1000 Miles and Such

Been a while since the last post. Much to tell you about. This may be a long one, bear with me.

First of all, the sled dog ride fundraiser was a huge success! Funds raised completely covered the cost of booties (no small thing at $1.00 per bootie!), new sled runners, new coolers and bowls for feeding during the race, new racing lines, and a few other odds and ends. I also had a lot of fun doing it. For most it was their first time on a dog sled. Many had questions and most were excited to hear we were headed to the Kusko and wanted to support the effort. Father Scott blessed the dogs and myself before one morning ride. We asked for Saint Francis of Assisi (patron saint of animals) to pray for us. It was a very nice blessing on a very nice morning.

Would like to say a few words about the folks helping me along. Ryan and Eric have been amazing. They've gone on every run with me but 2 or 3. They're out there with me at all hours of the day and night in all temperatures. All I'm giving them is a hat and a plane ride to Bethel. Would never have gotten this far without them. My wife's brother-in-law in Anchorage has jumped in to help as well. He's been out tracking down specialty items in Anchorage and shipping them out to me. Apparantly I could have had even more help. One lady asked if I needed help sewing booties. I thanked her and told her I already bought them, but a generous offer just the same.

Eric and I took the dogs on the longest run of their (and my) lives. We left the dog yard at 11:00 Saturday morning and ran them 70 miles before resting for 6 hours at Snake Lake. We followed the rest with another 70 mile run before returning home at 2:00 Sunday afternoon. A 140 mile weekend and the dogs handled it great. We ran the first 50 miles at 9 mph (pretty good for my slow working dogs), the next 20 included a mountain and soft trail that slowed us down. They came right out of the rest ready to go and trotted along nicely the entire way. We dealt with tidal overflow on the edges of two rivers and some serious cold. The first day wasn't too bad. The run started at about -15 F and warmed to probably -5. That was as warm as it got. We didn't have a thermometer, but it's always colder in town near the bay then it is inland. My co-worker said they had -32 at his house Sunday morning. I'm guessing we camped at -35 and ran some of Sunday at -40. It had warmed to -20 when we finished up Sunday afternoon. That kind of cold does things to both man and beast. We were well prepared for the most part. Eric and I stayed warm most of the way. I did use chemical heat packs in my mittens and boots and Eric had to do some aerobics on the trail to keep his blood flowing. We both came home tired and hungry. Jo fed us well and we both went to bed early. The dogs handled it well too. Running in cold weather always hits them hardest with weight loss. They all lost a lot of fat reserves so they're getting big chunks of raw frozen beaver, dog food, and other meats and fats to bring their weight back up. Also, Lucy and Lucky are my shortest haired dogs and wore coats on the trail. I told Eric, "My dogs are wearing coats. That either makes them professional or just wimps!" Shorter haired dogs often wear coats in distance races.

We also have a bunch of dogs with over 1,000 miles under their belts. That's pretty cool, very proud of them. They usually only run 700 or 800 in winter. They've got 1,000 miles and winter's really just now coming on strong. I'll post individual mileage at the bottom of this post.

My sister pointed something out to me. I haven't mentioned when we'll be running the Kusko 300. The race begins at 6:00 Friday January 18th. We load up a Cessna Caravan and fly to Bethel next Tuesday evening. There is a little concert Wednesday evening and the musher's meeting and drawing Thursday. The dogs also need a few days of laying low before the race. Lucy doesn't enjoy flying and will need a day or two to settle her nerves.

The Kusko has become a star studded event as usual. Here's who is signed up to this point: Jackie Larson,Kyle Belleque, Mike Williams Sr, Mike Williams Jr, Myron Angstman, Paul Gebhardt, Hugh Neff, Sebastian Schnuelle, Jessica Klejka, Melissa Owens, Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten, Jeff King, Dave Decaro, Jim Lanier, Dee Dee Jonrowe, Gerald Riley, David Tresino, Martin Buser, Rohn Buser, Ramy Smyth. You'll notice I was the second person signed up. That's no accident. They let you choose your starting place in the order you sign up. I'll be able to choose one of the last slots out of the shoot so my slower dogs don't have to spend the first few miles of the race being passed by faster teams. At least that's how they've chosen starting orders in the past. Hope they don't change it this year. Most will recognize Jeff King and Martin Buser, but Mitch Seavey, Paul Gephardt, Ed Iten, Dee Dee Jonrow, and Gerald Riley are all top Iditarod mushers and a few of them past champions. Many other on the list are successful professional mushers and are well known in mushing circles. I've never met any of these characters. Looking forward to meeting them. Should be fun.

In the next 7 days we'll put another 100 or so miles on the dogs, prepare food and drop bags, pack up all our stuff and make final preparations. I'll make a few more posts before the race. I've got a couple more dogs I'd like you to meet. Also, I'll explain how to follow the race on the internet. It's simple and a lot of fun.

Gotta go. Jo's going to cut my hair. Haven't had time for that lately either.

Hagar-926, Lucky-1086, Luke-1085, Bing-1120, Charlie-1095, Felix-1016, Olaf-1107, Lucy-945