The Solstice 100

Well we finished our first race of the season, a local 100 mile race in Two Rivers, Alaska. It was just what we needed to get the dogs out on the trail and used to the race format. We have several dogs that are new to us this season and some 2 year olds that have never raced before so this was a great race to see how the training is progressing. We had enough dogs for 2, 11 dog teams. We tried to make two even teams and then we flipped a coin to see who got which team.
For those in the know:
Codys team
Stout, Okie, Ness, TJ Maxx, Berry, Solo, Big Mike, Lupine, Ursa, one eyed Mikey and Dorado
Paiges team
Elmer, Casper, Bleeker, ET, Brutus, Goober, Frenchy, Dundee, Smoke, Mystic and Dozer

Cody said his team did great, moving along nicely. It was Solo and Big Mike's first race as 2 year olds and they both worked really hard the whole time and camped well. He dropped Stout at the checkpoint because of some slight soreness in his shoulder that has been plaguing him recently. But other than that Cody had a flawless run.

My team also did great cruising along on the way to the Angel Creek Checkpoint. Some of the trail follows the Quest trail that I did as part of the Yukon Quest 300 a couple of years ago so it was in familiar territory. I remembered on that race, I put Bleeker in lead as we were getting closer to the Angel Creek Lodge. The trial goes onto some creeks and under two bridges. There is only about 5-6 feet of clearence in between the ice and the bottom of the bridge. In 2009, Bleeker did not think that was a good idea to go under the bridge so instead did a full circle bringing the whole team around and jumped into my sled bag! What the???? so on the ice I switched him out of lead and on we went under the bridge. Well I remembered that this time and did not have him in lead on the way out there and this time there was even less room under the bridge, I had to duck. Well, we went right under them and I watched Bleeker carefully and he just charged right under them from his swing position. Once we got the checkpoint, I happily exclaimed to Cody that Bleeker was over his fear of bridges! We had a mandatory 4 hour layover at the checkpoint and the dogs rested well at first but the teams all came in so close that when the teams started to get ready to go there was no chance of any rest happening!

I made some last minute changes before I left, putting Bleeker in lead and off we went, right on time. We go flying out of there and within a mile or so, down a steep slope, onto a thin plywood bridge out onto the creek ice ready to go under the bridge. As I was looking down at something on my sled, I looked up only to see Bleeker, pulling his bone head move again, right back to the sledbag he came, with the whole team. Dang:) The thing about ice is that it is slippery and you cant set a snow hook. Well luckily everyone was well behaved and I put Brutus in lead with Casper and off we went, under the bridge with Bleeker in swing driving hard under it as if he wasnt scared at all.

It was a super fun race and now we are looking forward to the Copper Basin in January and the Yukon Quest in February! Stay tuned:)

change of plans

Well folks, as usual, plans have changed. We had a few too many dog on the injured list lately. Nothing very serious, just wrists and shoulders that weren't very happy but enough problems that we didn't have enough dogs for 2 full teams in the Sheep Mountain 150. The Sheep Mountain 150 is a fast paced race in  very moutainous trerrain. That trail has the possiblilty of causing even more problems for our dogs so we decided we could put one team into that race or bring the whole gang out to Two Rivers for the Solstice 100 race and give them the chance to show us what they working with. We will be running two 11 dog teams instead here. The race starts later this morning and goes from the Pleasant Valley Store to the Angel Creek Lodge. Here we will have a 4 hour layover while enjoying a burger at the lodge. Then we will have a 50 mile run back to Pleasant Valley Store and should be done sometime after midnight.  You can follow along on the Two Rivers Mushers Facebook Fan Page. It is open to the public to view.We will not have anyone updating the blog from the trail on this race, but we'll tell about it afterwards.
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Winter in full swing

Well here it is, almost December. Sorry about the lull in blog entries. I guess we have been slightly busy around here since we last wrote.  Fall training has gone awesome. We started with 30 adult race dogs training and 12 yearlings that are also running in harness, but at lesser level. We ran them all together in 14 dog teams until we hit the 20 mile mark in training, sometime in October and then we decided that the young dogs would be split out since we did not plan to race them this year, but rather allow them to mature physically and mentally. Our yearlings are going to get another year to have fun before things get real serious. We'll train them up for 30 mile camping trips, so this spring they can get into a camping rhythm and then next year they'll be in the groove. They are looking good.

