2024-2025 Wind Down

The mushing season is winding down after what felt like an endless winter. Heck, it remains colder than usual and we even got 6” of snow this week. Nevertheless, we’ve transitioned to short ATV runs as the days get warmer and longer.

Kuiper and Laika rejoined the race team dogs, since we’re not going very fast or far. They both look great! I’m hopeful they’ll be part of the race team pool next season. Willow’s foot injury hasn’t been bothering her, but I can tell the tendon is still swollen, so she’s going to be benched until fall. She’ll be 10-years-old at that point, so we’ll see how much she wants to do with the big team, or if she’ll stick to B Team runs.

This season had plenty of challenges, which I’ve already written about. That’s not what this post is about. Instead, this is to share the good that came out of the 2024-2025 season, because there was a lot of it!

1. Sheridan moved in! This was the first season with Sheridan living here and his contributions to the team must be celebrated. He did all the usual handler duties: he traveled with us to events, drove long hours, helped wrangle dogs, and got us to the start chute. He stood in the rain and slept in the cramped, cold van. He lined-out the team for training runs at home. He was out on the snowmobile, breaking trail for us after almost every snowstorm. And most of all, he loved us unconditionally, even when it meant sharing the bed with 4-6 dogs.

2. Eating on the road! The dogs notoriously suck at eating when we travel. This isn’t great when you’re competing in races. This season, I began giving the dogs their meals and meat soup in their crates inside the van. Like magic, they’ve eaten much more reliably. This was kind of a “duh” moment, since they eat in their crates at home.

3. We raced! Though the season sort of fizzled out for us, we did manage to attend a brand new race (the Osceola Dryland Challenge) as well as a new-to-me race (the North East Dryland Challenge). We also saw the return of the Tug Hill Challenge—the race that brought me to central NY.

4. Kuiper joined the team! Though his future is still a bit uncertain (pending cardiology appt. this summer), Kuiper has been running with the team and fit in pretty seamlessly. We’re keeping things pretty short for him right now, but he did run in his first races this past fall.

5. Gear upgrades! I picked up a used Sled Dog Systems K2 sprint sled, which is great for running smaller teams (and maybe, when I have the steering down, big teams, too). It also folds, making it much easier to pack. We traded my gigantic Polaris snowmobile for a much more manageable Ski-doo. It weighs a lot less, which makes it easier to un-stuck, but it’s still big enough to handle deep snow. Lastly, I bought my first real sprint rig for dryland racing—a zippy little K9 Cruiser from Wolftrack Dog Carts. I have yet to use it, but it should make its debut this fall!

I’m not too sure what next season will have in store for the team. As I mentioned, Willow will be 10. Blitz is turning nine and Hubble is turning eight this summer, so they’re not too far behind her. The boys don’t seem to be slowing down just yet, but I’ll be keeping an eye on them. Laika (who will be six, turning seven in January) appears to be happy rejoining the team, but I’ll only race her at the more low-key events without many spectators. Sagan and Hopper will be six next season, Atlas will be five, and Faye will be three. They are my core race team, and all four can lead. I am really hoping Kuiper gets the all-clear from the cardiologist this summer and he can join the race team, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As far as our goals are concerned, I’d like to run the dogs in Michigan next season. That’s one big mushing hub I have yet to visit, though I’m not sure what events we’ll be shooting for. For now, our only goals are to get out until it’s too warm to do so, and then enjoy our summer break.

Tough Luck

This is my seventh season in the north country, but only the first with consistent snow coverage from January onward. We haven’t seen dirt since 2024. So why has this season felt so challenging? Why are we just now hovering at seven miles, when I’d expect to be doubling that distance by now? Lemme tell ya.

First, a disclaimer. This post isn’t meant to be a pity party. Nor is it to make excuses (because who cares? I am my own boss here). It’s for my own bad memory. I reread old posts pretty often and I want to remember some of the harder times. It will help me appreciate the easy times and maybe I’ll learn something, too.

