2004/2005 Training Journal

October 11 2004

Finally, the smoke cleared early in September allowing us to safely begin training the dogs. Honestly, we wondered whether the fires from Alaska’s worst ever fire season would be lighting up the night sky at Christmas. Many folks here in Interior Alaska joked that the fires would burn until the winter snows put them out; but we could not imagine that this would truly happen.
Generally, the interior Alaskan autumn begins in early August and ends with the first light snows late in September or early October. This year, however, the temperatures did not cool until early September. The transition was quick with leaves on the trees rapidly changing to bright yellows and the marshes and bogs changing to stunning reds and yellows. Another difference from the norm this year was the autumn rains never came, not in August or September. As the jokesters predicted, it was snow arriving in mid-September that put the fires to bed for the season.

The first few hook ups of the season are always stressful at least for the mushers. It takes three of us – my husband Devan, neighbor Megan, and myself – to manage the affair. The dogs are just oozing with energy, so excited to be back on the job. Their excitement can lead to disputes between dogs as one jumps over the other or nips at their partner or chews the line. We try not to use too much discipline at this point since they are simply happy to be busy again after the long summer.

Since we cannot use a sled safely on snowless ground, our primary training tool in the autumn is an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). The dogs will pull the ATV either in neutral or in gear to slow them down. Our ATV is a Suzuki 450 weighing about 400 pounds so it represents a lot of weight for them especially on the hills.

The terrain within three miles of our home is mostly flat, either agricultural fields or logging trails. Like runners training for a marathon, we start the dogs out with shorter distances – four to five miles – and gradually increase the mileage. When the dogs are working well at seven miles, we start to add hill training to the mix, encouraging discipline and developing a different set of muscles. By the end of September we are training 14 miles over flats and hills.

Early in the month the temperatures are mild, in the low 50’s. By the end of the month though we are working in the 20’s and 30’s and it is time to dress up! About September 20th, I quickly realize winter has arrived when I can no longer wear just my lined Carhartt pants; long under wear becomes part of the required gear. Snow falls the next day and it does not simply melt away in the afternoon sun.

We train the dogs on a schedule of two days on, one off, two on, two off. Leader training is part of the regimen on the off days… one on one with the prime candidates: Adobe, Whistler, Rook. I harness the dog and then hook up a line with two extensions, one to the collar and one to the harness. I will walk/run behind the dog. My goals are to 1) teach the dog how to hold the line out properly, thus keeping the team from tangling; 2) Teach them to respond to the "Lets Go" command; and 3) Get myself into shape as I run behind them. Most of the leaders I am working with already know the commands to go right (gee) or left (haw) so I won’t spend time this fall on that. But they definitely need to learn to anchor the front of the team better when we are stopped on the trail or entering a checkpoint.

Rook is a real challenge. He trying to understand what I want but resisting at the same time. I need to figure out what he is thinking to get him listening. He is in constant motion, like an ADD kid, so getting the focus is difficult. I will keep trying since he has the greatest potential to contribute at lead.

Whistler is a super gee/haw leader, knows his commands very well but is what we call a squirrelly dog. He is afraid of his own shadow, let alone yours. I think the one on one training could develop the trust relationship we need to really work well together. His dad, four time Iditarod champion Martin Buser’s Fearless, was a great leader so I know the genetic potential is there.

Adobe just likes to have fun so she is finding the one on one work a bit stressful. She is learning that leading is not just a game, it is a job with specific tasks. I think once she learns the tasks better, it will be fun for her again since we won’t be butting heads when she does not perform.
Once I have succeeded in fine tuning these leaders, I will move on to other, often younger dogs I have identified as potential leaders.

During the September ATV training, I have been rotating dogs into different positions in the team: Lead, swing (behind the leaders), wheel (immediately in front of the ATV), team (anywhere between swing and wheel). As I rotate them, I assess how they perform and where they are most comfortable, just like a football team we will identify who will be quarterback (leader), lineman (team), tight-end (wheel), or wide receiver (swing). Developing leaders is a high priority so on every run I select a different dog to run up front with the one experienced leader. If they appear focused on the trail ahead, not the team behind, and their ears twitch listening for commands, I know they may prove to be future leaders and will work with them one on one as with Adobe, Whistler, and Rook. Fortunately, this year the pool of potential leaders is large so I expect to be busy in October!

I have many older leaders as well who don’t require fine tuning and will be excellent teachers for the younger dogs this year . Sundance, a red dog with striking blue eyes, is a unique character who has proven in four consecutive Iditarods that he has the right stuff. Devan used him last year as the finishing leader for most of his runs. Since Sundance knows the Iditarod trail pretty well now, he is very motivated to get to the next checkpoint and thus a good leader to put up front for the second half of a sixty mile run. We affectionately call Sundance a knuckle-head, because he is so focused on being a sleddog there is little room upstairs for thinking about anything but running and eating, truly a perfect sleddog.!

With snow arriving already in September we anticipate a great winter; however, one really never knows what will come. So as the Octobers frosts cover the grass and slowly freeze the ground, we begin our snow dance, praying for the wonderful white crystals to coat the ground and soften the trail for the dogs.

November 1

October began with several new arrivals. First to enter our world were seven furry, cuddly little puppies delivered nicely by Mom, Tina. Unlike most of our litters over the past two years, these puppies are on the brown side of the color spectrum rather than the black. Similar to their dad, Imac, four are tan with black highlights like a buckskin horse, two are reddish with cream highlights like their great granddad, Sunbear, and one is black with tan highlights and a white belly like Mom. Since our other litter out of Venus and Rook had three girls and one boy, we balanced the ratio adding four boys and three girls. What I like most about this litter is that they are clearly a husky type with upright ears and good coats, as compared with the houndier pups of Venus who have shorter coats and floppier ears.

The second new arrival was Laura Dennis our handler for the season. Her grandmother, Joyceanne, and sister, Caitlin, delivered her safely to our doorstep and helped her settle in the first few days. We were all able to enjoy the warmer days of autumn, running teams and puppies around the neighborhood. Joyceanne also spoiled us with her great touch in the kitchen. Since the dog chores and training consume so much our time, it is really nice to have an extra hand around the house as well. Hmm.. maybe next year we need to recruit a house-handler!