As for the race dogs, we are still training around 26 dogs for the upcoming races and at this point in the season they are doing runs in the range of  40 - 60 miles. We are both signed up for the Sheep Mountain 150 in December and the Copper Basin 300 in January. After these two races, we will have a good idea who is tough enough to make the cut for the Yukon Quest team. Paige will only be able to take 14 dogs on that race. So we will have to look closely at which dogs make the best fit for a long cold 1000 mile run.

The video below is from a mini hd helmet cam we are playing with, watch for more videos as the season progresses. This video is just playing with footage from a typical training run on our local trails.. pretty close to being there, except this video is a little shorter than the real runs by about 5 hours.. I did speed up the video a bit at times. we like our dogs slow.

We recently had our friend Dorothy Olmstead come by to help out for a week and see what handler life was all about. She did a great job with the dogs and got to see what running dogs and doing dog chores at -40 is all about. Hopefully we didn't scare her away. Hopefully, we can get Dorothy, who is a writer, to do a blog entry on her experience here. ;)

Cody's dad, Sterling is now here helping out in the shop and helping with some training runs. He got his reintroduction to the dogsled yesterday and did 18 miles of technical trail without spilling his sled, so I think he is ready to go camping. We plan to get out this week and do a camping trip from our place to Minto Flats. Sterling is also an auctioneer, so while he is here, he is going to be doing the Yukon Quest, Hawg and Dog benefit Auction . Yukon Quest mushers will be serving hors d'oeuvres at this event at Cold Spot Fees on December 3rd. Don't miss the chance to see Paige in a tux with tails.

So that is what is happening here, we'll try to keep this more up to date, but our FACEBOOK page is public, meaning you can look at it without being a facebook member, and usually kept up to date on a more day to day basis. During races, it will likely get more updates than this.  





Norwegian Mushing Symposium

Our side business, DogPaddle Designs, is attemtpng to expand our sled sales to Norway and Sweden. Barry Siragusa of RoppHaugen Consulting in Norway agreed to help us try to import sleds to Norway.  We decided that the Hakadal Sledhunklubb seminar would be a great place to debut our sleds. So one of the things we have been doing around here is getting sleds all ready to go to Norway. Above, are the two first sleds going to Norway. One was for Barry for all is hard work and the other was for demonstration purposes.

After the sleds were built, Cody to take them all apart and package them for riding along on the airplane. It proved to be semi difficult to get 9 feet long sleds packaged for a ride on a plane. But the sleds made it to Norway, happy and healthy. Cody stayed with Barry and Kaia at their kennel.

They are near Gausdal, Norway. The valley they live in was beautiful with watefalls and great trails just outside their door.

While here, Cody got to see how the folks are  traininng dogs.. pretty much the same as a Alaskans... go figure. they even use harnesses and ganglines. ;)

Most mushers, however don't have the big gas guzzler dog trucks that most of us Alaskan mushers have. Most mushers seem to have vans or SUVs with trailers.

When it comes to dryland training, four wheelers aren't normally allowed here to go whereever you want like in Alaska, combine that with the fact that quads are about

               124, 900 Norwegian kroner = 22, 132.77 U.S. dollars, and dang..

So most mushers either use Non-motorized carts or their vehicles. In Barry and Kaia's case, they use their SUV. I got the chance to tag along on a few runs and see how some of the Norwegian genetic lines look. Looking good!.

