Fall Training, the search for snow
Hello from the Yukon,
I have been getting emails wondering what is going on, and sure enough, it has been 2 month since the last post on the newsletter.
In the meantime all the dogs have returned from Juneau. First came Rick´s gang of new dogs. That was good timing, as that left us with more time to socialize with them. Boy there were some shy puppies in there. We have a lot of wildlife around the kennel, many Coyotes but also Elk. Each fall the Takhini Valley Herd, consisting of some 120 animals migrates from the mountains right down to where we life. It absolutely did not help to teach the dogs to be quite, that there are Elk bugeling a few hundret feet behind the dogyard. Even earplugs would not muffle the constant barking and after a few weeks I felt as sleep deprived as after the Iditarod. Finally things have mellowed out a bit, either the dogs have sore throats from barking or they finally got used to the Elk. For sure taking the dogs for longer runs, will also have contributed to the fact, that they calmed down.
I can tell that Rick trained his dogs quite a bit faster than I do. Whenever I put Grisman and Vasser, his two main leaders up front, the team speeds up a notch. I like the mix of his and my dogs a lot. There are 24 dogs in the pool for my main team, 14 of Rick´s dogs and 10 of mine. A couple of more " potential " dogs are in the B team, like Herring, Diesel, Gas, Austin who I know , that they do not need the hard training. As well as some of the older ones from Rick like Quill and Moose, both 7 years old. All dogs live in the big pen. Before and after each run, I turn the whole gang loose and it did not take long at all, for them to get along. I have spend long hours in there with them and it seems to pay off. Even after only 6 weeks this team is getting very tightly bonded.
Alison is keeping Rudi´s dogs in shape, he is coming in January to train for the Quest 300. Ray and Gang keep the puppy teams in shape, while Mark is running my B Team. Mark is here to qualify for the Iditarod and wants to run as many Qualifiers this season as possible. Kris from British Columbia will join later in November trying to qualify for the Yukon Quest. We are running 100 dogs, devided up in 5 large Teams, which defenitely keeps us on our toes. Thankfully I have a good crew and Brody, Kiana, Shy and Chelsey are also pitching in the dogyard, like supplying the dogshouses with straw and the allmighty twice a day poop patrol.
The old VW Buggy went back into commission for the month of September as we had quite a few visitors wanting to go for dogrides. Now it is back to the ATV´s. I have rolled mine twice already this fall, as at the beginning some of Rick´s leaders and me had some issues about who is the boss. Once we had that sorted out, I have to say I am amazed of his leaders, specially Vasser and Grisman, 2 incredible solid dogs up front.
We are training long already, the first 50 milers are on the program. I liked what I saw in my team last year. Having a somewhat slower team which can go for long distances on short rests suits me best. It also seems to keep the injuries down. This is what I train this team for: They will be able to run for a long long time. The only issue we started having, is that the long ATV miles took a toll on their feet. On a quick trip to Fairbanks the other day, I stopped in Paxson, where I will be renting a cabin again from December on. Paxson has 2 Feet of snow already, while it is brown here in Whitehorse. Bummer, but too early for me to move over, we diceded to go to plan B, and set up camp at a Aishihik Lake, where a friend has a cabin. It is a pretty neat place, very remote, nobody around for 30 miles, just the way I like it and best of all satelite internet, so life is grand. The Aishihik Road goes for 60 miles north from here and has many side branches, that will give us good options in the next weeks.
While they call for rain in Whitehorse tomorrow, we shold be getting snow here, so today is a rest day, waiting for snow. Anvil enjoyes the couch, next to me, later Beast, Skunk, Joshi, Bonzo and ...... will come in for an afternoon nap. Bonding time yet again.
Quest or no Quest is still the question. I should have a good team for it, but I have to admit I am dreading the packing and organizing for 2 big races. Time will tell, if sanity will win, or once again the dogs.
Happy trails Sebastian
Sab