Laura quickly learned the routine around the kennel and started to drive a team herself – me as a passenger – in the middle of the month. Because there was still no snow we were still training large teams (14) with the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) thus allowing a novice dog driver to learn the ins and outs of team management in a controlled manner. Driving a team with a sled is far more challenging and requires a gradual progression from four dog teams up to ten or twelve. Before Laura gets to drive a live team with the sled, though, she will first ride the sled pulled behind a snowmachine to get the feel for sled handling. Once that is mastered, she will ride the runners of a second sled behind my sled which will be hooked to a real team. This will allow her time to observe how we manage different situations and also learn our trail system.

Back to puppies though… When we name puppies we try to have a theme which helps us place when the litter was born. Our first litter of the year was named for Greek gods and goddesses in recognition of the Olympics in Greece so their names are: Athena, Hera, Maiya, and Zeus. Joyceanne came up with the theme for the second litter, cities or towns in Arizona since this is from where Laura hails. Their names will be: Tempe, Sedona, Sierra, Tuscon, Phoenix, Bisbee, and Chandler.

October 9th Laura, Megan, and I attended the Alaska Dog Mushers annual Sleddog Symposium, an educationally oriented program which allows both novice and experienced mushers to learn more about the field. The topics ranged from harness design and fit to chicken training techniques. Chickens, you ask? The keynote speaker was a woman who has studied animal training techniques for many years and learned some of her skills at "Chicken Camp" where the challenge was to train chickens to perform various tasks using a clicker (sound maker). The theory being that if you can train a chicken to do something, you can certainly train other more intelligent animals as well. The key idea we learned from her was that it is easier to teach a dog to do something new than to teach one not to do something old. So breaking old bad habits is best done by focusing the dog on a new, more desirable behavior.

Another topic I focused on was harness design. Several top mushers have started using designs different than the commonly used X-back or H-back harnesses. Jeff King , three time Iditarod champion, began using a shortened harness, one which does not extend much beyond the shoulder blades of the dog. The tugline (line which attaches the dog to the main gangline) attaches behind the neck of the dog rather than the tail. This means that all the pulling power is transferred from the front of the dog and no pressure is put on the dogs back or hips; dogs who once pulled to the side will pull straight ahead. The other difference with this harness type is that you do not need to use a neckline (line from the collar to the gangline); instead you use a much shorter tugline. For a distance dog running over 3000 miles a season this can be a considerable benefit in preventing injuries. Jeff has found that both back end and front end injuries have declined immensely.

Mitch Seavey, 2004 Iditarod champion, also presented the harness and gangline setup he is using which is very similar those used for horses pulling a buggy. The idea is again to minimize the pressure on the dogs back and allow the dog to pull straight by using spreader bars in the gangline as well as the harness. This set-up provides great pulling power and also minimizes injuries. While I like Mitch’s set-up too, I decided that the best choice for my speedy, young team would be to try the shortened harness and no neckline approach. I don’t need a lot power and would like the dogs to preserve their energy longer. So once the new harnesses arrive in November, we will set about training the dogs to run with the new harness and no necklines.

October 19th the snow really arrived. I awoke at 7am in the darkness, let our house dog (for the night), Kitmuk, out to water the trees and then fixed my coffee. At 8 am Kit wanted to go out again so I turned on the outside light and, Walla, the world was pristine white! Already two inches on the ground and the weatherman was forecasting "a lot" of snow for the interior. Weather forecasting in Alaska really requires a comedian because there tends to be so little information that it needs to be dressed up a bit. Our forecast usually entails "Probable Snow" or "Clouds." We rarely get as specific as "5 inches of snow" or "10 inches of snow." Just "Snow" or "Snow likely."

This past summer the weathermen had it easy. The forecast was almost always "Smoke." We could not see the sun so it did not matter if there were clouds or not. I think the problem here is that the state is so BIG (the acreage burned this summer was the size of Vermont) and the weather tools so few that they simply cannot give more specific information. After nine years of living in Alaska, we are used to the certainty of uncertainty and the mystery of tomorrows weather.

With the arrival of a good snowfall, our training avenues expand as the snow fills in holes and bumps in the trails; we can now train on trails which we previously avoided because they were too rough and uneven. Even though we have snow on the trails, we don’t immediately hop on the sleds; a packed snow base of at least six inches is required to safely run teams of more than four dogs. Since we have roughly 38 dogs in training, it is most efficient to continue training larger teams with the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). Fortunately, the snow continues to fall for more than a week, one to two inches daily so our trail prospects for the season look promising.

Though we are not using the sleds yet, we are certainly getting them ready. I am fortunate that Devan, my husband, is capable of building and redesigning sleds himself so I have two projects for him. First, he will build me what is called by some "The Old Man Sled" (OMS). This sled design has the musher standing in the center of the runners (rather than the back third) and positions a seat and storage capacity behind the musher. Like native mushers in arctic regions, this sled allows you to sit down naturally and still drive the sled reducing wear and tear on you, the musher. In addition to allowing for more musher rest, it is also considered more maneuverable because the mushers weight is more centered on the runner just as a downhill racer would be on skis. The OMS was used by Jeff King (who finished 2nd in the 2004 Iditarod) and others last year and has considerable benefits but also one drawback: the musher may fall asleep and fall off the seat! Jeff actually did this during the early part of the race and had to improvise a seatbelt to avoid this again.

The second project for Devan is to change the bed height and length of my starting sled which is currently a 6 foot toboggan sled with aluminum stanchions and runners. It is a very well built, rugged sled but is probably a bit longer than I need and the bed too low – just three inches clearance. We will raise the bed another three or four inches so I can avoid hitting stumps and other debris which might litter the trail especially on the trail section between Rohn and Nicolai. Once I reach McGrath I will probably transfer my load to the OMS sled as the trail from there on is somewhat less difficult.