Barry, Per Vinding and I spent a couple leirurely days assembling the sleds for Hakadal and then spent the weekend at the symposium. The Hakadka Sledhundklubb puts on a great symposium, very similar in size to our own held in Fairbanks. They had many great vendors there. It was great to see some of the different brands of gear that are used here, some with very different solutions to the same old gear. It was a great chance to network and get to know more about how races and mushing is done. There are probably more mushers Norway then Alaska, but I guarantee there are more sled dogs in Alaska.  

The symposium and trip were a success! Thanks to all of the hospitality while in Norway. We lookf forward to coming back more in the future. Hopefully with dogs one of these winters to try out the Femundlopet and Finnmarkslopet races. Thanks to Troll Hundefor for providing us with a good deal on a norwegian square dog cooker for this year's race season. Can't wait to get to melting snow!

It is finally fall!

It's official, it is fall in the northlands again. The leaves turned yellow and a couple days later they are already stacking up on the ground. There is nothing like cruising through the birch forest while on a puppy walk or with the team and quad... The trail coated in leaves like a yellow brick road.

So Paige brought the dogs back from the glacier last week and introduced them to their new dogyard and the new pups and dogs that appeared here this summer. This week has been exciting running teams mixed with all our old and new favorites. They all look so good that it is hard not to contemplate 2 full Yukon Quest teams, but as the season progresses we will likely have only enough SOLID dogs for one good quest team. However we should have two really nice teams for all the mid-distance races this year and Cody may run the Quest 300 while Paige is running the full Quest. The dogs are strong, but here in the hills with our thicker coated dogs that have been running on ice all summer, it is still to dang warm to go more than 2-3 miles without them getting to hot., especially when doing some hill climbs. Colder temps, please come!

The pups are all doing great. Smoke's pups (grisman songs) have taken to the excercise wheel and love it. Lucy's pups are getting more active and are showing lots of personality these days. We are going to take Laurie's suggestiong and name them after lyrics from the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Besides the running of the dogs and puppy walks, we have been having a multitude of friends helping us out with projects that must be finished before it snow and we forget about everything except running dogs. Cody will be taking some sleds to the Hakadal sleddog symposium in Norway on Tuesday and then the Willow symposium the week after, so he has been in the shop up to his elbows building dogsleds... with lots of help from Thomas, Tom and Paige of course. We also have been working on new 4 wheeler training trails and have a great new out trail, thanks to Jessie's help. The last big project is getting a roof on our rental/handler cabin. Megan and Thomas, who worked with our dogs on the glacier all summer will be staying there this winter. However there still is no roof, but the rafters are up and we are confident that they will have a warm home soon! Thanks for all the help! One more month of working hard and then we can just train hard! can't wait.

Extreme Doggy Home Makeover

This summer has been the summer of extremes.. extreme projects that is..  One of these major projects was to take our pretty little forested hobbit dogyard, which was actually quite treacherous when covered in snow an ice, and turn it into something safe for dogs and mushers and efficient for hooking up and feeding the dogs.

Our yard is on a pretty good slope and used to be completely forested. This was great for providing shade for dogs in summer, but after a couple years the dogs had dug up the roots killing most of the trees and creating a very unsafe surface for mushers hooking up teams. Trees started to fall last winter and Paige had back surgery so we decided it was time to do something while the dogs were away on the glacier.

So we cut down all the pretty little trees and called in the dozer.

Yogi was the foreman as usual, but John from Heavy Horse construction, a fellow musher, made 3 terraces out of hour hillside with paths for trails to shoot through each level of dogs.

We then put down some small gravel to keep the yard from being mucky when wet.

Voila' ... the dogs enjoying their new level home. the treasure at the end of the rainbow and at the other end... the finished feed shed that used to be a wall tent platform that we lived in when working on the house.

Where does the time go?

This summer is flying by as summers around here tend to do. Projects galore and puppies to boot. Here is a little doggie update to sedate you until the snow flies. Smoke's puppies are now weened and at 8 weeks old weigh in at a whopping 20lbs! They are really fun, darting everywhere, exploring trails, learning what all the berry fuss is about, these guys are a blast. Gypsy, the girl in the middle, is the ring leader, making sure everyone follows her everywhere and telling them off if they don't! Dogma, the boy on the far left, likes to stay close to his people during walks and doesn't much care for Gypsy's antics! Puppy TV is in full effect.

