MEET & GREET!

MEET & GREET!  Come meet Lisbet & the team this Friday, 2-5 pm, at Underdog Feeds, just north of Wasilla.  The race team will be present for pets & well wishes, and rumor has it there might be coffee & cookies there too :)

race prep: ECGs

Victor lounging in his dog box. 

Ruby, ready for her blood draw. 

Jan Bullock, head vet tech for Iditarod, attempting to find a vein on Frigg. His coat was so dense, the were unable to locate the vein and had to pull the samples from his leg. According to Jan, being the efficient Arctic animals they are, Siberians tend to have thick coats and tiny veins; good for northern travel, not so good for the vet techs!

Emily Krol, professional ECG handler, Papas, and Lisbet

Hooray, finally got some blood out of Frigg!

Robber being a VERY good boy! He also had to have blood drawn from his leg.

Emily and Frigg on the ECG table.

Would have taken twice as long without Franzi s efficient German help!

downtown willow & dropping off meat

downtown willow

~1200 lbs of beef, pup mix & lamb, ready to be cut up and sent out! Bailey's Farm Beef -- only the best for our pups! 

last week's trail report: the highlands

Last week I enjoyed the surreal feeling of spring mushing in January. We mushed towards the Talkeetna mountains via the Lilly Creek-Woodcutters-Herning-Funky Blvd trails. 7 dogs. OK conditions (some might call them terrible). Lots of frozen overflow and meltwater streams; areas of low to no (!) snow. 

I embrace the current trail conditions & try my best to have fun. We work with what we've got. It's hard to get all the dogs out when you can only (safely) run tiny teams, but on the flip side, these trails offer fantastic training opportunities (water crossings, off trail navigating, slippery ice, etc) and allows me to give the dogs lots of individualized attention. 

My focus now has turned to food drops. We have only one week to get everything we need for the race packaged up and ready for delivery !!!!

long stretches of glaciated trail.

two small, deep open creeks crossing the trail

Woodcutter's Trail. Chugiak mts visible in the distance.

No snow on the hills!!!

The dogs are getting really good at crossing open creeks! 

Herning trail has turned into a river. 

Ice all the way to the top. Luckily there is another way down!

Got turned around by the South Fork of Deception Creek, a large, deep, fast-flowing waterway.

Good dogs!
Vader
Linnea, Nils
Robber, Major
Vinnie, Fezzik

The alternate route down from the mountains. Marginally better.  

Grass lines the trail.

No snow on the ridges!!

Yes, that is the trail....

Robber wondering what the rest of the team is doing all the way down there. Had to let half the dogs loose and walk the rest over.

last week's trail report: the lowlands

Deception Swamp: ice & water everywhere, but runnable. 

the trails have lots of glaciation.

lots.

not all ice everywhere.

there are some nice spots.

Looking northwest toward Kelly Lakes.

Middle Lake