Turn and burn back north.  That is what we had to do.  Right after the race we headed north again. First break was smithers.  Then we went all the way back to Whitehorse one drive.  Stopped at home and dropped off some dogs. Loaded some and headed to the IFSS world championships on North Pole.  SO far I think Rachel was having fun.  Racing different races along the way. It has been a different yr that is for sure.  We left on Feb 26th for our drive to North Pole. We wanted to get in a training run.  That run was going to be on the Weds. SO the dogs could have a day off on Thursday and race Fri. Sat. And Sun.  We made it no problem. With the bed in the back of the truck and a few drivers it makes a big difference getting to our location in time. 
  We found our hotel.  Hotel North Pole which is just a block or two from the race start.  We settled in and the following day went over to the track and Rachel went for a training run.  Buzz who was the race organizer was there and was nice enough to lend us a snowmobile and we went ahead of Rachel as she ran the six mile with some of her race team. Not all of them but at least the leaders saw the race course.  Thursday we were busy getting chips put into the dogs so they could identify the dogs during the race so no one could change dogs after each day of racing.  The humane society in Fairbanks did this for us. Then we were busy with the opening ceremonies.  We were meeting everyone and had a meal that evening. The next day the races started.  Friday the four dog went at noon and the six dog went at one pm.

   

   We now sit at home.  Hoping we can make a race.  Things are not that easy.  Health issues with myself and timing for Rachel makes all the difference on where we go and when we go.  There was a race we could go to and that was Ft. St. James.  This was a long drive south of us.  They had mass starts and that worried me a bit.  Thinking that if it works out okay we should be able to race and have clean runs there.  IF we did it would be a good lead in for the worlds.  Well not perfect but better than nothing.  I felt this would be important for Rachel and the team.  The drive was way longer than what I wanted to drive but we are used to that.  For the most part the dogs are also used to it as well.  Time would tell if it was too much.
   Rachel myself and her boyfriend drove to Ft. St. James.  I have a bed in the back of the truck so I spend allot of time laying down.  Matt did allot of driving and is an awesome help.  So we got down there and it was hot.  It was very hot and we had three females dogs in the truck in season. This was causing lots of problems amongst the boys. 
   When we got there Sam Perrino was nice enough to give us the use of his house and an awesome bed to sleep in.  Sam was also Race Marshal for the race.  IT was great to see him and his family.  Have not seen him and his family since the Yukon Quest when he was up in the Yukon to run it.

   Day one was pretty warm. It hovered around -3 to 0 degrees.  The six dog was Rachels first race.  About half way around the sun went behind the clouds and you could feel the difference in the temp. IT got suddenly colder.  Rachel got out in her heat first without any problems and had a clean run the whole way around.  It was a good run.  The four dog took all day before they ran it.  IT got hotter and the dogs were watered in the morning and we could not get them to drink again?  When it was time for them to run it was really warm.  Rachel put together a team of left overs from her six dog team and used some leaders she hoped would pull her around the course.  Rachel took off in her four dog heat and was out first. No problem she stayed in the lead but on the way home her leader would stop and roll in the snow and bite snow??  We have never seen this before but he was hot and didn't get enough to drink before his run? LOL it was kinda funny but Rachel wasn't very happy by his actions. We knew after that day we needed to water them later and hope the race could move along a bit faster to get to the race before they needed to drink again.
   Day Two. It was allot warmer today. Really warm first thing in the morning when we got up.   We watered her six dog team in the morning but didn't water her four dog team. She switched a leader in her four dog team as well.  Her six dog team went out just as good on day two as day one.  Rachel was out in the lead and held the lead the whole way round.  Her four dog team was watered closer to her race.  She put up a different leader and had a great start and awesome finish.  No problems with this team today. 
   Over all Rachel won the six dog by four and a half minutes over Dave's STREEPER TEAM. Rachel and her team also won the four dog race beating Dave's STREEPER TEAM.  it was close after having so many stops after day one.  AWESOME Job Rachel and dogs.
  Now we had to leave very quickly and get home.  This was my concern now is getting up to North pole Alaska for a training run.  It was a very quick run up north back home.  We dropped off the dogs in season loaded up a few more and took off for the IFSS race.
    I was quite concerned about the team after racing so hard in the heat.  I think it took allot out of the team. The question now would be,  Will  the team recover in time for the IFSS races?  We needed to give them good rest and have them as prepared as possible.  We also wanted to train when we got there and time only allowed us to train on a Weds and start racing again on a Friday.  This isn't ideal by any stretch and I knew that.  In my mind to get them out racing and to go have fun during Rachel/s last year was more important than having things fall into place perfectly so that is what we did we went out and did some racing and had a fun trip to FT. ST. James.  We really enjoyed our time there.  Great people and great race.