We have also had a second litter of puppies. These are Lucy's puppies. We bred her to Brent Sass' lead dog Silver. There are 2 boys and 3 girls in this bunch. They are now 9 days old and already opening their eyes.

One of the big projects we have been working on is the dog yard. Our land has a pretty steep grade to it and in the past we have learned to cope with sliding down hill all winter, finding all the dog bowls can be a challenge, but we liked having the dogs in a treed area so we dealt with it. Well this summer, while some of the dogs are on the glacier, we decided to make some drastic changes to the dog yard. After lots of tree cutting, dozing and a little bit of gravel to top it off, we now have a much more workable dog yard! My back is already haapy about not falling all winter...We still have spots in the trees for the summer time but since winter is approximately 9 months around here, we are excited for the ease that this change will bring us. Thanks to our friend John for helping us with this project!

In the midst of all these projects, Paige signed up for the Yukon Quest, 1000 mile dog sled race that starts Feb 4, 2012. We have started training the dogs with the ATV, getting them in shape so that when the others come back from the glacier, they will be up to speed. This happens in the wee hours of the morning before the August sun heats everything up again (sorry neighbors). The glacier dogs come back in 2 weeks and we cannot wait to see them again! Once they are home, it will be running dogs, full speed ahead!

New pups!!

We had our first litter of puppies for the summer on June 16 to Smoke and Grisman. Smoke is a dog we just got from Lance Mackey and Grisman is a Seavey dog that Sebastian Schneulle has now. There are 5 pups in the litter, 3 boys and 2 girls, and Smoke is a great mom! Her are some photos of their first days...

We named them after David Grisman songs to honor the Dawg himself and also the dad of the litter. Here is an introductory video.

They are now 2 weeks old and have their eyes open. They are super chunkers weighing in at 5lbs each! Here is super fat Dawgma! He looks a little sharpee-ish:)

Summer camp for the dogs

This summer we sent some of our dogs up to the Denver Glacier outside of Skagway, Alaska with our good friend and great dog driver, Megan. Here they will run a 2 mile loop for the tourists thoroughout the summer and will come back to us in early September. I just went down to Skagway to visit them for a couple of days to make sure they were happy and also because I missed them terribly:) Here is a  picture of their summer home from the air. They are having the time of their life, doing what they love best, staying cool and away from the bugs!!

 

Here is Brutus, giving me hug before I took off again. I miss you buddy!!

Here are the dogs all hooked up and ready to go. Who says you can't have winter all year long!! I am jealous, really.

photos from the arctic 2011

the dog line at our camp. we were set up on a lake and drilled hole in ice for dog water.



The team bringing in another load of dog food



there are 100's of caribou right over that ridge.. now what to do with 26 raging dogs.

the teams chillin while we stalk a small herd of caribou

Cody lost his bed to Stout during the windstorm

we rotated the pups through the tent to dry out and hang during the blizzard. Goober in bed with Paige, Stout warming her bed from below and Bleeker doing his sleep sit.

a panoramic of camp at start of blizzard. by morning, dogs had a foot of snow on their backs... it acted as insulation and kept them warm.

dogs waiting semi-patiently while we glass for caribou and a good route to the valley floor.

Paige and Stout chillin in camp.

YUM.. SPAM.. need I say more?

The gang hanging in the snowtrekker, Paige, Phoebe, Chris and Scott.



remnants of a nice caribou skull with our team in the distance.



taking a load back to the truck at the end of the trip. wind blew in our original trail we broke, so they had to break it all out again.

Days like this are just amazing.. what we dream of alllllll year!

