Getting ready for Race Season 2006-07
Hi there, it has been a while since I have written the last newsletter update. Sorry that I have not kept you more up to date on what has happened over the summer. Summer was mostly filled with work in Skagway, the season ended late September and once again it meant moving 120 dogs back home. Although it has developed into a routine moving the dogs, it always takes a few days before things settle back into normal once I get back home. I am again very fortunate to have good help for the winter. Rich, who also worked in Skagway is actually training to run the Iditarod.
Now that I write these lines, the next move is around the corner. All of the races are in Alaska and instead of driving back and forth in between each event, we will rent a cabin in Paxson once again.
This winter we are not staying with John and Zoya Schandelmeier, although they had a great place last year, the cabin was quite small for the 4 of us. We are down the road, about 8 miles away renting from Audie at the Paxson Alpine Cabins www.denalihwy.com. Although I have been living without power and running water for 10 years, I am going to enjoy having all those luxurious things... water from the tap, and flicking on a light switch. That will make life much easier this winter and also having the internet and phone at the cabin. Of course there is a payoff, while at John and Zoya´s there was a doglot set up, we still have to put that in at this place. A few weeks back, I drove up to Paxson to bring blue 55 Gallon plastic drums up there, about 70 of them. This coming weekend is the Fairbanks mushing symposium and we will use that as an excuse to drive to Paxson and set up the doglot. I just got an email from Audie, telling me that he got 18 inches of snow in 24 hrs, yipeee, that is good news.The big move to Paxson with all the dogs is than planned for the beginning of November. Talking about dogs: We are training 4 teams with 18 dogs each, that definitely keeps us busy. We already had some nice snow here in Whitehorse, which now has turned to ice and mud, at least here in the Flatlands. Up at Sky High on Fish Lake where the tours are run is deep winter.
Most of the dogs I am running in my main string are new to me, there is only 3 dogs from my old gang. My old team was used to do tours, and thus used to wait for longer periods of time, and very mellow. This new gang, has no experience with that and they simply go nuts when I hook them up, or attempt to stop on the trail. Part of my mandatory equipment on the quad in now a big wheel chock, which I put in front of the tires if I need to go up to the team. Otherwise they just walk away with the machine. My old team was more trap line style that way, called to a stop they would just stand and wait.
Of course fall preparation does not only mean running dogs, the days are filled with many other choses. Cutting firewood for the winter, as we will be back here in Whitehorse for the Quest. All the vehicles needed overhauling and the dog boxes put back on. The boxes needed to be painted, luckily it stayed warm enough for that. Many little things need fixing at the cabins or also in the dog lot: Dog houses replaced, new chains put on or changing water bowls. Now we moved on to looking at food drop gear, fixing up dog blankets, dog coats, counting booties and filling up Algyval.I am looking forward to race season, which will kick of with the Sheep Mountain 150 on Dec 15 and 16. Than continue most likely with the Knik 200 and Copper Basin 300 will be next. I would like to run a few more races in later January like the Kuskokwim 300 or Tustumena 200, but out of experience from the last 2 years we most likely will be too busy with working on food drops for the 2 big races: The Yukon Quest on 10th of Feb and the Iditarod in March. I hope many of you will follow along on the internet.
Sab