So here’s a not-so-brief list of challenges we faced this season:

• Hunting, logging, mud: every fall, the trails we share get used for hunting, which limits our access. This season, we had additional logging activity out back, which blocked the only ATV-safe trail down into the woods. Rain and mud delayed the logging operation through winter, so that trail is still unsafe.

• Health issues: Laika developed bladder stones, which took her off the team. Kuiper had some odd behavior after a few runs, and with the threat of heart issues in his lines, I took him off the team as well. Willow strained a muscle in her foot, so she came off the A Team as well. And can’t forget Hubble, who has chipped another tooth, and will be going in for dental surgery next week. He should recover within a day or two, though my bank account will take longer.

• So much snow: a blessing and a curse. Once we got enough, I could use a side trail to access the woods and finally start building miles. But snow has been falling almost every day. Temperatures have been mostly below freezing, so it keeps piling up. As soon as the trail is groomed and ready, more snow falls. We ran out of time to scope and prep the biggest loop out back, and it’s now buried under more snow than dog or machine can handle. We’ve spent most of our free time this week getting snow off the roof. And more is coming this weekend.

• Leaking roof: the barn’s metal roof typically sheds snow on its own, but with many small storms and the wood stove blasting, an ice dam formed. The roof panels developed tiny cracks, just enough to let a steady stream of water leak down into Sheridan’s office. Super.

• Electricity nightmare: lights have been flickering for a few months, but it has escalated to full blown power loss on one leg of the house. So far, we’ve spent over five thousand dollars between two electricians and the problem only seems to be getting worse. We’re having our meter box replaced tomorrow in hopes that solves it.

• Travel: ok, so this last one wasn’t exactly a challenge, but it was hard for me to go on vacation during mushing season. We lost about two weeks of training time while I visited Hawaii with Sheridan and his family. It was a great trip and I’m grateful for the experience, but next time we’ll have to plan a summer excursion.

• EDIT 4/6/2025: Because clearly I was challenging the universe by writing this post, I had to have another small calamity. Willow and Laika got into a scrap, which for the most part was fairly minor and could’ve been treated at home—except Willow ended up with a sideways canine tooth. We spent a Saturday at the e-vet getting things livable and today she’s finally had the tooth extracted at our dental specialist.

We’ll get through all this and come out stronger on the other side. I always like to recap our season with some noteworthy positive experiences, and I promise that post is coming. If there’s any good news, it’s that winter is holding steady, and I hope that means we’ll have an extra month to make up for time we’ve lost.

Back on the Hill

After several years of bad winters (and covid), we finally had the snow for our local snow race—the Tug Hill Challenge. In fact, the race had to be delayed by an hour due to actively falling snow.

I went into this race feeling a bit underprepared. We have been on the sled all of January, but with the frequent storms, we spent most of our time breaking trail. Even with Sheridan regularly grooming with the snowmobile, the ultra cold temperatures kept things fairly soft and slow. The dogs are strong, but their stamina for going fast had not been built.

Photo by Eric Haase of Echo Image Photography 

My race team was Faye and Hopper in lead, Sagan and Atlas in team, and Hubble and Blitz in wheel. I didn’t really have a choice for this race, since the other dogs are either benched or running fewer miles. We were the first out of the chute in the 6-dog class, after 8-dog and the skijorers.

The race organizers did their best to smooth out the trail, since groomers didn’t have time to get out prior to the race. There was a solid base under about 8” of fluff, but the trail was still pretty punchy. The dogs ran well despite the softer conditions, loping about 90% of the trail. We finished third in 6-dog open and third overall on day one.

I’m always proud of this team, but day one left quite a bit to work on. The not-so-good stuff:

1. At a road crossing, Hopper tried to turn us down the plowed road, instead of staying straight. Honestly this surprised me, but in hindsight, something I should’ve anticipated since he tends to choose the path of least resistance. We also took out the trail help (so sorry!) and lead the team behind us the wrong direction (sorry again, Nova!)

2. We had a few sloppy passes, which really bothers me. We had to stop to fix some tangles after the messy road crossing, and I think it gave Hubble time to notice the team gaining on us. Hubble is fine with passing teams as long as it happens quickly, but when he has time to get anxious about it, he’ll shark—especially if they slow down on their approach. It’s empty threats, because even when the team stops right beside us, he just stands there. Still, it’s not appropriate and one day he’s going to shark at the wrong team.

