Racing Season 2012-2013
My Blog
Archives;
Racing Season 2012-2013
April 20, 2013
Today was my last run of the season. After not having any snow at the beginning of winter and most of my races being cancelled, winter decided to go out like a "Lion" instead of a "Lamb." A few weeks ago we had two huge dumps of snow and received almost 2 feet of snow just at the time when we were starting to think of fishing and gardening. Actually the trails would be good for another week or so, but I am ready to put everything away for the year. I am washing all the dog harnesses, all my heavy clothes and parkas getting everything ready for storage.
I brought an 8 month old puppy called Ava ($1,200) to go along with my pup Solo. Actually, I wanted to buy 2 pups but the breeder wanted to keep the rest of them. I have been training both pups with Bandit and Roxie so they can learn as much as possible about being a well mannered and trained "sled dog." Ava is a fabulous running dog and I am glad that I brought her. Ava did have a hard time adjusting to living in the house, she was very shy and afraid of all the strange noises and movements inside. Now, after 2 weeks she has settled in and is comfortable and relaxed in the house.
After training these 4 dogs these past few weeks, I know that I have a very good 4 dog team. Arleigh offered to let me borrow Sparrow again next year, which will make 5 dogs, so that leaves me with one empty spot in my NEW 6 dog team. I am looking forward to racing next winter and stepping back into the "winner's circle."
TOK RACE OF CHAMPIONS
March 23-24, 2013
The girls and I caravanned our vehicles together for the last race of the season and headed to TOK, 7 to 8 hours away depending on how many stops we made. We arrived in the afternoon, checked into our hotel rooms and got settled in. We went to the BIG potluck dinner and race draw at 6:00 PM at the clubhouse. I had a good draw with a fast team in front of me and with the 2 minute intervals between racers, I hoped that I wouldn’t see them and have to make a pass.
We woke up on Saturday morning to temperatures in the teens but with a very cold wind, so it made it seem much colder. We arrived at the race track at 8:30 AM and worked on getting our sleds, lines and harness out and set up. My team was Sparrow - Bandit in lead, Dianna - Roxie in swing and Diago (borrowed from Arleigh) - Woody in wheel. It felt great to have Roxie back from her toe injury which was almost 3 weeks earlier.
Day 1, we took off from starting line and had a real good run with the dogs running well until the half way point. Then Diago who ran great the first half, started to dip and every time he tried to reach the snow bank for a bite of snow, he disrupted the team’s rhythm. Dianna had some loose line because it was a fast trail and her speed has slowed down with age. We finished with a time of 17:11 for the 6 miles which put us in 10th place.
This is a very tight race, I was in 10th place but I was only 11 seconds from 3rd place. Hopefully we would have a faster time the next day.
The wind picked up and was howling for the 8-dog race with white-out conditions and very cold. After the 8-dog race, the wind was worse and they cancelled the Unlimited Race that was scheduled for 1:00 PM. We ended up with lots of extra time for socializing without the afternoon race going on.
SUNDAY
We woke up to cloudy skies and some wind but a much better day for racing. Arleigh told me to be sure to “match” Diago before I race him, which I did at the race track and he had a good poop, plus he had done a good one back at the hotel.
The team took off from the starting line just like yesterday, hard driving and we had another fast half of the race. Then Diago decided that he needed to shit! The dog couldn’t “poop on the fly” like other dogs but had to try and stop and squat to do his thing. He is such a big, powerful dog that he about stopped the team everything he got the urge, which was for at least 2 miles.......there went my race, no way was I going to make up seconds.
I finished with a slower time of 17:53 and I felt lucky to keep my 10th place finish. When people asked me “How was your race?”, I said “shitty” and they would reply, “Oh! I’m sorry” and then I would say in long drawn voice “No, I Mean s.h.i.t t.y.”
I was so disgusted over Diago and this entire mediocre season, that I made up my mind that next year I would have my own dogs to run with.
