Eagle Cap Prep

    With the 200 mile Eagle Cap Extreme only a half a week away, only one more run remains until we get in the truck and head to the vet check. As you can imagine, I've been out training as much as the weather will allow...we aren't what I would call "behind" in training (especially considering I'm basically running a yearling team, since I've got 4 yearlings on the team the training has to be geared towards them).

    The first order of business, once we got on the sled, was to get some longer runs to prepare to go camping. These were more or less as I could expect - there were a few bumps in the road, but nothing too bad...except the weather.

    I think this is the first year since I started mushing that I've had so much ice/dirt to run on when I'm on the sled...but look at it this way - it's great training! On our first camping trip, I left the truck and realized that I was going to be skating the last 1.5 miles to the truck. For the entire run I contemplated having someone pick me up - driving the truck up the mountain to meet us - but I decided against it (it was a late run - didn't get in until about 9pm) and I was amazed to watch Legolas lead the team safely down the ice track. Yes, we came close to the bank - but he kept everyone moving at a safe trot.

    I find that I constantly underestimate my dogs. For example; after all the years I've had Lego leading me, I should've expected nothing less than that he would be smart enough to keep us safe...after all, that's what a lead dog does: find the best trail!

    But it's more than just his trail smarts. Sweetwater came back from having puppies and a month off to jump into 30 mile runs...and now she's leading the team...and is even better about picking a good trail on the ice than Legolas! Today as I ran the team, with Sweet leading, I was thinking about our history together and...well, I'll tell the story in a later post and get back to camping tales.

    When I'm out running dogs, I watch the wildlife movement. The wolves have moved in closer than I've seen before - they are so much like dogs; marking the trail signs and prominent trees...but I wish they weren't here,,,or rather, I wish the Canadian Gray wolf wasn't here - our native wolves were perfectly fine with me because they kept everything in balance. 

    Anyway, on our first camping trip there was fresh snow and fresh wolf tracks...I'm guessing we've got about a 3-4 wolf pack. Their tracks led away from our camping spot so I guess that's a good thing - I didn't really want to meet them. We did our 44 and then camped for 4 hours...Mocha and Brownie laid right down, but it took Biscotti and Kuchen a while to settle in.

    I like running at night - you just focus on the world in your headlamp light (which equals your dog team!) and try not to worry about the possibility of running into a moose...it's amazing how well they blend in! Fortunately we didn't run into any moose; except for where I was expecting them - there's a cow and calf hanging out about 5 miles from the trail head. I just saw her eyes shining at me from behind a bush...and the dogs just kept moving.

   Our second camping trip required me to drive up 3 miles to a slightly less icy start (a little flatter too). This time we did a 36, 3 hours rest and another 36. The triumph of this run was that they ran both legs within 1 minute...I was so proud of how consistent they were. Here's some pictures from camping (sorry they are not great - phone camera doesn't like to work well in the cold!):

My focus this year for camping/racing is figuring out feeding. I've had a lot of help from Scott, of course, but in the end I've come to realize that you have to use what you have and keep it simple. I'm actually looking forward to using a 3 hour schedule - if all goes as planned, I'll just look at the Eagle Cap Extreme as a bunch of 3 hour segments.

The above is from our 30 mile run today. We had a change of plans because of the weather and a long, slow trail breaking run...so rather than getting in another camping run, this past week the dogs completed their longest runs to date - two 56 mile runs. While they weren't as consistent as I'd have liked; all 14 of the race team dogs made it through without injury - despite the warm temperatures and icy trail.

So the training for Eagle Cap is essentially done. The 12 dogs selected to race will hopefully get a short, fun-run on Tuesday to stretch out before we head down to the race...