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.

February Plans

We’re entering the last full month of winter with hardly any snow on the ground and nothing significant in the forecast. Our local race, the Tug Hill Challenge, was canceled for the fourth year in a row (2021 was due to covid, 2022-2024 due to poor trail conditions). We’re back on wheels for training, and with the super soggy conditions, that means limiting our runs to avoid damaging neighbors’ land.

Our only other close-by option for training is the state forest, but that will be tricky. There isn’t enough snow to safely sled with the full team. The ATV is off limits when there’s even the thinnest bit of snow cover. I’m not sure there’s enough coverage on the motorized trails for the snowmobile—but that might be our best bet. I’ll have to figure it out soon.

We need to increase our mileage before the end of the month, since we’re attending the 12-mile Seguin Mail Run on the 24th. However, over the next week, our sights are set on the Kearney Dog Sled Races. After Tug Hill was canceled, I decided to enter Kearney on a whim. At the start of the season, I had wanted to run Kearney’s 20 mile race, but balked after realizing it was a two day (20 miles each day) event. As the season picked up speed, I assumed I’d be training for events in the 10-15 mile range, so Kearney’s other classes slipped my mind. Bad weather has us behind in miles and other race options canceled or postponed, so running Kearney’s 6-dog, six mile class should actually be just right for where we’re at.

I haven’t decided who the race team will be yet, and it will probably be a race-day decision. I do plan to have Hopper and Willow lead with Hubble and Blitz in wheel. Team dogs are a bit of a toss-up. Sagan will likely be one of them, as she can also lead if I need to swap anyone. I’m fairly certain Laika will sit this one out, as this looks to be a spectator-heavy event and she doesn’t do well with large crowds. Atlas would definitely provide more muscle than Faye, but I’m not sure I’ll need (or want) that if the trail is hard and fast. Faye may also handle warm temperatures better, so we’ll see how things shake out.

Little by Little

In the blink of an eye, our season is already at the halfway mark. So far, we’ve only attended one dryland race back in November (Paws of Thunder). We’ve only scratched one planned race due to warm temperatures. There’s a lull in events over the holidays, so we’re just now ramping back up into snow race season.

Speaking of snow—there hasn’t been much. A few small bursts over the past few weeks. Enough to get on the sled, but not with the full 8-dog team. So, instead, I’ve been splitting the dogs into two 4-dog teams and running them back to back. The challenge is finding enough time to run both teams the distance they need to prepare for our races. We’re still not quite there.

Each snowstorm has been accompanied by heavy winds and rain. I’ve spent just as much time maintaining the trail as I have mushing it. After the first snow, I took the snowmobile out to pack the base and check for downed trees. Even though temperatures had been below freezing, the trail on the far side of my neighbor’s land was still pretty soft underneath the snow. Combine that with a snowmobile that’s too big for me, and a bit too long for the complicated, winding trail, and you end up with a stuck machine.

It might look like I crashed into a tree, but it was more of a slow-motion slide into one. The snowmobile’s left ski caught the tree and I couldn’t manage to reverse in the soft mud. Luckily, I wasn’t far from home, so I left the machine overnight with no real plan, but the universe provided one. A town plow driver saw me struggling and managed to find me on Facebook to see if I needed help. He went out later that evening and pulled the machine away from the tree. I couldn’t believe it! What kindness, out of no where.

The next morning I set back out to get the machine home, but immediately got stuck again. The trail tilts left in this area and I didn’t have time to build momentum and get away from the trees. I also don’t weigh enough to effectively lean the machine towards the trail. Neil, the plow driver, was nice enough to come back out and rescue me yet again. He ended up driving the snowmobile back home for me, which was an enormous relief.

After a second wind and rain storm, I knew better than to take the snowmobile out and instead did trail cleanup by snowshoe. I quickly hit another snag—my chainsaw wouldn’t run. It had gotten pretty gunked up after cutting through rotted logs and hitting mud, but no amount of cleaning could get it running. I ended up buying a second, bigger chainsaw, since my current one was a bit too small for the trees I needed to tackle. The new one worked wonders and I took care of six trees in twenty minutes.

We only got a few (glorious) runs in before a final rainstorm took out most of our snow. Now we’re in for a week of below freezing temperatures, leaving us with an icy trail that isn’t safe for anything unless we get more snow. The meteorologists amped us up for lake effect this past weekend, but it hit north and west of us while we got a dusting. Our next shot is Tuesday through Thursday. Cross your fingers!

Here We Go!

A new season is upon us! It’s been a slow start, but that’s nothing new in the warm and humid northeast. I’ve got modest race plans for the team this fall and winter, with a bigger focus on just enjoying the trails with my dogs and loved ones.

Before dryland training even started, a number of races I had on the docket were canceled. I was hoping to finally attend Bristol in Canada, but it’s not happening this season (perhaps indefinitely?). The fall race in the NJ Pine Barrens was canceled due to park staffing problems. I really hope they get that sorted for the spring race—I love returning to where this all began.

There’s a few snow races I’d like to try and they inevitably choose the same weekend. If the past few winters taught me anything, it’s to keep options open, because more than half end up canceled anyway.

Our first event of the season will (hopefully!) be the Paws of Thunder dryland race in November, hosted by the Siberian Husky Club of the Niagara Frontier. We attended this one day, 2-heat race last fall and had a really fun time. I expect to be running in the 6-dog rig and 2-dog bikejor classes again. See you on the trails!