Winter Again

Once again we have changed over from fall stick season to winter. This is one of the reasons I love living in New England. There is never time to become bored with the weather since it is constantly changing. Of course I would like to have more control over whether we receive rain or snow this time of year. However it is an excellent reminder of how much in our lives we do not have control over. No matter how much we may convince ourselves we are in control you really never know what you will wake up too tomorrow (or whether you will even wake up). I continue to struggle with accepting the weather in my life. Even though I know there is nothing I can do about it I still obsess over it; often checking the National Weather Service eight times a day. Hey; it changes a lot... I suppose this is one of the down sides of running a weather dependent business.

This winter so far has been rather trying as we've fluctuated from -10 to +50 in the matter of two days several times already. We seem to be on some kind of wild weather roller coaster ride. The old saying "if you don't like the weather in Vermont or fill in the blank wait a minute" really rings true. One day I'm moping around because it's raining; the next I'm grinning from ear to ear because there is a snow storm on the way. Today life is good. We just received around eight to ten inches of snow overnight; our biggest snow fall of the season so far. I'll be spending the day snow blowing, shoveling and grooming my dogsled trail. This weekend we'll be back on sleds and running the dogs. Next week; who knows? Live in the moment; play in the snow!

New Dog Cart

My goal with this project was to build a training/tour cart for an eight to ten dog team which could carry two passengers. I wanted to have good braking ability and a decent suspension. I started by researching parts for small motorcycles or pit bikes since the wheels for those are similar to what I have on my existing carts. I couldn’t find much for parts that wouldn’t run me more than $1,000.00 just for the wheels and brakes. That would still leave me needing a solution for the suspension. At that point I started thinking about an ATV. I thought if I could find one for $200 - $300 dollars I would be way ahead of the game. I would already have disk brakes and a suspension. I placed a wanted ad on Craig’s List and received a few responses for dead ATV s.

This is the one I ended up purchasing for $300.00. It’s a older Yamaha Banshee 350. I was told the motor did a few years ago but smoked. Even though I was tempted to try and start it I didn’t and went right into tearing it apart.



Here is a picture of the frame with all of the stuff I didn’t need removed. It only took me about two hours to pull the motor, plastic and wiring off and get down to the bare frame. At this point I was able to see exactly what I had to work with. At this point I could still turn back; once I began to cut the frame apart with the hack saw there was no turning back.



Once I had the frame cut in half at the center I did a mock up to help visualize what the final product might look like. Being a woodworker by trade I found wood to be the quickest medium to accomplish this. Basically I was trying to determine what I would need for an overall length and still have reasonable space for passengers. My existing tour cart had an overall length of nine feet so that was my target. This cart is exactly nine feet long; however it looks longer because the nine feet if from wheel to wheel. The other cart is nine feet including a foot rest with the actually wheel to wheel measurement being about a foot shorter or around eight feet.



After determining the length I bought some square metal tube and started to weld the new middle section of the cart. I used 2” tube for the flat floor part of the frame and 1” square tube for the upper parts. It’s quite possible that it is over built but being a complete novice with metal working I would prefer that over having something that might break. I set up saw horses and level beams to construct the floor frame to try and keep it as flat as possible.




Once I had the center frame welded I tacked it in place between the two halves of the ATV. Everything seemed to work well so I continued to weld. As you can see in these pictures I also added bracing to strengthen the connection of new frame to the ATV halves.