Arctic Adventure 2011

Hi all, We returned last weekend from another amazing trip to the artic north slope of the Brooks Range. We spent a little over a week living with the dogs out on the tundra, following the great caribou herds while we exploring the mountains and valleys. What a blast. We had several friends come out and share camp with us and had some amazing weather.. especially if you forget the 24 hour wind storm whiteout that kept us in the tent for a day. We came home with two lead dogs that stepped up to the challenge of breaking trail day after day and two caribou that gave themselves to us to feed our family for the year. Both were awesome gifts that make these trips so worth it. It is awesome to be able to get such wonderful, orgranic, free range meat and do the entire process from tundra to freezer by ourselves. Nothing goes to waste and the dogs get anything we can't use.. Happy dogs. As for the dogs, Stout and Okie have stepped up to take over the main duties of off-trail command leaders. They have shown that they have the skills to break trail day after day when there is nothing but white in front of them. The terrain in the area we traveled could be quite steep and sometimes hairy, but the dogs were awesome at listening and going the way we wanted...most of the time anyways..  a real bonus when you are 350 miles north of Fairbanks and help is far away. All 14 dogs we took were rock stars. The yearlings stepped up to show that they were great campers and great in harness for sometimes very long days. We sometime only ran a couple mile from camp and then they would have to sit and rest for long periods of time while we looked for caribou. This is awesome training for them and they acted like they have been doing it for years.

Breaking trail into camp the first night at about 11 pm.. still light out! We ran 14 dogs with two very loaded down freight tobbogan sleds. We found that a large team with 2 sleds works better for heavy loads to and from camp with no trail. We run smaller teams when we are just traveling from camp.

A picture of the crew minus Cody.  Paige and dogs, Chris, Phoebe, and Scott.

I am having troubles loading photos, so will try again later.. check back to see the sites and also check back to see our next big adventure... Taking the dogs to Skagway next weekend and flying them up to the glacier for  summer tours.

Migrating with the caribou herd - Headed to North Slope of Brooks Range

It is time again! Time to pack the truck with our strongest dogs, a couple sleds, and gear for 10 days of living on the open tundra. This is what we live for each year, travelling with the dogs in the arctic while trying to procure the years worth of caribou meat for our freezer. We are headed to the North slope of the Brooks Range in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to intercept the migrations of caribou on their way to the coastal plain. Hunters are not allowed to use any motorized vehicles to hunt here. Only non-motorized transportation is allowed. So we will be doing what we love most, travelling by dog team. Stay tuned for stories and photos upon our return.

Valley Funale

Temperatures this past weekend were very warm and made it difficult to run dogs in the day time. Saturday we decided not to go out for a long run in the hot sun, but instead to head out to Two Rivers for the Valley Funale. We entered 2 teams in the 6 dog/ 10 mile race. The short distance is very doable without them overheating... of course we had no hope or chance of winning a sprint race like this, so we had a good time taking our time and doing some amazingly clean head on passes with all the teams.. Great race training for next year! The race was followed by a potluck grill out and kids 2 dog race that was very entertaining. Thanks to Two Rivers Mushers for putting on so many fun events that help get people started in this great sport.

the sleds getting set up and ready for the dogs

Macyn on her first solo run

Eureka!.. it's spring break in Eureka!

So we decided to load up all the dogs and all of Thomas and Megan's dogs (~40) and head out for spring break. Since we had the old and the young we decided to base out of the Wild and Free Mushing camp in Eureka, AK. Thanks to Brent, Kyla and Casey for the Hospitality! Here we were able to do some great runs with all the yearling integrated into the teams to get them out on some longer days with some short race style camping.  Here is a little abbreviated recap of spring break.



the view on Eureka Dome



On the first day at Eureka, Thomas, Cody and Paige took 3 teams and headed out for the trip to the village of Rampart. Rampart is located on the banks of the Yukon river and has only a handful of year round inhabitants. It is used mostly as a seasonal fish camp now adays. The run was 30 miles up over Eureka dome and down through the beautiful Minook valley. We ran into Rampart, took a quick look around as we scooped the loop and headed back out of town to let the dogs rest. Here we caught some zzzzs of our own. After a couple hours rest the dogs were ready to continue the 30 miles back. All the yearlings did great!

