Blue Skies...

I took the dogs out on the ten mile loop again. It was a beautiful day, blue skies with no wind. Everything went great until the second rest stop. They seemed to have calmed down by then, I don't get off the sled on the first stop, so I set the snow hook, walked around and petted them while checking their feet for ice balls. Everything was ok as I went back to the sled, stood on the brake while I pulled the hook, they jerked a bit, but I said "no, take it easy" or something like that, and started to put it in the holster. They all must have hit it at once cause all I remember is flying backwards, seeing blue sky, then slamming on my back onto the trail. I popped up just in time to see them disappearing down the trail. I figured they were long gone, but after walking a half a mile or so, there they were, lined out in the trail. The Manning snow hook had caught in the snow and saved me again. When they saw me, they turned around and came back towards me, getting all tangled up in the process. So after a few minutes of untangling dogs, while the younger ones barked and banged to go, we were on our way again. So that was yesterdays run. What I’m thinking now is that this team, with the three crazy youngsters and untrained leaders. maybe isn’t ready for a travel trip yet. If I lost them out on the some new trails, well who knows where they’d wind up. So I told my friend Bill I was canceling our planned trip for next week to the park. He was pretty bummed out, but hopefully he'll get over it. You have to run the team you have and accept their limitations, not the team you wish you had and do something stupid with them.

Here's the snow hook that saved my butt again. This is maybe the third time in the 25 years or so that I've used it that it stopped the team after I lost them. It was custom made by a former neighbor, Ned Manning, a machinist who built it for a friend. He apparently was never paid for it, so repossessed it and gave it to me. While it's seriously heavy, it does a fantastic job and I thank Ned, at least in my mind, every time it holds the team in place. 

Ides of March...

 Just saw something on line today about the Ides of March (Ides...3/15/13), you can Google it up, but for me I realized it was the middle of March before I'd gotten the dogs out for a long run. Whenever it seemed like they were ready to go longer, it'd snow 3-4", drop to 20-30° F below, or the overflow would make the trails un-runnable. But today was the day when the gods smiled on us, the weather was great, maybe ten above, the overflow had frozen over from the last cold spell, and the trail was good to go. When we got over the hill and down into the valley, they normally start to slow down, but instead they took off, like they smelled a moose or something. Well that wasn't good, but soon I smelled it too, the unmistakable smell of a 2-stroke engine. So there was a snow machine out, no big deal I thought, we'll never see him since he's probably going a lot faster than we are. But no, there on the first long straight away was a snow machine, obviously going slower than we were. So I slowed the dogs down, this is normally the fastest part of the run, but we kept gaining on him. Then I saw the dog,  running in front of the machine.  He had probably stopped to give it a rest. So I stopped too and yelled "trail, dog team." Figured he'd get going, but no, he just sat there, didn't hear me, I guess. But the dog sure did, it started jumping up and down and headed straight for us. All I could think of is dog fight, vet bills! But he must have called it back, as they soon took off again. So I held well back and we stayed slow until they were out of sight. Fortunately they were going the same way, so the dogs, that were still chasing them, followed on all the turns. Well the rest of the run was pretty uneventful, except for crossing the overflow, which is always exciting, and we finally had our longer dog run. 

Heading home across the flats, the dogs going really well under bright blues skies. Like my friend Mike sez, "it don't get much better than this".

Look Who Followed Me Home Part 2

 Just like the previous post, this was another routine dog run out into the valley and back. The only thing of note was the new trail markers set out by a local club that was having a dog race. They do it most every year and it's no big deal, they only use a small segment, maybe 3-4 miles of the same trail we run. and so far, had never seen any of the racers. So after we got back, unhooked the dogs, gave them a snack, then went over to start the tractor. It had snowed a couple of inches overnight, so wanted to get the driveway plowed. Right about then the dogs started barking, so walked back towards the dog yard and saw a dog team where the trail starts/ends. Behind that team was second one, bunched up in the little space left to them. The lead musher was screaming at his dogs, who were certainly confused by it all, so couldn't figure out where to go. When I finally got down there, he hadn't paid any attentions to me up to then, I yelled "what are you trying to do?" "Going to take that trail there" he yelled back over the cacophony of the dogs. Well that was the tractor trail to the garden and compost piles, so told him no, he needed to turn his dogs around where they were and go back on the trail they came in on. He didn't want to do that but eventually convinced him that was the way go to get back to the race. Surprisingly, he quickly turned his team around, and after a short stop, passed the team behind him and was soon gone. I helped the guy behind him get turned around, gave him directions to get back to the main trail, and then he was gone too. From what he said, they apparently missed a marked turn, saw our tracks in the fresh snow, and followed them thinking it was a race team. The whole thing took just a few minutes, but seemed a lot longer.

Didn't have a camera, so this is a pic of our team after todays run. Imagine two teams lined up here, with ten or more dogs each, barking and trying go somewhere, anywhere else!