TANACROSS DOG RACE
March 9 & 10, 2013
I left Arleigh’s place around noon to drive 3 hours to Tok, which is 12 miles from the village of Tanacross where the race was to be held. Amy headed to Fairbanks, she decided to race in the Limited North American which is our traditional race to do. But, I had enough of the European racers and “getting my butt kicked,” so I decided to race in Tanacross, where I won last year. Kim Wells drove from Anchorage, met me in Tok and we went to the race draw and potluck dinner that evening.
After dinner, I brought Roxie into the hotel room, she was sleeping on the bed when I turned and saw a large pile of blood around her. The darn toe was hemorrhaging again and there was blood all over the bedspread and it trailed on the carpet when I grabbed her across the room and started applying pressure to her toe. After it stopped bleeding, I could see that the entire toe nail was just hanging by a thread. I think she tore the nail loose when she shimmied up on the bed using her hind feet to push herself. I took Roxie to Jen Sterling’s room and Nathan just pulled the nail off.
The Tanacross race is unusual because you start the race at the North edge of town, race 6 miles on the trails and cross the finish line on the South end. After you cross the finish line, you need to get your team down Main Street which is about 3 blocks back to your truck. The street is usually hard and icy from being so packed down by cars and trucks.
Roxie was still out with her injured toe. My team was Sparrow and Bandit up front, Sunny and Dianna in swing and Holly and Woody in wheel. I asked Jason Dunlap to take my team up to the starting line because last year, I tipped over when I released the sled from the truck and the dogs drug me through the starting gate. I was so embarrassed and I didn’t want that to happen again.
I had a good run, it was a fast trail for Holly and Dianna who had some loose tug lines because they were slower. The trail went through miles of burnt trees from the forest fire last summer that almost reached the village and we ran along side the main highway which is always exciting to watch cars stop to watch the dog teams go by.
Coming across the finish line, the dogs leave the mushing trail and hit the hard surface of Main Street. I kept one foot on the mat and lifted my foot off the sled runner to apply pressure on the brake to slow down. When the brake tips dug into the icy street and grabbed, I was quickly flipped over on my side. I and found myself out of control dragging down Main street with the dogs running at full speed. I saw people running towards me and finally someone grabbed the gang line and others joined in, they slowed the team to a stop. I got up, righted the sled and everyone was concerned if I was alright. I said that I was fine, the event was actually fun. I have never been drug before when the trail was so smooth and safe, I felt like I was sliding on a ice pond going at 20 mph. I wasn’t concerned because I could see everyone running towards me and I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to stop the team. When I saw Jason, I said jokingly “Jason, do your job and take this team to the truck, I told you that I was tippy on a sled.” Jason took the team down the street to the truck, I learned a valuable lesson from local mushers. always keep one foot on the runner for control.
My time was 21:05 and I was in 3rd place, only 10 seconds from FIRST place.
On Sunday, I noticed that Sparrow was in heat and she stood there quietly looking uninterested with her head down when I put the harness on her. I thought maybe she wasn’t feeling good so I decided to put Dianna up in lead and Sparrow back in swing. We had another good run, but my time was a little slower at 21:07. Obvious Sparrow is faster and I didn’t make up the 10 seconds I needed to win but stayed in 3rd place.
I was happy because all the wonderful hand made crafts go to to winners of first through 3rd place. I won a pair of men’s beaded gloves, a medallion and a check for $390, what a great weekend. Later I traded the Men’s gloves for a pair of Women’s who another racer had received as a prize. These are a beautiful dark brown with blue beaded decorations, my new “racing” gloves.
IFSS (International Federation of Sled-dog Sports) WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP at North Pole and Salcha
March 1-17th 2013
Last August, I applied to be on TEAM USA for the upcoming International races in 2013 which would be in Alaska. I was chosen to represent the USA by the amounts of points that I had earned during my last 3 years of racing in the 6-dog class. There would be 13 different countries represented and I felt that this race would a grand highlight to my racing career.
I was very excited about the upcoming races and I trained my dogs hard all Fall and early winter in one of the poorest winter seasons ever. Alaska never received any snow in the Anchorage area and 22 of my races out of a possible 28 were cancelled due to no snow and no trails.
