off trail

Lots of little things have been happening over the last months off the trail that have contributed to where we are with the team now.

The first piece fell into place last spring, when I was trolling Craigslist for end-of-season deals on dog stuff for this coming winter. I found a beautiful eight-hole dog box for sale, with cool leaf cut-outs for windows. The price was right, but the box was designed for a smaller bed truck than my '95 F150 (also from Craiglist ... that site has truly opened up my shopping-adverse soul.) The box spent the summer languishing in the yard while I pondered on how to get it to sit securely on my truck bed. After several false starts, and with the use of the turnbuckles and chain that came with the old cabover camper shell (also from Craiglist!) Pete and I managed to get the box secured to the truck bed on the day the DOT aggressively plowed the roads down to ice and dirt. It is rock solid now, and I now have a much better appreciation for and understanding of u-bolts, carriage bolts and large-bore drill bits than before this grand adventure. Also, we now have a safe way to get the dogs and sleds to any trail on the road system.

In the late summer and early fall, I also got to spend some time chatting with Jodi Bailey (the DewClaw dogs' person) and Aliy Zirkle (Pepper's person,) the latter while running dogs on an ATV with her for several hours in Two Rivers. It was fantastic to be able to pick the brains of these amazing women, and have so many of my little-detail-questions about sled dogs and sled dog feed and sled dog bedding and sled dog feet and sled dog health and sled dog training answered. I am still flabbergasted that I not only have access to these world-class athletes, but that they have both been willing to sit down with me - on multiple occasions - and spend the time to answer my questions talk about their lives and their dogs.

I have also been casting around for a loaner sled, so I'll have an extra available in case Peter or another friend wants to tag along for a short fun run. For this, my friend Laura - who is taking a break from mushing for a while - offered the old sled her father built her when she started out. It is a burly toboggan with the capacity to safely carry lots of gear (for camping!) or passengers, but should be light enough (we'll see!) for half the team to pull for a few miles. Laura works at the Large Animal Research Station at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. When we met her there to pick up the sled, she surprised us by allowing us back to the pens where a six month old bottle-fed musk-ox orphan was happy to eat up all the attention we could give her. In the end, I don't know if I was happier about the sled or my cuddle-time with the fuzzy prehistoric beast.

Kiwi the orphaned musk-ox. Her favorite food is Honey Bunches of Oats.

Laura's old toboggan ... waiting for a test drive

After winter set in, I was invited by a former coworker from the clinic to go check out the new home and two litters of puppies belonging to Kim and Harry Douglas (Siqiniq Kennels.) An Inupiaq from the village of Ambler, Harry has been racing mid-distance and is hoping to make an Iditarod bid soon. He has a pack of burly, hardy village dogs with several additions from Lance Mackey and Brent Sass. They are all strong, beautiful beasts. While the girls played with the puppies, I sidled over to Harry and peppered him with questions about his dogs, feeding routines, watering, training and breeding (while trying hard not to covet the two five month old Sass puppies froliking with their eight-week and four-week old counterparts.) Not only was he patient with my questions, but has quickly become a valuable resource for me on this journey into mushing.

Finally, after a short run at twenty below this week, I was startled and frustrated to find my old Baffin boots (that have proven time and time again they are not actually good to -94F as they claim, but were perfectly sufficient down to -30F) are no longer up to snuff. My toes were numb for hours after the run. I've been hearing about an overboot by NEOS that will fit over my already super-warm, all around awesome Steger mukluks and - at least according to the variable wisdom of the mushing forums on Sled Dog Central - will keep me toasty no matter how cold we run this winter, or how much overflow we hit. Last night, I finally caved in and ordered a pair. I was initially adverse to spending the money on more winter gear, but I also want to get through the cold months with my toe-circulation intact. They should arrive early next week.