The First Week, part 1

    Ok, so it's time to continue getting you caught up on what's happened since I arrived in the frozen north.
    Before I begin, I think some introductions are in order:
    Aaron Burmeister - I got in touch with him through a mutual friend, Nancy Yoshida of North Dakota. (As most of you know, she gave me four dogs - three from Aaron - last summer when she got out of dogs). He manages operations for Tumet Industries (a road construction company) which is based in Nome, AK, so in the summer he lives in Nome, where he was born and raised, but in the winter, when he's running dogs, the kennel base is here in Nenana. He's run the Iditarod about 10 times, placing 7th in the 2009 Iditarod. After '09, he sold his team to Dallas Seavey and took a break to spend time with his family. Last year he leased a sprint team from Buddy Streeper and ran some races, including the Wyoming Stage Stop. The few dogs he had were with Sebastian Schnuelle and Jessie Royer, who ran some of them in the Yukon Quest and Iditarod. This year the race goal is the Iditarod, and he and Scott will also run the Kusko and Kobuk 440.
    Scott Smith: up here to help prepare and basically oversee all the training of the race team. He's never worked with Aaron before, but met the Burmeisters when he ran the Iditarod several years ago. Scott got into sled dogs after doing tours in Wyoming, an outfit he actually bought and owned/ran for several years. He's been in dogs for about 18yrs and ran the Iditarod four times between 2004 and 2008. I believe it was in '06 that he moved up to Willow, AK from Wyoming, after selling the tour outfit to Billy Snodgrass. Since then he's focused on mid-distance races, 200-300 miles, and succeeded in beating just about every musher you would want to beat, including Lance Mackey! In the summer he works as a construction contractor, really enjoying custom-home work. He brought his dogs to contribute to the Iditarod team.
    I'll introduce everyone else as they come in, but this should give you an idea of who I'm working with for now!

    The day after I arrived, Aaron and Scott took the first team out after breakfast. I was able to go with Scott for the next run. Scott's dogs had been on the glacier all summer, so they had about 400 miles on them already, but Aaron's had been sitting all summer, so the early runs were 7 miles.
    Then I began my leaf-raking career. Since there are few evergreen trees here, the birch and willow take over everything...and that means tons of leaves every fall. The dog yard, surrounding area and around the house needed to be raked to make it look nice.
    The main dog yard is four rows by twelve rows deep, stake outs. To the left are two rows of girls (at one end girls, at the other are the yearlings) and to the right are all the boys. There's a lot more male dogs than females, even when you include the puppies.
    Younger puppies are off to the left a little way, to keep them away from the adults.

    I was just finishing up raking the boy's side when our closest neighbor, about 5 minutes walk away (farther if you drive!) and his handler stopped by for dinner. Our neighbor is Bill Cotter, who's been running dogs in the Iditarod and the Quest since the 1970's. He's amazing: in his sixties, has had two strokes and had to teach himself to walk again - and he still runs dogs (although he doesn't race so much anymore)! I can't remember what year(s) he won the Yukon Quest, but I know he's done something like 22 Iditarods!
    Leila, his handler, is several years older than me and is from England. Who would've thought I'd be drinking genuine English tea in Alaska of all places? I love her accent! I've been very thankful she's here as time goes on, we can talk over the challenges of handling and what we're learning. Her goal is to get qualified for the Yukon Quest this year and, next year, to be the first English woman to run the Quest! I'll definitely be cheering for her and I hope she reaches her goal. Oh, and did I forget to mention that she's a national champion for martial arts? You don't want to get into a fight with her! :)
    Hearing Aaron, Scott and Bill tell stories about Iditarods and races was like being among legends...I mean, I'd read Gary Paulsen's books and other stories about the Iditarod and people like Susan Butcher and Rick Swenson, but to actually hear the tales from the lips of people who were there...it was really cool.

    A day or so later Aaron headed back to Nome and, because the dogs were going to have several days off, Scott headed back to Willow to finish up some things there. And so, I was left alone with the dogs...and my leaf raking. Without the internet or anything else to do, other than run the few yearlings for 3 miles on a two day on/one day off schedule.
    Fortunately, Leila came over and I returned her visits, and was able to check my e-mails on their extremely slow internet - which broke up the monotony. Being from a large family, it seemed extremely quiet without anyone else around! Leila and I were both holding down the forts, since Bill headed off for vacation at the same time!
    To be continued...