I had a mis-matched dog team due to my continual plans over the past few years to retire and then changing my mind to continue racing. Sled dog racing is additive and I can’t seem to give it up. I had given some great dogs from my past team to friends and now I had to borrow dogs to make a good 6 dog team. I had my own dogs, Bandit and Roxie, Woody (Borrowed from Susan Anderson), Sparrow ( borrowed from Arleigh Reynolds) which made 4 dogs. Then Kimmick became injured and I realized that Dianna and Holly were too old and slow to race, so I borrowed 2 more dogs from Arleigh, Cal and Sunny. I only had Cal and Sunny for 2 weeks to train before the race and they never really bonded with the team.
My childhood friend, Carol Roth, decided to fly up from California and even Milt agreed to come to Fairbanks to watch me race. It was a “very big event” for me and I had such high hopes of doing well. My friend, Kathy F. was going to use Holly in her 4-dog team and Rebecca Knight decided to run Dianna in the skijor races, the old girls were still in demand.
Wednesday February 28th, 2013
Carol Roth and I started our long drive up to Fairbanks with a caravan of my racing friends, Kim Wells, Amy Mclean, Fathy F. and Kris Rasey all in their own vehicles. We spent a few hours at Paddy’s house and after arriving in Fairbanks we did some shopping then checked into the hotel at North Pole. On Thursday we went to some IFSS events and toured around. Late in the afternoon we picked up Milt at the airport and then went to Pike’s Lodge for the Opening Ceremonies and discovered that I would wear Bid #15 for all 3 racing days.
Friday
First day of the race, and I was so excited. The race course was flat without any hills and hard and fast. I was disappointed in my team, they raced “flat” without much enthusiasm. Sunny had loose tug line most of the time and Cal was dipping snow half way around the course to the finish. We ended up in 10th place. I was very disappointed. Milt was a big help to me with taking care of the dogs and I really enjoyed his company and Carol’s impressions of Alaska's winter.
Saturday
Carol wanted to do more to help, so I showed her how to get the dogs out of the dog-box. The first dog she tried was Roxie when a freak accident happened. Roxie got her toe caught in the door latch and it which started to bleed uncontrollably. I couldn't believe it, it was time to go to the races and I had a badly injured dog. I put pressure on Roxie’s foot for about 5 minuted to get it to stop bleeding and I could see where she had tore the skin around the nail. At the race track, I couldn’t find a vet and finally got Mike Marsh (team’s captain) to look at her foot. He said it looked ok so he sealed the nail and area around it with super glue. After loose running Roxie and observed that the injured toe wasn’t bothering her, I decided to race her. Just before the race started, I looked up and here was Tara who flew up from Anchorage to watch me race, I was so surprised.
The team did poor again in the race today. Bandit was dipping some, Cal dipped for the 2nd half of the race again, Sunny has loose tug the entire time and Woody kept leaning into the gang line like he was injured or something was wrong with him. Roxie with her injured foot did great. Again I was so disappointed, mainly for such a poor showing in front of all my family and friends but I held on to 10th place.
Kris Rasey had her dog Odie go down during the 8-dog race, he was running good until he stopped, threw up, was wobbly and Kris had to call for a snow machine to come and get him. Kris took Odie to the Vet after the race, they examined him and took X-rays but couldn’t find anything wrong, except that he had a very tender stomach.
After the race, I noticed that Roxie’s foot had bled inside the booty and now she wasn’t putting any weight on the foot. That night we brought her into the hotel where I removed a lot of the super glue from the nail and tried to soak her foot. Suddenly, Roxie’s toe was hemorrhaging again, there was heavy blood all over the carpet in the room. I took Roxie into the bathroom and applied pressure to her foot and then added more super glue to keep it from bleeding again. Milt, Carol and Tara were on their hands and knees trying to get the blood out of the carpet, what a mess. Carol felt terrible thinking that she had caused the accident. I felt sorry for her and kept telling her that these things just happen.
