Trip to Montana

    So on Thursday my older brother and I took a road trip to Butte, Montana to pick up the last two dogs - Zoomey and Duke - from my good friend and mentor, Lanette Kimball. I was really excited because Lanette has always provided me with good dogs and I haven't seen her in about a year (usually I only get to see most of my mushing friends at races as it is - so anytime seeing another musher at another time of the year is refreshing).
    We met later than originally planned, and spent a lot of time talking dogs. I think Lanette knows more about Alaskan Husky bloodlines than anyone else I know - as well as 30yrs of knowledge gained from working with dogs.
    Despite the hour change (in our favor on the way back!), my brother and I had to stop and get coffee to stay awake and were making good time out of Missoula when calamity struck in the form of a semi accident (we were maybe the 10th vehicle in line behind the accident). For over two hours we sat there, waiting for the state patrol to let us move on. The worst part - I forgot that I'd brought my book with me until the last twenty minutes! We came safely home and I had the dogs settled in and got myself to bed at 3:45am...yeah, long day.
    This morning I couldn't wait to run dogs, despite being completely hoarse. As Lanette told me, the dogs have amazing, fluid movement and made it around the seven mile run just fine - despite being used to flatter terrain and only having done two mile training runs so far this year!

Zoomey - 4yr old female. Goes back to George Attla's dog Grover, and out of John Barron's Slayer. She's very shy, but when she gets comfortable I'm looking forward to seeing her in lead!

Duke - 4yr old male. From Rodeo Vincent's kennel - rather unknown what his bloodline is, but it doesn't really matter since he runs well! Another leader, I'm hoping to move him up front soon as he is super friendly.