Things were going well, the suspension and brakes seemed like they were going to work fine but the steering… That was a big hurtle. How do we get from a handle bar in the rear of the cart to the tie rods at the front? It took me a few hours of scouring the internet before I came up with a source for small rack and pinions. There is a company in Arizona called Desert Karts http://www.desertkarts.com and they carry a wide assortment of sand rail/ cart parts including steering components. The owner Greg was very helpful with explaining what I would need to accomplish my goal. He had a great understanding of the product as well as the ability to comprehend what the heck I was talking about. No small feat as even I didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. What we ended up with was a nine inch rack and pinion which runs off of a straight 5/8” tube to the rear of the cart where it connects with two universal joints allowing the steering to angle up 60 degrees for the steering column/handle bars. The only issue at that point was the fact that this set up didn’t turn the wheels a full turn unless I rotated the handle bar all the way around backwards. Greg suggested shortening the steering arms which I did and this greatly increased the turn amount at the front. He also sells a steering quickener which creates a 2 to 1 ratio in steering. That was plan B for me and it doesn’t look like it is necessary at this point.



This is a shot of the completed cart. I modified some of the original plastic so I would have fenders. Some of our roads/trails become pretty wet in the fall so I wanted to have something to keep water from spraying up on the cart. I made the seats myself. My neighbor does furniture upholstery and had some foam and fake leather scraps. They have a plywood core. That pretty much did it other than a little tweaking here and there such as suspension, steering and brake adjustment. She’s pretty well dialed in now and goes great. It rolls along well and came in at less than $1,000.00 if I don't include my time. Not bad for a full suspension, disk brake cart.. I’ve been running a ten dog team with a minimum of 300 pound loads and the dogs don’t have any trouble pulling it up our hills. I do have the tire pressure up around five pounds which decreases the rolling resistance. The finished cart probably weighs around 250 to 300 lbs. I am able to completely stop a ten dog team with it; the brakes are fantastic. To hold the team I just made some low tech clips on the handle bars which hold in the brake levers. I think part of the braking ability is due to the large contact patch achieved with the ATV tires. They are much wider than the pit bike or motorcycle tires. Feel free to email me at: ken@peacepupsdogsledding.com if you would like any further information.

Early Fall Snow!

Scene from our front yard in Lake Elmore on Wednesday, September 22nd. Not quite enough to run the sled but maybe it's a sign of things to come. One thing for sure; the dogs are loving it and are much happier running in these temperatures than they were at 55 or 60 degrees.

Our new to us Tidd Tech groomer arrived from New Mexico yesterday and I can't wait to try it out on our sledding trail. I've heard great things about these as a means of grooming dogsledding trails. I believe Stowe Mountain Resort uses the very same drag to groom our sledding trail over there and those trails are always beautiful.

Colors of Fall

As the leaves begin to fall from the trees here in northern Vermont and we enter into stick season I have been pondering the other colors of fall. With November elections just around the corner not only are the orange and reds of the trees on my mind but also the reds and blues. Is it only me or do others feel we are manipulated by the main stream media into a us and them attitude toward our fellow citizens? The powers that be seem to want us to view each other as liberal, conservative, red, blue, republican, democrat, pro this or pro that. Just turn on your television and look at the ads that are being aired. Virtually no real discussion about the problems we are all facing; just more of the blame game. If so and so is elected we're all going to pay more. Has the cost of living ever gone down? Certainly not that I can recall. Things cost more and more every year no matter who is sitting in the White House. Aren't we all looking for the same thing? Don't we all want to live in a world where everyone has enough to eat, a roof over their head and no fear of being accosted by "evil doers"? Why then do so many of us waste our time being angry at our fellow citizens if they are not the same color (red or blue) or do not wear the same label of conservative or liberal, etc.? They want us divided because they know if we were all together we would throw them out on their butts. Is there really a big difference between either of the two political parties we get to choose from? Why have the policies of our government continued in the same direction for centuries with little difference whether there is a democrat or a republican president in office? Why do we spend our time shouting at each other over choices that really aren't even choices? Come on America, we are all smarter than that. Look through the smoke screen and see the real issues. I know it take a lot more time and effort to seek out the truth than it does to soak up the propaganda thrown at us by the main stream corporate media but isn't the future of our world worth it? I don't claim to have a answer for the problems we face but I do believe if we all started to spend more time looking at the real problems rather than blaming our neighbors because they do not wear the same label we do we could at least begin to discuss the problems with some level of intelligence. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but even I can see this.