3. Pooping. There was a lot of pooping on the trail.

4. Our lack of speed training was evident by the end. They were pretty gassed out by the last half mile. The next morning, my bigger boys (Atlas, Hubble, and Blitz) were all a little sore.

On race day two, we woke up to white-out lake effect snow centered directly over our house. I had barely slept all weekend (thanks, anxiety!) and with half the team sore, decided it was in our best interest to scratch. The race site actually wasn’t hit with the same band of snow and the trails were better groomed, but I knew my gang needed the rest. Especially Hubble, who I didn’t want to put back on the trail in a compromised condition. If he wasn’t feeling 100%, it would translate to insecurity, and that turns into sharky behavior. So for everyone’s sake, we stayed home.

I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t finish this race, but I know I made the right call for the whole team (myself and Sheridan included). We were also moderately snowed in, so getting over to the forest wasn’t really an option anyway. I am still so glad I got to see friends, both the locals and dog-friends, and support this event. Here’s hoping we’ll be back next year!

Photo by Emily Ferrans Photography

(Oh yea—Atlas bit his tongue in the starting chute. Hence the crazy joker face at the end. He’s fine, don’t worry!)

What Lies Ahead

Running sled dogs is challenging in the best conditions. This isn’t a hobby, it’s a lifestyle. It’s expensive, it’s time consuming, it’s all encompassing. I’ve uprooted from everyone and everything I knew for this. And on the days we’re cruising through the forest behind our home, gliding for miles on plentiful snow, it’s worth it. Unfortunately, those days are few and far between. In a few more years, I wonder if we’ll get them at all.

Last season, we barely had any snow. From October through March, we spent most of our time running with the ATV. I drove over six hours north, into Canada, to find snow races. This season is starting to look pretty similar as we approach the New Year with our snow all but gone.

Most of our season is spent on wheels. The trails we share with our neighbors aren’t great for wheeled training. They’re steep, rocky, or just plain too narrow for the ATV. When the ground is wet (always), the ATV will leave ruts, which closes off most of the trail system to us. October through December, these trails are hunted, making it unsafe half the week. 

This season, our neighbors are logging their land, which has made our one ATV-safe loop inaccessible. We’ve had to stick to the trails only on our own property, which don’t amount to much. The monotony of repeating them over and over is driving us all crazy. We keep tapping out at around three and a half miles.

The dogs are having a tough season. Laika developed two large bladder stones after our last dryland race, which knocked her out of training. She has a checkup in mid-January to see if the stones have dissolved at all with her prescription diet, or if she’ll need surgery. It’s possible she’ll be out the entire season.

Faye is going through her worst ZRD flare up thus far, with a large portion of hair missing from above her eye. It’s slowly starting to grow back, but it’s been a struggle. While this doesn’t impact her running, it is still frustrating. It’s also not great having her bare skin exposed to cold winter temps.

The biggest concern right now is Kuiper. His half-brother suddenly passed away from ARVC, a genetic heart condition that we’ve now seen a few times in our lines. Kuiper is still fairly young for this to be impacting him, but I have noticed some behaviors that worry me. Exercise intolerance is a symptom in this condition and I’ve noticed Kuiper’s tug line will go slack pretty early on in our runs. Usually, you need to worry about pups overdoing it and not pacing themselves at his age. He’s also been much more calm during hookups than any of the others were. It’s hard to know if it’s his personality or a problem.

We’re working with his breeder and other kennels to research ARVC in sled dogs. We’ll also be strapping him up with a holter monitor (basically a 24-hour ECG) in mid-January to see what is going on inside him. Until then, he’s getting benched with Laika.

The rest of the team is still chugging along, but we’ll need to up our miles if we’re going to attend the events I have planned this winter. For that, we’re going to need snow.

