On Friday, we experienced the dreaded action that most Mushers fear "a close encounter with a skidoo hitting your team while training". On the homeward part of the run , we were met head-on with a skidoo(dragging a cargo sled) travelling at high rate of speed on a very narrow trail. Luckily the area was an open area were the visibility was good enough to give the skidoo driver enough time to slow down the skidoo and safely pass the team. It was a terrible site seeing the skidoo & cargo sled swerving all over the trail as the skidoo driver hit the brakes to stop.
I could envisage the dogs being hit and I was unable to do any thing to prevent it. As it turned out, no one got hit and both the skidoo driver & I were shaken up over the near tragedy. 
The dogs continue to run well & we are now preparing the team for our next race at Woburn, Quebec on the 11th & 12th of February. This is a 12 dog team  race over a 12 mile coarse. 
We have had more snow this week making the forest a visual Winter wonderland. 
Until next week.......

Yes, it was great to get back to the peace & tranquility of the forest after a busy weekend at the race in L'Epiphanie. 
The dogs had a couple of days rest & then back out on the 10 mile training trail  on Thursday. The trail was hard & fast and both 8 dog teams turned in the fastest runs of the season. The race weekend had no ill effects on the dogs. 
We got a major snow storm on Friday that kept us at the chalet clearing snow in both the kennel & the route in from the main road. We ran again on Saturday on a snowy trail with 5" of fresh snow on it. The temperature was also warm, resulting in a nice conditioning run. It was fun to see the dogs work in the deeper snow & have a nice relaxing run. 
The temperatures are forecasted to be warm for most of next week which will alter the running schedule for trying to get out early in the morning when the temperatures are colder.
Music is a new addition to the front page and the Blog. Check it out and let me know if you enjoy the music with the Blog.
Until next week.......

Team Miortuk goes to it's first race of the 2012 Season at L'Epiphanie, Quebec.
Due to most of the females in the kennel being in season, we were limited to the team we ran. However, this only limited us to running 10 dogs instead of 12 or 14.  The teams we were running against were anywhere fro 12 to 16 dog teams. This didn't dis-wade us from running the race. 
It was a cold weekend with all the top teams from Quebec & Eastern USA entered in the race. 
I was very pleased with the dogs, especially with Max & Angel @ Lead. This race is a challenging coarse with many speed turns, steep downhills  and all the coarse is head on passing of other teams. It is also a downtown start & finish with many cheering spectators, load speaker music & announcer. This is a far cry from the quiet peaceful life in the forest. However, the dogs handled all the commotion & stress without any problem.
Racing is definitely different than training & things happen in races that can't be foreseen in training. With this in mind & this being the first race of the season, problems on the trail can happen & usually do. We had a couple of small challenges on the first day & a clean run on the second day. The second day, we cut 5 minutes off our first day time & moved up 3 places in the finish standings.
 Not bad at all for the smallest team in the race. 
I was so happy with the dogs & their performance especially with Max & Angel leading the team with all the head-on passing.
Well now a couple of days rest & back to preparing for the next race.
A special thanks to Charlie, Marie-Claude & Jo-Annie for their excellent work handling & preparing the team at the race.
Until next week......

This week very cold temperatures, then warm & followed by over a foot of fresh snow arriving over Thursday through Friday made for very winter like weather here. Now the temperatures are in the low -20's during the day & -30 at night.
We got in three days of scheduled runs this week. The two teams of 8 dogs are running a 10 mile trail. We are running two teams to keep all 16 dogs selected to race this year in training. The teams are turning in great running times & are happy after the runs. Their enthusiasm to run is very encouraging & displaying that the longer runs are no problem for them. If the race in L'Epiphanie is a go for next week end, then we will have to do a couple of runs with a 12 dog team to prepare them for the race. If the race is cancelled then,  we will continue with two 8 dog teams & add some 13 mile runs in training.
As this area has still the best snow/trail conditions in Quebec, we are seeing many Mushers coming up here to train.
Until next week.......