I'll step down from my soap box now and turn my mind to more pleasant matters; my dogs. Fall training has been going great. The new dogs are working out very well and getting to know them has been a joy. I am already quite attached to them and it will be hard to see them leave in the spring. The new cart is up and running and works great! Building it has been a pretty intense learning experience. Being a woodworker all of my life I have never ventured into working with metal before. I find it to be quite enjoyable although as with most things if you do not have the right tool for the job it can take ten times as long. I'm very well equipped for woodworking but not so much for metal. I have been able to make due with the few tools I have and a good dose of Yankee ingenuity. Come by and visit us the next time you're in the neighborhood. The dogs don't care if your red or blue, conservative or liberal; they just like people no matter what their label is.

Fall Again!

Once again it is fall and the trees are a flame with beautiful reds and oranges. It has been a bit on the warm side through out September but we were able to begin running the dogs. The forecast for the next five days calls for highs in the low 50s with 30s overnight so it’ll be great weather for running.

We have six new dogs spending the winter with us and they just arrived last week. So far that transition has gone well with very little trouble. Of course Exxon our alpha male has to be sure and let everyone know he is top dog. Once we got past a little posturing and growling everyone has settled in as though they had been here for years.

I’ve been working on my own wheeled dogsled cart and have it almost completed. One steering part that I ordered has been delayed in shipping but as soon as I get that here I will wrap up the project and get it out for a test run. I think it will be an amazing wheeled sled. It has front and rear disk brakes, full suspension with about five inches of travel and padded seats. The main components are from an ATV. I bought and cut in half. This gave me the suspension, brakes and wheels and should make for a very comfortable ride.

This is a picture from a week ago. I’ll be sure to post a complete photo when it is all put together. I hope to have it up and running by next week so stay tuned for the results!

Good Weather For Ducks

It has certainly been a good summer to have our new covered doggy condos in place. Since I put them up it seems like it has rained just about every day here in Lake Elmore. The news last week said it was a record for Montpelier where they received 8.25 inches of rain in July. Montpelier is about 25 minutes south of us so we have probably had a similar amount of rain here.

All of the rain hasn't caused much damage here at our place. We did have some damage on the class four road which leads to our cabin but the town brought in some gravel a few days ago and patched it up. Other towns near by have lost entire roads due to the rain and have applied for disaster relief.

I had one exciting evening a couple of weeks ago when we had a heavy downpour. I was sitting upstairs on a Sunday afternoon playing my guitar and happened to look out to check on the dogs and there was a river running right down the center of the dog yard! The dogs were all sitting on their deck watching the river flow. I jumped up and into my rain gear and ran out to the yard in a panic. I had visions of all of the sand which I had moved into the yard by wheel barrow washing down the river. All that work gone in the matter of a few minutes... What had happened was the curtain drain which I had dug at the top of the dog yard had over flowed. The spring on the hillside above which usually only runs in the spring with the heavy snow melt had begun to flow and filled the foot and a half deep ditch. When I dug the ditch with the excavator I hadn't quite gotten through the bank to the stream so it wasn't draining like it should. I spent the next half hour digging with the pick ax until I had cut another five feet through the bank and then the water began to drain and run away from the dog yard. Once I got the water out it wasn't as bad as I had thought. Only a little of the sand actually left the dog yard. Much of it was just moved around and with some raking it was almost as good as new. I suppose it was a good test for my ditch. If we made it through that heavy rain it will probably be fine next spring with the normal run off.

That was the big excitement since my last post. Otherwise things seem to drain pretty well on our hillside. The garden is growing like crazy and we've got tons of cucumber, squash, peas and greens. There are plenty of green tomatoes but we'll have to wait and see if we get enough warm weather for them to ripen.