  Today we have received many requests for dogs and breedings from Rachel's dog team.  Her six dog team is made of five litter mates and one dog that is related to the dad of the five litter mates but a different mother.  I like those odds.  There are others that do too! LOL if anyone is still interested we can help you out  with a breeding from one of her males.  If anyone is rolling through Whitehorse on the way through south we have the male here for breeding.  You can contact us through email   derwood@northwestel.net   

  Okay welcome back to our blog.  I have been locked out for a year or so.  We had trouble with security and log in.  So now I will catch up on the whole season.  A bit at a time. 

    early in the Fall Rachel had announced that this would be her final season as a competitive racer.  It didn't come as a surprise to us as she had talked about it the year before.  The problem is how in the world do you do this.  We have no idea.  We had been in the sport for 25 yrs now and didn't really know how this would happen.
   The talk at the beginning of the season was to try something different this yr.  So we chose to race some of the adult races.  Usually we head north to Alaska to race the preliminary junior races and Leanne would race the adult races with Rachel's dogs because until this yr Rachel was not of age to be allowed to race in the adult races in Alaska.  We decided to head south of us and try some of the adult races.
   The season ended up starting very very cold and no snow.  Not much here for snow but Alaska had no snow and the season started out with race cancellations.  Our first race was down in Grande PRairie and it was a late start for us.  We headed down there and the trail was pretty crazy with lots of turns and places where a person could have problems if you are not used to racing on this kind of trail.  We are used to racing in Alaska.  Very Wide, very flat straight trails where speed is the determining factor to the outcome of the race.  Rachel had a leader that would run right off the trail before they noticed a sharp turn in the trail.
   This is much different than what happens north in alaska.  In the north the trails are there for dog mushing.  So they never change and they are always the same condition. The start to groom the trails at the beginning of the snow falls.  Down south the venues are used for different things.  So the trails can be changed last minute and they even had horses walking on the dog trails while they tried to prepare a race trail.  Kinda like comparing oranges to apples.

    After we left Grande Prairie Rachel felt as though she had allot of trouble and her dogs lost confidence and so did Rachel.  So we needed to go race where she could have clean runs.  No troubles no shut downs no bad passes nothing like this. 
  Her schedule conflicted with allot of the races so we never did much for traveling after Grande Prairie so we decided to try a local race. 
  The trail was very rough so she had to keep the speed down on her dogs incase she injured someone. It was also a bit longer than what we usually race but it was a one day race and the purpose was to have one clean run. 
   Rachel left the starting chute and it wasn't long and she ran into a woman waving her down.  Rachel stopped and the woman wanted to get into the basket and get a ride. Rachel let her ride on her runners until she came up to a team stopped on the side of the trail. The woman got off. Rachel took off and then ran into a loose team with out a driver and had to follow it all the way around the race trail.  Another disrupted run with all kinds of problems. 
   We then sit at home and train for weeks waiting for a race close enough and with the right timing to go too to race.

Arctic Winter Games 2012

Well it is all over for another two year. Rachel was able to capture three more gold metals. So far nine for nine in the AWG. She has never lost in all her games races. We will post some pictures of the race and metals. IT has been a great year and sounds like we are racing a couple more races. I think that we will try and race some of the yearlings before the end of the season. This way they will start next year with some experience. Sounds like fun to me. LOL
Games went good and it was well staffed by volunteers. WOW it was allot of work but everyone said they enjoyed it. Good job to everyone for their participation and volunteering.

Arctic Winter Games

WOW we are almost finished. It has been very very busy here in WHitehorse. Like I said it has been so hectic and busy leading up to the games. The trail is done and the competitors are ready. The first day went well. We had practice runs with all but a few competitors going to the practice runs. Kat and Rachel did their practice runs the week before so we didn't have to do them the day of the competitions training runs. They helped on the competitors practice days and had a look at the competition. IT was great to have them help and not have to hook up their dogs as well as help every one else.
Day one of competition went very well. Rachel ran the 10 km and kat ran the 7.5 km. Kat got gold and Rachel also got gold on day one !! they only trained one day as the competition did but neither Kat nor Rachel ever ran these particular race trails. So that was fantastic. I was very happy and proud of my mushers. That put Rachel 7 golds for 7 races in the Arctic winter games. It was awesome.
Day two kat ran the 7.5 and Rachel ran the 14.5 km race. Kat seemed to have some trouble on this day but was able to bronze. Rachel raced her longest run and she also got a gold metal. That is 8 gold for 8 races in AWG history. Fantastic for her. We are not done. We still have tomorrow so stay tuned and we will try and get you informed.
It seems that the minor problems that started with Kat training the dogs has turned into chronic troubles. Not sure what to do but Rachel will have to really correct dogs if this continues to happen into the future. If Rachel chooses to race next year we need to breed our dogs and make some puppies. It is time to grow and sell some. exciting young dogs in our future.