I have hope we’ll sled a few times this winter, but the future looks bleak for snow. Sheridan and I have begun poking around on Zillow, looking at properties with 40+ acres of wide open field that we could carve into dryland trails. Hunting for homes with consistent snow in the northeast seems like a fool’s errand. It’s time to make the most of our wheels for what lies ahead.

North East Dryland Challenge

What a cold, wet, smelly weekend. This dryland race was anything but dry, as they so typically end up being. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It’s been almost a month and the dog van still stinks.

It rained the entire weekend, from a steady drizzle to full downpour. We arrived at the race site late on Friday night, parked dead-center of the paved lot, and woke up completely surrounded by dog vehicles.

I went into this race with some experimental team configurations. Normally, I run my strongest dogs (the "A Team") in the 6-dog class and bike with the rest (the "B Team"). Since Kuiper is old enough to join in, I found myself with enough dogs to compete in both 6-dog rig and 4-dog rig (although I'd be short one dog, since I only have nine in my race pool). Eyeballing the competition, I thought it would be a good opportunity to run my purebred Siberian huskies in the 6-dog registered breed class. That would leave Sagan and Hopper to run in 4-dog all breed, with one remaining Siberian. I decided to put Atlas in as the third dog on that team, to give them more power.

The end result was probably one of our worst races (except when my bike exploded during the Fair Hill Challenge many years ago), but it was (mostly) not the dogs' faults.

Day one was demoralizing for both teams. The chilly rain added to the misery. In 6-dog, we were running quite well, but then Faye stopped short to poop. Since she was in lead, this resulted in her tangling up with the dogs behind her. I had to jump off the rig to fix everyone, but I didn't fully untangle her line and it ended up under Willow's harness, which made her less eager to run the final stretch. On the one hand, I'm grateful I have a heavy rig with a digger brake so I can fix tangles like this. On the other hand, the 4-wheeled Fritz was a huge disadvantage on deep mud.

The 4-dog run was somehow even worse. We were already at a disadvantage with only three dogs on the team, but my new (to me) 3-wheeled Fritz had a stuck brake for the majority of the run. The dogs did their best, but it was a slog.

Day two was only slightly better. We had more poops fly during the 6-dog run, but I managed to hit the brakes fast enough to avoid any tangles. Unfortunately, we didn't make up much time because the trail had gotten that much more muddy. We were one whole second faster.

I knew not to use my left brake for 4-dog on day two, so that team got to run about a minute faster, which felt good. However, we noticed in the start chute that the front tire was fairly low on air, so once again, we were not in great mechanical shape. Even though the 3-wheeled Fritz is lighter, it was tough for three dogs to pull through the mud.

We managed to get fourth place in the 6-dog registered breed class, 9th out of 13 overall. We were 9th in the 4-dog all breed class, 21st out of 25 overall.

I am not a super competitive musher, but I feel like I let the dogs down by having suboptimal (or just plain broken) equipment at this race. I’m hoping we can shine in some snow races this winter—and we might just have a new racing rig for our final spring dryland race, if things go well.

Osceola Tug Hill Dryland Challenge

We had a great time at the first ever Osceola Tug Hill Dryland Challenge. The weather was perfect, friends and family came to spectate, and the trail was (as stated) a challenge! Although the main route was only 2.2 miles, it was a bit like a roller coaster, with a steep climb in the beginning and lots of rolling hills throughout.

I registered for the 6-dog class, the 2-dog bikejor, and the Fun Run (Saturday only). Since I have a heavy rig, I figured it would be best to put my strongest dogs on the rig team. I also didn't love the idea of having super strong dogs yanking me around on the bike, so I put Willow and Laika in the bikejor class. I even decided to use my fat bike for added weight.

Most sprint mushers are doing everything they can to reduce the weight of their equipment. This is usually the best strategy for winning! I was cursing my heavy rig and heavy bike on all the uphills, as I was running and pushing to help the dogs climb.

What goes up, must come down. And those downhills were something! I was glad to have the extra weight and the extra braking power of my heavy equipment. Several teams crashed, but (for the most part) we stayed upright. I was able to control the speed, especially in 6-dog, which allowed us to finish strong both days.