October is typically a month when we gather fish from around the state. Anyone familiar with Alaska, knows we have a bountiful supply of salmon which arrive in our rivers beginning in June and ending in October. There are many species of salmon – King, Red/Chinook, Pink/Humpies, Silver, Dog/Chum – some more appealing for people consumption and some more appealing to dogs. It would probably be a great sin to feed a King or Red to dogs unless that was the only fish available to a musher; the taste of a Yukon King or Copper River Red is one of the worlds great culinary experiences. Silver salmon are more fun to catch than to eat, but still taste pretty good if prepared correctly. Pinks, Dogs, and Silvers are generally the salmon available to we mushers.
This year we acquired fish from three sources. First, after our August recreational fishing trip in Valdez, we loaded about 2000 pounds of Pinks in the back of our Ram 2500 truck. Wonderful, right? Unfortunately August was one of the warmest on record and the fish nearly cooked on our seven hour trip home. By the time we loaded them in the freezers several days later they were really stinky. Just barely edible even for the dogs!

Our next fish trip was to Nenana which is just south of Fairbanks and situated near the junction of the Nenana and Tanana Rivers. There they collect Dog salmon with fish wheels – 15 foot contraptions which the river water turns round and round, scooping up the fish as they swim by - and sell the roe or fish eggs commercially to buyers from Japan and Asia. Megan and Laura both joined me for this trip, an education for both. These fish had been sitting outside in the cooler October temperatures, gently souring. While no nearly as stinky as our August fish, they were certainly not fresh out of the water. The girls were troopers though and we quickly loaded two hundred fish in the truck and headed home.

Devan took on the task of getting our last load of fish, fresh Silvers out of a creek nearby to Seward. The drive there was long – nearly 9 hours one way – but the fish were free so he filled the back of the truck as well as a fish tote on our trailer. The Silvers were being processed by a non-profit organization which manage fish runs in the Seward area. Like the commercial fishery, they were capturing the fish for the roe and sperm, however, their intent was to generate more fish for the future rather than to sell it. There is a state law which requires hatcheries to not waste the fish thus mushers like us reap big benefits when the fish runs are processed just for roe. Sometimes the fish is in good enough condition that it is good for human consumption, either fresh or smoked; but generally the fish are already in the transition to their spawning phase and thus less desirable for people to eat.

October 26th. One year has passed since my Dad joined the angels above. When I think of my Dad, I think of sunshine – even when the day is gray and snow falling. Except for the one spanking he gave me as a six year old (he truly must have been an angel from the start because I know I was not!), I can't recall a time when I ever associated him with anything negative. Only light, only goodness, only humor, only sunshine. Every morning I awake, I look upon his smiling face, every evening before I sleep I feel a warm hug. When I think about families who struggle to like one another, let alone love one another, I think how lucky our family is. To have such a supportive Dad, a loving Granddad, a gentle Uncle, shining so brightly in our memory.

October 27th. Another day of significance. The Red Sox have finally won the World Series in a dominating performance. Even Alaskans in the snowy north were drawn to their effort and cheered as they finally overcame The Curse of the Bambino. Yahoo! I know my Dad, the number one fan, is smiling too.

The snow continues to fall through the end of the month, a little bit every day. Our world here is covered in white. Items not already stored under cover are missing in action until spring. The dogs are enjoying the relief which the snowy cushion provides their feet. No longer are they pounding down the trail on frozen, crusty dirt which wears on their pads and jars their joints.The puppies have grown big through the month. Their eyes are now open and they are gently playing with one another. They outgrew their birthing box and have been moved to our big puppy pen. Any day now I expect them to venture out of the box to discover this beautiful world of white.

trails,Judy

November Training Journal

Tuffy expectantly lies by the door. He is watching me, asking me to open the front door for him. If I type, his head lowers to rest on his forelegs. If I stop typing, shift my weight, he is quickly at attention. Waiting. Every morning Tuffy, our 10 year old Australian sheep dog, has a routine which starts at the front door. Sometimes I ask him to "Sit" and "Stay" as I open the door, most times he pushes his nose through the widening crack in the door and bursts, full speed and barking into the Alaskan morning. If Devan or I have left any item – shoe, boot, tool – on the porch, Tuffy grabs it as he speeds by and carries it with him on his route. Being a sheepdog, he needs to evaluate his flock every morning, setting the boundaries, checking for intruders, so he runs 20 miles per hour (maybe) on a path deftly cut through the woods of our ten acres, circling the puppy pens, barn, and dog yards. Periodically, I must take the same path in search of the missing boot or shoe, not an easy task since Tuffy is about 20 inches high and I am 68 inches and his path travels under branches and fallen trees. Anyway, once Tuffy has woken all the huskies, watered the trees and fertilized the surrounding woods, he returns to the house and scratches on the kitchen door. His morning chore completed, ready for the next one.

It is November 3rd. Thankfully the elections are over. No more phone calls, TV advertisements, junk mail. Devan and I struck out on most of our picks though he won’t admit for whom he voted for President. Alaskans just barely elected our (republican) Princess Senator, Lisa Murkowski, who was annoited Senator by her father, our very arrogant governor, Frank Murkowski, when he vacated his Senatorial seat. Alaska is a true blue, republican state so it is nearly impossible to get a democrat elected, especially to our much valued Senatorial seat. Lisa’s opponent was our previous governor, Tony Knowles, a popular guy who had the best chance for election of any democrat. A close race but in the end the Party won out. Good for Devan’s job security, not good for the precedent it set.

One of the big projects for November is preparing our "Mobile Doggie Motel," otherwise known as the "dog box." This is the structure which sits on the bed of our truck and allows us to transport 12 to 24 dogs to training or race destinations. During the summer we sold our ’95 Ford F-250 and purchased a 2000 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel. The Ford had a flatbed on it but we decided we did not wish to convert the Dodge to a flatbed thus a "new" Dog Box was necessary. Thrifty New Englanders that we are, we did not run out to the store and buy up all the pricey plywood in stock; instead, we looked around our own yard and, WALLA, found a slightly beat up 24 dog box which was still attached to an ’85 Ford F-350. The previous owner of our property had left this vehicle behind since the engine was blown and he did not have the time or energy to tow it away. Parts of the box were rotten but in general it was in better condition than the truck so Devan got the Sazall out and starting cutting, detaching the box from the truck.