junior world championships

Another Jr. WOrlds are done. Rachel and Kat did awesome. Both had good races considering. Our kennel has not raced since the new year. In a last minute decision Rachel switched dogs from her main team from the 7 dog to the 5 dog. I was shocked when I heard this decision. I never said much (as it would not make a diff. anyway) and was more worried for Kat than anything. She had a few runs on our dogs at home before we left and now she will be racing some more dogs she doesn't know. That had me worried.
However. Rachel was absolutely right in making this decision. Rachel took out some of her main dogs. Put them in Kat's team because of over heating fears. Such a good idea Rachel!! I was worried about clean runs. I didn't want Kat to have a bad experience with her team at all. This was a confidence builder for her leading up to the games. I think that was a success.
After the first day it was very apparent that Rachel made the right decision and no one got overheated in Anchorage leaving Rachel in a great position for the Arctic winter games. I was some what shocked at her decision but look back and am amazed at how she thought it through.
Kat with little experience running our team went out and did as we asked. Clean runs and on the third day I asked her to get off the training mat and let the dogs race. She had the second fastest on the day.
Rachel on Day one ran a seven dog team that was not her usual team. She put them together on day one. had a good run on day two and had a good run on day three. Put her second by one second over all. LOL. Some awesome racing for Rachel's first eight dog race.

COngratulations to both the girls.

More grooming.

It has been absolutely crazy here trying to keep up with all the grooming for the arctic winter games trail. Very very busy. Snows snows and snows more. So we are very busy keeping up on our trail, the AWG trail and the plowing at home. The trail is coming along. We are all going out on the week-end to cut trail where it needs it. Then we are leaving next week to go see all our friends in Anchorage for a visit. Rachel will spend the week end there trying to put something together for the AWG. After that weekend she should know roughly what she will use for her team. All part of the process. So we will carry on. Some young dogs here we thought could make it but decided it was not worth pushing them for what?? They have their whole lives to race and train hard. We have some that suffer from bad heat stress since it has been so warm here. This is something that we knew about and were fine on six mile runs. Eight has been a different story. Just too hot.
We are sure going to miss the race in Ft. Nelson. Too bad we can't go but we are placing the AWG as a priority. Plus the race in FT. Nelson is a mass start and every one and their dog will be there cause of the prize money. LOL. So no hurry just keep on going forward being patient for the future and hope Rachel keeps racing. IF her decision is to race then we have a litter or two of puppies that need to be whelped here to help for the future. MORE PUPPIES. Hip hipp hurray.
Leaving next week. today and the rest of the time left before traveling to Anchorage again we will get ready, clean truck etc etc.

more training and grooming.

The snow never stops here this year. Moose also are looking for a nice packed trail to use. the wolves are back on another tour behind our place around the trails. when this happens the caribou and Moose scatter. When they scatter like this eventually they find the trail. When they do they bee line it straight down the trail to get some speed to put some distance between them and the wolves. Then it won't be long and we will be grooming the trail and big long wolf turds full of moose or caribou hair will be dropped along the trail. Then everything settles again until their next trip through the area hunting.
I spent some time over at the race trail for the arctic winter games. Pretty well have all the trails marked out now. It will be a matter of keeping up with the snow and hoping people in the area respect the trail and leave it as they find it. It makes it very difficult to have your sport venue in a public place where anyone can be on the race trail.
The eight mile loop is a old trappers trail. It winds it way through the bush and will be a very exciting trail for the Mushers to speed through. There is still lots of work to do on this trail but it will get done.
The six mile loop is mostly on a lake surface. Easy to put in but hard to maintain. Wind new snow and snow mobilers can wipe it out in a hurry. We have the new groomer on the way. I hope It will make a good trail in most conditions.
The four mile stays on the bush trails and has many turns on it as well.
Rachel/s teams are awesome and they are fit and ready to race. Problem is no where to race yet. So will keep you informed when we go.

Cold again today.

Hi everyone. Well the groomer was approved by the AWG's for us to use on the trail. We have many groomers here that I have used and improved upon over the last 25 yrs but we did not have anything that will do what we need to do for the games. The AWG has the trail open to public. Unfortunately that includes TRUCKS, HORSES and big snow machines with paddle tracks ripping up the trail. My objective is to have an awesome trail here for the Juniors to race on. So in order to do that we had to purchase a drag that is made in Wisconsin U.S.A. If it wasn't approved I would have to build one. With my back the way it is I am glad we could go purchase one. It will help if we need to repair the trail at anytime. SO thanks to the AWG committee for the approval. Now I will get it made and sent to us.
Training continues. Some injuries on key dogs. Rachel remains busy training some young dogs that were bred for an open class driver friend of ours. This fell through so a friend in Tok has them. She is swamped with young dogs so we took three of them home with us and Rachel and I are working with these young dogs in our training now. We have one other AWG team member who needs dogs as well. Kat has lots of our dogs in her kennel but they have gotten old. Some of these dogs were from Ben's dog team when he finished running dogs she got some and some of those dogs went to Rankin Inlet. She now is looking for dogs and we will be doing our best to provide some that will help her out with her races. We have been doing this for years now, we also used to keep more dogs so in the end we will probably split the yard up and spread the dogs around so we can make two decent teams that will be used in the AWG.
weather has stayed cold and down south the races continue to get cancelled due to lack of snow and north of us it won't quit snowing. LOL. Oh well that is the way this sport is. We have some good training coming up soon and then there will be some more colder stuff coming. We continue to plan our next race. Difficult to decide when the weather and cancellations continue. FT Saint James will be one we would like to go to race but not sure on the dates and if that will work for the AWG. Time will tell. Winter goes so fast that if you don't hit every race you can the season is over before you know it. It won't be long and we will be back in the dog truck travelling to the next race.

