Man, are we discouraged! The weather here continues to be unseasonably warm. Yesterday evening I actually saw people walking around the city in shorts!!! Mark and I might be the only people in northern Alberta complaining about the temperatures! We are keeping our fingers crossed that it won’t last for too much longer!!
I was in Edmonton over the weekend for a dog show. I thought Rosie and Smiley looked and behaved great. Unfortunately, the judges didn’t see it the same way and we didn’t walk away with any wins! In 2 weeks we are doing 1 day of a Show in Red Deer, that will be our last show until sometime late next spring.
I’ve been busy working on planning. I put my Race Plan down on paper last week. Of course, the best laid plans can get tossed out the window on Day 1 of the Race, but planning out a schedule helps me organize myself and my food drops. Last year I was very close to my estimated trail times but with the broken sled in Rainy Pass and other issues, my rest times were all off ‘the Plan’. This year’s plan has better rest times – with alittle luck on my side, I’ll be able to stick closer to it!
I thought that I’d take some space in the diary entries to introduce everyone to some of the new dogs in the team. The first I’m going to talk about is one of our exciting young ‘up and comers’ – Wetaskiwin’s Sir Gallahad. ‘Surge’, as he is known, will be 2 years old on December 24. Two summers ago we sold NorthWapiti’s Ginger Grant to Sam and Britton Burton in Iowa. Ginger went down bred to NorthWapiti’s Butch Cassidy and part of the purchase price was that we got a puppy back from the litter. When I was in Minnesota in the spring of ’99 I met up with Sam and picked out Surge. Burton’s had been calling him ‘Laddie’, but in our minds that just didn’t suit him, so Mark came up with the name ‘Surge’. Surge and I got some quality bonding during that trip. His nights were spent curled up in my sleeping bag and even after getting back home, he shared the bed with us. That was until he got so big that the three of us didn’t all fit! After that it was out to the kennel!
After a few eventful trips to the city with the pup, he picked up the nickname ‘Surge the Purge’ that has basically stuck with him. Although, with age he has gotten much better control of his bladder and bowels (thank goodness!!!!)
Surge has been working hard for a spot on this year’s team. When we were back in Minnesota a few months back he decided to show us his potential as a leader. Since then he has been spending a lot of time in the front of the team. He is not the fastest dog, but he is a fantastic puller and has a tremendous work ethic. He is absolutely one of Karen’s favorites!
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