How It All Started - Part 8: The 2010 Season

    Spring there were puppies! The D litter (Nala X Nanook) and the E litter (Mermaid X Nanook - which was a surprise litter) were born within days of each other. Although I ended up not keeping any of the pups, it was a lot of fun playing with them. They both had small litters, as often happens for spring breedings, but they were nice pups and it was a good experience to evaluate them.

    The summer of 2009 saw an introduction to the Alaskan Husky. I’d had Wonder Woman from the beginning, but always told myself I would never switch completely to “those crazy dogs.” However, with the amount of closely line-bred dogs, many Seppala mushers were looking for outcrosses and the Alaskan Husky made the most sense. So that spring I brought home Legolas from a friend of mine – Frank – who had run Seppala’s and switched to Alaskan’s. He was very competitive and Legolas was out of one of Ricky’s last breedings (from Doug Swingley).

    Legolas was a skinny, shy dog who liked to nip at you (not mean, just very mouthy). He settled in well, though, since he didn’t have a mean bone in his body!

     In my quest for outcrosses, I also met a local musher named Christine who was getting out of dogs but had two Alaskans from Mackey bloodlines, sister's named Pace and Zorra, along with an older leader from the Yukon named Cricket and a little black and white Siberian/Alaskan cross named Biscuit. She gave me the dogs and a bit of gear…but more importantly, with Cricket, I would learn many valuable lessons about what a real leader (and Quest veteran) is like. That little dog will always be my first leader – and his legacy lives on in Legolas (his “young apprentice”), who has trained all the puppies up till present.

    With Lego (who was originally named Lester, but I couldn’t stand the name and – being into Lord of the Rings – jumped at the opportunity to change it to an elvish name) and the dogs from Chris to train (the Mackey Alaskan’s were just puppies), I could scarcely wait for fall temperatures to drop!

Cricket - who also had beautiful movement.

    Fall training was uneventful. I did a lot more “alone” because my youngest brother was born that year so my mom couldn’t be with me. Fortunately, my younger brother helped me train and Kate, who was Nakota’s new owner, came out often to ride with me as well. Without their help and Cricket’s reliable guidance (my first reliable gee/haw dog) I’m not sure what I would’ve done because I wasn’t strong enough to handle a 10-12 dog team without help (we had a 250 size 4-wheeler and the dogs could drag it with locked brakes). My old 4-H friend Bonnie also came out to help a lot...especially on the sled.

It's nice to have puddles in the fall

Athena and me

Coming in to the kennel...

...with Timber the pyrenees escorting us!

Moonbeam/Nanook in lead, Pace/Vixen swing, B4U/Wonder 1st team, Cricket/Legolas 2nd team, Bree/Quest wheel.

    In November, Nala had a litter of 4 pups out of Cricket and I held onto a male and female - Falcon and Fandago. They were the best escape artists I've come across - never staying in the pen but also not going anywhere. Nala would be on her house and they'd be snuggled up right outside of the pen...ready to run and greet you when you came outside!

So excited to get some little polar bears for the team!

Already learning to explore...

Apparently Fandago is proud of herself!

Enjoying some inside time!

 

  

                        

     Although fall was beautiful, we had almost no snow that December and after one or two sled runs I was back on the 4-wheeler doing 2-4 miles in 1 mile loops on our land because the roads were too icy to run on.       

Athena

Wonder Woman

   Fortunately our first race was Flathead Sled Dog Days in Whitefish in early January - 18 miles each day for 8-dogs. I'd grown very happy and comfortable with an 8-dog team at this time but I didn't think I'd ever want to run more (the year before I'd run the 10-dog class in Wyoming but only ran 8-dogs). We were very slow but it got us ready for Conconully, which was back this year thanks to some snow.   

Flathead:

Cricket/Wonder, Pace/Quest, B4U/Athena, Nanook/Legolas

Wonder/Pace, Cricket/Quest, Nanook/B4U, Athena/Legolas

Conconully:

  

  

Hooking up (see the 4-wheeler behind us? We're hooked to it to help get us to the line)

B4U/Cricket, Quest/Nanook, Athena/Legolas

  

Cricket/Nanook, B4U/Quest, Legolas/Athena

They look pretty happy!

   

        What had me really excited, though, was the Cascade Quest. This race had been highly recommended and thanks to Christine's help (she went running with me in the dark - my first night run) getting me ready with gear and training, I entered the 75 mile stage race: 25 miles the first day (start and finish different locations) then 25 miles out the next evening to the lovely "town" of Trinity and back the next morning. 

