History frozen in time...

Or - in the river. It may not look like it, but this is on the Yukon river. But on the edge of a small island. These old historic era pilings are on this island, and on the other side of the river as well. They were used for guiding the sternwheelers along the river and around sandbars and islands, etc. That historic slant is why I went with the b/w photo here:



This run was a bit tough for us. Due to the snow and wind, the trails and trailmarkers were completely obliterated. The trail was soft and "punchy" - as the dogs would poke through the top layer of snow. As we first hit the bay, the dogs weren't sure where to go. They had a vague idea since we've been out there before, although this was the first time this year. Jack and Kate did a really great job of finding the trail and listening to my commands. I would yell "Gee" (right) and he would look back at me, as if to say, "you sure?" and then he'd look that way, and sort of head in that direction. With further encouragement, he kept going even though they'd kind of stray off into the wrong direction. Eventually we found the trail and made it across the river to the village. This is where Jack hit a wall and did NOT want to be in lead anymore. He just slowed and let the dogs behind almost run into him. Despite Kate's valiant efforts to drag him along, he wasn't having any of that. He'd had enough I guess. So I switched Ripper and Rupert up for the return trip. We took lots of breaks for snowballs in the dogs feet. I had to clear them out of a few feet, although I was surprised by Gracie, George and Lucy's feet, who had the least problems. None in fact. Gabe, Kate and Kuna were the worst, and I usually always booty up Kuna and Harris.

We came back a bit slower, and the same thing happened when we got back to the trail-less bay. Rupert was in charge of finding the trail. He responded amazingly to my commands. I'm almost embarrased to admit that they surprised me. We almost always run on wooded trails so the commands are pretty cut & dry. Ripper wasn't sure what to make of it. I haven't used him in lead a ton, but he keeps up a great speed and is a pretty smart guy. He also has some knowledge of commands, and hopefully this experience taught him a bit. Jack did fine on the return trip too. Guess he just needed that mental break from lead. In fact, everyone pulled the whole trip, so I'm certainly happy about that!

Heck, I've learned from it too! Next time, we're taking a good long break at the village, and I'll bring some tasty fish guts for treats to keep them "up" (bad musher... forgot the treats at home!) Hopefully it just gets better and better with each run.