Good Run

I was up at a reasonable hour (6 am) and it's a good thing, as I had to dig out snow from in front of gates to feed the dogs this morning.  Then I had to dig out the gate to the poop-pile to dispose of my scoopings.  We are only about 1 decent snowfall away from running the dogs on sleds instead of the four-wheeler.

Ted and I trucked the dogs over to Stephanie and Casey's place to train again today.  I'm to tired to write a lot about it, so I'll just share today's training journal entry:

11/15/10:  6 miles with four-wheeler.  Powder on hardpack.  Temps ~ 15 F.  Stephanie and Casey's to Pheasant Farm Rd to Mullen Slough lollipop and return.  Speed in the 8 to 12 mile range with most of the run at an even 10. 

Just & Grace (Lead)

Rose (single Swing)

Orion & Nels (Team)

Cassie & Capella (Team)

Beau & Seamus (Wheel)

Stephanie hooked up a four-dog team on her sled to chase us.  Ted was riding on the machine with me to help.  Things were a bit chaotic at hook up but we got both teams moving OK.   I kept the team moving along at a good clip, around 12 mph, for the first mile or so, then slowed them to 10. 

As we were nearing the end of the field past Aliy's place, Steph passed us with her team of speedsters.  All of my dogs dealt with the same direction pass from behind just fine.  Steph then slowed her dogs for my team to take a turn.  Grace tried to visit Steph's dogs, and it took help from Ted to get them lined out and going again. 

The stretch from Baseline down Pheasant Farm Rd and back was uneventful.  I sped the team up to around 12 mph on the down-hills, and slowed them to between 8 and 10 on the up hills and everyone stayed pretty tight on their tuglines throughout.   We had 1 head-on pass with a big team that the team handled just fine.  I was quite pleased with them, actually. 

On the way back up to Baseline I stopped the team to give them a blow about a mile or maybe a mile and a half before Baseline, and Steph's team passed us.  I let the 'kids' get good and worked up and then gave chase.   We caught up to them just as they turned on Baseline, so followed them through the woods on the single-track trail.  Then Steph stopped her team for us to pass, and Grace managed the pass just fine.  When we got back to the truck all of the dogs looked like they could have easily done twice the distance.  I'd call it a very good training run.