Well folks, I have been a bad blogger, and I am here to ask your forgiveness. Plus recent events have inspired me to come inside and sit at the laptop long enough to share some of the Dew Claw excitement.
Running dogs off the truck on unmaintained roads.
This season had a bit is a dismal start, entirely due to an appalling (and newsworthy) lack of snow. Not that we can let something as trivial as no snow get in the way of training sled dogs who have big plans for the season. So like every other musher we got creative and found ways to get our dogs out and running. At Dew Claw that included quad training on trails near-by. As well as trucking the dogs to places where we could run big strings off the front of the truck.
*Interesting fact, if you are wondering how many dogs it takes to move a Toyota Tundra while it’s in park, the answer is 27. You might manage it with less, but for us 27 was the magic number*
Then the snow came, and with it a major improvement in our training plans, and my mood!
Snow & Sleds on the Denali Highway
Thanks to good snowy trails we are on sleds!!! Happened just in time for our first event of the season; the Alpine Creek Excursion. A wonderfully fun event, you ran into the Alpine Creek Lodge on the (now closed for the winter) Denali Highway, and then everyone had an excellent dinner filled with fun stores and dog talk. You could mush back at your leisure, so Dan and I decided to soak up some of the excellent hospitality and spend the night. We enjoyed a big home cooked breakfast, which like all meals at Alpine, was all you can eat. And then mushed back. Could not have been more fun! Seriously, just look at the photos.
Yeah Snow! Photo I took of my friend Mary who has been helping me train this fall.
And as if snow were not a great enough gift! I am very happy to report that White Mountain checkpoint is sponsored by long time Dew Claw friend Marlys Sauer!!! Marlys is the offical Fairy Dog Mother for one of our best lead dogs (whom she personally named) BedBug. Mush Thanks for your encouragement and support!
If you are interested and want to get more involved, there are still quite a few checkpoints that need sponsors to help get the Dew Claw Dogs to Nome ~ learn more
Also excited to report my Physical Therapy has really paid off, feeling very strong and stable on the sled. One of the important things this whole surgery and recovery has taught me is how important it is to invest in your physical strength if you want to stay healthy and compete in the kinds of long distance endurance events we enjoy. The therapist and trainers at Adient Orthopedic Physical Therapy have really taken the time to help educate me; not just on how to recover from injury, but how to prevent it. And, as I am getting to be of an age where injury prevention is actually on my mind (oh youth with your “I am going to live forever” optimism, where have you gone?) it has been very exciting to work with the folks at Adient. So imagine how glad I was when they said they would be happy to help me maintain my fitness goals this winter! One of my personal goals is better core strength. Look out abs, I am working on you!
Booties protect dogs feet from snowballs and abrasions.
But wait, it gets better. Heard from our long time kennel sponsor Halliburton that they will be helping us with the purchase of dog booties for the 2015 Iditarod. Booties are such a critical part of dog care*. And since you use thousands every year they can really add up to be a big expense. Halliburton will be working with our friends at dogbooties.com, which means we will be getting the top of the line dog bootie. So glad we will have the best for the Dew Claw dogs. Between that and our ManMat gear our dogs are going to be stylin’!
*I had thought it would be a great idea to write a post on the use of dog booties, but my friend Karen Ramstead beat me to it. And hers is really spot on, so why re-invent the wheel. But please check out Karen’s “Bootie Primer” for some really good info.
Happy, Healthy, Strong, that’s how we roll.
Also really want to thanks Kate Van Duine DMV, VCA Alaska Pet Care Animal Hospital for the vaccines that will help ensure the Dew Claw Dogs stay healthy this race season. The health of our dogs is a primary concern, and we take Vet care very seriously. Working with Veterinarians like Kate Van Duine at races over the years has given up the opportunity to learn how to better care for our racing athletes. And we can not thank them enough for all they do to make sure our dogs stay healthy and happy.
And although I remain certain that the Iditarod Trail will have a huge number of challenges and obstacle for me to overcome this year; it certainly made me happy to hear of some major trail improvements on a notoriously treacherous section of trail. Really trust me, you can not travel 1000 miles across Alaska in winter and not have it be an epic journey. These recent changes will not take away from that. But they will help ensure that the trail is as safe as possible. –read more–
So you can see there is a LOT to be happy about around here right now. None of which would be possible without our generous sponsors. OK except for the snow, and we thank Mother Nature for sending some our way.
Not that there isn’t a LOT of work yet to be done. Gear that needs replaced, tons (yes litterally tons) of kibble to be purchased, more miles to run, the Northern Lights 300 and Tustemena 200 races leading up to the Iditarod. All in all we have our hands full, and even that makes me happy right now.
“Virtue is simply happiness, and happiness is a by-product of function. You are happy when you are functioning. ”
William S. Burroughs