As August quickly slips by my thoughts are quickly turning to fall dog training. Last year we started running with the carts around mid September. That's only a few weeks away! I've really missed not running the dogs this summer.

Until next time.

Summer 2008 Dog Yard Renovations

As I wrap up my dog yard project for the season I’ve decided to do a brief (?) write up. Peace Pups had a great 2007-2008 season with great snow conditions and plenty of great guests joining us for tours. I promised the dogs that I would fancy their lodging up in return for all of their hard work over the winter. With out them there would be no Peace Pups.

As the temperatures began to warm in April my thoughts turned to what I would do to improve the yard. One thing that was fresh in my mind was all of the shoveling I had to do in the yard this past winter due to the large amount of snow. It got to the point where the entrance to each dog house looked like the entrance to an igloo with a small tunnel at each. There was a point when you could not even see half of the houses and could walk right other the top of them. That’s fine for insulation and wind protection but every time we received another couple of inches of snow or the wind blew I had to go out and shovel those tunnels out again. It became a almost daily occurrence and my back was not especially happy about it. Another ongoing issue with our dog yard has been water and mud in the fall and spring. We are on a slight hill side and there are a couple of small springs above the yard. In the spring when there was lot of water in the ground we would have a small stream running right through the middle of the yard. This could also happen in the fall when we have November rains and the ground becomes saturated. Last summer I created a ditch through the middle of the yard to pull some of the water away but it wasn’t great having a ditch in the center of the yard.

My first thought was to build a dog barn. This would provide a nice dry space for the dogs. Having grown up and then worked on a farm as a teen I was familiar with the set up for dairy cows. Why not dogs? I began to look into scour some of the fantastic resources available on line for information on dog barns. They are being used in some areas such a Alaska where the weather is much colder and many mushers are running shorter coated dogs. I believe the main goal for these barns is to keep the dogs warmer in the winter. I also posted questions in regard to what I was planning and began to receive some feed back.

The first issue I ran into was tethering versus pens. Initially I was going to build eight pens to house two dogs each. The meant a very large barn and many gates to work through. I have had two kennel pens as well as tether set ups and came to the conclusion that I really prefer the tethers. To me it feels like the dogs are a more open environment and easier to interact with when I’m walking through the yard. They also have their own private space where they can be away from any other dog. I find that many of them enjoy this and are much more relaxed if they don’t have to be “on” all of the time. I also find it easier for me to do my chores. Feeding, clean up, watering, shots etc. seem to go much more quickly as I walk from dog to do without having to open and close gates and worry about anyone getting out.

It became obvious to me that staying with tethers would work better for us. That decided I revisited the barn idea. Was there a way to build a barn that would work with tethers? The only thing I could envision was a large twenty four foot by eighty foot roof covering the entire yard. One problem I foresaw with that was snow load. With roof that big in order to have it shed snow it would have to have some kind of amazing height. Another consideration was smell. I had read of others that had fully covered runs and issues with odor and dust due to lack of rain. I read about one person installing sprinklers to flush the runs out from time to time.

What about flooring? If one of my main goals was for the dogs to be drier it seemed like I really wanted a space for them to get off of the ground. As I went round and round with this there were days where I was ready to bag the whole barn idea but I didn’t.

What all of this evolved into was what we have taken to calling the doggie condos. The condos have a six foot by six foot deck for each dog. Their houses sit on top of these decks and each has a six foot by nine foot thirty degree pitch roof over it. These are light enough that they are able to be moved if need be. They provide a dry space for each dog to hang out. They provide great shade. They are very open so they don’t block the breeze in the summer and they will keep the snow off of their houses in the winter. I have them set up so it will allow me to drive my snow blower through the center of the yard to clear the snow if we have another heavy snow season like the past one.

A bonus to this set up is that for our town a building permit is not required for structures under eight foot square. The doggie condos are basically glorified dog houses.

Next is a brief photo essay of the project as it progressed over the last month.