Thomas's team in Rampart on bank of Yukon River

the whole team is resting.. including Thomas in his sled. That blue thing is a person.

The next day we ran puppy teams on the extensive zig zagging mining trails in Eureka. It is great to get the pups out on new trails with lots of options so they learn to be excited to go anywhere! That night we hooked up 4 teams for a night expedition to Hutlinana hot springs. We had a great run into the hot springs under an almost full moon. We snacked and camped the dogs near the springs and enjoyed a nice soak and beverage.. now that is the way to train dogs to camp! After a couple hours at the springs, we loaded up the sleds and continued the loop back to Eureka. It was an awesome night all around.

hooking up 4 teams for blue bird run

We spent the next day recouperating and running puppy teams. The following day we did a nice loop toward Manley with 4 teams quick before M & T had to leave. Paige and Cody stayed around a couple more days to watch the Wild and Free dogs left bhind as the rest were running a large expedition in the Brooks Range. The temperatures warmed up.. way to warm to run dogs so we did lots of puppy runs and free runs before returning to normal life. I talked to dad after returning and mentioned that I was trying to adjust to normal life again... he said, "is your life ever normal?"... normal to us I guess.

Spring is springing in the Northlands!

Spring is coming fast. We have a little over a month left to run the dogs before the snow leaves so we are getting out there and making the most of it. The days are getting longer with about 11 hours of daylight now and it is getting quite warm in the afternoons.

This past weekend we finally got back out to Minto Flats since all the snowstorms. We took our tent to set up spring training camp. Here we can run the yearlings from home and get them dialed in to camping and doing multiple runs. Along the way, we ran into one of our neighbors that decided to come rest the dogs with us. You can see the three teams above and tent all set up in the photo above. On our way back home we ran into another neighbor who was on a little solo trip with his dogs.. he spent the night at the camp. We plan to do a few trips out here before the snow and ice melt next month. It is a great opportunity for the younger dogs to get used to the rest/run schedules of racing in a less stressful setting than an actual race.

We spent the rest of the weekend running the puppy teams and they are turning out to be some great dogs.. Thanks to Cim & Corrine, Aaron, and Brent for splitting these great litters with us.

On Monday we got  a vist from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.. seems they are still after Paige.. not really, but we made friends with the RCMP officers in Pelly and one of them, Mitch and his wife Merl came for a visit and to bring us a cd of photos from the Quest.. We had a nice visit and took them out to see the country side by dog team. Thanks for stopping in to visit and thanks for the donation towards the kibble fund.. we and the dogs appreciate it! If your reading this Mitch, please send us your contact info so we can visit when we come through Whitehorse!

So spring has many possibilities ahead, we may run a race at the end of the month in the Yukon Flats, we may do the Denali Highway, we may be running to hot springs, and we definitely will be following the caribou herds up north. Check back to see what the next month brings... plenty of at our own pace adventure!

When motors fail.. drift busting the old fashioned way...

All winter long we have been begging for snow.. and we finally got it. In fact, we got a whole winter of snow in less than a week. We received about 2 feet of snow in 3 different storms in less than a week. The first storm left some nice fluffy snow for the dogs to break through and was very enjoyable for all of us. The next storm left deep snow which was still passable, but also was quite windy leaving some challenging drifts. Cody decided to use the snowmachine to break through some of these drifts to make things easy on the dogs, but a mile into it, the dang thang broke down as motorized vehicles do. Dog teams however rarely completely break down if you take good care of them, so we broke out a bunch of trails, only to get them all filled in again by another substantial snowfall and 50+ mph winds. This last storm brought down many trees on the trails and has placed some human chest height drifts on our local trails. Armed with a chainsaw and some bad ass dogs, we have been slowly opening up the trails. Between the Karsten and Laurie's teams, Clint and Sarah's teams and ours, the trails are now back in order around here. The video below show a little of what the dogs have been doing...