    I think I forgot to mention that Cricket bonded very close with his musher but was pretty shy. The trail was new and there were quite a few turns, but he took everything flawlessly (I used to be really frightened of getting lost). As we came down a mountain, there was a hard left switchback/turn and my cable gangline snapped right behind the leaders: Lego and Crick took off happily and my remaining four (led by Quest and Pace) chased them without missing a beat. However, I was really terrified they'd be lost forever because some snowmobiler's came by to help - and only made them run further. However, with them helping hold the sled I was able to catch them (can't tell you how relieved I was to walk after them, call them and have them turn around and run to me). With rope and chain drop-chains I was able to "jerry-rig" my line to limp into the finish.

    Thankfully my good friend Wendy let me borrow a better built gangline for the next legs (as you can imagine I was very nervous at every turn and bump for many miles!) in the dark.

    Now let's talk about headlamps for a moment...

    The race marshal was very encouraging and helpful as I prepared for my first camping race and had recommended the Princeton Tec Apex headlamp but I was on a very short budget so I called the great folks at Adanac Sleds and they set me up with an "old-style" headlamp which was affordable. It had a batter pack which went on your belt (or in a pocket) and was a bit bulky but worked...until the bulb quit. I sent it back and Wendy & Steve brought me a replacement along with an extra bulb and let me borrow one of their's as a backup (you NEVER go with just one). I'm not sure what I did wrong, but after using it for a half hour or so my new headlamp quit again (I've used it since without issues - I think it was user error somehow). I switched to Steve's and made it in with plenty of light.

    However, Wendy had warned me that once it got dark it'd seem to take FOREVER to get in to Trinity. It really did seem like it, but we were actually making good time. But once in Trinity, oh, it was amazing!

    Trinity is like a couple houses and a field of dogs - warm lights, soft straw and the beautiful sky above. The field is surrounded by gorgeous mountains and everything about the checkpoint is magical. They had water available and great food. I was dog-tired by the time I fed the dogs and ate, but I actually can't remember where I slept. I think it must've been with the dogs (I can't imagine I slept inside when there was a chance to snuggle up with Lego - in fact, I remember now, I did snuggle up with them because not all of them wanted to bed down at first - except for Cricket who knew the trail) because I remember all the teams howling together at one point in the morning.

    We were third out that morning and it was so much fun running back. It was sunny and a bit warm, but at the finish they had a nice meal waiting. Sitting and chatting after the race was really fun as it was a lot of the same folks who ran Conconully and Flathead.

Finishing the race - Athena/Nanook in wheel, Pace/Quest in swing and Cricket/Legolas in lead.

Wendy and I with packed sleds waiting to head out to Trinity!

Waiting...

And we're off!

 

The day after Cascade Quest...

    Needless to say, the Cascade Quest was the highlight of the season, but I'd promised Bonnie a race so we went to Priest Lake. It was very warm (is it ever not warm???) and I had to bag B4U because he got very hot. He was really good about it, I was more distressed than he was when we got to the truck.

Fandago & Falcon came to Priest Lake and made friends!

Bonnie's team - Quest, wheel & Vixen/Wonder in lead.

  

    We'd heard a lot of great things about the American Dog Derby. I'd sold a puppy down that way and they'd invited us to stay with them in Ashton, so we headed to the potato fields of southern Idaho. I was very glad to have Cricket for all the road crossings...and also thankful to have my dad along because on the way to Ashton one of the trailer tires went flat. We fixed it but he found the one and only tire-shop in Ashton to get a spare while I was racing.

    At Ashton I experienced a totally different type of race. You start in the middle of town, with lots of people and music and an announcer - not the small snowmobile parking lot miles from town, like most races. It makes it a fun experience and the dogs like it, even the shy ones. Then, once out of town, you're in windswept, rolling potato fields. And if you think running through rolling fields is easy, think again! The ups and downs are steeper than you'd imagine and make it difficult for the dogs to find a pace to settle into. But what a great experience! Spectators can drive along the course and see you for miles...which also means that while you're racing you can see your competitors for miles - sometimes they are a lot further (or a lot closer) than they seem because of the twisting, ups and downs.

You start right downtown!

  

   Thus ended another fun season. I'd been invited to the Jr Race to the Sky 100 but didn't feel I had the training to do it. If I had one regret, it was that I didn't do it that year - but the camping at the Cascade Quest re-woke the Iditarod dream. With the performance of Pace, Cricket and Legolas, I had a new respect for Alaskan's and realized they didn't have to be crazy beasts to be great sled dogs.