Season start
Today the 20th of November is the official beginning of our winter tourist season. The snow also has arrived in time and there is a heavy snowfall warning in the forecast for this afternoon, I hope it really comes, it cannot be heavy enough. The first guests arrived and are out mushing with Keri and Craig.
I went to Germany at the beginning of November to go to Dirks,
the first doghandler of 1997, wedding. He got married to Yvonne
and together they have a little son, Joshua. Dirk is not dreaming
about mushing in the Yukon anymore and found his home back in Germany. I
also had a chance to see my whole family and some friends which
is always very nice. Of course I pigged out on all those great
meals like "Flammkuchen or Schnitzel" I cannot get
here so my diet plans are completely thrown out. Also Chicken Gerry
and I meet often for lunch at all you can eat Pizza Hut (see pic)
which of course does not help that matter.
While I was gone to Europe, Jocelyne and Sebastien kept on training the race teams. The conditions were not always ideal as we even got some ice rain. Once I was back I did some long 40 to 50 mile runs and I am still very happy with the team. They are a good mix of young and older experienced dogs.
For good control I am still using the Quad and once going on the Sled I would not like to have to switch back. I tried around with some new "Seavy" harnesses but will end up driving my old proven Taiga H back ones. Lots and lots of meat has arrived, the freezers are full and big mountains of meat are sitting under tarps.
Dieter, Craig and I have also put up the tent camp at 37 Mile
Lake. The lake has frozen totally clear and flat, nor a riffle
in it. It looks spooky when you go on there with a team. There
is about 6-8 inches of ice and you can see the bottom of the
lake straight though. The dogs did not overly like that at the
beginning and I also had a very hard time stopping a big team of
19 dogs. Once we arrived at the camp I let the whole gang roam
free. It is nice to see them developing little groups sleeping
under trees, or just being in our way trying to put up the tent,
with Wondar and Piano trying to curl up on every so small piece
of tent hitting the ground. Once it got time to go, there were
3 dogs not to be found, Paws, Ginger and Coon. They were sleeping
in the heated tent, curled up under the sleeping platform.
In the next days we will go up to Braeburn and set up the walltents
there, than once that is done all camps are ready for the season,
let it snow! We also have 8 new dogs from Bill Steward, with that
6 pointer crosses, which is something new to me. It is going to
be interesting to see how they work.
Sebastien is still running the second racing team and so far we did not have any dogs drop out. We keep on changing a few dogs back on forth, and I have Gas and Diesel in my Team now. They are two 4 year olds out of Ginger and Buck, which perform very well this year. Diesel being a bonehead but focused on running, Gas is a bit more distracted. Right now I am running 19 dogs in my string and Sebastien is running 14, still on the Quad, but once I switch to the sled I have to narrow down the team and have each of us running 12 to 14 dogs. Let’s hope this heavy snowfall warning is not just some bad joke and we actually get the much needed snow. Happy trails.