The next step was to convert it to fit the bed of the Dodge. Devan got creative here, deciding to make it fit similar to a camper, hanging over the sides and the tail of the bed and attached with the same way a cabover camper is. The end result was a box with six (big) boxes on each side, five up, one level with the tail lights of the truck. Once Devan got the structural changes completed, Laura, Megan, and I went to work on the aesthetics, first sanding the box, then painting it to complement the navy blue Dodge. We even added cute paw prints along the sides and a Paw Print Bed N Sled sign on the back. Laura took before and after pictures so you can see how dramatic the change is. A nice job done by all.

We encountered our first training hiccup in late October when Kennel Cough, a very contagious virus, hit the team. Those of you who have left your dogs at boarding kennels may be familiar with it as it gets passed from dog to dog. We vaccinate for it every year but had not scheduled it until December, closer to the race season. Even if we had vaccinated earlier, the dogs may have gotten it anyway because, like the flu, this year’s version may differ from the vaccinated form. Most dogs were over it in a few days, mildly coughing and snorting; a few dogs hacked for five days or more and had to be put on clavamox, an antibiotic. In general we laid them off training for four days to minimize the stress and allow them time to recover. We also chose to vaccinate them at the same time thus avoiding any later occurrences – we hope!

November and December training is critical to preparations for the races in January which are tentatively planned to be the Knik 200, January 1st and the Tustamena 200, January 29th. We don’t have a big enough pool of dogs to do much more than two longer races so our focus will be to get the two year olds familiar with racing, camping , and traveling in the Doggie Motel. The Iditarod veterans (Sundance, Furbi, Skooby, Pistol, Tacoma, Adobe, Diesel, Luna, Whistler, Bonnie) have been there, done that, so they will participate in one of the two races but not both. Some of the veterans will run with Megan in the Jr. Yukon Quest which occurs the first weekend in February. The Knik 200 starts in Wasilla, our old stomping grounds, and follows the first 85 miles of the Iditarod trail. The terrain is mostly flat as much of the race is run on rivers. In contrast the Tustamena race course runs entirely through the Caribou Hills with almost no flat trail. When I select the teams for each, I will need to choose dogs which can best handle the terrain – flat versus hilly.

About November 5th Tina’s little puppies began to exit their dog house regularly and developed a good appetite for the crushed and soaked kibble offered them. By the 11th they were getting interested in a relationship with us as well. Raising pups in the cold and dark of the Alaskan winter is a bit more challenging and the process is much slower than for summer pups. To get them properly socialized we must bring them in the house regularly for puppy hugging sessions in order to build their trust and expose them to a different environment. Once they are comfortable with us and with Tuffy, we will begin to take them on puppy walks. This is another one of Tuffy’s jobs – puppy walker. The pups are naturally drawn to him as a replacement for mom – who generally weans them between five and six weeks – and they will follow Tuffy down the trail. Each day we travel a bit further down the trail as they gain confidence and their legs grow longer. Eventually, they start out running us – at roughly three months old – so we transition from Tuffy to the ATV or snowmachine and free run them, gradually increasing the distance up to seven miles.

The days are growing darker and darker and the temperatures colder and colder as we progress through the month. On Wednesday, November 17, Laura and I begin chores at 8:30 am and it is still dark; lights are required for the first half hour. Our daily morning routine includes, watering all the dogs, scooping the poop, giving out medications, maintaining feet (trimming toenails, applying ointment for dogs with web splits), feeding puppies, exercising puppies, cutting meat or fish snacks, and organizing booties. About 10:30 am we take a break to warm up (the temperatures are mild these days, between –10 and 20 above fahrenheit), discuss the mushing plan for the day, and get our mushing clothes together. About 11am we prepare to hook up teams - harnessing the dogs, putting boots on those that need them, arranging our sleds and lines. By 12:30 am we are ready to go and the teams charge out of the yard.

On this particular day, Laura and I take two teams out, and eight and a six dog team. For the first time this year, we cross Chena Hotsprings Road in order to access the hilly terrain on the north side of the road. There are wide and level trails which follow logging roads on the northside and wind through beautiful birch, poplar, and spruce stands. The sun has just peeped above the southern horizon when get to the trails and we are stunned by the beauty around us. Bright blue skies, ice covered trees, perfect quiet, fresh snow, untracked trails. At 2:30 we reach our turnaround point and rest the dogs before our ascent back up the hill. As we set the hooks to anchor the teams, Laura reaches into her pocket with a smirk on her face and says "Look what I have!" She pulls out her digital camera and shows me several pictures taken while descending the hill. It was great to have the moment captured and I was impressed that Laura could manage the team and take pictures at the same time. We snapped a few more pictures of Laura and her team then the cold killed the batteries of the camera. The dogs don’t appear tired so we rest only five minutes and head for home. At 3:30pm we arrive safely home and it is already dusk. By 4:00pm it is dark and lights are required to operate in the dogyard.

Our day is not yet done. Megan (my neighbor and designated Jr. Musher) arrives at 4:30pm to train her group of dogs. Since we are all planning to enter a short race on Saturday, the leaders and yearlings need practice passing other teams from behind. This is a training regimine we added last year after we discovered the hard way (during a race) that our teams were not very good at passing other teams. Quite honestly, in the past we had not needed to pass many other teams during races since we were generally the ones being passed, so it was a good problem to have. So this night we hook up two six dog teams with the main leaders up front. We use small sleds with no weight in the sled and run a seven mile course. Megan and I drive teams while Laura drives a snowmachine (this is also an obstacle we need to pass frequently). During the course of seven miles we perform about 12 team passes and 4 snowmachine passes, providing them with excessive praise after completing the pass and allowing them to accelerate for a short while. By the end of the run the dogs are looking forward to the next pass and view it as a game which is fun. A byproduct of the exercise is that it speeds up the team overall just in time for the race!

