Great Run Today

My R&R is winding down as I have to return to work on Tuesday.

I trucked most of the team over to Stephanie Little Wolf's for today's training run, in order to give them a longer run that we can currently do out of our own yard.  I put together a 10-dog gang-line set up, and borrowed Stephanie's dog Ollo to help fill out the team.  Stephanies protege Robin Baker came along on the run in case I needed help holding the brakes while fixing a tangle or issue.  She also operated the video-recorder to capture a couple of nice clips.

Our team today consisted of;
Amazing Grace and Just in lead
Capella and Seamus in swing
Nels and Cassiopeia in team
Orion and Rose in team
Ollo and Beau in wheel

We launched the team with the machine in neutral, letting them work hard to overcome inertia and keep the thing rolling.  I didn't shift it into gear until we had hills to climb.  Here is a clip showing part of that initial run:





Here is the second clip, with the machine in gear to maintain a speed between 8 and 10 miles per hour up the little hill.



There were really no major issues at any point in this run.  We didn't encounter any other teams on the trail, but did pass one vehicle - Ted and Clare had driven down to Mullen Slough to check things out, and were on their way back toward the highway when we passed head-on.  Ted says the team was looking "GREAT" during the pass.

I'm certainly very pleased with the progress we made with the dogs this past two weeks.