Getting Started

I just started my day by setting up this blog. Now to begin recording the trials and tribulations of life with my family (both human and canine) here in rural Vermont.

A little about our fall training. I and the two women I hired to assist me with tours this winter have been running the dogs for eight weeks now. This fall has been very nice for training with cool temperatures being the rule. This is the first year I have had someone available to help me train on a regular basis and it is really paying off for the dogs. They are much stronger at this point in the season than they have ever been before. They are also running much more smoothly as a team. It's always a little rocky starting up with the dogs having been on vacation for a few months and new helpers. The first week brought a few minor injuries including some badly bruised shins for me (I'll save that for a later date...) and a some bumps and bruised for the help. We have around 120 mile logged so far with most of that being five to seven mile runs. We have done a few ten mile runs but I don't think we will go much higher than that for dry land training. I'll wait until we are running with sleds to bump the mileage up much more.

I'm very excited about the trail I have access to this winter for tours and training. I hope to have around fifteen miles of groomed trail for training and longer runs right at my tour location. It was a bit of a process setting up this site and took most of the summer sending emails back and forth. I had to rebuild a bridge in order to access the staging area and still need to do some work on the starting area in order to be ready for sled tours. The trail itself is in pretty nice shape but could use a little bit of brush work. I hope to get out there over the next week to do this. We could be on sleds any time now. It is raining right now but the forecast is calling for snow tomorrow!