Successful Trip

Ive always known that you don't want to take your team for one hard run after another as it will play with their mental stability but I didn't bother think that the same would apply to the musher...

After our last two exploratory runs ran into dead ends, turn arounds and a chance to get lost I was a little shaken to strike out again until we had done a trip that was worthy of some sort of success.

When Kathy volunteered to join us with her four dogs I was very grateful and glad to have an excuse to shift my mind to other things rather than worry about what could go wrong this time.

The way out was pretty uneventful, as weve been running those trails for about eight years now. We had gotten a dusting of snow but it still wasnt enough to slow the team down much. I had put the extra bag of dog food back in the sled and that helped greatly!

Once off the main trail we forged a new path down a powerline and I enforced the idea that we were not running on the road but making a new path right along side it. With a few corrections both Juno and Reba got the idea but seeing that Reba was having a harder time agreeing to the idea I pulled her back to swing and let Juno take over. As always, she did a fine fine job!

Calypso ran loose some of the time and was put in team for a small portion. She is still getting her running legs back so I let her take it easy while she catches up with our speed and mileage. I had doubts about her being able to make the team due to her small size (shes smaller than her mother, Salmon) but she has got to be the fastest dog on my team. I think she might even be faster than ultra lightweight Juno!

Boreas and Thani did very well but towards the end Boreas came up with some sort of injury that had him on and off his tug. It wasnt so serious that he wanted to stop but when we got home his energy level was pretty low and he was accepting lots of love and laying contentedly in his dog box. Any state of relaxation is very rare for Boreas so I knew something was up.

After dropping him from the box and giving him extra love and attention I checked his legs and found that something must have gone wrong with his right rear. Its probably something he will bounce back very quickly from but just in case the team will be having a rest today then heading out again on Sunday.

Gaea ran quite a bit but protested when I tried to load her a few times at the mid point of our run. On the way back she conceded and let me load her, cover her with my down pants and nestled in for as much of a nap as she could get on the bumpy trail.

Todays milage was a little over 16, we broke through about 2.5 miles of fresh trail and carried 50lbs more weight than on our previous runs.

Yesterday was a very good day, very fun and the dogs came back nice and tired...