Holed up at home

Well things are not great right now. Weather has us holed up in the house. No training at these temperatures.
Before the temps dropped Rachel was training a 10 dog team. The theory is that she needs to put on eight mile runs. There is a big elevations change on the 8 mile loop. There is lots of short climbs that can really slow an average down. So we added two more dogs to her team and now she also has an increadable amount of power now for climbing up the elevation changes along the trail. Plus this gives Rachel and myself a easier training regime this way.
When we came back from Alaska we brought back the new females. there were three of them and now we have four from a female of ours named Stryker and a male of a friend of ours from Tanacross Alaska. Rachel is harness training the three females and keeping our other dogs trained up. They should be able to race this season as well once there are a few more runs on them.
No snow at our races down south. So we are unable to go there. Too cold here to even train now but got good runs on them before we had to shut down the training. It won't be long and the weather will change and warm up. Then we will be right back to where we left off. Not sure what the next race will be but will be there as soon as we can get there.
I have to work on a new drag. Because we are putting on the AWG dog racing near our place. We will get a new one shipped up to us from Wisconsin. This trail groomer will repair hardened trail to the point that If it rains on top of the snow it will scrape if off and repair any damage to the surface of the trail.
The AWG dog mushing is being held very close to our place so we don't have far to go to fix and work on trail for the Games.
Our plan is to try and get to a race in Ft. St. James. that would be a good one to go to. Then we shall be back home for the games. Then for the remainder of march I am not sure of yet. depends on what Rachel has time for as well.

Talk to you again soon

The plan

Well I don't know what we will do in the Month of Jan. Our plan was to go to Grande Prairie Alberta to an adult race so Rachel could race there. It has been cancelled/postponed until sometime in Feb. Looks like We could see all the races be scheduled for Feb March. It makes it hard to get to the races when they are all in one or two months. Now we will look for other races around our range to travel and see what we can do. Obviously the more the races we go to the better prepared we are for the AWG. This is the goal. It is also the goal for other teams to challenge Rachel to her races. There are some very capable teams just inside the Alaska. lots in Northern NWT. So no cake walk for Rachel this year. We have allot of work ahead of us.

The dogs are ready to run longer runs now. We need to increase their endurance without taking away the teams speed. We also have to increase our speed and bring up our total average speed over the distance. It is dropping slightly due to the extra amounts of loose snow we are running due to the weather. Other than that the team is looking pretty good. Can't wait to see what they will do when drove hard in a race? Should be under 17 minutes in six miles. We must run eight miles in under 24 minutes. Should be interesting.
We also took some puppies from a friend of ours in Tok Alaska. they are ready to run and be harness broke. So we also have puppies to train. Four of them need to be trained so we need to split up some of the adult dogs to help train puppies. One dog turned out to be too much of a fighter and they stopped running her. The other dog started to quit on Roni's team and just didn't want to run anymore. Would quit in the same place every time she ran. the third puppy I am not too sure about but they just didn't want to harness break them. We are excited to get them started. We are looking forward to some of these dogs contributing to our kennel. '

We will keep you all posted to what happens next.
Thanks again to all our sponsors. It has been a great help so far and are excited to go on our next trip.

our Races in Alaska.

Well we are back from Alaska. The trip proved to be a productive one. At first I was wondering why we were even there. Our first race wasn't until the 31st of Dec. There were always races there on the 26th 28th then the of course the last week-end of Dec into the first week of Jan. The races early in Dec were cancelled. We had dogs on the truck and were training on different trails. The trails in Anchorage are very difficult to run dogs on so being there training dogs is well worth the time there.
When Rachel trained there she had a leader quit in her team. Spartan. Very unexpected. We have always looked at Spartan as our best leader. One of the best we had for a very long time. We just never expected this from him. It is difficult to know why it happened. In at this track in Anchorage nothing surprises me. There could be anything out there. Rachel said he just stopped and the dogs would run over him. She would straighten it all out and it happened again. She thought it was water that was under the bridges this time. when other times it was not there. Rachel said it was a problem on the six mile trail.

Leanne ended being the first one to race Rachel's dog team. It was a four mile four dog race and a six dog six mile race. The first of the races was a four dog. on the four mile trail. When the four dog and the six dog teams were made Rachel thought the best leaders in the four dog team would be Spartan as one. Rachel though that the problem spot on the six mile would not be encountered on the four dog trail.