6-dog rig: 2nd place all breed, 3rd out of 6 overall
I ran my two Alaskans on this team, which meant we weren’t eligible for the registered breed class. There was only one other team signed up for all breed—Tabetha’s super speedy Border Collies (who always whoop our butts). We received an awesome trophy for this win (made by musher, Steven Davis!) but I am more excited about our third place overall finish. Staying in control on those downhills made the difference.

2-dog bikejor: 6th place all breed, 8th out of 14 overall
When I registered for this race, I didn't know which dogs I'd select for the bike team, so I entered the all breed class. This put us at a disadvantage, since I ended up running two purebreds (Willow and Laika) who can't really compete against houndy teams. It's okay, though. The girls did great and I'm particularly impressed with how hard Willow worked. Even at 9-years-old, her tugline never went slack. Not bad for my “B Team”!

Fun Run (2-dog bikejor): 2nd out of 9 overall
Sagan and Kuiper did an awesome job running in the shorter Fun Run class. Worth mentioning other teams consisted of single dogs and some canicrossers, so second place isn't a huge deal as the field was not evenly matched. Nevertheless, a great first race experience for the new kid!

I’m really pleased with how the team performed, especially since training has been a bit of a struggle this fall. We head to North East, PA this weekend for our second (and last) fall dryland race this season. The competition is going to be a lot more intense, so we’ll see how the gang does on much flatter terrain!

Treading Forward

The off-season is somehow impossibly long while also flying by. It’s already August and it’s begun to dip below 60 degrees in the early morning hours. Still, it feels like our last run was eons ago and it will continue to be too warm for awhile, it seems. In the mean time, we’ve had three newsworthy additions this summer.

First, Kuiper joined the pack at the end of May!

Kuiper was born in New Hampshire back in March, out of a litter bred by my friend, Megan, of Yukikaze Siberians. He’s a spunky, goofy, snappy little guy with the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a pup. I can’t wait to get him started with some easy-going puppy runs this fall and winter. Faye absolutely loves having a little brother to push around, although he’s already bigger than her.

A week after Kuiper arrived, his favorite person and our second big addition moved in. I’m only kind of joking—Kuiper immediately decided Sheridan was a safe space. Meanwhile, I am the “bad cop”/food-lady in the relationship. That’s OK, I have enough dogs following me around. Sheridan can have one or two.

Oh, and bonus additions with Sheridan: Soup and Bebbu now inhabit the newly renovated “Cat-shop” (formerly the workshop) in the barn. The family grows larger by several dozen toe beans.

The final big addition of the summer is non-living: we got a treadmill! The DogPACER, to be exact. I had wanted one for a long time, but they’re fairly expensive and I was afraid the dogs would hate it. Unfortunately, temperatures are constantly rising and the off-season gets longer every year, so the dogs aren’t getting much exercise on really hot days. Enter: treadmill in the air conditioning!

To my complete surprise, it only took a few days of practice for almost every (active) team member to start using it! Hopper took to it right away and is the leading champion for speed. He likes it so much, he’ll try to join other dogs while they’re using it.

Willow, Blitz, Hubble, and Atlas caught on really quickly as well. Laika and Faye took a bit more convincing, but both happily use it now. Sagan was the final hold out—it took weeks to get her to steadily walk for a few minutes before leaping off. Progress is progress, though, so we’ll take it! (Denali is a little too wobbly these days to safely try the treadmill and Kuiper is still too young for any real use)

That pretty much sums up our summer thus far: lots of changes and settling in, but all very, very good things. There are some other, business-as-usual things, like the garden and trips to visit New Jersey. We’re all ready for it to be fall, though.

Season's End

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We’re easing into the off-season here at the Spitfire homestead. Temperatures have been steadily creeping above the “safe to run” mark, and with all the forecasted rain, we’re staying off the muddy trails.

We also had a few setbacks after “The Crappening” (see last post), which kept us from attending the last dryland event I had been considering.

