Ultimate Iditarod Update

My mom ran into an old-timer from our valley in the grocery store last week. While she talked with him, she asked when it was going to snow this year. He replied, "Well, Thanksgiving, as always." And he was right, of course.

It seems we always catch ourselves getting a little nervous this time of year as we anxiously await the first substantial and lasting snows. This year was no exception, and the snow seemed to wait extra-long. But what a difference just a few days makes! Beginning on Thanksgiving day, snow began to fall at my family's house and dog kennel. By yesterday, everything was covered in a nice blanket of white, and the trails were frozen and beginning to develop a base of packed snow. Winter is finally arriving!

As the two pictures below show, the higher elevations around the kennel really got hit with winter. I took the picture on the left last Sunday (November 18). I took the picture on the right yesterday. The pictures were taken within 100 yards of one another on the same trail leading around Fawn Peak.

Needless to say, both the dogs and we mushers were extremely happy to be running on a real blanket of snow. I remember thinking to myself over and over how amazing it was that only a week before I had been running on bare ground but suddenly yesterday the woods looked, smelled, and felt like winter. Those sights and smells always bring back a flood of wonderful memories of training runs and camping trips from years past, and make both the dogs and ourselves very excited for what is to come this year.

The chains on the rear wheels of the four-wheeler help to prevent sliding on the snowy trails and make slowing and stopping much easier.

Although we have received a fair amount of snowfall (and it continues to fall as I write this), the trails do not have enough snow for sleds yet. We need a good foot of snow, and we need the snow to be somewhat packed on the trail in order for the sleds to be controllable, and, more importantly, stopable. And so the runs are still being done with the four-wheelers, but the four-wheelers now have large sets of chains wrapped around their rear tires to help keep us from sliding too much on the snow. However, if the snow continues, we will be using sleds for training within a week or so.

The dogs are doing very well. We did a fair amount of training over the Thanksgiving holiday. On Thanksgiving day we did short but very fast runs with the dogs to help build speed and flexibility. We gave the four-wheelers some throttle and never let the team run slower than 15 miles per hour. If the dogs appeared to be getting a bit winded, we would stop and let them catch their breaths, and then continue on at our fast pace. The run was six miles long and seemed to take just a few minutes, which was good because the turkey was in the oven while we were gone.

The four-wheelers can get bogged down in the snow when it is so deep (left) so we must always pay attention and keep the machine on the packed part of the trails. Pork Chop (right) thought the camera looked like a fun toy when we stopped for a rest break yesterday.

On Saturday and Sunday, we did longer, more traditional runs with the dogs. Sunday (yesterday) was actually the longest run to date this season at a length of 28 miles. The fact that the runs are getting longer is another reason we are so excited about snow. 28 miles on a four-wheeler really is boring and cold, even if the handlebars are heated!