With winter’s solstice just around the corner, the hours of actual daylight are a rare commodity this time of year at the kennel. However, with a bright full moon rising into the clear night sky, the landscape is washed in pale moonlight that cascades across the snow-crust like sunshine on a summer lake. It is amazing how light it is out, and it makes for some incredible images when a dog team is moving gracefully down the trail, their breaths creating a light fog in the subzero temperatures. The only sounds are the jingles of the snaps on the lines, the cadence of the dogs’ footfalls on the trail, and the brush of the runners along the snow.  Around them, the sides of the trail have a sentinel of spruce trees, bearing a fragile veil of white hoarfrost.

Such was the scene this evening, as Paul and Kristi culminated yet another training run with the dogs not far from our Kasilof kennel. The racing season will kick off for us in a matter of weeks, and all lights are green for the progress of training and race preparations – save for marginal trails at the lower elevations here. We had been encouraged by some accumulation that blanketed the region in early December, only to see this eaten away by warm Chinook winds and freezing rain.  Paul had just gotten the trails immediately out of the kennel up to a decent standard with his snowmachine and custom groomer, only to see them deteriorate under the hands of mother nature. Ironically, the conditions were very similar to those that dramatically changed the outcome of Paul’s ’08 Iditarod on the run into the Cripple checkpoint.

But if Paul has learned anything, it is to adapt and persevere.  He was able to modify the runs and take advantage of the serious miles the team has under their belt already this season to keep the program operating on an even keel.  Last weekend, by trucking to the trail heads at higher elevations, he was able to do some camping with the team on an overnight trek.  Similar to the early season training up near Denali he did with our handler, Kristi, and our friend Scott Janssen, the trio was also accompanied on this long run by another team driven by Kristi’s twin sister, Anna. 

The outing was an exercise designed to provide the young members of the team some experience in a dynamic that is integral to success when it comes to racing. A “camping trip” like this is simply a matter of running the team out several hours, then stopping to rest them at some remote location for a length of time, before completing the balance of the run. Sometimes they reverse their travel and return to the same point of origin, other times Paul will work it out to have the dog truck moved to a different location so that the dogs don’t get complacent with a predictable pattern in their run cycle. This element is particularly important to keep the dogs’ attitude level high.  They much-prefer to see new country on their runs, and it also better imitates a true race environment.

When they “camp” Paul and Kristi will prepare a number of things for the journey to again, try to mimic a race.  From the meat snacks and supplies, to hauling straw for the team to rest on, they pack and organize for maximum efficiency on the stops. The more familiar with this routine that the dogs become, the better they are at recognizing the signs Paul gives them that “now is the time to rest guys”. During the race, it is critical that the dogs are able to lay down and start to rest as soon as they can on every stop.  Maximizing this through teaching them to continue to lay down while Paul goes through and removes booties and works on their feet, to even staying on the straw while he feeds them. The older dogs are well-versed and it is as much through imitation as it is repetition that the younger members of the team will adopt good resting patterns for themselves. If you ever watch footage of Paul’s team during races, you will note that they are a much more subdued group of dogs than most, with their focus on resting, and when the call-to-action comes, they jump to it and go.

I remember a volunteer at the White Mountain checkpoint that described one of Paul’s departures at this final Iditarod race resting spot.  He was one of the top three teams resting there, and with an exact eight hour window that the mushers rest, she knew he was close to his departure time. The dogs were still all curled up and resting, having continued to stay on the straw as they were trained to do so, during Paul’s work putting fresh booties on and packing the sled. She expressed concern that perhaps his team needed some additional sleep and would need assistance leaving the checkpoint. Paul just told her to make sure to stay clear of the team. He walked back to the sled, called the command and the team tore out of the checkpoint, nearly running the volunteer over.  He ended up chiseling a good chunk of time from his competitor’s lead on those final miles into Nome, with a team that not only did NOT need to be lead out of the checkpoint, but was still enthusiastic and happy at the finish line.

The first race of our season will be the Knik 200 that kicks off January 3.  From there it is straight into the mid distance circuit with the Copper Basin 300 on January 10^th, and the Tustumena 200 on January 24^th. The Knik will be very much a training run for our program, with not only Paul and Kristi entered to run it, but much to his delight, Scott Janssen will also be running a team from our kennel.  I’m afraid that Scott has been bitten by the mushing bug, and he is determined to learn as much as he can when the opportunity presents its self. Kristi ran the Knik 200 last year with Dean Osmar’s dogs, and will also have her twin, Anna, on that race trail who is coaching Dean’s dogs again this year.

I wanted to close this update with a little snapshot of our handler, Kristi. They say that “good things come to those who wait”, and we sure have found this in Kristi.  Really, I can’t say enough good about the gal.  After meeting the twins last year when they both worked for Dean, we were completely jazzed to find out that we had the opportunity to bring one of them into our program this year, as Dean only had enough work for the other. Kristi has melded into our program beautifully.  The dogs love her, she is a great sled driver and we both enjoy her company a great deal.  She is an avid runner, and the miles that she puts on the soles of her sneakers in the early morning hours or after chores at night are impressive.  It is an incredible gift to us to have her enthusiasm and ethics in our program this season, and I have no doubt that we will all realize the results of her contribution to the development of the team when Paul hits the race trail in 2009. (photo inset of Kristi)

Until later - Life is a journey, enjoy the ride! Evy