was so focused on the 8 dog race, I don't really mind where we end up in the 6 dog. All the dogs looked real good during the run today. They were not even the least bit tired, not one of them was even panting after the run. Hopefully tomorrow they will realize how short of a run it'll be and get movin a little more. The trail is still real soft. It's not puchy though like it was for the 8 dog. I was a bit nervous that Dewalt and Makita might try to go the 8 dog trail but no problems at all there.
Tomorrow after the race if the training trail is open I think we'll have to get these other guys out. They are getting pretty wild sitting on the truck so much. Everyone is doing great with the loose dropping. We let everyone race around this morning for quite awhile. They were having a great time. Dukker was very playful and would run around with a stick or tree branch in his mouth with all the other boys in hot pursuit. Dukker also sends hug & kisses to his little buddy Chayton back home. He can't wait to see you again.
We are having to do two separate drops because we have females in heat and don't want to take any chances with breedings. It's easier just to keep them separate rather than harp on the boys the whole time they are out. Since "Scooby" is neutered he gets dropped witht the girls since he's boxed with "Chloe". He's the entertainment for the girls. They all like to chase him around. It's like he's the cute kid in the school and all the girls follow him.
Time to go take care of dogs. More on the race after the heat tomorrow.

We came over to the trails today and watched the 8 dog class for the final day. I can't even begin to describe how hard it is to stand on the sidelines and watch. We hurt one of our main dogs who has raced every heat of all of our major races for a couple years now. The bad trail and his injury is the main reason we decided to pull our team out. He'll recover, just has a sore shoulder from punching through the soft trail. We did booger up some feet too.
Nathan and I decided to stick around and hope maybe the trail would get a little better after some dog team traffic. We still have the chance to race the 6-dog if we decide we want to. So after the race today we walked about 2 or so miles out on the trail. I really can't believe how much better it looks after 2 days of racing. It's still far from perfect. It's still pretty soft but not so punchy. When we were on our way walking back in, we ran into our fellow Alaskan musher Jennifer Probert. She was checking out the trail too. So we'll give it another go tomorrow. Just got the draw for tomorrow. Great both Jennifer & I get to start at the back of the pack. There's 33 6-dog teams that are supposed to start the race. All our dogs look good. The next big decision for us is which of our dogs will run the 6-dog race. Plan is to go with Dewalt & Kodo in lead. Dar will have to sit this one out. Not a good trail for a dog recovering from a muscle injury. He's pretty well healed but don't want to take a chance. Also thinking we'll take some of the yearlings, Dukker, Lani & Hula are the best. We'll have a look at everone in the morning and make the last minute choice then. Hugs to all back home. Thank you for your thoughtful words to us after our big disapointment in the 8 dog.