Jim Creek

I love running dogs in Alaska. This is spectacular country and I am constantly in awe. For example look at the Knik River floodplain pictured on the left. High in the mountains ahead is Lake George, which was damned by the glacier. Around the turn of the last century the lake would break through the glacier dam every 10 to 20 years releasing a flood of biblical proportions that scoured the floodplain clean. Around 1900 three native villages were destroyed, and in the 1930 one of the small farming communities of the Matanuska project was devastated. Even though the damn has not formed since 1966, it is real easy to imagine a wall of water coming down the floodplain at you. The geologic evidence of great floods is everywhere.


Of course it isn't all about historic natural disasters. This is the view of Twin Peaks coming back towards Jim Creek.

God does have a sense of humor. After a cool damp rainy summer, he saved the very best weather for those of us that live here. ;-)









This is Beach Lake, where we normally train, with the clouds against the mountains and high cover overhead.

This must be what Heaven looks like.

Bass (think music not fish)

With our access to Fort Richardson closed and only 5 miles of muddy trail available for cart training at Beach Lake, the search has been on for other places to train. We've been to the Eklutna reservoir, but motors (quads) are only allowed on the lakeside trail Sunday through Wednesday. The Knik River floodplain, known to the locals as Jim Creek for the creek you cross to access it, provides 30 miles of flat trails to Metal Creek just before the glacier face. I have hesitated to run there because Jim Creek has a shifting sandy bottom that is normally up to a foot deep, but has holes that run to 4 feet. If you go you always wear waders to walk across first and find a safe path.

Bass very pleased with himself

My team will swim through deep puddles, but shallow moving water has intimidated them. Picture yourself out there with a wide, potentially deep stream to cross and your leaders balk. You have to get off the 4-wheeler and lead them over. Meanwhile there is no one on the 4-wheeler to keep the team strung out, so the wheel dogs come up to visit you, tying the whole team into a knot in a foot of water, and possibly knocking you down just for good measure. This can be dangerous if a dog gets tangled in the line and drug under the water.

Faint heart never won fair maiden, so I put Bass (my 11 year old retired leader) and Platinum up front and off we went to see what we were up against. There is a trail that paralles Jim Creek, and Platinum saw no reason to cross the scary water with a perfectly good trail right there. He must figure I'm incredibly dense sometimes. When he agrees with me I call it determined, at times like this he is just obstinate ;-)

I moved Rosemary up with Bass and to my great joy they swung the team around and dove off into the creek. We crossed in fine shape, ran 5 miles on the other side, came back and Bass ran straight for the crossing we used on the way in and never hesitated. I was so gratefull I got off and kissed him and Rosemary both. Then they got extra rations for dinner.

Bass and Rosemary leading the team across Jim Creek

To really appreciate the new skill, picture -40 degrees in a blizzard during Iditarod and we have a small stream to cross. In the 2007 Iditarod I went in over the waterproof part of my boots and frostbit my toe. Now I can swap leaders and stay dry. I really appreciate Bass teaching Rosemary how it's done.

Later the second team with Lycos and Mocha in lead repeated the performance, then Blaze and Ginger lead us back across it. But Bass was the guy who did it first and set the scent trail.

Keep 'em Northbound

Eric

Frost in the dog lot

(apologies to Frosty the Snow Man)

Frost in the Dog Lot
is a sight we long to see
For it freezes mud and kills the bugs
and the dogs all dance with glee

Frost in the Dog Lot
is a fairy tale some say
but the children know how it brings the snow
so we can go and play

There must have been some magic in
that old harness we found
cause when we bring it out
all the dogs will dance around

Oh, Frost in the Dog Lot
is a sight we soon shall see
so don't give up hope
just use lots of soap
(I bought stock in Tide you see)

Pad didi pad pad
Pad didi pad pad
Look at sled dogs go

Pad didi pad pad
Pad didi pad pad
Over the fields of snow

Keep 'em Northbound

Eric

Mud

There are many things I love about fall training: the control you have with the 4-wheeler, the beautiful colors, being outside with the dogs... But mud isn't one of them. August and September in South-Central Alaska is our rainy season. Most places that means wet with lots of muddy puddles. But Alaska isn't most places. Our soils tend to be composed of young, freshly ground rock called glacial flour. It has all the cohesion of corn starch and reacts pretty much the same way when you add water. If you just pour water on top you get the familiar muddy puddle known and loved by children everywhere. But if you stir it (by running lots of dogs pulling quads over it) you get a gritty slurry that sticks to everything and takes forever to dry. Quads, dogs, and mushers come back after a run covered in muddy crud.

I remember my first fall training with an open wheeled cart. After one run I had two farmers bidding for the rights to plant potatoes on my face ;-). Thank heavens quads have fenders to catch the worst of it. That begs the question of the poor wheel dogs. The leaders get muddy bellies from the crud thrown up by their feet. But everyone else has to run through the mud thrown up by the dogs in front of them. My poor wheelers frequently look like they are wearing Halloween masks. Dukat is modeling the latest in wheel dog fashions ;-)

The good news is winter is coming and all this will soon freeze and make a great base for the snow.

Keep 'em Northbound

Eric

The value of a lead dog

Some people think we force the dogs to run. Try this simple experiment for me. Tie a loop at the end of a 64 foot rope and tie the other end to a tree. Now get a 4 year old child and ask them to hold onto the loop. Stretch out the line and stand 7 feet behind the tree, away from the rope. Now from that position, try to force the child to do something.