Denali had another very brief bout of loose poops, which set me into panic mode, but no one else got sick and it went away almost immediately. Not long after that, Laika and Sagan got into a nasty brawl. They’re both OK, but Laika ended up with a sore leg. Her limp came and went multiple times and our vet diagnosed it as soft tissue damage that just needed extended rest to heal. As a final bit of stress, Hopper started vomiting his kibble last week. My vet gave us some anti-barf pills, which worked right away. She also ran bloodwork, which came back showing elevated liver values (ALT, specifically). After the GI upset and antibiotics, this doesn’t really surprise me, but we’re keeping a close eye on it. He’s behaving normally now, but we’ll redo his bloodwork at the pack’s annual exams later this month and go from there.

But anyway, the point of this post is to talk about what went well this season. Aside from all the medical stuff, we also had to cope with an underwhelming amount of winter this season. However! Given the challenges, I’m still really happy with what we were able to accomplish.

1. We raced in Canada! I’ve wanted to run the team outside of the country for years and obviously Canada is the easiest way to accomplish this. Since the US was devoid of snow and almost every race was canceled down here, to Canada we went! We ran at the Kearney Sled Dog Races and had a blast.

2. Not only did we race in Canada, we also got to participate in the Seguin Mail Run and mushed over a frozen lake. I’m choosing to highlight that memory, in particular, because it was definitely something I’ll never forget and can’t wait to do again.

3. I didn’t harness break any new pups this season, but Sheridan joined the team, which is just as exciting! He got to experience his first mushing event with Seguin, and was a magnificent handler for me and the dogs. I cannot wait until next season—he’ll be living here and a lot more ingrained in our adventures.

We’ve got a lot of big plans for this off-season. As mentioned, Sheridan is moving in, so we’ll be renovating the barn workshop into a cozy, livable space to (temporarily) house his two kitties. I’ve already had a window installed, so they’ll get some natural light and, eventually, access to a catio space. Our long-term goal is to build a guest cabin where they’ll live in the future, but for now, having an extra spot for cats/workout equipment/an art studio will do.

Along with the usual work of the veggie garden, I’m hoping to incubate some eggs and raise chicks this spring. This will ultimately result in needing a bigger chicken coop, which I’m hoping to have built this summer. The driveway is also a pot-hole disaster, so regrading that is on the To Do list.

Aside from the projects, I expect to go on many hikes and swims in the reservoir and enjoy the “reset” between our mushing seasons.

Seguin Mail Run and the Crappening

Photo by Lori Leaney

The team and I went back up to Canada in late February to participate in this year’s Seguin Mail Run:

Every year since 1985, "sledvelopes" with letters prepared especially for this event, are gathered, loaded onto sleds and hauled by several dog teams to Rosseau, Ontario, 17 km through the bush on groomed trails. Teams gather and leave from the Village of Humphrey, Ontario, on Highway 141, to the cheers and good wishes from the many spectators and friends as the teams disappear in the bush on their way to Rosseau to be received by the Postmaster.

Seguin is a special, invite-only run and not an actual race. And since it’s a point to point trail, we had to bring a handler along to move the van to the finish. Thankfully, Sheridan was willing to fly out and join us in the frigid cold for his first ever dog sled event experience.

I love the hospitality these little Canadian communities show mushers, both at the Kearney race and at Seguin. We were given lodging, meals, framed artwork, a Canadian post backpack, and a goodie bag loaded with treats and mail run swag. Spectators were so excited to meet the dogs and see them run. Mushing faces a lot of criticism from Animal Rights Activists—it’s a relief to be embraced by those who came out to see us.

Photo by Ina's Photography

The Seguin trail had to be shortened from around 12 miles down to 8.5 due to this crummy winter, but it was still a fantastic experience. We were lucky enough to get a final burst of snow in the week before the event, and the dogs were more than ready to go the distance.

The event fell on the last truly cold days of this season (we saw a low of -2ºF). I was worried about the dogs sleeping in the van overnight, since they didn’t really acclimate to cold this season and half had blown their coats, but the combination of bedding, straw, and jackets kept them toasty. It was a relief to hit the trail in sub-freezing temperatures, which is much preferred over the warm runs we’ve had this season.

