Our first 30 mile run

    Just got back from our run. It was fast on the newly groomed trail and the wind did not blow in the trail!3h10m for 33 miles. I had a bit of an issue with Ruger bullying Bananas in lead, and Bananas was afraid to take turns whenever he had to pull or push Ruger in the right direction, so I moved Maggot up and things went better.
    There is a sort of "roundabout" with three trails coming into it at triangular corners that goes around a beaver house. I decided to go left, the long way around, rather than keeping straight on my trail, so that I'd be able to use commands - in the hope that the yearlings will begin to pick them up. Scott and I made sure the trail around the beaver house was good last night, grooming it in all directions, so I was hoping for smooth turns.
    Alas, Maggot was too good at taking commands! I said "haw" and he went on the far side, but when we had to turn left again, to go around the roundabout, he turned a bit late and had to cut across some snow and over the trail. I gave the "gee" command, to get him back on the trail, but he overshot the trail again. I don't know if he couldn't see it or if my "gee, gee, gee" and then "haw, haw,haw" (given to guide him back to the trail) confused him. We ended up doing a figure eight on the little pond (where I couldn't hook down to go up and set him right) and went back to the first intersection, took a right (gee) and contiued on our way. I was laughing so hard, it was awesome to see such a responsive leader. Poor Maggot looked a bit confused, but we went all the way around on the way back without any issues - I made sure to give one command at a time this time!
    Other than that, the run was uneventful. We saw a moose cow and calf, well off the trail, and several ptarmigan - which are very pretty white birds that look to be a bit like grouse (same size, including brain size!)
    This morning Blayne (Buddy) Streeper, his wife Lena, daughter Ava(?) and handler John Stewart (from Scotland) stopped by. I didn't get to talk long, since I had a team to run and they were gone before I got back, but they were very nice. I hope I can get an opportunity to see some of their dogs in person at some point, the pictures in Mushing Magazine just aren't the same! I think that when I am tired of distance mushing, it would be a blast to do the Stage Stop. I used to think of the Streeper's as being sprint mushers, and sprint mushers going short distances, but they just won the Alaska Excursion's race (the same race Leila was running) and that was two days of 40 miles. It would be fun to have a team go fast for that distance!
    Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone is looking forward to Christmas!