Another crazy week with wide swings in temperature. Tuesday & Wednesday With temperatures in the mid to low minus twenties Celsius to plus four on Saturday. We also received another 6" of snow throughout the week. 
Despite the crazy weather, we were able to get in 3 days of training on the sled. We cut back the teams to 2 teams of 8 dogs each. We ran on Monday, Thursday & Saturday for runs of 10 miles each. The dogs handled the increased mileage without any problems and even turned in two of the best runs, I have had so far, with the Sprint Dogs over this 10 mile trail.
 I am really enjoying running with the new Danler Sprint Sled. It handles like a dream!
However, poor snow conditions & water on the lake caused the cancellation of the race in Saint Michel des Saints for the second year in a row. 
Even though we are only 36 km from Saint Michel, there can be a big differences in snow conditions. The conditions here were good enough to attract over 500 sled dogs being run up here on both Saturday & Sunday. It was a little crazy & fun.
There is a new YouTube Video on the Training Page with highlites of Thursday, training runs.
Until next week......

The photos are from the last run in 2011 & still on an ATV. However, the conditions are good enough to go to the sled this coming week.
In order to get a longer run of 7.5 miles, we increased the the team to 16 dogs & trucking the dogs 3 miles down the road to start. This way the dogs only had to pass the chalet & dog yard once as they then ran the 4.5 mile trail and finished normally at the chalet. It is very exciting to run such a large team & it requires total concentration to prevent any possible problems. As we have 18 dogs in training, we alternated a couple of dogs to ensure they all got to run.
The dogs all performed well & the leaders (Max & Cobalt) did a great job leading the larger team. Running a larger team gave us a chance to mix & match pairs of dogs in order to assist in picking the race team for Saint Michel this coming weekend.  Hopefully, we will be able to run 2 teams of 8 on Monday & Tuesday. Wednesday we will run 1 team of 12 that we choose to race this on the weekend. The training runs this week will be 10 miles each & then Saturday & Sunday race 12 miles. Due to the poor training conditions, I will not ask too much of the dogs & treat this race as a training run.
WE AT MIORTUK WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU A HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you all the gift of peace that is felt in the forest,at night, under a fresh blanket of new fallen snow!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FROM THE WHOLE GANG HERE AT MIORTUK!

The photos are of the second team running last Saturday. Willy & Angel are running lead.
All that beautiful snow is now gone & replaced with ice due to rain all day Thursday & then a deep freeze arriving Friday. 
However, the snow & the trails were excellent for running on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. We ran all three days & the times of the teams were the same for all three days. These results are very encouraging, especially for preparing the team for the three day race at Laconia in February. The problem we are facing is due to the lack of snow and getting longer training runs on the dogs. We need snow & a good base so we can go to the sled with longer runs. 
This weather is very discouraging, especially with the way the dogs are performing. Patience is the order of the day as the snow will come & the the required training will occur. But, for now, the teams have been shut down waiting for safer conditions. We are forecasted to receive either snow or rain on Monday & snow returning on Wednesday next week. Lets hope we get only snow & no rain.
THINK SNOW!
Until next week....... 

Yes, finally we received some snow this week. Over Thursday & Friday, we received close to 5" of beautiful snow.
The week didn't start off too promising with rain on Sunday & Monday destroying the training trails again. However, Tuesday the trails were wet but usable. We received about 1" of snow Tuesday overnight making the trails usable again on Wednesday. But, the running was excellent on both Friday & Saturday with the fresh snow. 
Above series of photos shows Cobalt & Max leading a team of happy dogs. Hopefully, now we keep the snow with the forecast for below freezing temperatures for the next week. If we get some more snow & set up a good base, we can get to using the sled and get longer miles on the dogs & prepare them for the race in Saint Michel in early January.
The dogs are performing great and making it a real pleasure to run them.
Life can't get much better than this!
Until next week.......

The crazy weather continued this week making training very challenging. We were able to run on Monday, then rain on Tuesday & Wednesday followed by freezing temperatures on Thursday & then snow on Friday.
The freezing temperature on Thursday made the trails dangerous with ice patches, frozen sand & very hard. 
The training continued on Friday & Saturday with beautiful snow covered trails. This made for some very good runs. The above photos were extracted from video shot on Friday. There are also videos of Fridays runs on the Training Page.
Angel is fitting in here & producing some fantastic runs at lead with Willy.
The Sprint Dogs are now running the 4.5 mile run without any stops and are now running at very acceptable speeds.
The weather forecast for Sunday & Monday is rain & then snow for the balance of the week. Lets hope Mother Nature gives us a break & delivers snow & not rain.
Until next week.......