January 13, 2005 A Great Dog

Gone...but not forgotten

"SPUD"
2000 IDITAROD VETERAN
Ch. The Professor of NorthWapiti CD, SDU, TT
(BIS, BISS Ch. Chuchinka's Shawn Boy SD x Meomar's Miss Liberty)

 

We are VERY proud of Spud. A Pup in Group winner and Group Placer in the show ring, he finished his obedience title with a 193. On the trail he has proven wonderful, being one of our main leaders. He has an unbeatable temperament, usually the one we pick for doing school visits! He has also proven himself as a sire with Champion offspring and excellent running dogs.

Major Races
Race to the Sky
Iditarod 2000
Knik 200
Klondike 300

Current Working Status
Rainbow Bridge Member

Spud's Pedigree

Spud's Photo Gallery (click to enlarge image - hold mouse over image for description)

Offspring
Aug. 12, 1994	5 puppies with Meomar's Sunshine Coast Orca
		- The "Outlaw" Litter -
May 4, 1994		2 puppies with SilverWind
		- The "Spud x Silver Wind" Litter
Mar. 13, 2002		5 puppies with Ch. Jophil's Alysheba O'Scimitara
		- The "Spud x Aly" Litter -

January 12, 2005 Copper Basin 300 Picture

Copper Basin 300 Picture This was taken in the Paxson checkpoint at Copper Basin.

January 11, 2005 Alaskan Travelers & CB300 Update

I was hoping to do some diary entries tonight, but something came up and that won't be happening now. I will quickly answer this question though, as it seems to be the 'burning' one on the Northwapiti Yahoo Group list.

 

The dogs that came up to Alaska with us are (in only somewhat particular order) -

 

Grover* Draco* Squeaky* Surge* Hector* Chester* Moses* Odie* Loki* Denali* Herman*	Gus* Hilda* Sprite Crunchie* Skor Olena* Nahanni* Kara* Snickers and Dasher
*These dogs also made the trip up to Alaska in 2004

Yes, that's right - Jamie can't count :) - only 21 make the trip (and yes, Kara rode in the cab). The criteria for making the team this year was tough - all 2 year olds (ie JR) and all 3 year olds that didn't lead (ie. Pepsi and Barq) were cut. Barq was definately the hardest cut as I've been so pleased with him this season, but he will be even more ready to race next year. Camilla was a very hard cut too, but a late season injury (she is fine now) kind of sealed her fate.

 

Anyway - must run. I'll try to get to diary updates tomorrow.

Karen

 

Here is a wrap up story regarding the Copper Basin 300 top finishers found at http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/011105/spo_20050111021.shtml and for future archival use a pdf version of the story.

 

The Editor

9 January 2005 Gone... but not forgotten

Gone...but not forgotten

"HOWL"
2000 IDITAROD VETERAN
Ch. NorthWapiti's Mr. Thurston Howl SDU
(BIS, BISS Ch. Chuchinka's Shawn Boy SD x Meomar's Miss Liberty)

August 3, 1991 - January 9, 2005

Howl’s Tribute He was a "dog's dog". He never begged for attention or food, he never sucked up to anyone for anything - not that he wasn't an affectionate and loving dog, but he got it all on his terms. He was as proud an animal as they come. He knew his place in the universe and loved being in it. He carried himself with extreme dignity - heck, even we called him Mr. Howl. Although he was our first Canadian Champion dog, Howl was not at home in a ring - it was on the trail that he shined. He was a 'professional' sled dog. He took his job seriously and did it exceedingly well. He was one of the dogs that made the switch with me from sprint racing to distance racing. He was on my winning 6-dog sprint team in the mid 90's, my winning Gold Rush Trail 54 mile race team, my 2000 Iditarod team - and everything in between. He led our teams for many miles in the beginning and was one of the key players in our 4th place Race to the Sky finish. He was a sire of Champion and Iditarod finishing dogs and his offspring are always evident in our dog teams. He died like he lived - on his terms - never showing weakness, just leaving when he felt it was his time. When we meet again there will be no tearful greetings and overt displays, just a rejoining of souls and hearts. 'Till then Mr. Howl. Karen

Major Races
Race to the Sky
Knik 200
Klondike 300
Iditarod 2000

Current Working Status
Rainbow Bridge Brigade

The "Gilligan's Island" Litter Pedigree 

 