At 7:30 PM we unharness the last group of teams, snack and water them. Then we feed all the dogs and puppies. A long but productive day. Tuffy has followed us throughout the day encouraging the teams as they exit the yard, announcing their arrival home, and arousing their interest at feed time. He is aware of all of the routines and manages the process in his own unique way. Tuffy is the King of the Yard every day.

Our first race of the season is held November 20th, hosted by the Pleasant Valley Store, just one mile down the road. Technically we live in Pleasant Valley which begins at the Jenny M Creek and ends somewhere further down Chena Hotsprings Road (CHSR), but the area is better known as Two Rivers which starts somewhere on CHSR and ends at Jenny M. To further confuse the situation, our phone number is listed as North Pole and our mailing address is Fairbanks. Anyway, the race, called the Tune-up, was organized by the Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association (TRDMA), our local musher group. We entered teams in all three classes: 10Dog/22 mile, Adult (me), 6 Dog/8 mile, Adult (Laura), and 6 Dog/8 Mile Junior (Megan) and overall had a very successful day. The ten dog class was dominated by a few big Iditarod, stage, and sprint kennels who really let their dogs run, so we finished a respectable 10th out of 27. In her very first race Laura finished 5th out 21 teams, beating many more experienced mushers while Megan finished 2nd out of four teams. We all had fun and the dogs and mushers got the necessary "tune-up" for the coming race season.

A laid back Thanksgiving celebration with friends capped off a busy month of training. Dogs and mushers got the day off and we mushers stored up lots of excess calories for the coming cold and dark of December. Tuffy, too, got a Thanksgiving feast cleaning up plates and savoring the extra attention provided by house guests. He was truly thankful, I’m sure, to have great food, a warm home, and loving companionship that day – and every day.


December Training Journal – The Month of Plenty

December truly is a plentiful month. Christmas gifts aside, we experienced plenty of darkness – daylight 4, darkness 20, plenty of cold temperatures - -40F was our coldest, and, fortunately, plenty of snow. This year we have been particularly blessed with excellent snow conditions - it must be my Dad stomping on the clouds above, shaking the moisture out directly over Two Rivers :-)

The first week of December we received eight inches of new snow, padding the trails, filling in the ruts. Then as the month progressed, more snow came in smaller doses, adding to our base and brightening our world. We were very happy with the trail conditions but knew too that we had extra work in the dogyard. Early in the month, Laura and I spent an entire morning digging out dog houses whose entrances had become submerged in the snow. First, we dislodged the house from the snow packed around it then moved it to higher ground. There are 34 dog houses in the front dog yard so it was no small endeavor. Megan is responsible for the 16 houses in the back yard so she spent an hour or so on this task after school. The other dilemma of new snow is finding the poop, half of which is covered before we can get to it. After every new snow, it will reemerge day by day as the dogs pack the snow in their circles, uncovering their twice or thrice daily contributions to the poop pile.

Not to belabor the subject but dog poop is a major topic of discussion among mushers. I recall early in my mushing career sitting around the dinner table with Donna and Pete Johnson and others, discussing the various qualities of our dogs stools - frequency, texture, color, disposal issues, idiosyncrasies of particular dogs. Sometime seriously, sometimes in jest. The discussion never seemed to disturb our appreciation of the meal being served, it is just part of the lifestyle. We are the canine version of cow farmers, you know, feeding, scooping, harvesting (in our case running), day in day out.

The quality and composition of a dogs diet is indeed a major factor in determining the nature of their stool. Feed a cheap, corn based food with low protein and fat content and you will get lots of loose, usually yellow stools to pick up and unhealthy looking dogs who will not perform in harness. Feed a high quality food – at least 30% protein and 20% fat – and you will get smaller, tight stools and dogs with shiny coats and lots of muscle. When it gets really cold here - -10 F or more – we must feed more fat or see our dogs loose weight even when they are not training. The kibble we feed is 37% protein and 25% fat, very dense in calories and forms the base for the diet. For more calories we will add either a fat blend or meat fat such as lamb, beef, or poultry trimmings. Some mushers design their own feed, mixing meat, fat, vitamins and minerals, but we find it most expedient to feed the high quality kibble which we know has everything the dogs need and is not subject to spoilage when sent out on the Iditarod trail.

Early December proves to be cold here in Alaska ranging from –10 to –5 Fahrenheit, moderate by Fairbanksian standards. While walking my nine week old puppies, I note how nicely furred they are, seemingly immune to the cold around them. In a few years when they begin to train seriously, I will really appreciate the nice coats. I will not need to dress them up in fancy dog coats and they won’t loose a lot of energy to the cold around them.

Our training schedule intensifies a bit in December as we increase the mileage, sometimes running the same dogs two times a day. Early in the month we decide to reduce the number of dogs who will continue training seriously to roughly 34 and then later in the month decrease again to 30. This will allow us to divide the pool somewhat evenly among Megan, Laura, and myself.

The second race of the season is scheduled for December 18th. The Solstice 100 features a 12 dog class which will run roughly 100 miles and a Junior class running 35 miles so we will field two teams. It is hosted by the Two Rivers Mushers Association of which I am a member. As part of my contribution to the race effort, Aily Zirkle and I took snowmachines out to reconnoiter new trails opened up by last summers fires. The Alaska Fire Service built a fire break which parallels roughly 20 miles of Chena Hotspring Road and theoretically should connect to the Yukon Quest trail near Angel Creek. The day turned out to be a bit of a mis-adventure. Aily and I did find a trail but unfortunately it had not been used for five years or more and so much of day was consumed "making" the trail, as we fought our way through dense willow trees which had grown over the trail. Eventually and very thankfully we found our way to the Colorado Creek drainage and the State maintained cabin and trail. Though we were never lost, we did wonder at times whether our day trip might become an all nighter. Aily captured the day, saying "I should never do this with someone as adventuresome as me." Together we were just a bit too bold. Suffice it to say, we did not recommend the trail for the race and were very happy to trade our snowmachines in for dog teams again.

