"Sometimes you gotta get out and break trail.."

I strapped on snowshoes this afternoon and did a bit of trail maintenance....

...sometimes you gotta get out and break trail!!!

In case you are wondering the reason for this trail maintanance, I offer this picture...

The 'trench' on the right hand side of the trail was dug by my face yesterday during my departure from the dog lot.

I was watched carefully by the whole dog lot as I snowshoed, shoveled and snowmachined over the trail...

....I think I might have heard Trampie laughing under her breath at me.

"Keep trying Mom"

*sigh*

A Small World, for sure.

Yesterday I was running my team home along the Big Su River when I met another team on the trail. Alot of my young dogs are still amazed to see other teams while training (not something that happens in Perryvale a lot), so Rocky and Astro managed to get all tangled. I stopped to sort it out and the other musher stopped next to me, he pulled down his face mask and introduced himself as Joar "from Norway". "I'm Karen", I said as we shook hands. "Oh" he said, "I'm friends with Gwen Ross. She said you'd be up here training". Gwen is a friend of mine that has a number of dogs from our kennel and is now living in Whitehorse.

We chatted a bit about training, moose, and Quest drop bags before pulling our hooks and heading on our respective ways.

I thought about the encounter afterwards - a Canadian musher and a Norweigan musher with a mutual friend living in the Yukon meeting on a river in the middle of Alaska.

 It is indeed a small world!!!!  I love it!!

LIVE Doing What I Love

I had been following the story of Canadian freestyle skiing sensation Sarah Burke with interest since her accident the day we began our trip up to Alaska. I was extremely saddened to hear of her death earlier this week. A loss of a truly inspirational human.

I have seen it said in many articles and commentaries about her death that 'at least she died doing what she loved'. Respectfully, I don't buy it.
I don't want to DIE doing what I love, I want to LIVE doing what I love.

I believe that most people with true passion in their lives - and I don't mean passion that has to be dogsledding or freestyle skiing or anything that dramatic, but passion for your family, your loved one, stamp collecting, biking, running, or tiddlewinks want to be able to indulge in their 'passion' for as long as they can. I know I do.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not in any way, shape or form suggesting that Sarah Burke or others that 'died doing what they love', were at all reckless, life has risks, all kinds of risks. Sitting on a sofa has risks.
All I'm saying is that even those of us that take more then the 'normal' risks in life often do it as carefully and as thoughtfully as we can - because we don't want to 'die doing what we love',  we love doing what we do and want to keep doing it. 

And as for how I'd like to die, well I'd like to die in a rocking chair at a ripe old age knowing that I have eeked every adventure and wonderful moment out of life I possibly could have.

My deepest condelenses to the family and friends of Sarah Burke. I wish she could have lived many, many more years of adventure.

Karen

Your NW Fix for 21 January 2012 - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies! 

It's your non-roving, lounging in a chair, hanging out watching Cricket clean last night's dishes, Border Collie Bet here!

I thought I would give the Musher an obligatory cheesecake shot of me hard at work supervising the household, since she said she missed me (awwww, I miss you too Musher!)

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of the exciting training action in Alaska.

This first picture is of the Musher trying to do a sled wheelie on a corner of the trail.  She gets only 3 points for staying on the sled and not face planting because the Pretty Curly Tails weren't going full speed.

Here is the Musher giving a thumb's up after navigating the turn, as even she was surprised that there wasn't some sort of dragging behind the sled action going on, especially in the presence of a photographer.

I would also like to address some comments on the blog and the Facebooks that bring into doubt the veracity of my non-roving Border Collie Reporter skills.  Harumpf...

There have been some people that actually think that Mooses, penguins, Polar Bears, and Sasquatches don't live in Alaska.  I assure you that they do.  Just because somebody hasn't updated the Wikidoomaflatchy thingie with evidence to this fact, doesn't make it untrue. 

There is also some doubt that the Pretty Curly Tails were actually supergluing their fluffs back on because of the cold.

For all of you doubting Thomases, and doubters of names other than Thomas, and frankly this doubting Thomas really needs to get out more and stop doubting everything, I present to you actual PROOF!

I just want to warn everyone that this next picture isn't for the squeamish or faint of heart, but that also no Pretty Curly Tails were injured or eaten, as Sasquatches are deathly afraid of the sound of a camera clicking, and ran off before any damage would be done... whew.

So here it is... a Sasquatch attempting to eat the face off a Pretty Curly Tail!!!!!

IEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!  You can clearly see that Sasquatches prefer the warm and comfortable SKOOKUM brand Anorak!  Skookum brand... the choice of Iditarod Mushers and Sasquatches... get yours today, and don't forget to use the coupon code RAMSTEAD for free shipping and the Musher gets a commission!

As I mentioned before, the Sasquatch was frightened by the camera clicking noise and ran off before eating the Pretty Curly Tail.. whew.  You can also clearly see in this picture how the other Pretty Curly Tail has messily superglued their fluff onto their side.  Despite having hunks of superglued fluff on them... they still are the most prettiest of the Pretty Sled Dogs.

So... there!  Don't doubt the Border Collie!

- Bet

Your NW Fix for 19 January 2012 - Bet

Howdy ho everybodies!  Its time for your Pretty Curly Tail Sled Dog fix for today!

