December 12, 2006 2006/2007 Racing Season

“Gentlemen – start your engines!”

Well ready or not, it looks like the 2006/2007 racing season is upon us! We leave tomorrow for the Sheep Mountain 150 in Sutton, Alaska. (We ran this race in 2005 as well - see our 2006 Race Season page for more details.)

Wherever has the time since March gone??

Honestly, I’m very happy with the dog’s training so far. They are better prepared for this race then my team was last year. We have even had a few opportunities to get on snow this season.

We started with a strong pool of about 35 candidates for the 24 spots on the truck – and competition has been tough, but we have whittled things down to 24, with another 4 or 5 that will be ready to step up if any of the ‘first pick’ dogs get sidelined for any reason.

For me there are always pleasant surprises and sad realities that come along with picking those final 24 – I know many of you long time followers of the kennel will pick those out in reading the list.

So, let me ‘introduce’ you to the 24 dogs that will make the trek to Alaska with us this weekend.

First off, the most senior member of the team – at 9 years of age and at a lean, but solid 55 lbs – Draco. Who is perhaps having the best season of his life! He looks and acts fabulous!

Next up in seniority are the Gods and the Goddess – Odie, Loki and Kara. Odie and Loki are acting more like puppies then they did when they were puppies! And Kara, well…she is still one of my very favorite leaders – heck, just one of my favorite dogs – but you all know that already.

Then there are my ‘class of 2000’ alumni – Moses and Olena. Dependable leaders and strong pullers anywhere in the team.

Snickers, Crunchie, Dasher and Barq are the 5 year olds getting on the truck this time. This may actually be Barq’s year! He is maturing wonderfully – FINALLY!

All three ‘H’s’ – Hector, Hilda and Herman will once again be trekking up to visit Alaska again. All truly solid dogs!

Batdog finally welcomes his little sister, Holly along for the trip! Yeah Holly!

And the last of the veterans to go is Iditarod finisher (and favorite of trapline children!) – Jr!

The next two are still young, but both did some racing for us last season – just not Iditarod. They are Q and Jinx, of course.

Finally we hit the real rookies of the group – Eeek, Charge, Watt, Tess, Boom, and the smallest of the main string dogs – Spider. Lots of enthusiasm and promise in that group!

So that’s the lot – 15 Males; 9 Females; 12 Iditarod finishers; 4 race veteran; 8 racing rookies.

The heaviest of the group are Draco and Moses at 55 lbs. The lightest is little Holly, at a svelte 38 lbs.

Eighteen of them were born in this yard. Four of the others were born in Bob Chlupach’s yard (Herman, Hector, Hilda and Moses), one in Natalie Norris’s (Olena) and one in Karen Yeargain’s (Spider).

| Draco | Odie | Loki | Kara | Moses | Olena | Snickers | Crunchie | Dasher | Barq | Hector | Hilda
| Herman | Batdog | Holly | Jr | Q | Jinx | Eeek | Charge | Watt | Tess | Boom | Spider |

Draco	Odie	Loki	Kara	Moses	Olena
Snickers	Crunchie	Dasher	Barq	Hector	Hilda
Herman	Batdog	Holly	Jr	Q	Jinx
Eeek	Charge	Watt	Tess	Boom	Spider

They represent the best of our kennel this year and I couldn’t be more proud of them all. They are as capable, strong, fast and motivated as any group of dogs I’ve ever assembled before.


That said, folks should understand that both Mark and I are using this race as a training race. While it won’t be that way all this season, for this race we will be pacing the team to ensure it is just a good, solid training run for the dogs.

Mark will also be working with all the real rookies in the race pool and his race will revolve around what is the best thing to show those ‘babies’ what fun racing can be.

My sole goal is to arrive in Euraka far enough ahead of Mark that I don’t have to park next to those noisy, rambunctious ‘Electric pups’ (Watt, Charge and Tess).

Watt	Charge	Tess
The "Electric" pups (Surge x Olena)

You can follow the race this weekend on www.dogsled.com - and I’m sure we will have plenty of stories when we get back on the 20th!