Both Megan and I finished the Solstice in reasonable form on a soft trail featuring a lot of new snow. Megan had the task of breaking trail for nearly half of her race and also took care of several other Jr. mushers along the way. She finished 3rd out of the five, not too far behind the winner. My team ran the first 50 + miles in 4 hours, thirty-two minutes putting me in the top ten at the half-way point. I was in good company with Sonny Lindner, Aily, Ken Anderson, and other well known mushers in the mix. Unfortunately, the run home was not as good as I carried one dog 45 miles and another one for 15 miles. They were both easy riders and we finished the trip one hour slower than the first fifty placing 12th out of 30 teams.

The other plentiful part of the month turned out to be injuries. I still wonder why to some extent, but easily half the dogs in my pool had some sort of oowie during the month and had to be nursed back to health. The biggest problem was sore wrists in the two year olds, not an unusual problem for young dogs. A few other dogs experienced sore shoulders perhaps brought on by soft, punchy trail experienced during the race. Like human athletes the dogs are treated with rest (7 to 10 days for wrists, 10 to 14 days for shoulders), ice (for joint swelling), linament massage, and compression. We should "elevate" the affected part, but, as you can imagine, that is a more difficult task with a doggie athlete. After the Solstice race, I decided to give all the gimpies a solid 10 day rest and then bring them back altogether. Seems like it worked because nearly all were oowie free by the New Year.

All the injuries meant that I would not have been ready to run the Knik 200 on New Year’s Day; not a problem as it turns out since the race was postponed to January 22nd due to poor trail and ice conditions in the Wasilla area. A change in plan was required, thus (as of Dec. 29th) I am planning to enter the Klondike 300 scheduled for January 15th. The team is starting to jell again and I can field a team of 16 in this race, giving the young dogs plenty of camping experience as they get their racing legs under them.


January 2005 Training Journal

January is a very busy month for mushers in Alaska. Mid-distance races (200 to 300 miles) are held every weekend in various parts of the state. Generally, the Knik 200 in Wasilla starts off on the first weekend, followed by the Copper Basin 300 in Glennallen, the Kuskokwim 300 in Bethel and Klondike 300 in Big Lake, and then the Tustumena 200 on the Kenai Peninsula on the last weekend. Mushers preparing for the Iditarod will often enter one or two of these races in order to get their dogs "race ready."Our original plan was to enter the Knik 200 and Tustumena 200 but the Knik was rescheduled to the third weekend because of poor trail conditions. We then considered the Klondike 300 but were thwarted by a variety of issues - the truck died, Devan was sick, and we had a house full of guests. In the end, we did make it to the Tustuma 200, fielding a really nice team of dogs, all under the age of four. We finished 17th in a field of 30 mushers which included four Iditarod champions and three Yukon Quest champions, improving our time over last year by an hour or so. Driver error – that’s me – prevented us from finishing as high as seventh or eighth.

Our race started with a really big problem. The first five miles of trail was basically ice with a dusting of snow so setting a hook to stop or even slow a team was nearly impossible. My team was juiced and running well when my leader, Dell, slowed to take care of business – he had to poop. I did not/could not slow the team enough to prevent a tangle at the front of the team and also could not set a hook anywhere to anchor the team once they stopped. A tiff developed as one of my team dogs jumped one of my leaders, Imac, who then backed out his harness. Normally, my dogs if unhooked would hang around but Imac was stressed by the fight and took off down the trail full tilt toward the start line. If a musher looses a dog from the team you are disqualified so I turned my remaining team around and chased after him. Since I was number 17 I had to pass head on with about 11 other teams – two passed by while I sorted out the team - till I arrived back at the start 30 minutes later after I had just started. Once there I recruited some folks in the crowd to hold the team as I went about trying to determine if Imac had made it back safely. Turns out Devan had him so we re-harnessed him and quickly hooked him back in the team. Total loss of time – roughly 45 minutes. In a relatively short race like the Tustumena, five minutes lost can knock you out of contention.

So, anyway, we restarted the race and started passing teams from behind about five miles out. Our run went really well until Caribou Lake, about 50 miles into the race. I had passed probably 10 teams at that point. Then more trouble. The race organization had attempted to put in a trail to bypass part of Caribou Lake which was literally glare ice with no snow for traction. The bypass wound in and out of black spruce trees and we quickly found ourselves wound around one of the trees. While untangling the team I inadvertently unsnapped Diesel entirely from the line. I did not notice as he wandered away from the team in the dark until I had straightened out the team to continue on. I called for him without luck and quickly decided we needed to proceed to the checkpoint at the end of the lake and hope he would arrive there.

Of course, I still had to deal with this by pass trail and decided the trail along the lake must be a better option so we made our way there. When we dropped onto the lake the team did not turn immediately right to follow the trail along the edge and instead headed directly out onto the glare ice. I had no way to slow or stop them. Fortunately, after slipping and sliding for 300 hundred yards or so the team decided to stop allowing me to use my axe to pick a hole in the ice and set my hook (thank goodness for that axe which I have never had to use in 12 years of mushing). As I was turning the team around the dogs started woofing at something in the dark so I scanned the lake with my headlight to see what was out there. I thought it might be another team but was extremely happy to see Diesel trotting toward us. I called to him and he, just as happy, came to me, slipping and sliding along the ice, and took his place in the team and we headed back to the safer edge of the lake. Another 30 minutes lost but at least Diesel was safe and none of the dogs got hurt on the ice.