Offspring with Chuchinka's Chimichanga SD (The "Black/White" Litter) Ch. NorthWapiti's Oreo The Flying Nun of NorthWapiti NorthWapiti's Domino NorthWapiti's Panda NorthWapiti's Tmax with NorthWapiti's Ginger Grant Ch. NorthWapiti's Against All Odds with Kaita's Moon Shadow Hawk's NorthWapiti Vindicator

January 9, 2005 Copper Basin 300 Status

As of Jan 09 1752 AKST (GMT-0900) Karen has apparently scratched from the race. I would think that whatever her reason(s) for stopping it was in the best interest of her dogs to do so when she did.
 

Bib No.	Musher	Current Checkpoint						Previous Checkpoint		Time en Route	Speed (MPH)	Layovers
		Checkpoint	Time In	Dogs	Time Out	Dogs	Time at CP	Checkpoint	Time Out			8 Hr	14 Hr
10	Ramstead, Karen	Paxson	Jan 09 0908	12	Scratched	---	---	Chistochina	Jan 08 2144	11:24	6.1		5:38

Current updates during the race can be found at http://www.cb300.com/updates2005.html

If you'd like to read details on each checkpoint, visit http://www.cb300.com/trail.html and here is a map provided by the race organizers

The checkpoints are:

Race Start: Pinneo Park in Glennallen		22 miles to Gakona
Gakona Lodge (optional)		30 miles to Chistochina
Chistochina Village Hall		70 miles to Paxson
Paxson Lodge		17 miles to Meier's Lake
Meier's Lake Roadhouse		35 miles to Sourdough
Sourdough Creek		48 miles to Wolverine
Wolverine Lodge		28 miles to Tolsona
Tolsona Lake Resort		24 miles to Race Finish
Race Finish: Pinneo Park in Glennallen

The Editor

January 9, 2005 Alaskan Hosts Arrival

Hello everyone from Willow, Alaska. 

Just a note to say how honored we are to host Karen and Mark and the dogs! We spent much of the summer preparing for an extra 21 dogs on the property. And, knowing Karen, I prepared 23 setups, just in case. The truck has boxes for 21 dogs and 22 dogs showed up. Princess Kara rode in the back seat. The truck towing a small U-Haul trailer showed up around 11:30 pm Wednesday. I went out and started hugging dropped dogs, first Chester then Squeaky, before Karen said, "how about us?" Well, it was good to see them too!

The dogs went back into their dog boxes for their first night here. Their arrival brought the kennel census up to 49 dogs! It wasn't a quiet night with the dogs visiting back and forth with barks and howls and other doggy introductions. We do live in a musher friendly area though with a few hundred dogs within a few miles. (Just down the road from Howling Dog Farm and the Norris's place.) Everyone in the area understands a few introductions. The next morning the dogs were put into their new dog yard and seemed quite happy with the accommodations.

As Karen was getting ready to leave Canada last weekend we had perfect trails. You can reach a hundred miles or so from our dogyard. Then...............as she left Canada toward Alaska, it started raining in Willow. Not just a little rain, but it poured for 2 days! Our snow is still here, but so is a lot of ice. It will have to snow again before our trails are good, Karen wanted to test out her sled legs and find the "mileage" pace that the dogs should acquire on a distance race. So, she trucked the dogs a bit North on Thursday to get a few miles in. She came back quite happy with the dogs performance, and her confidence was boosted in the transition from a year's worth of 4-wheeler training.

Friday morning much of the mountain of supplies and equipment they had unloaded got loaded back into the truck to head to Glenallen for the Copper Basin musher's meeting. We will see them next week! Say, this is fun! I see where Karen's draw was number 10. And, she is off and running. As of Friday morning she wasn't quite sure who would run this race with her, but all 22 dogs were back on the truck for the trip to Glenallen..

Cross your fingers for a couple of inches on snow for our trails! And, follow Karen on the Copper Basin website!

Jamie West
Westrunner Kennels
Willow, Alaska

January 6, 2005 Alaska Arrival

I'm not really online yet, but have stolen Jamie's computer to let you all know (especially you Mom) that we made it safely to Alaska. 

We were well prepared and had no problems with the border crossing!

Still much to be done before Copper Basin tomorrow. Must run....

Karen