Elizabeth Taylor (ET, the swing dog on right) is actually responsible for leading both teams through this in single lead with an assist from the free leader Stout. Elmer, the dog pictured in lead was just put their as a line holder because he does such a great job at that.. Good dogs!

After about a week and a half, most main trails are back to normal. Last night we decided to take a little side trail that wasn't broken. So there we are at 9:30pm with headlamps and the Husqvarna clearing trees off trail and then busting through drifts lke this again.. are we crazy? maybe so, but we sure love this life!

Recovered?

Well maybe not fully recovered...We are still playing with a bug we managed to pick up in Pelly. But we are back to running dogs and happy to report that everyone is happy and healthy and running sound. The dogs that were dropped were dragging Cody around before I even finished the race so everyone is good. We have been running the yearlings with the race dogs and the teams are looking really good. This past weekend, we had almost 2 feet of snow which made for a fun weekend. We harness broke our 8 puppies and they did amazing. Here is a little video of one of the puppy teams...

We have many people to thank, without which, this race would not have happened, namely Clint and Sarah, who loaned me 2 incredible dogs that were happy and barking the entire way. Clint was running the 1000 mile race at the same time and I ended up at a couple of the checkpoints with him. As he would ready his team to leave, his dogs in my team were screaming to go too! They recognized their friends from afar and wondered why they  weren't with them. Maybe that's why we were going so fast??

A huge thanks also goes to Jeff and Laura who took care of the house and the pooches who were left behind. They did a great job caring for the rowdy dogs left behind and even had dinner waiting for us when we got home. Man we are lucky people:) Also thanks to Springer and Lisa for exercising some of the ones left behind on a couple sled runs.

And lastly thanks to my greatest fan and best handler a person could ask for, my awesome husband Cody! He did a great job updating the blog and keeping everyone informed of our progress. He also sweated the whole time trying to get my form signed. Sorry babe, next time I will read all of the paperwork:)

Congrats to Paige.. finished in 6th place with 8 happy dogs!

Paige is in and the team looks great! We are proud of the dogs and all they have accomplished. Now is time for naps and dog care.. Paige will update us with some tails from the trail later as she recovers from her 4 hours of sleep since race started saturday.. stay tuned.

back at the truck! pups ae excited to get in the warm box.

Busted by the mounties for mushing without a license

So we have had a little drama this week, that I haven't mentioned until we got it all cleared up.. Back in Whitehorse before the race we were late to the mushers meeting. Since we were late, Paige didn't get certain paperwork collected from her. Immediately after Paige left the starting chute on race day, I was rastled up by a race official who was a little peeved that Paige had not turned in her hold harmless release form. I found it in the truck and gave to them, but it turned out that it had to be notarized by a notary official. Since Paige was already a couple miles down the Yukon River at this point, they decided that if she could get it notarized somewhere down the trail it would be fine. Well  I don't know if you have ever looked for a notary person at a dog race in northern Yukon Territory at odd hours of the night before, but it is about freaking impossible to find one. One of the officials thought that if we could get a mounty or RMCP officer to sign off that would be good enough.. Of course we didn't have an officer around at any of the checkpoints in the middle of the night either so Paige kept on moving and I kept on sweating it out trying to find a mounty to sign her off.

the RCMP officer looks hard to see if the girl in the passport photo is really the same stinky musher in front of him.

 Finally at Pelly Crossing we hit the mother load... Mounties were running the checkpoint.  So I got them all lined up to give her a little scare and tell her that she was getting her dog team comendeared for breaking canadian law of entering a dog race without proper release forms. Of course they wouldn't do it... but the officer did offer to take a bribe of a hefty sum to sign her sheet. How come canadian cops are so much cooler than us cops? By that grin in the picture I don't think Paige learned  a lesson at all. :)

So anyways.. Paige moved back a little in position today while giving the dogs ample rest. She left Pelly Crossing in 6th. which is not a big deal at all since all teams in front of her are either veteran iditarod mushers or running veteran iditarod mushers' dogs..she pulled the hook at 10:46 pm.  Actually the dogs pulled the hook on her and almost left without her at the start.. they were ready.