Today's edition is:  Pretty Cold Curly Tail Sled Dogs!  I guess you could say they are Chilly Dogs... get it... CHILLY DOGS!!!  You know... like the hot dogs with chili on them.... ok, its not funny if I have to explain it.

Anyhoo!

First up is Tess with her ice beard.

Then we have Charge, who appears to have a nose-cicle going on

Irving looks really thrilled, and on the look out for snow spiders to howl at.

Here is the Musher handling Charge back to the truck.  Charge is helping by levitating.

Here is Beauty, Tramp, and Bingo waiting for their turn back to the truck... this picture is very rare as Tramp actually has her mouth shut.

Finally, we have Boo and Smartie

I have it on good authority that the Musher will be providing a list of who is actually in Alaska with her.  Have you figured them all out yet?

- Bet

Your NW Fix for 18 January 2012 - Bet

Howdy Ho everybodies!!!  Its time for your picture fix for today!

Now that Irving is convinced that all of the imaginary spiders in his dog house have frozen to death and has stopped howling, the Pretty Curly Tails are getting into the swing of training, and the Musher, Musher Mark, and Donna Photographer Minion are getting some sleep.

Yesterday was a very important training day for the Pretty Curly Tails.  They have to practice things that they may encounter on the trail so that when they pop up in the race, they are ready for it and know what to do.

Today's exercise started out with the very important: look stunning in case a photographer shows up to take pictures exercise.  Donna Photographer Minion played the unexpected Iditarod Trail photographer, and popped out of nowhere and started snapping pictures.

As you can see, the Pretty Sled Dogs are very well trained, and have natural talent for looking stunning and beautiful (I helped by doing some modeling poses on the off season so they'd get it just right).

In this picture you will see just how well they listened to me when I instructed them to look at the camera, but with a "come hither" look, tempting the photographer to stay and take more stunning pictures of them.

In this picture you see the ears back, using the" look at us working so hard and yet making it seem effortless because we are amazingly beautiful and are very fluffy" look.

Finally we have the "oh, what a coincidence that the sun is shining in just the right spot as to make us all shimmering and have golden halos because we are just THAT good" look

Here is an obligatory "behind the scenes" Musher photo shot just before her camera turned into a ball of ice... again.

Once they had completed the scenic tour of the Alaska back lands (or whatever they're called), it was time for the "HOLY POO WHAT JUMPED INTO THE SLED BAG" exercise.

I don't know if you know this or not, but it isn't uncommon for wild animals such as Mooses, penguins and the occasional Sasquatch to leap into sled bags during the Iditarod.  The race coordinators try to keep those things quiet because then tourists will want to have wild things leaping into their sled bags and it'll just get way out of hand...

Here is Musher Mark as the "wayward polar bear" asking the Musher if she'd like her windshield washed for the price of some frozen fish.  Polar bears are annoying like that.

When the Musher says "um, no thanks", the Musher Mark Polar Bear quickly mentions that the sled happens to be going the same way he needs to go, and before you know it...

... it makes a very ungraceful landing in your sled bag.  It is well known that Polar Bears are not graceful.

The Musher tries to dislodge the Polar Bear, but to no avail.  Polar Bears have very sticky feet (which is how they grip bottles of soda)...

There is nothing left to do except hope you drive past a soda machine on the trail and the Polar Bear jumps off.

Ok, I totally made that whole last part up... Polar Bears don't have sticky feet.

- Bet

Minus what???

I am bilingual. No, no, I don't speak Spanish or even more then minimal French, but I am bilingual when it comes to kilometers per hour vs. miles per hour and Fahrenheit vs. Celsius.
It comes from living in Canada but training and racing a lot in the US.
I tend to speak in kilometers and Celsius when at home and miles and degrees Fahrenheit when in Alaska. I don't need to convert 80 kph to 50 mph, I just know.

Apparently though, that isn't the case for all of you. It's been suggested to me that I need to do temperature conversions for you all in my blog. I will strive to do that from now on, but that doesn't mean I will succeed, so for the times I don't I offer the following guide -

100F = 38C  This is ridiculously hot and activities should be limited to sitting around with a cold drink in your hand.

75F = 24C  A lovely summer day at NorthWapiti. Warm, pleasant .... perfect for a trip down to the river.

50F = 10C  Still a touch too warm to run sled dogs, but nice for taking puppies for a walk in the woods!!!!

32F = 0C  This is more like it for the crew at NorthWapiti!!! Good stuff in the fall, although not great in the dead of winter!!

0F = -18C Pleasantly cold according to sled dogs and mushers!!!!

-20F = -29C  Okay, now things are getting very cold!!! Bundling up is mandatory now!!!

-40F = -40C  This is SERIOUS cold. Mechanical stuff must be coaxed into working, many things just plain break....but a well cared for dog team will keep running!!!



Photo by Donna Quante


-50F = -47C  According to many, there is only one thing to do at this temperature....NAP in a warm house!!

And there you go - the temperatures according to NorthWapiti!!!

Or, if you would rather, use Bet's method to convert - take the Fahrenheit temperature, subtract 32 and divide by 2.

So -35F would be -35 - 32 = -67 / 2 = -33.5 C

Not exact, but close enough for a Border Collie to decided whether or not she wants to go outside!!!

Karen