Sky Runner Kennel

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

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Hello Everybody,

Sorry I haven’t been up to date on the posts. Hoping to start with more consistent posts again. As you can tell I have changed it from OneDog Blog to Sky Runner Kennel. With only two dogs, we may be a micro kennel, but it’s a step-up from one dog.

In the last month or two a lot has happened. The biggest news is that I’m going to Alaska from February 27 to March 5 to watch the start of the Iditarod. It should be awesome. My brother (lives in Anchorage, AK) takes a snowmobile out to the first checkpoint (Skewentna) to watch all of the teams go by.

On January 19 and 20 we went to a sleddog race in Laramie, WY. The WyColo race is great with long snowmobile trails heading through the Medicine Bow National Forest. I didn’t race but got to handle for two friends/mentors, Don Herr and Mike Sullivan. I also bought a Risdon 3-Stanchion for Don (solved the sled problem)! On both Saturday and Sunday I took the sled out after the race was over with a four dog team of Sky and 3 of Mikes dogs (Charlie, Bones, and Trisha). We went about 3 miles both days and had a blast. Sky held the line out great and was a pretty good leader.

So far I’ve taken the sled out twice with Sky and Elmo since the race. Elmo is now up to 99 miles and Sky is up to 280 miles. I’m hoping to get up to 500 miles by the end of the season on Sky and possibly 200 miles on Elmo (Elmo runs with us about half of the time because of his age).

Dillon

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Tonight we had a great training run. Sky ran 3.6 miles bikejoring by herself and 2 miles with Elmo included. So 5.6 total. The run went great and by the time we were done, it was already pretty dark. It was fun, and it was also my first night run. Sky is up to 37.1 miles and Elmo is up to 70.6 miles.

I have also proposed a race schedule for this season. Here it is:

January 19-20, 2008- WyColo Race near Laramie, WY (Colorado Mtn. Mushers)

Won’t be racing, but I’ll be handling and running my dogs on the trails.

February 16-17, 2008- Grand County Sleddog Classic in Granby, CO (Rocky Mtn. Sleddog Club)

3 Dog Junior Class

February 23-24, 2008- Mt. Massive Mush in Leadville, CO (Rocky Mtn. Sleddog Club)

3 Dog Junior Class

Dillon

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Last night I decided to run Elmo on a 4 mile run to finish his training and finally ready him the our race this weekend. It was hot (55-60) so I stopped and watered him a lot. Our run took about 40 minutes including about 15 minutes of break time and having to slow down to pass other people. I can’t wait ’till this weekend!

Dillon

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This morning, two good things happened! Number one, I got my race entry in for the dryland race in Buena Vista, CO on November 10/11. I’ll be running in the 1/2 dog bikejor class on a 3 mile trail. I’ll be running Elmo, and one of Mike “Lowdog” Sullivan’s older leaders to help with passing.

Also, we had a great run this morning. The past few runs I’ve been working on speed training with Elmo. Today, instead of letting the line go slack while loping, he was driving hard and pulling. Training is going great! And, it was dark enough to use my new LED headlamp. The headlamp was nice to have so I can see when a rabbit jumps across the trail!

Dillon

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