Sunday
We got up at 6:00 AM and we heard a lot of yelling and commotion going on in the hall. Odie who had slept in Kris’ room all night, suddenly had stopped breathing and Amy and Jen Sterling were doing CPR on him. We all watched horrified but knew that Odie had died for reasons unknown. Arleigh said that it sounded like he had a ulcer. We all felt so bad, Odie was Holly’s littermate and Kimmick’s father. Everyone was in tears.
During the morning drop, Holly had bad diarrhea and threw up, obviously she caught the bad virus that had been going around.Kathy F. would have to drop her from the race and I would have to drop Roxie, who still wasn’t putting any weight on the foot. We all went to the race track with heavy hearts and sadness. I dropped Roxie from the team, during the race my 5 dogs did poor and they were slower with 1 less dog. Woody still was leaning into the gang line, Sunny had loose tug and Cal was dipping again. We had a slower time today and dropped down to 12th place out of 16 racers which was my final position.
My BIG RACE was a dud and I couldn’t wait to end it all, I was embarrassed over my poor results. We went to a end of the race celebration and dinner at the hotel, it was fun to visit and socialize with everyone.
After analyzing our poor races, I think that a few of the dogs could have been getting sick with the bad flu that was going around and I think the dogs just weren’t trained up for the hard and fast trails. Anchorage had such a bad season that my team never got to run on a fast trail and they just didn’t have the speed for the IFSS races. Plus, I decided that I need my own dogs again, borrowing dogs just doesn’t work for me.
Monday
I drove Carol and Milt to the airport so they could fly back to Anchorage. Amy and I drove to Salcha where we would stay at Arleigh’s for a few days. We trained on Arleigh's trails one beautiful, sunny day when there was new snow on all the trees and it was a wonderful training run. We went to Salcha everyday to watch the skijoring events where Becky Voris and Rebecca Knight were racing.
There were 2 races next weekend and we would have to decide which one to do.
SU VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP at Montana Creek
January 19 and 20, 2013
Another early morning, up at 4:30 AM, watered the dogs at 5:00 then pick up poop, load the dog sled, mushing equipment, extra clothes, sleeping bag and food in the truck. It is still warm out, around 30 degrees so I know that I won’t need my heaviest clothes. I still took them because you never know what the temperature will be up North. Milt made up a silver salmon roast, the cavity stuffed with onions and lemons with bacon on top which I will take to Helen’s for dinner. I packed it carefully in the truck along with the wine. I had my coffee, read the paper, packed my lunch, loaded the dogs and left the house at 6:15 AM.
Day 1
It was still dark when we arrived at the race track and I went in the club house to sign up for the race. This race is a wildcard qualifier for the IFSS Championship and there were a lot of racers. I drew #12 for a starting position, I hate being 24 minutes (2 minutes between racers) into the race before I start but I got fast people in front of me which is good, I shouldn’t have to pass anyone.
I put Sparrow and Bandit in lead, Dianna and Kimmick in swing and Woody and Roxie in wheel. We took off and Sparrow wasn't running well right from the start, I think she was stressed being in lead during a race situation because she has done great in training. She didn't pull much for the first mile and I was afraid that she would quit. She finally settled and began to run better. Then Kimmick started having loose line and acted like she was injured, she didn't hold the team back but she wasn't contributing either. During the last mile, Roxie acted tired and she had loose line. We crossed the finish line with a time of 22:40 for the 8 miles, which put me in 5th position out of 16 mushers. It definitely wasn't our best race, the team ran flat, without any drive.
Arleigh checked Kimmick over for me after the race and discovered that she had a sore back but not as bad as last year when she was out for half the season. Arleigh said I could run her tomorrow, then laid her off for a week and try to bring her back slowly.
Kim, Amy, Kathy F and I all went to Egil and Helen’s for the night. It was a late night with lots of wine, snacks and bread to eat and we didn't eat dinner until 8:30 PM. We finished dinner, dropped the dogs for the last time and went to bed at 11:30 PM. Up at 6:30 AM, took care of the dogs and gave Kimmick a Rhimdyl pill (anti-inflammatory). Helen made waffles for breakfast and then we left for Montana Creek North about 45 minutes away.
