Good times...

We had a great weekend, with some great friends. On Saturday we went to Brownville and put in a nice 36 mile run. I borrowed one of my friends dogs (Maggie Wey) Lumos which is my Phoenix's brother. He did great! He can trot for miles beyond miles, he would make a great distant dog. I put him next to his sister Phoenix and you can see the photo below, its just too cute! He is much bigger than her.

Cree ran lead on Saturday, and I got thinking that this was the longest run she had ever ran lead before, and she handled it perfectly! I was happy to realize this because now she should be ready to lead at some of the races! She just keeps impressing me more and more.

On Sunday we ran at our normal training area and did a nice 20 miler, the team needed a break, with putting on 100 miles this week. I had Lumos in my team again, and he did great as always! Boy does he love food!

Last Wednesday we did a nice long run with a camp out, to get the dogs used to resting...They did great as far as eating immediately on the line, everyone ate! But the resting part they must of forgot about, because they didn't want to rest. Next time we will have to run them further to get them to rest. Plan on doing that this week! :) So stay tuned. The pictures below are from our camping trip with the dogs. At one point you can see for miles, and that is at 2556 feet in elevation! It's a climb for sure!

Nothing else going on, we have just been working our butts off trying to get in gear for the 100 mile race we are entered in at the first of February. I have to say so far everything is going smoothly...knock on wood! Well to end this enjoy some photos!

Happy Trails!

~Fort Illio~

Photos

Here are some photos that Maggie's friend took of our team this past weekend! Thanks Tyson!

Kaleeta and Cree lining out!

Kaleeta and Cree again, such good girls!

Phoenix!

Training 1/11/2010

This post is going to be mostly of photos. This past weekend we did a lot of training with the dogs, and at a few rare moments I was able to snap a few photos. On Saturday the camera was dead, which was a big bummer, because the scenic views we had on Saturday were just amazing! The trail Saturday was very very hard, reminded me a lot of the Can Am 60. I thought we were never going to see the truck, we just kept climbing and climbing and climbing! We climbed in elevation 2556 feet, according to my GPS! I could see Flagstaff lake, and Sugarloaf Mountain at the same time. Pretty neat! Again wish I had my camera. Amazingly with the dogs being so tired on the way back in on Saturday, they still loped in the last 5 miles in to the truck, and came in very strong and happy! Even dragged me a mile!! Sunday's run I made it a little easier on them, only went 20 miles and it was a much easier trail, the dogs loved it! I wanted to keep their spirits up!

Here are some photos!







Two of these photos are of Ray's team, who trains with us a lot. In swing on his team is a black and white male who is Pirate, My Kaleeta's and Aryan's brother. In one of the photos you can see Phoenix flying! LOL! :)

No moose pictures at all, camera was dead on Saturday, and I didn't go that way on Sunday. We had a great weekend training with everyone, and I want to thank everyone that helped me hook up! Cathy and Eric, Maggie, Ray and Sue, and most of all MOM!

Happy Trails!

~Fort Illio~

Hard 16 miler...

As I was saying in my previous blog we went out and broke out our trail. Unfortunatly we didn't break out the full 30 miles, due to getting close to running out of gas on the machines. The machines were working really hard trying to break out the trail, with atleast two feet of snow to plow through. So we only made it 8 miles out and 8 miles back, having it be a 16 mile run the night after. When we went through on snowmobile, there were hardly any moose tracks at all, which earlier this fall there was a lot of moose activity on this side of the mountain, never once saw them, but there was a lot of signs of them. So not seeing to many signs Sunday night, I was quite convinced that maybe they moved to the other side of the mountain where the loggers are cutting. Boy was I wrong!

We hooked up the dogs on Monday evening when we all got out of work, and headed out. About at mile 7-8...WOW! Talk about a lot of moose activity! They must of had a field day after we broke out the trail. TRACKS everywhere, and at one point you could see where one of the moose bedded down right next to the trail! I just kept thinking I hope the moose just stay where they are! There is one track out there, that is HUGE! The biggest track I have ever seen for a moose, and same track I have been seeing all fall. Luckily we didn't encounter one of the big creatures that run, and lets hope for the remainder of the winter as well! :)

As far as the team and how well they did, lets just say I couldn't stop smiling! The trail was hard going, considering we just broke it out the night before, so there isn't much of a base. Plus the fact that its a tough terrain anyways. But the team handled it extremely well, and came in just as strong as they took off! Again I just couldn't keep smiling. And of course the two characters of the team just keep me laughing anyways... Cree and Marocca. Cree just kept trying to run in the tracks of the moose, she just loves to hunt when she has the opportunity, never even skips a beat amazingly! And for Marocca, she just has the best attitude, just loving life, bouncy and happy all the time! She acted like she never even ran a mile when we got back to the truck!

Oh and a tip...NEVER feed Kotka beaver by hand, what and ALLIGATOR!!! I forgot how bad she loves beaver from last year. I think I will remember from here on out though!

Hope to take pictures of all the moose tracks this weekend and share them with you!

All for now!

Happy Trails!

~Fort Illio~

Introducing the Blog...

Well I decided I was going to try this blogging stuff out and see if it's easier for me, rather than writing journal entries. I think its going to benefit me in time already!

We finally got a significant amount of snowfall this past weekend, and trails should be great from here on out! I am taking the team out for a nice long run tonight and see how things look. Where we run, there is a lot of moose, so I am hoping not to encounter one of the big creatures this evening. Where we are running this year, its a different spot, we can go further, and there is a lot more hill training, plus a much wider trail. Which is what I prefer running on, when running 10-12 dog teams. Well atleast until I get good at it! :) Although I still like those fast narrow windy trails, they give such thrill rides! :) Plus the dogs really love it!

I should have pictures soon, to share with this blogging stuff, but won't be until this weekend.

The team is doing really well this year, just a few minor injuries, but both dogs are coming out of them just fine. Storm has a minor wrists injury, so another week and he should be good to go. Kotka has a minor shoulder injury, which I think she is better now, tonight we will know for sure. But she is little so I can easily bag her if needed.

We are gearing up to run the 100 miler at the beginning of next month, so we will be very busy from now until then! Both excited and nervous at the same time!

Tried out my new cooker I got for Christmas, and LOVE IT!!! Works great! Can't wait to be on the trail and use it!

Thats about it! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years!

Happy Trails!

~Fort Illio~