December 2009 Archives

Just a 28 mile run today in anticipation of the race this weekend. We'll be running the Knik 200 that starts Saturday morning at 11:00. Not a race for us, more of a camping trip. We'll be taking 4-5 hour breaks on the trail on the way to and from Skwentna. If you follow the race updates on Knik200.com. don't be alarmed when we're not in the top of the group. If my "race" goes according to plan, we'll get to Skwentna around midnight Saturday night, will spend around 6 hours there (some will depend on my start time as adjustments will be made at the checkpoint), and get back to Knik around 7:00pm Sunday. Trail is going to be hard and fast, I'd think. Race marshall says there's some overflow we're going to have to deal with and temps are supposed to range from -15 to 5 or 10 above. Should be a good run. Let's hope so. However it goes, I'll fill you in on the details early next week.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL FROM RICH, ME AND ALL THE DOGS!!!!

After about a dozen 40+ mile runs, the dogs are starting to show signs of maturing. They're figuring it out that we're not just doing a fast 20 and back home. We've been doing a 49 mile loop that takes us across a river, a series of lakes, and snow covered Parkway and through some portages that are extremely rough at this point. We had some warm weather that softened things up and with all the snow machine traffic over the holidays, the trails are a bit rough. Dogs are handling it fine, but the poor musher is getting beat up. Speaking of getting beat up. We're running the Knik 200 this weekend and with no snow in the forecast, the first 30 miles of that trail could be a real hair raiser. Good news is the elbow is feeling better. Good thing since I'm going to need all the strength I have to hold on to the sled for that wild ride.

Taking advantage of being off school to get some longer runs in. Hope to be able to continue these long runs once I'm back in school. Guess that's all up to how late at night I want to be out running dogs and how much energy this 50 year old body has. The goal is to get as many of these young guys to Nome in 12 days as possible. So, it will be worth all those late nights if that happens.

Pics from today. Was a beautiful and cold day. Sorry I didn't think of taking pics until we were on the power line on the way home. Try to ignore the power lines.

Headed out this morning for a 50 mile run that was supposed to take us on a big loop. Well, my lousy sense of trail finding had us wandering some lakes, portages, cabins.....Never did make the big loop, but got 50 miles in anyway. The good news is I was able to drive that 16 dog team where ever I needed to. We found a lot of new places and pretty much just made our own trail. So, early tomorrow morning I'll head on for a 40 mile snow machine ride to find that damn trail off the lake. Really don't want to spend another day wandering out there. Would like to see the rest of the loop.

Pics of the day....

Sorry about the lack of blogging this past week. Not much dog driving going on and my mood mirrored that. I'm having issues with a bad "tennis elbow" from all this ATV driving and plowing. Went to the doctor last week and got a cortisone shot. Had a bad reaction to it so the arm was way worse after and is just now getting back to what it was before the shot. Still hoping the steroid will work it's wonder once the inflamation caused by the shot goes away.

Anyway, we have lots of snow now so got on a sled for a 25 mile run yesterday and 40 miles today. Dogs look OK after their 5 days off. Want to work them back in a little slowly. So enjoying being on a sled though!! Even got off the sled to take some pics today that weren't dog butts.

Flash and Abigail....leaders extraordinaire!

I don't say this very often, but tonight's run was just spectacular!!! Sorry, didn't take any pics. Ran the dogs 3 hard days in a row and they were showing signs of a bit of stress on the third run. Gave them one day off and they were raring to go tonight. Ran them 40 miles and they were on fire! Happy, fast, beautiful fast trots!! Still on the ATV, but it's snowing now so let's hope for 5 or 6 inches so we can get on a sled again!!!!

I know.....more dog butts, but it was so pretty out there today I just had to take some pics. The dogs looked great today for their third day in a row. Ran them 46 miles. Mixed the dogs up quite a bit for this run, so there was lots of playing going on. All the "playing" dogs, of course, are the Buser Boys. Put Martin in lead most of the way. He got pretty serious for the last 15 miles. I put him up with Flash and gave Flash a little longer tug. That took care of Martin harrassing Flash. Nikolai was picking on Drop Zone and then Hasty so he got to run with Aflred....gee, the picking ceased then. This was probably one of the most fun ATV runs I've had this year. For some reason, have rededicated myself to having the patience of Job with these guys, no matter what's going on and no matter how big the tangle....and we did have a rather large tangle today. I let 6 dogs loose, most of which were boys and they just milled around and had a grand time. Was just nice to not let anything stress me out. Now, if I can just bottle that patience and find it every run!!!!

Four hour runs in near 0 degrees on clear nights is typically heaven for dogs and musher. The same 4 hours on an ATV is well, as far as this body is concerned...not so much fun. Do this multiple times a week and this 50 year old body can tell you.....hurts! Not much doesn't hurt. The worst is a "tennis" elbow of sorts. Can't lift a food bucket, dogs, and worst of all, my nightly glass of wine. Need to see if Rich will switch chairs with me so my drink is on my left side. Not sure how it's ever going to heal until the season is over, but do know that getting off the ATV and on sleds will help.

Tonight's run was only 30 miles (we've been doing 40) but it was mostly on the river so it was a fast 30. The dogs thoroughly enjoyed it. They just flew. Tomorrow we'll do 50 miles and slow them down a bit.

This is us running down the Little Su River. We've had so much fog the past few days that there's tons of frost on the trees so it was beautiful out there today, especially at sunset. Tough to take pics when it's that cold and one hand has to stay on the throttle, but here's what I did get with my Iphone today.

The first campout of the season is in the record books. Had a great time. The dogs ran 29 miles, then we camped for 4 hours at Martin's camp. So nice to have stake outs there so I could take them off the line, make them comfortable and not worry about them chewing the gangline. Most of them rested like champs. Alfred, however, spent nearly the entire 4 hours either playing with Rachel, who wouldn't sleep either, or eating snow. I looked up once to see Nikolai swatting at a hanging drop chain just like a cat playing with a ball on a string. Couldn't get a good pic of it. Wish I had a video camera. The temps were great; 10 degrees when we left the yard, somewhere between 0-10 out at the camp. Perfect for dogs and musher. The only thing that wasn't fun was that we were on the 4 wheeler. We were on sleds for 4 runs, then the rains came, so back to ATVs we went. We got a little more snow and some cold temps now, so hopefully, by our next campout we'll be on sleds. All those hours sitting on the ATV is not what the doctor ordered for this aging body. Was having severe cramps in my back on the way home. Tonight I wish we owned a hot tub!!

Two Face and Abigail....not only are they champion leaders, they are champion nappers.

Flash found the perfect place to keep his nose warm. Two Face didn't seem to mind and I think Flash fell asleep like this.

Rohn, Martin, Radon.

Magnus, one of Martin's handlers has set up picket lines that will hold 50 dogs. It's quite a comfy little set up. Nice for the dogs to be tucked into the woods, out of the wind, with lots of straw! We'll be spending lots of campouts here. Think they'll learn to love this place!!! I know I will!