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.
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