Two Runs, 1 Day

A friend of mine came over this morning to help me run dogs, a scheme that went pretty well according to plan.  The trail conditions are still marginal, and I wanted a helper in case I had to clear a tangle or anything.  There were a couple of times I had her stand on the brake while I dealt with small issues, but overall there weren't any major problems.  Trish has never been mushing before, so she got a nice introduction to the sport, though I must admit I turned the sled over once, on an extremely tight right hand turn.  It was a gentle upset, so no harm done.

For my local friends, I took the new Borough cross-over trail between the Money Trail and the Little Chena Ridge trail, and it was in pretty good condition.  Like all of our trails it could use some more snow, but it is certainly runable.

Here are the reports as I logged them in my training journal.

Date, Day, &c: 11-30-11, Wednesday.

Mileage & Speed:  9.54, max speed 13.9, average speed 7.2

Route, Trail & Terrain Conditions:  Home to Wood Cutting Rd to Little Chena Ridge Trail to Money Trail to New Borough Trail to Rod & Julie's access trail, across driveway to the house.  Toboggan on hard packed, icy, not near enough snow.  Passenger along

Weather:  High overcast.  15 degrees (F) at start, 16 at finish.

Team:  Just & Cassie Denali & Grace Midnight & Nels

Narrative:  -  Grace grabbing lines -  Just and Cassie good line-out -  Good start -  Fast trails -  Decent response to cues -  Team slowing significantly about 1/2 way into the run -  Grace dinking around, hooked to neckline -  Cut down Money Trail inadvertently -  New Borough trail -  Dumped sled trying to make a gee onto Rod and Julie's trail -  Took some effort to get Just to go straight across the drive, but haw onto new Y on feeder trail was excellent.

Date, Day, &c: 11-30-11, Wednesday

Mileage & Speed:  8.5.  Speeds not measured.

Route, Trail & Terrain Conditions:  Home to Wood Cutting Rd to Little Chena Ridge Trail to Rod and Julie's access trail to cross driveway and into home.  Toboggan on packed, icy, low-snow trails.  Passenger along.

Weather:  High overcast.  16 degrees at start - 13 at finish.

Team:  Orion & Rose Capella & Selene Seamus & Beau

Narrative:  -  Orion chewed harness (dammit), required redressing -  Dogs anxious to launch, fast pace to main trail -  Passed pick up truck on wood cutting road -  Passed logging truck on wood cutting road -  Difficult "haw" onto Little Chena Ridge trail, required Trish' help to get them into     the turn. -  Difficult "gee" onto Rod and Julie's feeder, but they finally got it on their own. -  Difficult "straight ahead" across driveway, required Trish's help to get them     started. -  Excellent "haw" onto new Y into our access trail. -  Orion very tired at end of run.  Bless his heart, he still hasn't learned to pace     himself.