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1/30/2011

"ANOTHER BIG WEEK HERE IN THE NORTHERN FOREST!"

It was a good week here with many things happening.
The weather improved on Tuesday and through the balance of the week with seasonally normal temperatures here. However, this morning we woke up to -29C outside with the hydro working and a nice warm chalet.
The photo was taken from a video shot by Xavier C.
We got in three training runs on the Sprint Team after last weeks race and the dogs all performed great. They were enthusiastic and ready to go. This week, I observed that the dogs had developed into a cohesive unit after a weekend of racing. It is wonderful to see the team become a single unit. This was one of the goals for this season, with 9 of the 14 Sprint Dogs being Yearlings and in their first year of running, another 3 being their first year running/racing with me and another his first season at lead. This year, we truly have a rookie team! Also the driver is a rookie to running this caliber of Sprint Team.
Yesterday, my neighbor Dominic's Bother-In-Law & Sister-In-law came here for their first ride with a dog team. Stephanie had arranged this as a birthday surprise for Guy. So, we took out the Distance Dogs for the run. It was a cold, crisp day with nice blue sky for a 5 mile run on the lake. The dogs enjoyed the run and so did Stephanie, Guy and Dominic's 4 year old son Anthony. On the last half of the trip, I turned over driving the team to Kara for her first run with a team on a sled. She did great handling a 7 dog team for her first run.
There is also an update to YouTube of a copulation of stills taken from a video shot with a new Mino HD Flip Video Camera supplied by the management of
Costco, Terrebonne. Thank you for the great camera, we will get better using it with practice.
Until next week........

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1/24/2011

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" A WILD AND WONDERFUL WEEK HERE IN THE NORTHERN FOREST!"

We had a good week here with two great days of training and a fun weekend of racing.
Here in Kara's photo , you can see the racing team returning after a snowy run of Wednesday.
Wednesday, we got about 6" of fresh snow making for a fun run. However, come the race weekend the temperatures dropped to the -30C range. It was so cold the dogs food would start to freeze in the their dishes if they didn't eat quickly. However, theses dogs eat fast and no one had a problem. We placed lots of fresh straw in their houses to keep them warm & dry.
However, we woke up this morning to discover the Hydro went of sometime before 6am and at 8am the temperature in the chalet was 10C. It didn't take long to get the temperature up to acceptable with using the 2 wood stoves.
Back to heating water on the stoves and had some fresh hot tea. The hydro finally came back on around 4.30pm.
Now the race! Our objective this weekend was to give the team some race experience as 7 of the 12 dogs were yearlings with no race experience. Also Cosmos is in his first season running lead. The race was in L'Epiphanie, Quebec. It was a 13.6 mile coarse with head on passing and 1/3 in a wild twisty, bush trail with several challenging downhills. Add all this with the head on passing and speeds of over 20mph made for an event filled race.
Our team had very little experience with the head on passing and they very quickly became seasoned pros. Max did a great job and showed Cosmos the ropes with this very difficult type of passing. Some times it is wild, as both teams lead dogs look like their playing chicken with each other( heading straight at each other) and then each pair of leaders pull their respective team to their right and pass each other without any problems. AMAZING!
The first place team on Saturday averaged 19+mph our team was averaging 17+mph. That was until the wheels fell off (a metaphor for disaster) less than a 1/2 mile from the finish. The trail winds its way through some farm fields along side the village. At one point, we are parallel to the finish line and Max heard the race announcer on the loud speaker.
It was then Max stopped and looked over in that direction and figured that was the way to the finish line. After numerous attempts and at least 6-7 minute of lost time, we continued the run to the finish. I am sure the combination of the stress of all the head on passing and listening to all the commands to pass and all the gee/haw commands on an unfamiliar coarse contributed to his decision.
The main thing is they all finished and in good spirit.
Sundays run was for race training only and to ensure the dogs had a good experience. So the last half of the race I just let the dogs run at their own pace. I was very proud of the teams performance and the extremely calm, professional handling of Kara. It was a great job!
The next couple of days we will rest the dogs and ourselves.
I would also like to announce that David Acou will be joining the Miortuk Team starting in September as the Handler/Trainee for the 2011/2012 season.
Welcome aboard David.
Until next week.......

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1/16/2011

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"ANOTHER WILD & CRAZY WEEK HERE IN THE NORTHERN FOREST!"

Yes, this week was another adventure between running dogs and handling the flu.
First the good news, running the dogs. We were able to get out running the 12 dog racing team three times this week. We are running 10 mile in a rather hilly area with the first 11/2 to 2 miles climbing a small mountain followed by a rolling/winding terrain through a forested area with a tight loop at the half way. On each successive run the dogs cut their running time from 351/2 minutes to 34 minutes on the last run. I was very impressed with their performance and this was without any prompting, just letting them run at their desired speed. Of coarse training is training and in a race situation things can certainly change with a new trail, the commotion of the pre-race, spectators ( very different for dogs raised in the bush) and of coarse other teams & head-on passing. However, the important thing is I am very happy with their performance and I am having lots of fun.
The run on Saturday was extremely tense as I was still suffering from the effects of a wicked flu. I was weak & light headed. But, I kept telling myself , I only needed to concentrate for 40 minutes. It turned out to be 34 minutes. The loop was particularly exciting as the sled and I are being whipped around there at 19mph. I kept telling myself, I just have to hold on and go with the flow of the sled for only a few seconds. It was a great relief after the loop and rather relaxing run back home. However, at these speeds you are always concentrating on your dogs. It was a great feeling of accomplishment when the run was over. All the dogs are happy and enjoying themselves, that is what is important.
To all those naysayers: " Stop bitching about life and get out and start living it!"
Now as for the flu. It settled in on Wednesday night and still exists today in a mild form. I feel it has finally broken, but what a miserable experience. I am not use to being sick as here I am normally isolated from numbers of people and all the current viruses. But, this year I caught up. Thank goodness for Kara being here to look after the dogs and allowing me to get the bed rest required. She did a great job!
This coming week, we will be preparing for what will be our first race of the season.
Until next week........

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1/9/2011

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" FINALLY, WE ARE BACK TO RUNNING DOGS IN THE NORTHERN FOREST!"

Kara took this photo as our team returned from a 10 mile run on Saturday. As you can see, we had to break our team down to 8 dogs for safety due lack of snow.
We have had, what seems like, a long layoff due the 2 days of rain we received over the New Years weekend. After the rain, it turned cold and everything froze up making the trails icy and dangerous for training.
Due to the lack of snow & poor conditions , the first race of the season here at Saint Michel Des Saints was cancelled. This was a shame for the mushers and also the organization that was putting on the event. But, for safety of the dogs they made the correct decision.
The dogs ran well considering the long layoff. We broke the team down to 2 teams of 8 dogs for safety and control due to the lack of snow. On Friday, we received about an 1" of snow. That was enough to cover the ice. The dogs handled the layoff better than the mushers.
However, there is no control over Mother Nature!
If all goes well, we are planning on running 12 dog teams next week to prepare for our next race on January 22nd & 23rd.
One of the high-lite of the week was Carl Routhier coming here and picking up his 5 dog team. We wish Carl all the success & fun of running Sled Dogs.
Until next week.......

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