LEanne left and took off no problem. The teams left the starting chute in one minute intervals and Leanne left number three. Just to add, to those who do not know, Leanne does not really race dogs. She has not raced for a number of years. Mainly to always having a crash or just a general bad experience. However when we are in areas that only have adult races, ones that will not let Rachel race at, then Leanne is more than happy to jump on the runners and give the dog teams a good experience and a good training run while in a race environment. Leanne does not train them Rachel does all of that. So basically Leanne is getting on the runners and hoping the dogs run fast and where they are suppose too without any problems. We all hope the same thing when she leaves the starting chute.
We waited and waited for leanne to return. So we knew something was going wrong. When she came into the finish line she looked pretty disappointed at her run. When asked what happened she said that Spartan was quitting on her. over bridges and on any trail that had steep drop offs on the sides. IT put the team into last place. This is odd. It raises some concerns in regards to his vision although he is just a young dog? We just do not know why this happened or what caused it, yet. Dogs are so full of surprises. You never know all you think you know about dogs, there is alway something to learn.
Leanne also ran the six dog. Rachel put a nice six dog team together. Leanne had a clean run. And was in second position. This is what we would think, and hope for if we are there. Somewhere in the top three.
On day two we needed to make some changes in the four dog team. I suggested using a dog named Rafiki. in lead. Rachel said no because that dog also has issue with some tunnels and bridges. So why not use Mac. I looked at Rachel and I asked if she was serious. She said yes mac can do it. So here is this silly big houndy dog. he is just a goof and never portraits any kind of intelligent behaviour. but how smart does he have to be to run like hell. As if he had no idea where he was. Perfect I thought if he has no distractions behind him he may just make it around the four mile trail as a leader. Leanne left last I think 7th in the four dog. In the starting chute Mac acted as if he may not go and may just leave and wonder why he doesn't see any team mates in front of him. He noticed the teams ahead go so maybe he may think of catching them. Remember there is only on minute between teams. Away Leanne went and Mac looked like he was actually running good in lead. So We left the chute waiting for LEanne to come back. I do believe she was in first place on day two time but because of day on it kept her in the back of the field. During the run Spartan was now in wheel. the position just before the sled. Mac ran by all the obstacles and even passed other teams. He also kept on pulling when Spartan would quit at the same spots that bothered him in the training runs and in the first day of the four dog race. After a couple of stops while in the wheel position Spartan started to run by these spots again without stopping which means it was good training.
When Leanne was out on the racing trail it was very busy at the truck. her six team had to be ready. when she gets back there will be very little time to have her team ready before she leaves number two in the six dog race. We usually get all the dogs walked or for sure the leaders. You want them to move around and have a good crap. This some do right away and some need more waking and coaxing. We forgot about one particular dog that has this problem we discovered last year but of course forgot about it or this year.
Leanne came back from the four dog and we rushed to get her six dog team ready. She was in second position and could move up to win or of course the opposite could happen. She came back from her run and said she had some troubles. I asked what and she said bullet had to crap while running. This interrupts the teams flow. If you do not know it is going to happen you can get tangled. this is what happened to Leanne. She got tangled up more than once and had to untangle dogs to continue. This moved her into third in the six dog. So she would have been 1st and 2nd or maybe won them both. This could have happened easily. It only takes a second to move from 1st to third. That is what happens in the sprint races. You cannot have a shut down. Once you do you just lost.
Rachels race was on the third. She raced one junior that is going to the AWG in the six dog and he was her closest competition. She won her five dog race six miles. This was a very good race for Rachel and the time was pretty good. Rachel's six dog team also had a bad experience when she was training. She tried to pass in the trail coming home. the last stretch of the race trail is called no mans land. Passing is allowed there without even asking for trail. Rachel had tried to pass there in a training run but was tangled up with another team. This made it a rather negative experience for her two leaders. The best way to correct this is to have a successful pass as soon as possible after the bad pass.
In Rachels race she passed a couple times and in the same chute coming in the finish line she passed a team at the exact same spot as the place she stopped in while attempting to pass in training. Perfect training. this is exactly what we wanted to happen. She also was first. with a pretty slow time of 18:14 Rachel will run this distance in 17:15 may-be under 17:00 this year. When they are ready for it.

Sorry for the slow reply. We will keep you updated

Training CHRISMAS DAY?

WOW Rachel wanted to train on Christmas day. SO I said sure. We went down to the track in Anchorage and Rachel ran two teams. There was 4-6 inches of fresh powder down there so we ran a couple of short runs. Leanne and Rachel rode together so Leanne could have a look at the dogs. The dogs looked great and it was well worth our effort to go down there and do that. We do not want to leave the dogs too long without training while travelling. Have to keep the training up. These different trails and runs are good for the dogs also. It gets them on the road and doing something different than what they get at home and this is good.
Unfortunately this season will only see Leanne able to race Rachel's team here. With the different schedule it puts Junior mushing out but we are here to give the dogs needed racing experience. That means someone should race them. This leaves Leanne to do this. Leann is Game to do it so that is what we will do. There is a Junior race that is held on the 2nd of Jan. But we need to be back on the third. Rachel does not want to run this cause it would put her late for school.
I do not want Rachel missing school on the way home on this trip. We have another planned and that is to go down to Grande PRairie to race. This is our goal and that race is Jan. 7-8th. I would rather have Rachel leave school a bit early on Friday the 6th to make this trip to the starting line the morning of the 7th. This will be a great trip for her and I and she will be able to race a great race trail down there in Grande PRairie. We shall see how that goes

Hope all had a good christmas.

