A brisk winter wind is rearranging the small accumulation of fresh snow that fell the other night here at the kennel.  With the hard blanket of ice-crusted snow beneath this thin veil of white, it doesn't take much, but it is certainly enough to remind you that it is still winter.  The forecast is for the thermometer to dip to the minus -10 degree mark overnight, and no additional snow in the foreseeable future. 

It is a weather pattern that has pretty much held following the warm and rainy weather that beset the area in early February, and is one that has turned the area trails into icy highways.  Earlier today, Paul took out two teams of just ten dogs each when he left the yard, returning with reports of exceptionally "fast" conditions.  This is a mushing term indicative of hard-packed trails with little, to no fresh snow.  While it is conducive to motoring down the trail at some high rates of speed, it is not a trail condition without hazards.  A fast trail is one that will often result in dogs with sore shoulders or wrists, due to the lack of cushioning snow to pad their footfalls. Or in the case of our area trails, having to contend with the many holes in the trail caused by moose that try to walk on the harder surface, only to punch through every few steps.  The aftermath of the moose on the trail leaves it looking like swiss cheese, with a potential injury to any dog lurking in the form of the frozen holes that are sometimes over a foot deep.  Couple this with the moose themselves, either on or nearby the trail.  To call them 'cantankerous' this time of year would be an understatement, and it takes little to provoke a moose into a hoof-slashing beast when they are encountered anywhere from the trails to our own front yard.  It is almost like the few remaining training runs that will occur between now and the start of the Iditarod in two weeks is like running the gauntlet for the team.  Each safe return to the kennel is cause for celebration.

Looking ahead to the Iditarod, it is anyone's guess as to what conditions will greet the mushers as they progress up the trail.  A hard, fast trail is one that favors those teams trained with pure speed as their primary focus.  In the case of Paul's training, he has an emphasis on a team with depth that has the ability to maintain their speed.  By no means does this imply that our team is slow.  Rather, Paul has focused on a team that is able to travel under more adverse trail conditions, such as deep snow, while being consistent.  Even greater than this, he has paid close attention to the dogs' appetites, which is crucial when the going gets tough. 

Over the last couple of weeks, he has been busy packing all of the trail supplies for the shipping of his "food drops".  Just over 2300 lbs. of dog food and gear went out last week, where Iditarod volunteers and personal will distribute it to the 20+ checkpoint locations along the Iditarod Trail.  Each of these nylon reinforced gunny-sack style bags, called "drop bags" is labeled with both Paul's name as well as the identifying checkpoint location to which it is delivered to.  The bags are filled with everything both Paul and his dogs will need during their 1,100 mile journey.  In monitoring the dogs' appetites during training, Paul was able to pack these food drop bags accordingly - to match the preferred meat and snacks of this particular group of dogs.  One year, he had a team that gobbled down horse, yet refused lamb.  Beef might have been the favored flavor another year, and this year's team leans towards salmon and tripe. 

We were fortunate to have a friend that went around to various fish sites to save the heads from king salmon that had been processed after harvesting.  King salmon, especially the heads, are loaded with fat and the dogs love them.  Our helper, Tyler, has been cutting these into pieces that the dogs eat frozen.  One of our new sponsors, Kasilof's own Wild Harvest Seafoods, also helped us out with salmon for the season.  Paul always packs salmon into his food drops, both for the dogs, and smoked salmon pieces for his own consumption. Salmon has the dual benefit of being something our dogs always enjoy, either as snacks or for soup with hot water, plus, unlike other raw meats that have a tendency to spoil if the weather warms up, salmon is incredibly forgiving of warmer temperatures.  Since the food drops go out onto the trail a full two weeks ahead of when the teams will reach the checkpoints, the potential spoilage of food is a huge concern. The Iditarod has made progress in recent years in identifying opportunities to keep the food more protected to alleviate the problem, but it is still something that can be an issue as the intensity of the sun increases the closer we are to spring.  It is hard for some people to comprehend "the heat of the day" in the midst of an Alaskan winter, but it is a very real factor that plays into the Iditarod in multiple facets. 

Beyond the possible thawing of food, the sun impacts trail conditions.  That same warm sunshine that has created long glistening icicles off of our eaves by melting the snow from the rooftops, is the same sunshine that can be the culprit in the demise of good trails for the teams to navigate on their race to Nome.  The most recent report indicates there are several hundred miles of the Iditarod trail that are absent of snow cover due to melting and wind.  Quite literally, the teams will be dragging the sleds over frozen tussocks and tundra if some accumulation of snow does not come soon.  Already, race officials have determined that the official re-start of the race will be north of the historical Wasilla location, with teams slated to depart once again from the Willow Lake area further to the north due to lack of snow and logistical concerns.  It makes for some hard riding for the mushers with conditions like that, and even greater strains on the mushers' dog sleds that catch the brunt of the rough terrain. 

With this in mind, Paul has been working on a new sled to use in this year's race.  I mentioned this in my last update, and since then, Paul has tweaked his original concept and today took the finished product out on the trails near the kennel here for a test run.  He was pleased with the scaled down version of his original longer sit-down sled he built for use two years ago.  His original plan integrated more metal than he has in the finished sled, but he felt more comfortable with the integrity of the wood version - perhaps being a true carpenter, he just values the honesty of wood, and removed most of the metal from the framework.  He feels he gains more flexibility while not sacrificing strength with the wood.  That's not to say that even the best built sleds won't shatter to smithereens given the right set of circumstances, but it does make Paul more comfortable about what he is taking down the trail.  Like it's slightly longer sibling, this sit-down sled of Paul's own making is crafted from bamboo.  Mickey's Custom Sewing is once again working to develop a custom fitted sled bag for the new sled.  She does an incredible job working with Paul to fine tune the bag for both capacity and usefulness to maximize Paul's ability to get things in and out with the most efficiency at the checkpoints.

In addition to the food drops, training and sled building, part of Paul's pre-Iditarod checklist included the labwork and veterinary attention the dogs received this weekend.  All of the potential members of this year's team were in for an electrocardiogram as well as having blood drawn for analysis.  (For those of you that aren't subscribers, you can read about this by visiting the Peninsula Clarion newspaper website.  Paul was featured on a front page news story 2/18/07 about the bloodwork and ECGs. ) Later this week, he will take them to our dedicated personal veterinary team at Kenai Veterinary Hospital for full physicals and weight checks as the final assurance that all of our canine athletes are in optimum health to run this race.  From this pool of twenty dogs, Paul will ultimately select his team of 16 to leave the starting line on March 4^th.

That date is precisely two weeks from today.  I do believe the dogs can sense its approach, and are just getting more and more focused.  After helping to harness and hook up the first team of dogs with Paul today, I stayed behind and worked in the kennel while he was out running.  The dogs left behind were extremely animated and wanted to be out on the trail with their teammates.  Long before the team broke from the woods into the open area of the kennel, the dogs at home let us know they were coming. As if to outdo their teammates, the second team cruised down the trail even faster than the first group had. The bottom line was that they were having fun doing it.  They were all full of wet kisses to my face both before and after their runs and chowed on the snacks Paul gave them as well.  It is that level of enthusiasm we are looking for when they leave that starting line and when they finish in Nome 1,100 miles later.   

It is that journey I look forward to sharing with you, Until Later…. Happy Trails - Evy