DAY 2
I was more relaxed today and went out in my 5th position. I had decided to put Dianna up front, Dianna is 10 1/2 years old, a old lady just like me, I knew that she couldn't do the speed but she is a hard driving dog and hoped she would lead the team stronger than they ran yesterday. I knew as soon as I left the finish line that the team was better and that I had made the correct decision. I really hoped to move up in position, I only needed 6 seconds to move up into 4th, 33 seconds to 3rd, and 40 seconds to jump into 2nd place. First place was over 2 minutes ahead of me, impossible to make up that much time in a 8 mile race.
Dianna had a lot some loose line up front because of the speed but I didn't have to slow the team down because of her. Kimmick ran the same and maybe a little better and she wasn't holding the team back either, the pain pill must have helped. Sparrow and Roxie ran strong today. Twice I saw Kourosh up front so I knew that we had made time up on him. I think the team saw them also which put them into “chase” mode and they ran great the last part of the race and we crossed the finish line looking good. My time was 23:09 on a slower trail.
It was much later when someone stopped me in the holding area and congratulated me, I hadn’t heard but I had moved all the way up from 5th place into 2nd place. FANTASTIC, I had the 2nd fastest time for the day. I couldn't help thinking “you just cant count out the old girls yet, Dianna and I did it together.”
MID-WEEK TRAINING
It had rained all week and there was absolutely no place in town to train the dogs and I was worried whether Kimmick was injured or not because she had just loose line the last time I ran her. Kathy F took her skijoring and said that her gait looked fine, so I decided to use her in the big race this weekend. The rest of the team didn’t get trained at all.
Anchorage area still doesnt have enough snow to open the Anchorage trails and Chugiak trails are still so rough SU VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP at Montana Creek
SOUTH CENTRAL CHALLENGE at Montana Creek
February 2 & 3, 2013
This idea behind this new race was to combine the 3 local mushing clubs by having a 3 day race, one day at each location. The first race at Montana Creek, the 2nd day at Chugiak and finish on day 3 in Anchorage. This would have been great except for the terrible winter this year of no snow and all of the trails in town are poor or haven't even been put in yet. It was decided to reduced it to a 2 day race, both days at Montana Creek because they were the only ones who had safe trails to run on.
Saturday February 2nd
We didn’t have to leave town until 7:00 AM because the race sign up was later than usual . It was nice to drive up in the daylight and the temperature was warm around 30 degrees both days. I drew number 12 starting position out of 14 mushers, I hate leaving in the back of the pack and I had to wait 24 minutes before it was my time to go.
I had a good start at the beginning of the race, the snow was forgiving with the course being a long 8 miles. I concentrated on trying to lean over the handle bars or squatting down in a knee bend to cut down on wind resistance. After about 5 miles I could see a musher up ahead of me and I knew that I would have to pass. Luckily, I went over before the race, introduced myself and talked to her about passing techniques. When I got close, I yelled to let her know that I was behind her and traveling fast. She kept looking behind and when we got close I yelled “trail” and I slowed my team down. She had a hard time steering her sled over to the side of the trail but we got by her cleanly. Then I yelled “get up” at the dogs to get their momentum going again and to get some distance between the teams.
We enter the woods called “Shooter’s Loop” (the trail is next to a shooting range), as I rounded a corner, suddenly there was a racer stopped in the middle of the trail. I was unprepared, I slammed on the break and the musher held his dogs as I passed him slowly. During the pass, my team had some loose line and the leaders got tangled. I had to come to a complete stop. I yelled at the dogs to “get out of it”, they jumped around but were still tangled. I set the ice hook, got off the sled and started running up to the leaders when I noticed that they had somehow gotten themselves untangled. I jumped back on the sled, pulled the ice hook and took off. We crossed the finish line with a time of 23:27 putting us in 5th position. The winning time was 22:24, I was a minute off the winning time, a lot!
Sunday, February 3rd
Today we ran the trail backward which was interesting and actually fun, it was like running on a new trail. I hoped that with a clean run and no passing to do that I could move up in the standings. I put Dianna up as leader because she runs so strong and never quits, she’s all “heart.” I only needed 7 seconds to move up into 4th place, 19 seconds for 3rd, 32 seconds for 2nd and 53 seconds from 1st place.