Step one: Preparing the actual yard and improving the drainage issues. I rented a mini excavator to level the yard out so the doggie condos would sit flatter and along the same plane. We had four or five stumps in the yard which had always made it difficult to place tether posts. The excavator made short work of those! I also dug a four foot deep curtain drain across the back side of the yard to pull away and water that might come down the slope. I then had thirty five yards of sand delivered which I spread through the newly leveled side of the yard. I had filled another section of the yard with sand last summer and was very happy with the drainage and lack of mud. This is a picture of the yard leveled; evenly spaced tethers and new layer of sand.

Step two: Building the decks. I put together a lumber order and had it delivered and unloaded in our driveway which would become the doggie condo construction shop for the next two weeks. I built the units so the roof could be separate making them much easier to move. Here we are framing the decks in the driveway.

Moving the decks into the dog yard so that cars can once again pass through the driveway. The deck seem to be a immediate hit with the dogs!

The decks in place in the dog yard.

Step three: The driveway becomes a roof assembly line. These projects always seem to take on a life of their own. When I put the first metal roof on I had the bright idea of painting it to see how it would look. Well with one painted they all would need to be painted in order to match. Some of the metal had rust on it so of course that needed to be wire brushed off before painting. Before I knew it we had another two hours of labor per roof. I think the final result was worth the time though and it should help the metal last longer.

Now we are almost done. All of the roofs are on, my wife says she thinks it looks like a state park... I still need to buy 50 cinder blocks to block the corners of the decks up off the ground then do the final leveling and I think that will be it for this summer. The doggy condos seem to be working out very well. We had a rainy day this past week and we had multiple places to stay dry while hanging out with the dogs. I can’t wait for winter to see how they work with snow!

Officially Spring

It is truly spring here now. The snow finally did melt off of the flower bed as it always does and now the spring flowers are in full bloom. I may even have to fire up the lawn mower soon! luckily I don't have to do much mowing here; we have a "real" Vermont lawn which mostly consist of dandelions, wild strawberry, clover and a little bit of grass. We've made a big effort to expand the flower beds and vegetable garden to decrease the lawn area. I figure if it takes more than a half hour to mow it's too big. There are so many other thinks I would rather be doing than mowing the lawn.

I'm having a lot more interest in the bicycle tours this summer and we're up and running now. I purchased a van which works great for hauling bikes and customers and I've got a fleet of brand new Diamond Back bikes from Chuck's Bike Shop located just down the road in Morrisville. The riding has been great with nice temperatures in the mid sixties. This week the lilacs, apple trees and dogwood are all flowering so the air is very fragrant as you ride along. With the new cross style bikes I bought this year I have been getting out and finding some amazing roads that I had never ridden before. I have always ridden either on the pavement or in the woods and never spent much time riding the dirt back roads of the area. I now see what I was missing out on. Not only is there way less traffic but the views are much nicer as well. Of course some of those old roads have some pretty steep grades on them but at least there aren't dozens of cars whizzing by you as you grind your way up.

I built a pair of lean too structures for the dog yard last week as prototypes and they seem to be working well. Now all I have to do is build twelve more! I don't have roofing on them yet but I did find a great deal on a load of used roofing. All I have to do is pick it up this week. The pups got a new swimming pool this week too. They've been upgraded from a four foot kiddie pool to a six foot. I'm really excited about the improvements that I'm making this summer. It will really polish things up.



That's about all the news that's fit to print from here in Lake Elmore today. Until next time!

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!

