Its been trying to snow today, not much accumulation but it sure is nice to see something falling from the sky, especially while mushing! The weather was great, the dogs were wonderful and I think I barely touched the surface working these guys.
The trail I took was one that we needed to break out again since we hadn't been on it for a while but taking that section of the run doesn't leave many options for adding on the miles. Bonnie came with us so I didn't want to push her too far but when we got back and I checked the miles I wish we could have done more. Twelve miles is a good place to build from so our next trip out will be at least 15 or 20 depending on what trail we take and if we need to break the route out again.
Nita couldn't come out this time but the main team needed to get their miles in if we hope to make it to the cabin next week. We are hoping the weather holds so we can have a nice relaxing trip in the wilds.
Since Bonnie is still learning the ropes I wasn't sure how she would do with just me running her and not having a second handler in case there was trouble. It wasn't as bad as I thought and with each run shes getting better.
Shes been having a bit of trouble with the neck line so I took it off her shortly after we got started but when we passed our first field she dashed flat out across it and pulled the sled way off the trail. It wasn't too bad and an easy fix after I got to the team stopped... but the next field was the worst.
Right before we were about to pass a group of brushy trees she leaped over to the field again and everything went in slow motion. She dashed to the left, the sled turned hard with her and I leaned hard to ditch the sled into the trees before the team could pull her out of her harness. After I ditched the sled and got up I was happy to see that it was lodged into the trees enough for me to let go and handle Bonnie and the rest safely. I got them lined back out again, everyone untangled, and we took off with Bonnie firmly attached to the neck line this time!
She didn't mind being fully hooked in and I could still see her wanting to dash off every time she saw an opening but with her neckline in place it was a great tool to teach her that dashing off is fine during free time but when we are working we have to be safe and 'serious'.
The dogs were all looking great for the entire run and as I came down the hill on the other side of the parking lot it was neat to see three teams getting ready to take off. Robert, Kathy and Keith were both there just getting ready to head out on their own adventure and looked very surprised to see me coming from the opposite end of the trail! We needed a change of scenery and it was very fun to take a completely different route for a change.
On our next trip I might take that route again and head to the Yukon Quest trail just for fun. That would be a nice way to get a few extra miles and mush a historic route for a while...
I got lots of photos and video on this trip but uploading it will have to wait until tomorrow. I need to update the programs on my laptop so I can process them on this machine...