Karen

December 11, 2006 An Enjoyable Weekend

Well, our snowmachine problems were briefly solved this weekend when our buddy, Rick Austin came up with his dog team – and his machine for the weekend.

Rick's team

So Saturday morning we loaded my team and Rick’s team into our truck, hooked up his trailer and headed up to the Lakeland Provincial Park/Recreational Area near Lac la Biche. 

Getting ready to run

Mark had heard good things about the area from the guys he works with and we had been itching to get up and check it out.

Well, we can say that that will not be the last time we head up there to run. FABULOUS! In fact, we had such a good time on Saturday we loaded up and headed out again on Sunday.

Looking back at Rick's team getting ready for the creek crossing

The trails reminded me a lot of the trails up in Alaska around Knik and Willow. The main trails were groomed for snowmachines and were super to run on. In addition, there are a lot of trappers running traplines in the area and their main trails were very well packed and easy for dog teams to travel on.

Running the trails (Boom and Charge in wheel)

Saturday we all stayed together and did a very enjoyable 30-mile run. Sunday Rick wanted to do something a bit shorter, so he just planned on an ‘out and back’ run along the trails we did on Saturday and Mark and I headed off exploring.

Running the trails

The first 9 miles of our run were spectacular. The dogs, lead by Draco and Q, clipped along wonderfully and we enjoyed the scenery and animal signs all around us.

Draco & Q in the lead
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Mark zipped back at one point and warned me that the groomed trail took a hard right into the trees. ‘We will take it slow and turn around if it it’s not ‘doable’ for a dog team’. I readily agreed and off Mark vanished on the snow machine. 

Mark & Q consulting the trail map

Well, my problems started at the turn into the trees, the dogs just didn’t want to take it, even though the trail ahead was ungroomed. I should have listened.

Running the trails

It took a minute and some strong-arming to get the sled lined up behind them, but eventually I got everyone pointed in the right direction. Dogs still fresh and raring to go we shot off down the narrow trail. Right away we hit some nasty, sharp corners around big, unyielding trees. I was actually a little flattered that Mark thought that was a ‘do-able’ trail for me, ‘cause it was definitely something most people wouldn’t be taking any size dog team down – forget a fairly charged 12 dog team.

Sunday's team on the move

After a couple more corners that did their best to suck me into trees I started to get annoyed. When the trail dropped down a sharp steep hill with a 90-degree corner at the bottom (but with nice big trees to help make sure you didn’t get off the trail), I was thinking of killing my husband, if I ever saw him again.

Running the trails (Batdog and Hector in wheel)

Finally I stopped the team and planted both hooks. This was ridiculous - defiantly not a ‘dog team friendly’ trail.

Taking a break on the bridge

Scenery

I was just going to wait until Mark came back looking for me. (BTW – we have little radios so we can talk to each other in just this kind of situation and we used them on Saturday, but someone forgot to put them in the truck on Sunday. Probably lucky, as I might have melted mine with the vocabulary I wanted to use at about this point).

Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, I heard the snowmachine coming back down the trail. Mark zipped around the corner and asked if I was okay. I was quick to say I was and then launched into a tirade about the trail. He immediately interrupted me and said he knew, but there had been no where to turn the snow machine around. Then he announced that the trail ended in a trapper’s yard “…and he wants a picture”. I suggested he could come back here and take one, but Mark insisted it was only 200 yards ahead and the worst of the trail was behind me.

Kara & Hilda

Kara taking care of her feet

I said fine, as long as Mark ran the snow machine right in front of my leaders to keep their speed down (one of the biggest problems with a tight trail like this one is that you can’t slow the team down, because physics demand that everytime you touch the brake, you risk getting slammed into a tree) and a few hundred yards later the trail did indeed spit out into a nice neat yard, with a nice sized, well built, well used cabin. Kids started spilling from the cabin and stared wide-eyed at the dogs. “You can pet them, they are all friendly”, I said. All the dogs were jumping and barking for attention. I went through and introduced each dog to the children. Junior, with his piercing blue eyes was quickly deemed the favorite.

