Spring weather SUCKS!!!!!!

Oh, I've been a bad blogger lately! The combination of this flu from hell and the warm, spring-like weather has brought me to a new level of low. Don't fret though (mom), I feel as though I'm bouncing back. My poor dogs hadn't been out in over a week. The temperatures have barely dropped below freezing in that time! So I don't really want to run them in this weather anyways. I guess it's a good time to get sick really, now that I think about it...

So, this was my first attempt at anything remotely physical after a week of not being able to move. The Shallow Bay Hockey League is back on track:

I am not on the ice here. I did a fine job trying to play I think, but would have to take a breather every once in a while, wheezing and coughing on the sidelines. Fun game, but the ice is melllllting...

What else has been going on?! Ah, the annual, "Get-the-hell-outta-the-cabin-and-socialize-you-freak" Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Festival was last weekend. This is always a big entertaining party, with dogsled races, flour-packing, chainsaw-chucking contests, dog weight-pulls, and snow sculptures:



And "Walter" - Sara's friendly, yet annoyingly BOUNCY lab/husky thing:

Acutally, I think she just sedated him. He had not stood still for 2 seconds before this. He attempted to leap on, and swat other dogs and anyone he could reach with his paws. We took him skijoring once a while ago with Gracie, and he bounced 4ft in the air all the way down the driveway.

We also had a beauty of a run last night. Tyson may be doing the skijoring race out at Haines Junction this weekend with 3 of my dogs and one of his. This is insane, with 4 dogs, but he sure proved last night that he can ski like a son of a... gun.

After we pried ourselves out of the cabin after a great dinner at Tyson & Nicola's place at about 8pm, we thought it might be a good time for a night run. It was cooler and the dogs always love the night runs. So I gave Tyson Ripper and Harris to run with his guy, Dakota. They're all similar sizes, with Ripper being the runt. He used Ripper and Dakota in lead. I took out 6 dogs, with Kate and Rupert in lead. We headed down the trails, and right off the bat we have a super sharp almost 90 degree turn. I asked Tyson if he could handle it with 3 dogs before we left (I'm getting good at this travelling with others - I'm starting to actually think about them!), he said yes, and I believed him. Good thing, 'cause he flew around that corner and didn't miss a beat. Not only did he have three big males (2 over 65lbs), they were also CHASING us!! Their own team was getting away!! Now that really makes a dog rip up the trail.

We sped down the side roads and Tyson was so close to me I told him to pass. It's tough to slow dogs skijoring especially on icy roads! So we had a bit of a screwy pass, thanks to me not paying enough attention and slowing my own team down enough - so Tyson had to ride up on the snowbank and totally wiped out! A somewhat controlled wipeout though. Then, all I see is his headlamp facing me low to the ground, and him on his stomach being dragged down the road!! All I could do was watch. And think, "hmmm... how's he gonna get out of that?!?" Well, he did some super limber ninja move and righted himself up within a few feet. Very impressive!

After he passed, he noticed a bit of a problem with my sucky dog, Harris. He didn't want to run in front of us! He kept looking back for us I guess. We went ahead at this point and continued a mile or so down to the end of the road and *attempted* to turn onto the trails. Well, no dog wanted to take the *haw*(left) command. My dogs wanted to go down on the river, then they wanted to go down some never-used trail with a chain across it. Finally I had to get off, and lead them over, knowing full well that hook wasn't going to hold. The snow is just too soft. So, they figured it out, but dogs never WAIT for you to get back to the sled. It's just not in their nature. So... I did some belly flop sidways across my sled as the dogs zoomed down the trail. With my legs hanging off one side of the trail, my head on the other, I was hoping the trees weren't coming soon. My ribs and stomach were taking a beating against the side of the sled and finally we stopped.

Took a bit of a breather, and we were back on track. We sped through the loop, and I couldn't believe how fired up the dogs were and how fast they were going. They never let up! Kate and Rupert were unbelievable. We did the 7-mile loop and Kate was going FULL OUT still as we made the turn into my driveway. Rupert was even looking like he had to really work to keep up to this old gal!

We got back, fully pumped and excited, since both of our last runs were total crap. Tyson explained how he had to basically sit on his skis the whole way to control the speed. The trails were too narrow for him to snowplow to slow the dogs (whupps.... forgot about that!), but he did a great job keeping it all together. I feel fully confident lending him 3 of my guys for the races this weekend. I won't be racing, since I'm sacrificing it all to be a handler this weekend for the Silver Sled race (have I not learned from my past mistakes?). That's a 100-mile, 2-day race that 3 of my friends are going in. And a few of us are driving their dogtrucks for them. That means we get to drive the trucks, pick up dropped dogs, watch the teams run and mushers work hard while we party in the trucks and whup it up at night with other handlers. On the Sunday, we drive back in the morning, while they race back to Haines Junction. And it's all topped off with an awards banquet, where one of my friends better win and share their winnings! Should be a blast!!