The race went along well from there to the 125 mile checkpoint. Leaving this checkpoint I was just an hour behind the sixth place team. Hmm…. forty-five plus thirty minutes equals one hour and fifteen. We could have been in contention for the top ten and were still in position to finish eleventh or twelfth. At that point I made bad judgement choosing not to drop two dogs who had shown some issues in the past twenty five miles. Not good. I would end up carrying one for 50 miles and another for 30 or so. On a hilly course like the Tustumena, the added weight can really slow you down. Driver error again.In the end we finished seventeenth and we all learned a lot along the way. The dogs learned how to run on ice and how best to avoid it; I learned more about check point routines and assessing dogs. I also learned that they were certainly capable of running 90 miles with minimal rest. Something I will keep in mind for Iditarod should we be in a position to do a long run. I was really pleased with the performance of all the dogs as they proved they were willing and able to run fast and run long. The two year olds – Oprah, Tiger, Serena, Tina, Barney, Sidney – proved that they had exceptional endurance like their mom, Adobe, never tiring and always moving forward. Tina deserves a special award since she finished a 200 mile race with only two months of training under her belt (or harness in this case). She delivered pups October 2nd and thus did not start running till December 1st – amazing to finish a race like the Tustamena without injury and still with a good attitude.So the Tustumena highlighted the month as far as racing was concerned for me. and Laura also ran the Hamburger Run, a 30 mile fun race, finishing third and sixth respectively. They had fun and won some nifty prizes to boot.

In addition to racing and training, we were busy here at the Bed & Breakfast hosting a bevy of veterinarians for two weeks. All three rooms were rented – a nice plus for us in the midst of a very cold Fairbanks winter and with Iditarod related expenses building up. Funded by a Department of Defense grant, the veterinarians, led by Mike Davis, were performing a study on Rick Swenson’s (five time champion of the Iditarod and our neighbor) dogs, trying to determine how these sleddogs are capable of performing so well for so long. Rick and his handlers were charged with running three teams 100 miles per day for five consecutive days. Tests – blood work, muscle biopsies, urine tests, etc. - were performed before the run, at several points during the five days, and then twenty four and forty-eight hours after the run. The results of the study hopefully will help mushers better understand how to feed for performance and also assist DOD in improving performance of soldiers in combat.

One dilemma the study group had to deal with was very, very cold weather. The week prior to the study the temperatures dipped down to –40 degrees Fahrenheit for at least seven consecutive days. We don’t train if it is –20 or lower due to the risk of frostbite on the dogs less furred parts (think boys) as well as the risk of strained muscles in the cold. Rick’s dogs are more houndy than some huskies and have less fur coverage so frost bite was a big concern for him thus the study was delayed several days till the temps warmed up. Good for the B&B business, stressful for the veterinarians who were anxious to get started. All in all, the two weeks went very well. The vets were excellent house guests and I even got a bit of free consulting for my own crew of huskies.

Now, February looms ahead and we have a lot of preparation work to do for Iditarod. Our checkpoint food drops must be prepared, final adjustments to the sleds made, a sledbag constructed, pre-race blood work screening, and of course more training. Megan runs the Jr. Quest January 5th as well so we will be busy helping her and also watching the Patriots WIN the Superbowl! Go Pats!

February Training Journal - Mid month

Finally. The food drops are done! Yahoo. One of the most time consuming elements of preparing for Iditarod – second to running the dogs – is preparing our checkpoint supplies for the dogs and for the musher. We begin the process in January cutting meat, fat, fish slices for the dogs on our meat saw, bagging kibble into meal size bags, gathering personal gear like extra gloves, neck gaiters, socks, and labeling our checkpoint bags with our name.Due the 14th of February, we organize the meat, fish, and fat into snack sized bags the second week of the month. Once this is done, it is time to distribute the food into the individual checkpoint bags. To aid this process, we layout the bags – usually three bags per checkpoint – in checkpoint sequence, starting with Skwentna, ending with Nome.

Each bag has specific items put in it. The first bag gets the extra clothes, plastic for the sled runners, blankets for the dogs, basically items of value I don’t necessarily need but wish to mail back from the checkpoint. The #2 bag is labeled "Freeze" and will get special attention at the checkpoint should the temperatures rise above freezing. In this bag we put much of the meat, fat, and fish which I will feed if I stay in the checkpoint. It also has a meal of kibble for the dogs, water & gatorade, batteries for my headlight & music box, and a meal for me. The #3 bag is my "To go" bag. It has lighter snacks for the dogs – salmon, herring, and beef, snacks for me, a bag of kibble, booties, and change of gloves, heat packs, etc. I will use items in this bag when I leave the checkpoint.

The question most often asked is how much did you send? This year the grand total was 2,152 pounds, a bit more than last year’s 1900 pounds. The irony is the cost of shipping to the checkpoint was $1,049 – the number of miles generally quoted as the distance of the Iditarod. This year we shipped about 450 pounds of kibble, 1400 pounds of meat & fish, 1600 booties, 24 lithium batteries, 24 alkaline D cell batteries, and the remainder extra gear and food for me. The cost of all this was roughly $4000. Do we get it back? No. The dog food not used at the checkpoint is donated to the local community. Personal items and used booties we chose to mail home are shipped back via USPS.

When I ran the race in ’99 I lost 15 pounds – a lot for my 5’ 4’’ frame. This year I hope to avoid that and one of my key motivators will be in the #2 bag! Konnie, last year’s handler, is a professional cook from Germany so when I started preparing my food he was the logical person to turn to for help. My cooking just does not pass muster, especially under duress. So Konnie donated a day of his time to mixing and baking four different dishes for me: Hungarian goulash, Chicken Cumin, Curried Chicken, and Meatballs & sauce. He used a half gallon of cream, two bottles of wine and lots of butter in the process so you can just imagine how rich these dishes will be. And, believe me, they are tasty! Each individual meal is vacuum packed and sealed in a quart size bag which I can easily thaw and heat out on the trail. Next year Konnie hopes to sell his meals to other mushers, so I need to prove how good they are this year.

We deliver the checkpoint food drops to a shipping company in Fairbanks which then forwards the bags to Anchorage. There, Iditarod officials sort the bags by checkpoint and begin shipping the supplies out to the checkpoints in advance of the race start. Some checkpoints are remote, meaning they have no mail service, and are delivered by the "Iditarod Airforce," a group of volunteer pilots who assist the Iditarod with the logistics of moving gear and people in and out of checkpoints. Most of the checkpoints have mail service and thus the USPS delivers direct to the official race "Checker" in the village. The local race official for the checkpoint takes responsibility for keeping the bags safe from local dogs or birds and ensuring they stay frozen until we arrive to claim them. So, that’s it. The story of the food drops. Glad it is over!