Twas the night before Christmas

we made it to Anchorage where they have more snow than I ever imagined. The biggest problem is too much snow. The trails are not groomed yet and some trails are closed for this reason. we will be racing and training here. Not as much as we wanted too as the race we usually do on the 26th is no more. we do have a chance to race and that is the 31st and Jan. 1st but then we must hit the road to get Rachel home back to school. This was easy when she was younger but now she cannot miss any class. It makes it difficult for her and I. it means more night travel and less sleep on the way.

I still am planning a trip to Grande Prairie and will leave after school on the sixth of Jan. That will be a good trip. we are back here in Anchorage for the Junior worlds in Feb. Rachel is the defending champion in that race.

The trip has meant good training for dogs as far as riding in the truck goes it makes it good to be here no matter the amount of actual racing we do.
We will train the dogs a couple days after Christmas and then we will take the kids skiing and get ready for the racing at the end of Dec.

Talk soon to update
MErry christmas and Happy new year ot all.

NORTH TO ALASKA

Some new sponsors are now on board. Minconsult is now on-line and we are very happy to have him as a sponsor. Thanks Tim.
Here we are in Alaska. Got here on Tuesday. We are staying in Tok with some good friends. Today we trained dogs on a new training trail. Rachel ran two eight dog teams today and the trail was tough. Wide and boring for the dogs. Surface was sort of soft. Both of Rachel's teams ran good and train again tomorrow. Another pair of six miles. Dogs are ready to race, but no racing here at the moment. We are trying to organize and pick some races but the weather has been really mild West of here toward Anchorage. This is a weather pending trip.
We looked at a race in Grande Prairie Alberta as well. We would get home for Rachel to go to school the third to the 6th, leave after school and get her to the starting line by 9 a.m. on the morning of the 7th. Ya I know what you are thinking but we have done it before and it was not problem to do it. Just need the right drivers to come along to keep us moving south east. There is a great race there that we could not make last year. This year will be much better if we can make it.
So far for Alaska we have races on the 31st of Dec. and the 1st of Jan. So after the races we have to leave and drive home so Rachel could be at school on the 3rd of Jan. Some miles to be covered. This is the problem with races being so far spread out. More miles on the truck than on the dog teams.
Leanne and Rachel also have been very busy making polymer clay Jewelry (neck laces, ear rings luggage tags, nurses name tags and zipper pulls) and selling them to help raise her own money to help pay for some of the expenses. Problem is I hear that it isn't much fun anymore because they have so many orders to fill. LOL. very nice stuff and it sure helps out to get us to the races. If anyone is interested they are welcome to drop Leanne a line.
Leelalily@hotmail.com Give her your requests for orders or to see pictures. Talk to everyone again soon. Tomorrow we train dogs and then start heading for Anchorage. We will stay Christmas there with some good friends. Hit some races and then head home then south.

Back to the training. Welcome to winter of 2011/2012

Well Rachel was hard at it all summer long. Rachel and the dogs ran together all summer. Did not hook up dogs in harness. Rather Rachel ran the dogs in our kennel loose. The dogs all follow her on the four wheeler. This means that Rachel can take them for a six mile run if she wants too. That is what she did. Ran them up to six miles. Rachel ran them lots. Too bad we never kept a journal on the miles that the dogs accumulated during their summer runs.
In all my time around dogs and dog training I never have scene dogs in such great shape. We free ran before. I have scene dogs in as good shape at the beginning of the season but never like this. We fed meat all year as well. Rachel also ran them lots of 4 and 6 mile runs. These dogs look better now than they did at the end of last season.
My philosophy with free running is exercise the same muscle you would use for sprint/speed mushing. There is only one way to do this Okay maybe two ways. One is to swim them in water. the other way is to let them run. But only free as you cannot be hooking up the dogs to a four wheeler and have them pull hard in the heat of summer. Sure way to teach dogs to slow down. That is all it does is make them work hard enough to get hot.
When you look at the dogs they look right. the form is right, the muscle development looks right. They run nice at the end of summer and after they get put back into harness. Rachel did her second run on her sled. When she went on that run I told her to let the dogs run just easy. Then find out how fast she is going. This is to find the basic pace of the team. You need to know this to be able to help train the team. The basic pace was right around 19 mph. That is what her teams basic pace was. Normally this speed would be 16.5-18 mph. I could not believe it. This is great news but we need to keep this speed up in the team. I am very happy to have learned this.
We are now getting ready to leave again to go to Alaska. We will race as many races as we can and Leanne will also race Rachel's dog team to keep it sharp while there is opportunity to do so.

I am not home at the moment so I keep in touch via email or text. Rachel trained today but was not sure about the trail. It was snowing and blowing. She went out and ran two teams in this kind of condition and did well. Thanks for your help Matt.

We need to also thank all the sponsors that came on board again.