Olena and her superstar daughter, Tess

We chatted with the trapper for a bit, some about trapline dogs, but mostly about wolves. He had caught 5 already this season and was actually in the process of skinning one out when we arrived. (I’m choosing to just ignore the fact that Mark found time to go into his cabin and look at pelts before coming back after me).

Spider

We laughed over the fact that many folks mistake our dogs for wolves. Anyone that has actually seen a wolf in person knows that they are MUCH larger then our dogs. He was telling me that they got a wolf last year that was right around 150 lbs – Draco, the biggest dog in my yard now, weighs 58 lbs.

Boom and Charge

He was actually happy to see us, as he claimed it would get the wolves out and about. He told Mark that he would be expecting them in his yard tonight, following our trail. Although I don’t begrudge anyone their right to make their living in this traditional (and very hard) way – and I wear and use fur – I silently wished the wolves well.

Tess

The trapper, very much looking the part with his bushy bread, in his long underwear and jeans stood on my sled for a few pictures (I should have taken some, but was still too busy being grateful for being alive to think of it) and then they helped us get the dogs and sled turned around. We got some advice about what trails we should be on and off we went.

Charge & Boom

The trail out seemed easier to negotiate, probably because Mark was pacing the team from out front and I was ready for what I was facing. I did look over my shoulder a few times and marvel over what I had safely manoeuvred my team through on the way in. I may not be the most graceful of sled drivers, but I’ve spent enough time on the runners that I can usually ‘talk’ a sled into doing what I want it to do – I sometimes forget that!

The trails the trapper recommended were lovely and we got another 5 miles or so out of the run before running into a ‘Active Trapline’ sign (indicating that their were traps set right off the trail) that made us turn around. We had a nice, easy run back to the truck.

We slipped into Lac La Biche for donairs before heading home. Okay, our dog truck, especially pulling a big snowmachine trailer doesn’t ‘slip’ in anywhere without notice, so we ended up chatting with a few locals and got some more tips about other good places in the area to run.

Crossing the bridge on the way home

My team heading into the setting sun

Nearing the end of Sunday's run - still looking good and happy!

A tremendously enjoyable weekend!

Now it is Monday morning and a million things need to be done before we leave for Alaska on Wednesday.

I’ve already decided what 24 dogs are heading up to Sheep Mountain with us, but will do another diary entry before we leave to fill you all in on those details!

Some of you may have noticed that we have an ad up on SledDogCentral for a handler again. Matt is still with us for the time being and will be until later this month, but he and his girlfriend have decided to head out to BC to look for a place they can both work. The long distance relationship thing just isn’t all it is cracked up to be, I guess!

Definitely disappointing, but we understand the situation! It has been very nice having Matt here for the last month and we have really enjoyed getting to know him.

Anyway, all for today! More before Wednesday….

Karen

Charge & Boom

December 6, 2006 Winter Clothing & Other Cold Stuff

For the first time in years we actually have good, reliable snow that we can  run on - however, as it has been many, many years since that has been the  case, we have no long trails scouted out for sleds - and my regular ATV  trails require crossing the highway, which I won't do with a sled because I  can't safely hold the team on the side roads for long periods of time while  I wait for the traffic to clear (as I can with the 4 wheeler). Why aren't we scouting trails, you ask?? Well, Mark's snow machine hasn't  been used in a couple years and when he tried to start it a few weeks back,  thanks to time and squirrels, it wasn't keen on starting. It got hauled into  the local dealer to be looked at. They tell us, as it sits, it is worth  $750 - it needs $1500 worth of repairs to get running again - and after we  put that work into it, it will be worth about $1000. Obviously, we can't justify spending that kind of money on it - and we can't  afford or justify a new one - so I am doing all my long runs on strictly  roads with the ATV (the bush trails have too much snow for the ATV's). We can run the trails on the green land around us on sleds - and I have been  taking teams out for 6 - 12 mile runs on them, but as the team needs to be  running long in preparation for our upcoming Sheep Mountain race, I've been  running by far the majority of time on the 4 wheeler. And no, that isn't  alot of fun at -25. As for clothing, we use pretty much what we use for racing - a good pair of  long underwear and a layer of polar fleece are the basics. Over that I wear  a pair of Cabelas windshear pants, a jacket liner (which one depends on how  cold it actually is), and a Cabelas Trans Alaska Anorak. On my feet I'm  wearing my Lobbens and a pair of NEOS overshoes. A good mushers hat, a turtle fur neckgator, a couple pair of Wal-Mart  stretchy gloves and my big overmitts finish off 'the look'. :) Karen

