How It All Started - Part 7: The 2009 Season

    With the "A" litter harness broken, the fall of 2008 was more learning. My team was noticeably better, hard pulling and eager to go. We explored trails behind our house on the 4-wheeler (I always had someone come with me) and worked with the new dogs: Ruby and Mermaid. Mermaid was a big girl who liked to dip snow a lot and Ruby was a sweet dog with great bloodlines that I got from Lanette at the fall meeting.

   That fall I also had the "B" litter - a batch of 7 pups from Nala and Nanook with names such as B4U, Breakneck Speed, Beruna and Bullet. (Breakneck Speed or, Brea, would eventually compete with me in 4-H agility, winning his first event. The agility judge came up to me afterwards and asked me what breed of dog he was!)

    With the growing kennel and no Seppala club races being held, we decided to expand our horizons and try some new races. The first was the Flathead Sled Dog Days in Whitefish Montana. This introduced us to some amazing folks, although we came in dead last. It was snowing and I ended up with Kowtoo in lead, but running on the Montana hills was great training. My team was Chase and Kow, Quest and Mermaid and Ruby and Vixen.

  Worried by the slow speeds, we took a trip to Elkford, Canada to run in the 6-dog sprint class. Ruby, Vixen and Nanook led with Chase, Quest and Kowtoo filling out the team/wheel positions. We had great times and won! This was where I first glimpsed some Alaskan's I liked on Rick & Dena Wannamaker's truck. I also admired the wolverine ruff Aaron Peck had...not knowing who he was at that point (never dreaming, either, that I'd get to race him one day!). Despite the wonderful time we had, and the paycheck, I didn't feel drawn to short races...

    Alas, the snow didn't hold out for Conconully and we ended up driving down to Dubois Wyoming for a wonderful race in crisp, cold weather. My mom ran the 4-dog class with the Nala, Brea, B4U and a brand new dog from Lanette - Hadrian - while I ran my first 8-dog race with Nanook, Kowtoo, Quest, Chase, Mermaid, Vixen, Athena and Ruby. I was nervous, but it was a good experience on a technical trail - including wind and drifts we weren't used to. I also recall spending every spare moment pestering Lanette with questions - she's always been a great resource and I can't thank her enough for all the time she spent with me over the years...as well as entrusting me with some great dogs.

    I think I forgot to mention that in November Wonder Woman had a surprise litter from Chase. Although I always kicked myself for not keeping any pups from the "C" litter, we had fun with the names - Catan, Caspian, etc. They were also the most adorable blue eyed puppies! I will try to find some photos...

    As always, Priest Lake was the next race on the agenda and I think it rained (as always) and we had an interesting run. Athena actually led part of the race and I left Kowtoo (since he was a big boy and Priest Lake is always warm). The rest of the team was filled out by Quest, Mermaid, Ruby, Vixen and Nanook. Hadrian, Nala and Chase ran the 4-dog class with my mom and my little sister ran Wonder Woman in the peewee class. She was upset because it was only 100 yards...so we had WonderWoman going back and forth on another trail for a while to wear the two of them out!

    We'd made friends with folks at Elkford and Whitefish, who invited us up to the first Bootleg Sled Dog Race in Cranbrook, BC. This was an awesome race, all on a golf course, and mostly in sight for spectators. With lots of short ups and downs and turns, the dogs charged hard and although we didn't win it was a blast! My younger siblings each took a team in the junior race with Chase, Quest and Wonder...my own team being Vixen, Nanook, Ruby, Athena, Hadrian and Mermaid.

    But the season didn't end then! Again, having made contacts, we went to the first Darby Dog Derby in Montana and my mom and I divided the dogs to run the six mile sprint race. This was Athena's first race in lead and Wonder Woman's first "real" race back since the puppies. Ruby and Moonbeam ran swing for me and Hadrian and Nanook ran wheel. My mom ran Quest and Vixen (her dog) in lead, Brea in swing and Chase and Mermaid in wheel.