Thanks to Ernie and Kim Doble. They are the owners of Supreme Diesel in Sexsmith alberta. They are really great people and enjoy visiting when I can.
Also thanks to Nigel stubbins at Paint en place. Nigel has to be the longest participating sponsor we have ever had. He has been with us for years to help us get to races Thanks again to Nigel for another year of sponsoring.
We hope to get Arctic backhoe. and a few more businesses in town.

We are excited to be back on the road . The dog truck is just about on the truck. IT won' t be long and it will be ready to go again for another year. So exciting to get the dogs on the road again. Rachel will be training primarily for the Arctic Winter games.
I will try and keep up to what is going on this season. Last year I had website and blog problems. Until next time
DK

Junior North american championships

After the world Championships in Anchorage we did very little prep for the North Americans. When we go to races we take 16 dogs with us. The idea is this. When the dogs on the truck are raced then the others that are not raced should train the same distance. Reason: So they all have the same conditioning and miles on them. This way no one gets out of shape and behind. This doesn't happen enough. IT is hard to do for one dog driver. It is necessary and I will tell you why it is.
WHen we went to Fairbanks for the Junior North Americans in Fairbanks Rachel had an option to race in two classes the six and the four dog classes. When this happens it actually weakens each team to a certain amount. Rachel picked out each team. I was not in agreement but Let her do it anyhow.
In order to build a good four dog team she dipped into her world championship team. She had one leader in standing heat that should not have ran. She also had a cough going around in the kennel. This left out two leaders one in heat and one with an exceptionally bad cough. Her four dog team had two dogs on it from her world championship team. Then to replace these dogs on her six dog team she made some rather unusual choices but that is okay. We go race to see how various dogs perform then we learn and do not repeat the mistake.
There was a total of three of out best yearlings left out to sit and two really good older sisters that should have run. One young male that Rachel figured could not make the miles. This dog needs to be trained to do this or sold. Not sitting on the truck all the time.

Day one came and Rachel ran very conservative on her first day. Which was awesome. The trail there goes down hill for quite a ways mile or more. You need to slow the team down while going down that hill. OR the dogs go slow coming up the hill. This you do not want. On day one she was in the lead by a few seconds in the four dog. In the six dog she was third by 26 seconds in the six dog race. Both teams in the six dog race are very competitive. So she had to be right on the money with her plan. She was she was sitting perfect on day one.

Day two her had was forced. She had to push harder in the six dog the four dog she just had to speed up a bit. In the six dog race she had to be in contention for the last day. that meant she had to push them a little harder to be in the running. These six dog teams were within seconds of each other. after day two she lengthened her lead in the four dog race and she was first on the second day in the six dog but just by seconds. I new then that she didn't have the team she needed to dominate at the North Americans. SHe might of even had dogs in the team to drop for day three. I asked she said no.

Day three came along and the miles on the days run is increased. Longer runs hotter days as the race went on and the trails were not good. SHe was in a good position in the four dog race and I said to her just run them and see how they do. each day in the four dog she made her lead bigger and bigger. The six dog race she was not in a good position. She was leading the race so she went out first and her competitors got to go after her and catch her. Rachel was also racing her team into a loop that her team was not familiar with. So they will slow down in there for sure. she had leader problems the leader in Standing heat did not want to perform. The older dog she put in was jumping off into the snow and a different team do just wasn't a big help all week end.

Rachel blew away the competition in the four dog race by minutes. Rachel was second in the six dog and lost first by only 10 seconds over three days of racing. . It could have been different and it will next time. The only thing that could happen that is great about all this racing is that there is learning going on during all this. I know there is.

Once again we like to thank all our sponsors for all their help. We now have 11000 km on the truck since starting out in Dec. With out our sponsors we could not make it to these championship races. Thanks again

We now run two more championships one is the adult race of Champions where we will take Rachel's team to train in the race. Leanne will run them for Rachel. Then we come back to race the Tok junior race of champions. We look forward to this.

Rachel is the new Junior World Champion in the five dog class

She did it. We had been waiting. Problems every year at the worlds. Dogs that would stop at bridges or tunnels. SO many obstacles. Rachel was a rookie to this race at one time so the dogs were too. They learned together.
We had been gone to Anchorage over the Christmas holidays. Rachel was able to race the dogs twice and Leanne once. SO it was more experience for the dogs that had trouble on the Junior World Championship trail 2010. Rachel had said that she was able to find a team of six or more that does not have trouble on the trail. She needs five for the Worlds to race with. How do you pick out the best of sixteen ? Just base your team on the ones that do not have troubles or what other criteria do you choose?
Rachel made that decision on her own of course. She mentioned that she would leave out the ones that do not like the heat. The ones the heat bothers the most in other words. That makes more than enough sense to me as it is usually warm in Anchorage. If it isn't when we get there you can almost be sure that it will be in a few minutes of race time. Rachel has two males in particular that are very susceptible to the heat. They just work the hardest. That is another way at looking at the dogs. It usually is the dogs that work the hardest that over heat the most. She left out viking and Ace. Two great males that would speed her team up quite a bit I think. Rachel would agree. Viking starts to look good in stride when the team is going 19 mph so he has lots of speed in him. He hates to start though. He came to us this way. Ace is just a great dog. works so hard and is extremely fast. But gets hot and hits the wall. Then he won't eat or drink after day one or after day two etc.. He would probably do okay but would not be happy with what happened and he would not enjoy what he was doing next time.
SO the team is picked and we make it back to Anchorage for the Junior Worlds. The race starts on a Fri. continues on till Sun.
Day One.

