End of Summer in sight
Time for a short update from the Yukon. I woke up to a nice minus 1°C/30F this morning. It is good to see fall is in the air. It has been a a few months since my last post.
May was filled with getting the tours going on the Herbert glacier. After a few nice sunny days to setup camp, the sun disappeared and has not really resurfaced yet. This summer season definitely has been a challenge, as the weather is exceptionally rainy even for Juneau. A lot of days had to be cancelled, but even many of the days where we could do tours, it has been raining nonstop. I hope this will translate into a lot of snow for the winter. Despite the rain, we had many people having their experience of the lifetime, running dogs on the Juneau Icefield in the middle of summer.I did get to go on a vacation this year. It has been a long long time, since I had some real time off. It took me a while to get used to it.
My travels took me to Dawson City, over the Top of the World Highway to Eagle Alaska. There I visited with musher friends Scarlett and Wayne Hall, before continuing via Fairbanks, Paxson, Mc Laren to Anchorage. Right before flying to Germany I went to the Iditarod signup in Wasilla. 68 mushers signed up on day 1. I hope to draw a better starting number than last year. At least I will get out of the banquet before midnight, as I will draw for my starting number as the 7th musher. From Anchorage I flew to Germany, although much shorter than I had originally planned. It was nice to spend some time sailing with my parents, but the rain seemed to have followed me all the way there.
Skunk had a littler of 7 pups, 5 males, 2 females on June 1st. The pups from last summer and fall are growing like weeds. 3 of Lainy´s pups I have here. Kobuk, Dean and Kathy. The 4th one went to Gerry Willomitzer, as a thank you for him raising them. From Skunk´s last summers litter there are Raven, Wren and Scout. Scout seems to be near deaf and I do not know if he is named appropriately. After Ray talking him on a walk this spring, he could not find his way home for 12 hrs. All 6 of the youngsters are in the big free-run behind my cabin. Jack and old Chevy are teaching them some manners. Also with them is Jimmy Buffet, John´s dog, at 18 years of age, talk about a deaf dog. I have been taking them on free runs, mostly by ATV, but sometimes I can convince myself to go biking. 
I have been wondering about what to do racing wise for the future. Most of my dogs are getting older. Libby, Herring, Wondar are turning 10, they all raced with me still last season. Even dogs like Gas and Diesel are getting up there, they are 8. Austin must be in that range, with him being from the pound I do not know. I have a great core of 4 and 5 year olds, who are just in their prime, like Finn, Nemo, Popcorn, Skunk, Inuk, Ricky, Bananas, but that is not quite enough to field a solid racing team. I had thoughts of calling it quits, of course those thoughts did not last long and I started to look around for dogs. A friend of mine, Rick Casillo, made the decision to hang up the harnesses after this summer . Rick and me made a deal and I am exited to take over his breeding program, something I have been neglecting. Some of his yearlings go back to the old Cowboy Smith line, where my old main leader Tang came from. That combined with some Mackey-Seavey breeding will things have come full cirlce, as I have been breeding one of the dogs ( Skunk ) I bought from Lance a few years ago. I hope to be able to step things up a notch with adding his dogs to the kennel, but also know that it will be a huge job to integrate the new dogs. I have really good help lined up for the winter, every handler but one is experienced, that will make for an easy start this fall.
So what is the plan? Some of the " usuals " like the Sheep Mountain, Knik 200. Running the Copper Basin 300 and Kusko 300 back to back was a bit tight. I think I will focus on the Kusko this year. In February I will run the Quest 300 as a tune-up for Iditarod..... at least that is the plan now..... Then again some days I think running the Yukon Quest and Iditarod again would also be fun. Time will tell, as you know, my plans are subject to change.Happy trails to you all.
Sebastian
Sab
