Did I Say Spring?

Well; it seems like I have been referring to spring for weeks now and according to my calendar it is "officially" but if I look out the window it sure doesn't look like it. We still have a LOT of snow for the end of March and it's snowing again this morning. What a long winter; good thing I'm into dogsledding. I'm sure there are some raging cases of cabin fever around this year. It will be a long time before our flower bed is seeing the sunshine here in Lake Elmore. In the photo below the snow pile on the left is right on top of our spring flower bed. I think it's going to take a while for that one to melt away!

In the mean time as long as the trails are good we continue to run the dogs. It could make for a short off season this year if we run through April. That will leave May, June, July and August before we begin our fall cart training again in September; not bad..

Thoughts of cycling are starting to creep into my mind as we've had a few days with sunshine and temps in the 40s. It's always hard to believe it will be warm enough for riding in shorts at this time of year but it will happen. Last year on this day I went for a road bike ride and it was 50 degrees and sunny. I don't think I'll be getting out on the bike today; in fact I have a dogsled tour this afternoon.

Spring Fling

We’ve been having a little spring time fun here the past week. With the tour schedule thinning out a bit as we move to warmer temperatures I have been getting out for a few runs with the pups with out tour loads in the sleds.

Saturday one of my guides and I took a drive to Bartlett New Hampshire to participate in a 23 mile fun run/race. We both ran six dog teams and they did a great job. I ran Buck and Muddy in lead with little Fleche and Dubois in team, Etta and Exxon in wheel. The second team was Umiak and Heron in lead, Pegasus and Teddy in team and Orion and Hercules in wheel.

It was an out and back trail so there was plenty of head on passing to be done. Buck and Muddy amazed me! They have not run with many other teams or dealt with much passing at all this season but they remembered exactly what to do. We had NO incidents and every pass they did was perfect. Good boys!

I hadn’t been doing many longer runs this winter because I felt I needed to conserve their energy for tours but they actually seemed more excited and stronger on tours we’ve run in the days following the race/fun run. I think that next season I will try to do longer light weight runs at least once a week with them.

Yesterday (St. Patrick’s Day) was Dubois, Etta James, Buck Wheat, and Muddy’s fourth birthday. We celebrated with a round of Vermont made Green Mountain Dog Cookies and hot dogs for everyone. It’s hard to believe those guys are already four years old; seems like just yesterday that I was holding them in my hand. They have really turned out to be amazing dogs and they bring a smile to my face every day. Happy Birthday guys!