And our mystery rider is... Mary Shields!!If some of you aren't familiar with this icon of the mushing world you can visit her website at: www.maryshields.com to see her in cyberspace or plan a visit out to her kennel for a personal tour and a wonderful visit in her cozy log home!
Mary is the very first woman to finish the Iditarod Sled Dog Race and has also competed in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race... two of the most toughest sled dog races in the world!
Since we are opening up our kennel tours and rides this year to the general public and actively pursuing advertising we were delighted to discover that Mary was interested in pointing more clients our way. Its been great to have a point of focus for a wonderful kennel tour at her place and to follow up with a dog sled ride out at our trails. The partnership works out perfectly!
Even though I come with many years of mushing experience Mary wanted to witness the dogs first hand and see their skill (and mine) from the view of the basket just to make sure she was directing folks to a good outfit. It was my pleasure to take her out on an adventure and show off the dogs, who did great as usual.
As Ive said before, and will likely say many times again, the training really paid off. The pups, even Thani, were all on VERY good behavior and even through some the dips and tight turns EVERYONE listened to my 'easy' slow down command and to my 'okay' command to speed back up after the trail smoothed out again. They did so great and it was wonderful to hear Mary's comments on how controlled they were, how safe and how much confidence she felt in me as a musher being my passenger.
Mary and I are cut from the same cloth in many ways... we share a love of the old time freight dogs, the old ways of the sport and the history of the trail when mail was hauled by dog teams alone.
It was such a delight being out there listening to some of her old trail stories, dealing with moose, trail conditions, a few stories about the personalities of her dogs and how she works them into her kennel tours. I am going to make a point to sit in for one of her summer shows next year to see it first hand as she has with our rides. I know the joy I had hearing her just talking about the tours will be even better to see in action.
Miriam came along for this tour as well and rode in Nita's sled. It was our b-teams first time with a passenger and they did really well. We will have to continue carrying weight in both sleds since our client load is starting to stack up and the dogs need to be in tip top shape for the season ahead.It was a beautiful day today, weather was mild, the sun was out and the snow was dancing all around us. Nita got some great shots of me and Mary heading down the trail with a cloud of white powder behind us. What a great day!!
And as we go into the holidays things will pick up on many fronts... the chores will continue as usual and we hope to get a lot more work done on the new dog trailer this weekend. Photos for that will be coming soon, possibly in the next post, and we just purchased much of the hardware we will need for doors and latches on each dog's box. We are getting so close to having the outfit be operational! Its so exciting!!
No new news on the new dog truck but James assures us it will be coming soon. Cant wait to get started on a new box for that as well! So many new changes this year and as James said, we will have a big Thanksgiving this year for we have soooo very many things to be thankful about!!
Hugs to all and enjoy the holidays!!
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