December 6, 2005 The Plan

Things here are in full gear, as I leave on Saturday for Alaska. The house is a maze of Rubbermaid containers, winter clothing, harnesses, and assorted other race gear. The first one of us up in the morning (usually me) has to gingerly shuffle their way to the nearest light switch to avoid stubbing toes! Kara had to hurdle a large Rubbermaid just to get outside to pee last night. Lucky she is a little dog or she wouldn’t fit in the house right now.

The Plan (as it stands now) is that young Markus Husch and I will head out of here as early on Saturday morning as we can. That’s right, first big trip with the new truck and Mark won’t even be along to baby-sit his truck! I’m not sure whether he will be sadder to see the truck or I head out the driveway!

Markus has been gracious enough to give up his winter break from school (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology – where he is studying Forestry) to drive up to Alaska with me. He will drive up with me, help the dogs and I settle in at Jamie’s, handle for me on the Sheep Mountain Race, and then fly back home just in time to spend Christmas with his family.

So, back to The Plan – we are leaving home on Saturday morning, stopping by Linley’s in Fort St John to pick up a sled for Natalie Norris and then hoping to make it to Fort Nelson the first night. Next day we are headed for Whitehorse, where we are staying with friends for the night. Breakfast with Stephen from the Quest office on Monday morning, picking up my lithium batteries from Trevor, then onto Tok for the night. We should roll into Jamie’s yard sometime early Tuesday afternoon!

The border crossing could be an issue, as some issues with Bird Flu have further complicated crossing the border with meat for my food drops, but I think we have that all sorted out. I guess I’ll know for sure on Monday evening.

So, pretty much I’m mostly organized, except for one detail – I still don’t know exactly which dogs are getting on the truck. We have arranged to take 22 with us and, as of my run yesterday - I have decided on 21 of those dogs – but the last spot is still up for grabs.

The dogs going are – (In the order they are fed)

| Draco | Skor | Surge | Hector | Moses | Odie | Loki | Herman | Barq | Crunchie |
| Kara | Hilda | Olena | Dasher | Snickers | Pepsi | Sprite | Nahanni | Jr | Q | Batdog |

Name	Sex	Age	Status	Races
Draco	Male	8	Veteran Main leader	Iditarod 2001 Finisher Klondike 300 Iditarod 2003 Iditarod 2004 Finisher Iditarod 2005 2005 Knik 200
Skor	Male	5	Veteran Leader	Iditarod 2005
Surge	Male	7	Veteran Main leader	Grand Portage Passage Iditarod 2001 Finisher Iditarod 2003 Iditarod 2004 Finisher John Beargrease Marathon Race to the Sky Iditarod 2005 2005 Knik 200
Hector	Male	4	Veteran Leader	Iditarod 2004 Finisher Iditarod 2005 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Moses	Male	5	Veteran Leader	Yukon Quest 250 Iditarod 2004 Finisher Iditarod 2005 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Odie	Male	6	Veteran Leader	John Beargrease Marathon Iditarod 2003 Iditarod 2004 Finisher Iditarod 2005 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Loki	Male	6	Veteran Champion showdog	Iditarod 2003 Iditarod 2004 Finisher Iditarod 2005 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Herman	Male	4	Veteran	Iditarod 2004 Finisher Iditarod 2005 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Barq	Male	4	Rookie
Crunchie	Male	5	Veteran Leader	Iditarod 2004 Finisher Iditarod 2005 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Kara	Female	6	Veteran Main Leader Champion Showdog	Iditarod 2003 2003 Knik 200 Finisher Iditarod 2004 Finisher 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher Iditarod 2005
Hilda	Female	4	Veteran Leader	Iditarod 2004 Finisher 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Olena	Female	5	Veteran Leader	Iditarod 2003 Iditarod 2004 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200 Finisher
Dasher	Female	4	Veteran Leader Champion showdog	Iditarod 2005
Snickers	Female	5	Veteran Leader Mark’s favorite!	Iditarod 2005
Pepsi	Female	4	Rookie	(Busy having a litter for our friends Jackie and Rick last year)
Sprite	Female	4	Veteran Leader	Iditarod 2005
Nahanni	Female	5	Veteran	Iditarod 2003 2005 Copper Basin 300 2005 Knik 200
Jr	Male	3	Rookie Leader
Q	Male	2	Rookie
Batdog	Male	3.5	Rookie

Batdog earned his spot yesterday with a run that I knew he was capable of but that until yesterday he just wouldn’t give me. Now that I know he can do what I need, whether or not he makes the Quest team will depend on whether I can now constantly get those performances out of him.

So that now leaves me with 3 dogs to choose from for the final spot. The candidates are Eeek, Jinx and Holly. There are pluses about each one of them – Eeek is the biggest and strongest of the three, Jinx is the most consistent worker, and Holly, although the smallest and the worst eater, is definitely the best leader of the group.

Name	Sex	Age	Status	Races
Eeek	Male	2	Rookie
Jinx	Female	2	Rookie
Holly	Female	3.5	Rookie Leader

I’ll run all three for the rest of the week and hope for some divine inspiration to tell me what to do.
Think that is it for today. I need to run into Westlock and get home in time to run the team this afternoon. If anyone has any 36-hour days lying around their house, I could sure use them!

Karen