Still warm today... I think our highest temp was about 40... not good... I'm sure we had some of our snow melt off the trail and all of it has fallen or melted off the trees. I think last year at this time our temps were at 20 below zero. Hopefully it will get colder very soon otherwise we might be looking at rain. That will seriously change our training options.Today all the dogs did great considering our conditions. Some of them felt the heat more than others and Gemini might be taking the next run off. Her and her sister Hera are the most heavily coated dogs in the kennel so working in higher temps like this is very difficult for them.
Nyx did great out this time but I cut our run short on the way back after seeing her slack off a little bit. Its too early in her career to see exactly what was bothering her, it could have been the miles, the heat or the fact that Remus is very difficult to move over on the trail! Hes so tall and poor Nyx has little space to run if he gets on her side of the line.
On the way back she did a great jump over the main line. That was probably her first official gang line lesson... there will be many, many more for her in the future.
Running those two in wheel without necklines has been fun. Nyx still likes to run way out from the main line but I can see her realize that its more efficient to run in line with the team. Over time I expect her to take that route more regularly and I will see if her position changes as I move her up the line. For now she will mainly run in wheel so I can evaluate her performance and make sure she doesn't need any help during these early lessons.
Not too many people out there today... that was a relief. I still cant trust my hooks but since James was out there with the snow machine I took that advantage and tied off to his front end a couple of times. At one point I guess he figured the weight of the machine would hold them back... not so! They dragged the sled, me, the machine and James a short ways before he decided to use the break!
At one point he was having trouble with his rig and I thought we might need to tow him back to the truck. I was rather disappointed when he got the snow machine up and running again though... I was hoping for a 'dog team tows broken snow machine down trail' kind of story.
If there was a choice between running a smelly noisy machine or dogs... dogs win hands down for me every time. The snow machine does serve a good purpose though, since James cant handle rough trails or jarring to his back since he broke it all those years ago he cant ride the sled with me and instead takes the machine out when he can. It works out well and everyone had a great time despite it being so hot.
I tried to hold the dogs back as much as I could but even still James was tracking us at an average 10mph. Once we hit the trail for the way back we were going about 8mph and I didn't need to use the drag. Not sure what has gotten into them this year but most are super charged and very ready to work their hearts out.
Id like to maintain their attitudes at this level so Ive been cutting runs short and holding them back, its going to be a little to no stress winter for all of us. I figure there will be a time and place to push them to higher miles and speeds later on... there is just too much going with our weather to add any more challenges to the situation. I'm just grateful we have any snow at all...
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