Wassup? Sheep Mountain 150

The weather forecast is calling for a nice, warm day on Monday, and I'm hoping I can get my body healed up enough to run some dogs and show Teddy's Troopers some new trails.  Toward that end I decided to go to town for my "before work haircut".  That way I won't have to fret over trying to do it Monday as well. 

Ted did dog chores this morning, and that was the start of his busy day.  In addition to his own Bear Creek Kennel dogs and my Stardancer team, Ted has contracted to care for those SP Kennel dogs that are staying home while Aliy Zirkle, Allen Moore, Bridgett Watkins and their handling crews are at the Sheep Mountain 150 this weekend.  

On my way home from the barber shop, I saw the SP Kennel krew heading out, so I suspect they didn't get as early a start as they had hoped.  That was at about noon, and it's a six hour drive.

This year the Sheep Mountain 150 is the first middle-distance dog sled race of the season.  The race is run in three legs, with a five hour mandatory layover after the first and second leg.  Here is a map of the race trail, courtesy of the Sheep Mountain 150 website:

Sheep Mountain 150 trail from http://www.sheepmountain.com/images/SML150.jpg

As you can see, the race traverses a nice mix of terrain.  This year there are 41 teams entered in the race, and it is a very impressive field.  As noted earlier, the SP Kennel of Aliy Zirkle and Allen Moore have 3 teams entered in the race, and it looks like Lance Mackey's Comeback Kennel has 4.  Two Rivers is well represented in the race.  In addition to the SP Kennel's 3 teams Judy Currier, Tom LeSatz and Jessica Hendricks have all entered teams.  Yukon Quest champion Sebastian Schnuelle is racing this weekend as is Gerry Willowmitzer, also from Whitehorse YT.

Apparently they are enjoying good snow conditions down there, so it will probably be an excellent race, and one well worth following.  If you'd like to follow the action, just click on the Sheep Mountain 150 web-site, and pull up the leaderboard.