Next tie a loop in that rope every 8 feet. Get 15 more 4 year old children and have two of them grab every loop. Take the end of the rope off the tree, tie in a 7 foot board. You take the far end of the board and take the kids for a walk, with the kids in front of you. Try to turn corners, avoid traffic, and generally be safe, but cover some ground. Hmmm.

Now get your favorite 12 year old. The straight A student who thinks the world of you and always wants to help. Replace one of the front two 4 year olds with the 12 year old. Now try to take the kids for a walk, explaining to the 12 year old what you want. Much easier, eh?

Assume you run a day care and must walk 15 four year old kids every day. What is that 12 year old worth to you?

That is what having a good lead dog is like.

Keep 'em Northbound

Eric

The Best Laid Plans

One advantage of the cool summer we had in Anchorage (my wife said we didn't have summer this year) is that it has been cool enough to train all day in September. We started with a bang, running 7 miles with lots of stops Tuesday the 9th. Since I'm not working other than the dogs yet (great for training, soon to be disastrous to the bank account), I'm training Mon and Tues with Wed off, Th and Fri, with Sat and Sun off. That way I'm not competing for the use of the one 5 mile cart trail at Beach Lake on weekends.

Last Tuesday we went to Eklutna to get away from the mud at Beach Lake. But that is only open to motorized vehicles Sun through Wed, so Thursday it was back to Beach Lake. Driving home from a great 10 mile run (still with lots of stops) I noticed Blaze had a boil or something on the top of her right rear foot and was licking it. Only solution, she goes in the puppy pen with an Elizabethan collar (the cheap version is a bucket). Poor Blaze is a little moody to begin, and wearing the bucket doesn't help. Have you ever seen a more dejected dog?

The plan was to give her Friday off, and let her run Monday. Well God has a sense of humor after all. It really would have torn her up to see everyone else go run while she stayed home with her bucket. So Thursday night I came down with the creeping Anchorage crud - a head cold of slightly less than biblcal proportions. Needless to say I haven't been out of the house except to feed and water dogs for three days. I'm better now, Blaze's foot is looking good (she still has the collar tonight for good measure) and Monday morning the 23 of us are back to Eklutna for another 10 mile run.

Eric

Fall Training

I love being outside and watching the fall weather. In the deep south of Alaska that means lots of rain while you cart train the dogs, but you get to watch the clouds play along the hillsides covered in fall colors. This is looking up the Eklutna valley.

Eklutna reservoir looking West towards Knik Arm of Cook Inlet.

Can you imagine how the dogs must feel? Come on kids, we need to speed up ;-)



This is the second team to run Tuesday. From the back, left to right - Rom and Worf in Wheel, Sisco and Dukat just ahead. You can't see it, but the dogs are puling me on a quad.

This is the first team to run Tuesday. Again from the back left to right, Keiko and Jewels in Wheel, Strider and Throttle just ahead.

Fall is in the air

One of the nice things about living in Alaska is the fabulous scenery. Sunday we took a drive in the Talkeetna Mountains over Hatcher's Pass. Photos follow.

Summers End

All good things must come to an end. The number of visitors has been down, so last Thursday, 9/4 I ceased operations at Alaska Wild Berry for the season. I had a lot of fun there, and met some great people and miss it, but now I can start fall training for this years Iditarod. By the way we went out with a bang. Wednesday was my birthday, and Thursday was Marti's. For a present I took Marti and two great friends, Jim and Bonnie Foster, to the 8PM Hobo Jim show at Alaska Wild Berry. If you ever have a chance to see Hobo Jim live, take it. He is a great high energy guy. They don't call him "Thunderfoot" for nothing!

It was a great night, then Jim surprised me by dedicating the "Iditarod Trail Song" to me and inviting me on stage to sing it with him. The word from my friends there was not to quit my day job, but it sure made my birthday special ;-).

Nobody had a camera handy for this momentous event, but at the Iditarod sign up in 2007 I met our then Governor, and now also vice-presidential candidate - Sarah Palin (a great lady), so this will have to do.

Puppy Monsters

I've been entertaining visitors at Wild Berry Park this summer - it's been fun, but not as profitable as I would like. The obvious answer is to add puppies - everyone loves puppies. Mike Suprenant, a friend and fellow Iditarod musher, had three pups that he loaned me for the summer. When we started in late July they were just 8 weeks old and very cuddly. The two dark pups are boys, with one blue eye and one brown eye each. Curly wears the green collar, Moe the red collar, and Trixie, the only girl, the blue collar.

Trixie is definitely the dominant one in the pack. I gave them a bone to share and whenever she wants it she explains to brothers in no uncertain terms exactly how the world works.

The pups are now almost 3 months and definitely entering the "puppy monster" stage. They have been digging at the exercise pen they are in at Wild Berry, and found a weak spot in the puppy pen at home. They got out into the dog lot and terrorized everyone. I had to apologize to the team afterward.

Now Trixie has started climbing. So far she hasn't had the strength to make it past half-way , but that is one determined puppy. I'm going to miss them when I give them back to Mike, but at least I'll be able to sleep instead of wondering what they are getting into now.

Kids!