The other race related task for the month is the pre-race veterinary screening. Veterinary technicians who are race volunteers tour the four major mushing hotbeds of Alaska – Kenai Peninsula, Wasilla/Willow, Healy, and Fairbanks – collecting blood and conducting ECG’s (heart analysis) on 24 dogs from every Iditarod team. The blood is analyzed by Providence Hospital in Anchorage (a major in kind race sponsor) for a full spectrum of measurements including white blood count, hematocrit, creatine. The goal is screen out any dogs who might have health problems the musher has not observed. Sleddogs never complain and are very stoic even when a major problem exists. In ’99 we discovered through this screening process that one of our dearest Siberians, Itty Bit, was suffering from a severe kidney ailment though she had shown very little sign of this at the time. To our great distress, she passed on in June of that year. We were grateful to have learned of her problem before the race and did our best to make her last months bearable.

In addition to identifying such major problems, the bloodwork can help the musher determine which dogs are most likely to finish the race based on their overall workup. Iditarod veterinarians have collected many years of bloodwork statistics and through analysis determined which profile are most likely to finish and finish in the top of the class.The ECG’s are also useful in screening out any issues with the dogs major organ, the heart! I am less educated about this but know that some of dog deaths which have occurred during past races have been attributed defective hearts. Thus the Iditarod makes every effort to avoid allowing a questionable dog on the trail.The great irony of Iditarod is that the mushers get no screening at all and no health support on the trail. The dogs get absolutely the best care before and during the race as every checkpoint is manned with two or more veterinarians who check all the dogs in the team while they are there.

There are no physicians on the trail unless they happen to be a musher. Should a musher need a bit of stitching – not unusual – a veterinarian is usually called upon to do the task. Additional blood and urine screening of the dogs is done during the race to test for banned substances, mainly steroids. No testing of mushers occurs. Interesting, huh?

So, anyway, Laura, Megan and I loaded twenty-four Iditarod candidates into the trailer and traveled to Fairbanks on February 12th for the screening. Each dog had two vials of blood removed through a needle inserted into their jugular vein which runs down the front of their neck. Then they were lifted onto a table, connected to the ECG machine, and held down for roughly a minute as the machine recorded the activity of the heart. Jan, the coordinator of the screening, saw nothing unusual but the ECG results will be reviewed by Ken Hincliffe of Ohio State University, an expert in the area. The bloodwork results were reviewed by Stu Nelson, Head Vet for the Iditarod, and then delivered to me four days later. All clear on the northern front! The bloodwork looked very good for the team so all 24 dogs tested will be eligible for the team.

Now with two weeks remaining before the big race, I am focusing on keeping the dogs tuned up. We try to run three to four days a week, forty to sixty miles. I am also working on developing more leaders in the pool, running mostly two year olds at lead. It is possible I could have a team composed of 80% "training" leaders; whether the "training" leaders will run lead in the race is a big question though. The stress of the race will likely cut that number down to 50%, still a pretty good percentage.

Devan is also working hard to get our equipment altogether. He has been redesigning my starting sled, a tough, aluminum, Prairiebilt toboggan, and also creating an "Old Man Sled" (in my case Old Woman Sled, OWS). The OWS is a copy of the sled Jeff King used last year in the Iditarod. It will allow me to sit down while driving the sled over the long stretches of easy, flat terrain, easing the strain on my feet and back. I really like this sled and will look forward to using it starting in McGrath. He better include a seat belt because I might fall asleep while moving down the trail if I am too comfortable!

Pre-Race Update - February 28

This will be a very brief update as we are in the midst of packing for the trip down to Anchorage. Last minute adjustments to the dog box, sleds, sled bags, harnesses, lines are still in the works. I have changed my race schedule about ten times in the past week. Still running the dogs and - unfortunately - encountering a few injuries I had hoped to avoid. The final team composition will hinge on whether these dogs look like they are ready come Sunday; otherwise they may be on the injured reserve list for the season. our local veterinarian will check out each dog so his feedback will help in the decision making.

So Wednesday we load the dogs and gear and head south to Big Lake where we will stay with John, Sandy and Jack Lane, our gracious hosts (our last stay there :( as they are moving to WI come spring). Thursday I attend the drivers meeting all day and also meet my Iditarider; then, that night we all attend the Iditarod Prerace Banquet which is a late night affair. The starting order is announced during the banquet and each musher gets their 15 seconds of fame in front of a 1000 plus crowd. Friday has no official race business so we generally attend to miscellaneous, last minute stuff. Devan has arranged for me to fly out in a small plane to scout out the first 300 or so miles of trail, maybe pick out a camp site or two. This will be quite a treat if it works out.

Saturday is the ceremonial start in Anchorage. My favorite part of Iditarod has always been the drive into the city from Wasilla. It is an early start since we must be parked by 7 or 8am. So when we cross the marshy flats between Wasilla and Anchorage the sun is just rising and there is a pretty pink hue to the skies. The multitudes of moose inhabiting the flats browse lazily as we speed by and the mountains all around shine with crystal, white snow. It really is a beautiful start to whole affair.

About 11am we will drive our team down 4th avenue to the start line waving to the crowds like Queen Elizabeth and then give our Iditarider an eleven mile tour through the city of Anchorage and enjoy the gathered crowds. All along the trail Anchorites and others cheer on the teams as we pass by. Favorite stops are the Idita Muffins and the Idita-dogs where we can pick up a treat for the ride. It is a fun day with little pressure.

Sunday is the big day, the real start to Iditarod. Once again we will start on the safer and snowier trails of Willow instead of the busy and icy trails of Wasilla and Knik. The first run is about 40 miles to Yentna Station and the trail travels along the Big Susitna River, then north on the Yentna River. There will be many parties trailside so I'll have to resist the temptation to stop for good food and drink. Since I will start between 2pm and 3pm in the afternoon, I plan to run only about 4 hours,rest for two at Yentna, then run a few hours beyond Skwentna. This will allow me to get on a run schedule of 6pm to midnight and 6am to noon, resting in between.