The trails are hard and fast and it is taking its toll on the dogs delicate shoulders and wrists. Bleeker has a pretty sore shoulder and she decided to spare him further damage and let him chill with me in the truck... he's pretty ecstatic. That brings the dog number to 8 for the last run.. not a problem for a quick 60 mile run at night. Paige said there are lots of snowshoe hares on the trail and it keeps the dogs excited and moving right along. She should be able to maintain a decent speed and should be back to the finish in under 8 hours, putting her back in Pelly sometime around 7 am.... check back to see what happened..

Paig is into the last checkpoint, Pelly Crossing, after a nice afternoon at McCabe Creek!

Paige is into Pelly Crossing with 9 happy excited dogs! She got in around 6 pm. She split this run into 2 sections with a camp and nap at McCabe Creek, being that it was warmer in the day time and the dogs often are little doggy. Lupine was experiencing some shoulder pain so was dropped at McCabe and is hanging with me and the other girls in the truck. Paige will be going out for the last leg tonight of a run to what is called Stepping stone which is 30 miles and then back another route from Stepping stone to Pelly, another 30 miles for the finish. Stay tuned tos ee what happens!

little doggies running on to McCabe Creek

Paige left Carmacks this morning at about 4:30 am with 10 screaming dogs.  She decided to drop Ursa and TJ Maxx because they were not as amped to go as the others and were slowing the team down a bit. She left in 3rd place and hopefully she can maintain the position till the end. Gerry Willomitzer and Ed Hopkins, both Quest 1000 mile veterans, left several hours earlier and she likely will not even see them at checkpoints before the end. Her next stop is McCabe Creek which is a short 40ish mile run. She will stay there for a few hours and and then hit the trail again. McCabe Creek is not a true checpoint, but a rather a dog drop and hospitality stop at a farm where they provide meals and rest to the weary travelers. I won't be able to update again until we hit Pelly Crossing later today.  I have lots of photos and video that we will post later, but internet signal strength has been low since the internet is satellite set up for the race and there are many official race and media uploads continuously going.

Paige into Carmacks in 3rd!

Paige just rolled into Carmacks checkpoint before schedule. I thought she would be in around 10 and she pulled in at 9:30 while I was laying on the floor.. She came into the checkpoint in 3rd position. This checkpoint is their mandatory 6 hour layover. Paige is out doing chores, so will let you know her plan and time of departure as soon as I know.. The leaders are a couple hours ahead, so she likely can't move up anymore in this race, but hopefully she can hold this spot till the end.. Go big Squid!

Paige out of Braeburn and having a blue bird run to Carmacks

Paige left Braeburn Checkpoint at 12:49 after a six hour rest. She still has 12 happy and healthy dogs. Here is a video of her taking off from the Checkpoint.


She moved up to 8 when she left, but had Yuka Honda right on her heels as she left. She planned to run straight through to Carmacks at just under 80 miles. As long as she stays on schedule she should be into Carmacks around midnight.. give or take an hour.. She can always camp along the way if the dogs need it.

a couple videos from Paige's start in Whitehorse yesterday

Josh Horst took a couple videos of the start in Whitehorse yesterday. Thanks Josh!
Dogs leaving the truck

Here is a link to Paiges Start

A few pics from Braeburn

Paige and the dogs are napping and plan to head out after 6 hours of rest before hitting the trail for a 80 mile run to Carmacks. She should be leaving around 1 pm. Here are a few pics from the checkpoint this morning.

it was dark when she came in.. so just imagine a dog team with wagging tails and a smiley frosty Paige face.

She was truckin on the trail so she ordered the "Truckers" breakfast.

a big view of the teams parked at the checkpoint.. Paige's team right in front.

getting blankets on the dogs so they can get some sleep.