After having a clean start at the beginning of the race, I really tried to steer the sled clean around the corners to save seconds and to crouch behind the sled bag to cut the wind resistance. We had a good run and towards the end of the race we could see another musher up ahead of us which meant that I had made up some time, the team went into “chase mode” and we went faster, I figured that I had moved up one position. The team finished strong, the loud speaker was broken so no one knew their times. I watered the dogs, put my sled and equipment away and helped my friends get off in the 8 dog class. I decided to walk up to the club house hoping that the times would be posted on the board.
I had the 2nd fasted day time of 25:08 and a final time of 48:07, I finished up in 4th place and I was secretly disappointed that I didn’t move up more. Thank you Dianna, you old girl for being such a hard driving dog and leading the team to strong finishes in both of our races this year. Dianna is a senior dog at 10 1/2 years old and I am a senior musher at 69 1/2 years old, we are definitely showing those “youngum’s” how to do it and we aren’t done yet! Age is just another challenge!
TRAINING......Saturday - January 5, 2013
Another weekend of races canceled due to lack of snow even at Montana Creek. The trails are open for training but the lack of snow makes it so larger teams can not safely stop and hold their teams on the trail with their ice hooks. Helen invited us all up to train for the weekend and spend the night again at her house. It was a low stress weekend and we didn't have to leave town until 10:00 AM, leisurely train our team and even have lots of time for socializing.
I put 12 booties on the worse feet of the dogs and I felt the rest of their feet had healed up enough so they didn't need booties. The dogs lose traction with the booties on, they aren't use to them and the dogs HATE BOOTIES.
I did another 8 mile run and again Sparrow had loose line for the entire distance, I figured that she had a shoulder or back injury. When I got back to the truck, I noticed all the little speckles of blood all over my coat, sled bag and even the ice hook covers. The dogs feet were a mess, even worse than before. Obviously, their feet haven't healed up enough with just 2 days of rest and their sores all opened up again. I felt terrible.
At Helen's that night, I brought all the dogs inside to check their feet, put on ointment and again put booties on the worse ones. On Sunday morning, I was driving home while everyone else was driving back to the race track to run dogs. Now, I will have to lay the dogs off for a long time and then run with all 4 feet booted on every dog until the pads grow back, which will probably be about a month. One fast run at Phil's caused a entire dog team to be put on the "injured list!" I went and brought 50 dog booties today, another $50 on dog expenses.
MONTANA CREEK CHAMPIONSHIP
December 29 &30, 2012
I was so excited, our first race of the season especially being a 2-day race with a $5,000 purse on it. The purse gets divided among all the race classes and pays down 10 places so there really isn’t very much money if you do win, but $5,000 sounds good. We all will be spending Saturday night at Egil and Helen’s place which means a excellent dinner with lots of wine, home-made bread and great company.
I got up at 4:45 AM, had my coffee while reading the newspaper, made my lunch and thermos of apple cider, packed the truck with my sled, skis and equipment plus dog food and water for 2 days, all my clothes, boots, sleeping bag, camera and extra supplies for spending the night. At 6:00 AM, I watered the dogs, took them outside, picked up poop then loaded them all in the dog truck. I left at 6:30 AM, stopped at the store to buy a cake for dessert and started the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Montana Creek. While driving, I checked in by phone with all my friends who were also driving their own vehicles up for the race, Kris, Amy, Kim and Kathy F. Half way up I stopped in Wasilla to let the dogs out to pee.
The temperature was warm, 35 degrees in Anchorage and it went up to 45 degrees with strong winds on the way. Finally, the temperature dropped to 30 degrees when we arrived at the Montana Creek clubhouse at 9:00 AM. We dropped the dogs again to pee, and then went inside to pay and sign up for the race.
The trail was soft from all the warm temperatures but we didn’t realize how bad it was until we got reports from the first racers, the dogs were stumbling and breaking through the crust on the trail, it was falling apart. The snow was a dry snow without any moisture in it and it wouldn’t pack down plus it hadn’t been cold enough at night to set it up. Bad news!
