3/8/2008
Mar 8th 2008skyrunnerkennelCamping & Misc. & Racing & Training & Uncategorized
The last month has gone by pretty quickly! On February 24 we got a new dog at the Leadville race from Bruce Harper. He’s a registered siberian husky that goes by Willy (registered name is Code Name Chillie Willie).
The Leadville race went great! I was the only one that raced in my class (3-dog junior) so I won. But I also beat 3 four dog teams. Bruce Harper’s team was only 2 minutes, 30 seconds ahead of my overall time. Two weeks before the race Elmo got out and cut his foot on some glass, it wasn’t healed in time so I borrowed one of Bruce’s retired dogs. I also used Willy in lead with Sky, because we had planned on getting him that weekend I wanted to try him out. The team ran great and we even passed a team that went out 3-5 minutes before us.
Now onto the Alaska story! On February 29 we went to Karen Ramstead’s open house. It was great to see her dogs and meet another Iditarod racer. On March 1st we traveled the 40 miles by snowmobile to Yenta Station, the first checkpoint. We stayed in a cabin there and worked the checkpoint. On Monday morning we decided to travel upriver to the second checkpoint of Skwentna. When we arrived only two mushers were there. We stayed for about 20 minutes and then headed farther upriver where we had a tent setup. My brother and I spent the night there and left on Tuesday morning. The ride back to the truck (100 miles) wasn’t near as fun as the ride out, because it was 40 degrees and raining. When we got back to the truck/parking area we loaded up and finally got into the warm truck. It was a great trip!
Now I’m back at home and planning for next season training and racing. I can probably run and train the dogs for another month or so, but after that our season will be over until September.
Dillon