We flew through forests, wound around frozen marshes, and emerged into the vast expanse of a frozen lake. I had heard there were lakes on this trail, but I wasn’t sure we’d get to see them, given the shortened course. I’m so glad we had this moment and that the dogs loved it just as much as I did.

Photos by KT Art and Photography

We had a few missteps: slight turns off the main trail following snowmobile tracks, climbing through a shrub to get back on the trail, some iffy road crossings. But, overall, the dogs (Willow, Hopper, Sagan, Atlas, Blitz, and Hubble) did great. I was stunned when we saw a sign for Rosseau. Sheridan barely had enough time to park and prep the drop lines when we came strolling into town. I can’t wait to go back and run the full 12.5 miles there.

A downside to traveling with a team of dogs is that sometimes you bring home unexpected guests in the bowels of one (or more) of them. That was the case after we got back from Canada. Denali was the first to come down with symptoms. Within three days, Blitz, Laika, and Faye were sick. Hopper and Atlas were hit the following weekend. Thankfully, my vet was able to get us in and I had 126 pills to administer to nine dogs over the course of seven days. Somehow, a few of the dogs never seemed to have symptoms, but everyone got dosed due to the contagious nature of this particular GI bug.

Thankfully, we’re now on the other end of it, and everyone is feeling much better. Our events and races are mostly done for the season, though I might try to squeeze one more dryland event in, if I can swing it. Once my home trails have dried out a bit (if they ever do), we’ll continue on with short spring training runs until it gets too warm. And just like that, another season is in the books.

Kearney

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Photo by Marsha Ma and Co.

Our first international race is in the books! Kearney was also our second (ever!) snow race—a fact that surprised a lot of people. Having learned to mush in southern NJ and with unpredictable winters these past few years, I’ve just mostly ran dry land events. But I’m hoping for that to change! (Climate change be damned…)

As mentioned, this winter has been unkind to mushers everywhere. I was several hours into our drive to the race and it was still over 50ºF—in Canada—with no sign of snow. It wasn’t until I arrived at our hotel (20 minutes south of the race site) that I finally saw snow.

The trail crew for Kearney worked their magic and managed to set things up nicely despite the challenges. And day one was definitely a challenge! The temperature was still well above freezing and the snow was the consistency of mashed potatoes. Our six mile (5.5?) slog was demoralizing for myself and the dogs. Though we missed his power, I was glad I made the decision to run Faye instead of Atlas. He would’ve been sinking up to his elbows with his weight.

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The dogs slogging through the mashed potatoes at day one’s finish. (Photo by Emily Ferrans)

Despite having a pretty slow run, I was surprised to see we finished in fifth out of eleven teams. The trail wasn’t just tough for us, it was tough for every team out there. After the first day of racing, a big group of mushers met up for dinner and did what we always do—talked about dogs. I’m grateful to be included in this community, with folks I’ve known since I started back in New Jersey and new friends I finally got to meet in person.

Race day two was like an entirely new trail. The temperature fell below freezing and didn’t come back up, so everything firmed up from the day before. I was worried things would become an ice luge, but the Kearney groomers worked their magic again.

In most two day sprint events, my team runs a little bit faster on day two. I don’t know if I’m just less anxious and hold them back less, or if they just find a groove. Either way, it’s usually by seconds or at most a minute or two. Kearney day two, our time was over five minutes faster than day one. That’s how much the trail conditions improved. It was a pretty white-knuckle run as the dogs whipped me around the twisty, technical trails. We crashed once coming down a hill, but it was one of those calculated falls that I couldn’t avoid. We got ourselves right-side up quick and kept on boogying.

Just as every team struggled a bit on day one, they all improved a bit on day two. We managed to hang onto a respectable fifth out of eleven overall and third out of the six “all breed” teams. I couldn’t be prouder of these dogs, especially after spending so much of the season training in mud.

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Photo by Emily Ferrans

Next up, we’ll be participating in the ceremonial Seguin Mail Run back in Canada this upcoming weekend. I don’t know how much winter will be left after that, but I’m hanging onto hope we’ll get more time on the sled before spring rolls through.