December 3, 2006 Training Tidbits

It’s 5 am and all is still dark and quiet here at the kennel, so I thought I’d take a moment to fire off a diary entry!

In about 30 minutes or so, others (Mark, Matt, Fly, Chester and the rest of the yard) will begin stirring. Everyone will be demanding breakfast – some politely and others (like Chester and Mark) not so politely!

Dogs, of course, come first (although Mark and I do sneak in a cup of coffee – and Matt a cup of tea before we head out) and we will busy ourselves filling buckets of soup and kibble (just the main string gets kibble – all get soup though). Yesterday morning it was –40 again and while the younger dogs jump out of their houses and start barking the instant we walk outside, most of the older dogs stay in their warm straw beds until we actually begin feeding. I laughed so hard at Surge yesterday – he slept in until I was two dogs away from feeding him, then one paw stretched out of his house, slowly followed by another, then his nose. He stretched, sneezed twice and just slid backwards back into his house like a turtle. Apparently he wasn’t thrilled with the temperature. I laughed and called his name and he popped back out with a resigned look on his face. Breakfast in bed is not an option!

Everyone is doing very well. Newt is walking on all 4s again (although he is still confined to the smaller kennel so he doesn’t re-injure anything). Casey and Finnegan are fat and sassy. No one, including Sprite (who is still with them so they can all cuddle on the really cold nights), comes between Finn and a food bowl.


Chester is doing very well too. Well enough, in fact, that it lulls you into thinking he might actually be beating this ‘thing’. We know better though and we just make sure to enjoy the wonderful gift of time we have with him. He’s quite the character, yet very polite and well mannered in the house – well, unless it involves food.

Training is going well. The dogs are spunky and sassy. Yesterday I had Jinx and Olena in lead on a 30-mile run and Mark had Snickers and Dasher. Those girls all get along fine, but they are severely competitive with each other - seriously. It’s a hoot. Mark’s team got held up crossing the highway and I got a ways ahead. I could see those girls just driving into their harnesses to catch up with my team, which was already moving at a good clip. As Mark’s team pulled up to pass, Olena and Jinx looked over their shoulders and said ‘Not without working for it’ and hit the speed button. The entire run was one set of leaders trying to outdo and pass the other. It was a very good run!

Youngsters Watt, Charge and Tess are something else. All three are as hard to put away after a run as they are to hook up. They buck, stomp their feet and jump until one of us comes over and wrestles a harness off them. Once back on their chains, they pace and tell tales of the run to anyone that will listen. Despite having 800 miles of training on them already, I don’t think I’ve come close to stressing any of the three.

Q is turning into a top-notch leader. He’s serious and focused. Earlier in the season he was a methodical, but ‘slower’ leader. It was like he wanted to take his time and get everything ‘just right’. I let him do his thing and sure enough, now that the confidence is coming, so is the speed.
I see many of the things I loved so much about his Dad (Grover) in him. He put in such a nice performance in lead the other day, it about broke my heart - he reminded me so much of Grover. It’s still a fairly painful thing. In time I know he’ll just make me smile.

Eeek and Barq are both really coming into their own. Run after run they are just solid and dependable. Both are big, strong dogs that will be a real asset to the team this season.

Draco, at 9, continues to have one of the best training seasons of his life. I swear there is no way you could pick him out as the most senior member of my training pool. He looks great.

Oops – I’ve dilly-dallied too long and everyone is up and about! More later….
Karen