Did I Say Spring?

Well; it seems like I have been referring to spring for weeks now and according to my calendar it is "officially" but if I look out the window it sure doesn't look like it. We still have a LOT of snow for the end of March and it's snowing again this morning. What a long winter; good thing I'm into dogsledding. I'm sure there are some raging cases of cabin fever around this year. It will be a long time before our flower bed is seeing the sunshine here in Lake Elmore. In the photo below the snow pile on the left is right on top of our spring flower bed. I think it's going to take a while for that one to melt away!

In the mean time as long as the trails are good we continue to run the dogs. It could make for a short off season this year if we run through April. That will leave May, June, July and August before we begin our fall cart training again in September; not bad..

Thoughts of cycling are starting to creep into my mind as we've had a few days with sunshine and temps in the 40s. It's always hard to believe it will be warm enough for riding in shorts at this time of year but it will happen. Last year on this day I went for a road bike ride and it was 50 degrees and sunny. I don't think I'll be getting out on the bike today; in fact I have a dogsled tour this afternoon.

Spring Fling

We’ve been having a little spring time fun here the past week. With the tour schedule thinning out a bit as we move to warmer temperatures I have been getting out for a few runs with the pups with out tour loads in the sleds.

Saturday one of my guides and I took a drive to Bartlett New Hampshire to participate in a 23 mile fun run/race. We both ran six dog teams and they did a great job. I ran Buck and Muddy in lead with little Fleche and Dubois in team, Etta and Exxon in wheel. The second team was Umiak and Heron in lead, Pegasus and Teddy in team and Orion and Hercules in wheel.

It was an out and back trail so there was plenty of head on passing to be done. Buck and Muddy amazed me! They have not run with many other teams or dealt with much passing at all this season but they remembered exactly what to do. We had NO incidents and every pass they did was perfect. Good boys!

I hadn’t been doing many longer runs this winter because I felt I needed to conserve their energy for tours but they actually seemed more excited and stronger on tours we’ve run in the days following the race/fun run. I think that next season I will try to do longer light weight runs at least once a week with them.

Yesterday (St. Patrick’s Day) was Dubois, Etta James, Buck Wheat, and Muddy’s fourth birthday. We celebrated with a round of Vermont made Green Mountain Dog Cookies and hot dogs for everyone. It’s hard to believe those guys are already four years old; seems like just yesterday that I was holding them in my hand. They have really turned out to be amazing dogs and they bring a smile to my face every day. Happy Birthday guys!

Spring Mushing in Vermont

Ah; the signs of spring in Vermont. Rain one day, snow and five degrees the next, town meeting day, the primaries, and song birds beginning to return.

The weather makes maintaining a dogsledding trail a real challenge. Yesterday morning when I went to set up for tours there was two inches of fresh snow (a good thing) with three inches of wet slush hidden underneath it (not a good thing...). Luckily it was about ten degrees at that point so after a grooming run the slush below began to freeze up making for a very nice mid winter type trail. Sometimes we get lucky and the snow gods help us out.

Last week was Vermont town meeting. I always try to attend our meeting here in Lake Elmore. It's a great way to meet more people from our town as well as a chance to see what is going on in local politics. We didn't have any huge issues on our meeting agenda this year so things moved along pretty quickly. That was followed by a walk across the street to the Town Clerk's office to cast a vote for the Vermont primary. I try to remain optimistic about this whole election process but it becomes harder and harder each time around. Looking back over the past twenty years our prospects for presidential candidates have not been great and I'm not convinced it is looking much better this go round. With corporate America having more say than the population it's hard to see how things can improve. That said; I cast my vote and hope for the best...

Time get moving. Off to feed the peace pups and begin to get ready for a few tours. With a predicted twenty eight degrees and sun today it should be a lovely day to be out on the trail with my furry family! Every day is a blessing at this time of year. You never know which one will be the last. It could be seventy degrees and melting in a week.

Sledding Season Winding Down?

It's hard to believe it's March already. Seems like I have been plugging along with blinders on all winter; nose to the grind stone shoveling snow, grooming, loading dogs, you name it. All of a sudden it's time to turn the page on the calendar and March is upon us. Where did the winter go??? If the cold season drags by for you I highly recommend getting involved in dogsledding. The winter will go by so quickly you might miss it if you blink!

We're starting to get into the time of year where we expect a real mix of weather here in Vermont. It might be 55 degrees one day and 0 the next; raining one minute and snowing the next. Of course this provides all kinds of challenges with keeping the dogsled trails runnable. Yesterday morning it was 50 here, this morning 30 with a lovely mix of rain, freezing rain and sleet. We have snow in the forecast toward the end of the week so it looks like the trail will be good to go again this weekend. We still have close to 4 feet of snow in the woods so unless it gets real warm real fast we should have snow for quite a while to come.

I've been dealing with a injured dog over the past week. Not sure what happened to the poor guy but last Monday Mycan was having problems standing on his rear legs. He had been in a bit of a scrap when we were having play time the day before but there were no apparent injuries; no bites, swelling or signs of him being hurt. Two days later he was unable to stand. He was in for xrays last week and nothing appears to be wrong there. The thought now is that he has some sort of disk issue. After a full week of treatment and acupuncture he is standing again and functioning normally. I don't know if I will ever have him work in harness again. I hate to risk any sort of re injury to his back. Once he is fully recovered I will either bring him in to live with the other two couch dogs or try to find him a good pet home. He's a sweat little dog with a ton of energy but it looks like early retirement from the life of dogsledding.

With the warmer weather my thoughts are beginning to turn to spring. On my list of spring projects to keep me busy between seasons is a dog barn for the peace pups. I am so sick of shoveling snow this winter and keeping all of the dog houses clear that I decided to build a enclosure over the whole dog yard. I'm also planning on fine tuning the bike tour facet of my business to see if I can get that off the ground this season. Biking in the summer and running dogs in the winter; now that's a life for me!