Always Something

All has been well on the dogsledding front; the dogs are in amazing shape this winter the trail conditions have been great and we have been very busy. The past week has thrown some obstacles my way however. It started out with the clutch on the tractor failing as I was snow blowing the road. I just spent over $3,000.00 to have the engine rebuilt on the old Massy Ferguson over the summer and had hoped it would be all set for another fifty years after that. That was not meant to be apparently and off it went back to the shop for another major repair. We have to have the tractor to keep our road open. It’s a class four road so the town does not maintain it so we have almost a quarter mile to keep clear. So far it has been four days at the shop and we have not had any major snow luckily. If all goes well I may be getting it back today or tomorrow. Right after I had the tractor trucked to the shop for repairs I noticed transmission fluid leaking from my dog truck. I had just taken it in a few days before for a recall and apparently they messed up the rear seal on the transmission. I was advised not to drive it since there is no way of telling what the fluid level is on a Toyota Tundra. This prompted yet another call to the wrecker service. They are making some money on me this month... Of course no truck means no running dogs as I have no way to move them. We had tours booked at Stowe Mountain Resort but were unable to run them because of this latest issue. With a pretty full weekend of tours coming up I sure hope the truck is fixed today and I am able to get it back. I hate to cancel tours and disappoint customers.

So far this winter I have not had to cancel any tours. We have really been lucky with the weather. Each time it has been warm and rained it has been during the week and by the weekend things had cooled down and the trail has been fine. We are expecting one more round of mixed precipitation tomorrow (Friday) that is suppose to finish off as snow overnight so with any luck we will have good conditions again on Saturday.

On top of all of this I came down with my third cold of the season. I guess the timing for that couldn’t have been much better. With no truck and no way of going anywhere I had little choice but to sit at home and rest. I’m feeling much better as I write this and should be in great shape for the weekend. I’m not sure what is going on with my system this winter. Last year I was not sick once all winter long. This year I have been sick three times within a span of five weeks. It could be that I am pushing myself a little too hard with all of the tours I have had. I do typically have down time though so I’m not convinced that is the problem.

I’ll close for now and wait to hear about the tractor and truck. Not much else I can do...

Back to The Drawing Board

Given that I had exhausted all of my options in regard to getting the side bridge to work I had no choice but to start thinking about a way to make a bridge straight across the stream where the old logging bridge had once been. This was a 32 foot span; how was I going to get a bridge across that? I started making phone calls to get information on steel beams, laminated beams, anything I could use to span this stream. Steel was going to cost over $1,000.00 and the beams would weight around 1000 pounds. Without the ability to get some sort of a crane up there I would have no way of moving anything like that. I decided to ask about dropping some trees to build a wooden bridge and was given permission to do that. I then got on the phone and tried to gather as many people as I could to help out. I bought more lumber and was able to pull it all to the bridge site with my Skandic snowmobile. With everything in place we arrived at the day for the project to begin. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with five or six people in a day. We had a 35 foot by five foot wide bridge 90% complete by 5:00 in the evening. It was a full day and I was so tired I could hardly see straight but we had a bridge with no corners to make; just a straight shot across!

I could hardly wait to try it out with a dog team. I didn’t have to wait long; we had some more snow a few days later and after packing the trail again we hooked up some eight dog teams and gave it a go. The bridge worked perfectly and it offers a great view of the waterfall and gorge below. With that out of the way I was pretty well set up for running there for the winter. We have had a few other minor projects such as ongoing brush work to keep the trail clear and some shoveling to fill in some washed out spots after a rainy spell we had. I hope to do some drainage work on the road bed next summer to eliminate some of those wet areas. Over all it has been a fantastic location for running this winter.

The tours have been going great and I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of really great people this winter. Besides getting to spend so much time with my dogs meeting new people from all over the world is one of the things I like most about this endeavor. I do tend to get a little cynical from listening to the news and reading about all of the discouraging things that are happening in the world and all of the wonderful people I meet through dogsledding really helps restore my faith in humanity. The pups are a amazing bridge across cultures and lifestyles. We’ve had families from the Bahrain, Columbia, South Africa as well as just down the road from here. The business has kind of taken on a life of its own and I sometimes feel like I’m just along for the ride. Where will it take me? I really can’t say but time will tell.