four inches of fresh snow. easy to wax the sled for but tough going on the dogs anyway. We quickly start clipping hair off the dogs feet in hopes that we do not ball up on day one and cause any feet damage. I asked Rachel if she wanted me to put foot cream on the dogs feet right away before they ran. She said no. I used to do this in hopes that snow would not stick in their feet and that would cause less troubles later on. Rachel not being familiar with using this cream refused the idea. So we ran with clipped feet. I told Rachel I know it will be hard but do your best to slow down the dogs. Real slow so that they do not get tired on the way home. This is the challenge on a day like that. IF the team goes out way to fast they have trouble coming home. They really suffer for the extra speed on the way out. It is just too fast and it wears them out on the way out. When you do this the time you think you made up on the way out by going fast just gets lost on the way home. Just doesn't work at all. Rachel uses a GPS to let her know what is going on when she is training. It helps her feel the speed that she should be going and then checks in with the facts of the GPS.
When I am talking to Rachel about speed. We talk about how fast per mile in minutes and seconds. When I tell her to go out slow that may be a 3 minute five second mile. Then the second mile could be three minutes. so at two miles on her Gps her time would say six minutes and five seconds and so on. With faster and faster miles on the way home. I had no idea her team could do it as fast as they did it in. I knew it was possible but not when asked to do it by Rachel at any given time. SHe has so much control with her team.
Rachel's time on the first day was slow as expected but the dogs looked really fresh coming in to the finish line. She finished in 19:51 seconds or so. This is a slow run but she finished ahead of second by almost a minute. The success to this day was simply having a clean run. The dogs went around without any troubles This sets up the last two days with the hope to push them fast. If you do not have to worry about mistakes by leaders then you can focus more on speed. Sometimes this puts Rachel in a bad spot because second place could be a second behind her or even faster so while she was unsure of her team on day one the last two days mean she has to catch up. So successful day.
We had cut feet to look after and that went well they healed up fast. the next morning it was a nice temp again 10-12 below C. Trail was better because the trail groomers worked on it during the night. I made up a six mile schedule for her to follow. we were hoping for a 18 minute run or so on the second day. Rachel had another clean run and ran the six miles in 18:50 she dropped a minute off her time easy. Dogs looked good again. I then asked her how the dogs looded and felt on the way home. she said they were find. we looked after feet and got them fed early. at three or so.

last day. Day three. Rachel now has a big lead on the second place team. I was told that the track Record in Anchorage for the junior mushers was 18 minutes and seven seconds. that is for five dogs six miles. So I asked Rachel if she could race them and see if she could break the record. I drew up a record pace on a piece of paper. We put it on her sled handle bar so she could think about it and give it her best shot. The day before I had talked with the trail groomers and they were pretty sure that this last day would produce a really fast trail. Rachel Leanne and I got prepared to break the track record for the Junior six mile.
I wrote out what I thought was near impossible schedule to adhere to. Rachel saw it I don't think that she had any doubt that her team could do this? Okay then I thought go for it. Rachel left the starting line first and her time was posted on the timing tower for us to watch. She took off and had a great start. No problems. There is a ski doo that leaves quite a bit ahead of the dog teams to sweep the trail. He drives around the six mile trail in front of the first team. So he was just ahead of Rachel. When he cam into the finish line I asked if he saw Rachel and he said ya she was right behind him and that her team was catching up with him. He said he was going well over 25 mph. I knew then that she was having a great run. I looked down the trail to see her coming in. Where you can see the team to the finish line is about thirty seconds. I looked at the time and looked at her and thought it looked like she had the record. She pushed the dogs across the finish line and immediately stopped. Immediately her leader started to crap. Rachel said that her lead dog had to go crap a couple miles after starting. This is very difficult to deal with as the dog always looks like it will stop . If it does and you are not ready you get a pile up really fast. I could not believe she noticed and kept the dog going as fast as she was around the track. This is not an easy task for the musher or the dog. She finished her last day with a time of 17:49 . NEW track record. the last record was 18:08. Rachel said that the team that she ran would run that course under 17 minutes and would likely run it in 16 minutes and change. I believe that. It could happen only in perfect conditions.
It was nice to see Rachel get rewarded for hard work. She really went at this hard to get it figured out so she could race there. LIke I said she wanted to race not just hope they made it around without a problem. Congratulations Rachel.

We leave next week for Fairbanks to race the Junior North American Championships. Then a couple of trips to Tok Alaska. then the season is over already. IT goes quick.

We have good friends there that you can't thank enough for having us at their house. It is very nice to have that when we are there. Such a a big difference to have friends on the race circuit. It is makes it more fun that is for sure.