Racing Before the Snow

Today was the Can’t Depend on Snow Sled Dog Race. It is a great race for fun and early session practice. Most teams are not what I would call serious racers, but are out to enjoy the sport and their dogs. The trail had patchy snow so some teams used sled and others used rigs.

Most teams reported having a hard time keeping their dogs on the trail and teams just keep making it harder as they made tracks all over the place. Blizzard and Flurry did a great job staying on the trail and pulled better than they have in the last year. Two teams I know got first and second place. Karen, who rides on a nice 3-wheel light weight rig with bike tires and breaks got first with one of her 4 dog teams. Jeff, who rides on a rig that looks like a kid’s big wheel bike - just a little bit bigger (and not plastic) got second. I got third with my two dogs on the scooter. I forget who was in 4th, but 5th was a Ed and his two dogs who I met the other weekend at the Dirty Dog Race.

After the race, it began to snow…which meant I got to drive home in it. By time I got home, there was enough snow on the ground to go sledding. I haven’t gone out yet, but I am thinking about it.

A Better Day

I took Blizzard and Flurry out to a local mountain bike trail and found a friend to meet us there. My friend road his bike and I got a nice scooter ride. The dogs ran well. Some horses out on the trail distracted the dogs a few times. We got in 4.2 miles on the trail and had a 2 mile per hour better average speed than yesterday.

Afterwards we took a nice 2.2-mile hike around the same park, so I got my exercise as well. I also had to run up a few hills while scootering as the trail is in a hilly area.

The forecast is calling for snow early this week, so next weekend’s race might just be a sled race. If we get some snow, I hope to take the girls out for a short trip on Tuesday or Wednesday night, so they can get used to the sled again. Other than that, next week will be daily walks only so that they rest up their muscles before the race…it also helps them build up some pent-up energy they’ll be dying to burn off over the weekend.