I got ready to race, the dogs were eager and wild getting to the starting line. On the first corner, the dogs started tripping and stumbling, first one dog and then another, it was terrible. I kept my foot on the mat to slow the team down, I didn’t want any one to get injured or break a leg. Dogs were constantly falling through the trail and my heart went out to them as they ran the best they could. I didn’t want them to work so hard but you can’t tell a race dog to take it easy and go slow. The trail was like running in 10 inches of mash potatoes and the team was struggling. I stopped even thinking about it being a race and I just wanted to complete the course safety, which we did, it was awful. I ended up in 5th place which doesn't bother me because I WASN’T RACING!
After the race, we talked about the trail conditions and because the weather forecast was for warmer temperatures on Sunday we canceled the 2nd day of the race. I won $74 for my 5th place finish.
We all spend the night at Helen’s, had a great relaxing evening and got up the next morning to drive home.
TRAINING .....Wednesday - January 2, 2013
I drove down to Sterling with plans to train at Gail and Phil Hoekman's place, spend the night at the cabin, train again on Thursday and then drive home. This turned out to be a bad decision. Phil groomed the trail the night before and the trail looked great when I arrived and got ready to run the dogs. Phil was really sick with the flu so he hadn't been out training on the trails or he would have known the snow conditions.
I took off with all 6 dogs on a FAST trail, but there was enough loose snow on top from Phil's grooming the night before that the trail wasn't icy and I was having a great training run. It was the first fast trail that we had been on ALL YEAR and it was obvious as the dogs ran that Holly especially and Dianna were slower than the other dogs and would not be able to make the "A" team. I even noticed that Sparrow up in lead has some loose line which disappointed me. We did 8 miles and I only stopped them for a 20 second rest before a big hill.
After I got back to the truck and turned around to start unhooking the dogs, I noticed blood in the snow. The longer that the dogs stood there the more blood that showed up, on EVERY dog. The trail was made up of ground up ice because of the recent rain and the ice crystals were very abrasive. All the dog's pads were worn down on the edges, some down to red tissue, especially the big pad on their back feet, some dogs even had bad abrasions in between their toes. I couldn't believe how my wonderful run had turned into a nightmare for the dogs.
At the cabin I checked all their feet and put foot ointment on everyone. I got up the next morning and drove home. At home, I kept checking their feet, and put booties on the worse ones so the dogs couldn't like off the medicine. They started to look better.
Dogs stumbling and falling through the crust on the trail.
December 26, 2012
FALL TRAINING IN SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER
This has been a winter of extremes, Heavy rain which flooded our property on the Kenai River and all of South Central Alaska, Two very damaging wind storms which blew down record amounts of trees all over our area and which ruined the mushing trails with hundreds of down trees blocking the trails and we had long periods of very cold weather of -10 to -20 in Anchorage. In Fairbanks they had weeks when the temperatures were between -25 to -50 and NO SNOW.
Last year at this time we had record snowfall and over 36 " on the ground, all the mushing trails were open with all the scheduled races happening. We expected the same winter as last year, but Mother Nature cheated us......this year our first snow wasn't until Mid November which didn't do anything. We didn't get any more snow until Dec 12 when we received 12 inches in town and less elsewhere. Once this snow got packed down it still wasn't enough to open mushing trails for using the sled. Chugiak finally did open the trails for sleds and it was EXTREMELY rough (white knuckled scary) without enough snow to fill in the hummocks and bumps. I only have been training 4 dog teams and just using minimum trails going around them more than once to get the miles on the dogs.
I have 170 miles on the dogs and most of the training has been on the same few miles of trails that are runnable and not dangerous, the dogs are bored and burnt out from running in circles 3 days a week since mid-September, ME TOO!
FINALLY a race is scheduled for this weekend in Montana Creek, they had to cancel 4 weeks of Points Races and this is a 2-day Championship Race, their season is almost over, most of it was canceled. Chugiak has also canceled all their races so far, 5 weeks of races and Fairbanks hasn't had a race yet either. A very poor dog racing season so far.
