Trail Work

Thankfully the weather has 'improved' (in a musher's eyes') this week and I've been able to get the dogs out most days.

They have been running great and we have been having a lot of fun. In fact, they have been running so well that I wanted to throw some more challenges at them and increase the distance of the runs some.

We have a lot of trail options at this time of year however some are not wise to to extenuating circumstances. Like - the cows are still in the 640 acres of 'green land' next to us.

While I am still welcome to train there (and have in years past), my ATV is having some 'issues' right now, namely, the automatic start and parking brake are not working.

While I'm getting around these problems (and developing some seriously ripped shoulders from pull starting the machine 20 times a day!!) 'Dancing with Cows' with such issues doesn't seem prudent!! So, the trail I chose to use is one we call the 'Widowmaker' (it's not as bad as it sounds, but it does have a few rather 'treacherous' hills on it - one in particular).

It is narrow, hilly and hasn't seen much, if any traffic in the last 10 months, so I figured I should check things out before charging over there with 16 dogs (I've run into 'impassible' trail with big dog teams before. You 'sort it out' but, trust me, it isn't usually a lot of fun).

So, after dinner and seeing Mark off to his night shift at the Mill, Bet and I headed off into the woods.

 First priority was to clean up a few branches that have been giving us issues this past week. 
I don't worry much about downed trees like this as long as I can easily get the ATV over them. Actually, I think it is good for the dogs to have to learn to pay attention to the trail and what is under their feet! 

I do worry about branches sticking out into the trail that might snag a harness or injure a dog...

... and ones that might do this...

I worked away cleaning up things like this...

and this....

While Bet caught up on the local gossip...

Overall the trail was in good shape...

I did have to chop down one tree - and anyone that has chopped a tree down with an axe will tell you that it isn't as easy as you'd think. It wasn't a pretty job, but I got it done.

Usually I just make note of where the trees are and ask Mark to go take care of them, but he's been putting a fair amount of overtime in at work lately and I didn't want to bother him with this (besides, I'd rather he use any spare time for such projects as working on my ATV *grin*).

We also came across some cool things in the woods. Like this little bird nest tucked in a pine tree...

... and this torn up wasp nest...

And then we came across this....

Not good. This looked like a 'chainsaw/Mark job'.

But I was so close to the end of the trail that stubbornness set in. One way or another those trees were going.

It took a lot of sweat...some grunting...and some swearing....but eventually...

YEAH!!!!

Weather permitting (and sadly, it isn't looking too good), you will see pictures of a dog team through there tomorrow morning!!

It's amazing what a girl and her border collie can do when they put their minds to it!!