Training Run #2

It has been in the teens or 20's this weekend with snow falling off and on. Yesterday, I dragged the trails to try to get some of the snow we have into the holes and ruts in the trail. Didn't seem to do much good, but any little bit helps! The run today was 4 miles for each team using the 4 wheeler for control (safety). It was still snowing while we were running. The temps held in the +20's. The trails were really soft and the new snow on them created a great environment for the mackenzies to get lots of snowballs in their feet! Gonna have to get the booties out and start that wrestling match when the trails are like this!

So, team one today was:

Kia &Muktuk
Baleen & Bolio
Tanner & Stubby
Hannah & Jasper
Gateway
Shammu & Shelby

This team looked really good. Kia is an awesome little leader (too bad she isn't going to be living with us much longer). Baleen was distracted by squirrels chattering at her! Thankfully, she wasn't in lead to take the team off on a tangent into the trees! Everyone else looked good and were pleasantly tired after the nice, easy 4 miles.

And, team two was:

Cheyanne & Sioux
Patton & Panzer
Shasta & Fred
Kivek & Dude
Kako & Zena
Sherman & Butternut

This is a team of mostly veteran dogs that know what is happening and wanted to GO! They looked GREAT going out. The girls in lead were doing awesome. About a mile and a half into the run Kako & Zena were balking and pulling the WRONG way!! We figured out that they were both getting snowballs in their feet so bad that they were having a hard time running! So, we stopped a few times on the way out to clear their feet of snowballs. The girls in lead executed the turn around without hesitation. We stopped for a break and cleared feet again. About a 1/4 mile from the turn off the main trail, we came head on with a couple out for a ride on their snowmobile. They pulled off the trail and stopped the engine. The excellent leaders said NO WAY we are not happy about that thing! And since they hesitated, Patton (in swing) decided it was a GREAT time to give the gal on the snowmobile a HUG!! He jumped right up on her and gave her kisses and a hug! What a sweet boy we have raised!! :o) I got the team moving again only by pulling with all my might to get them to go by the stopped and shut off sno-go! After we got the team by them, I cleared the tangles and cleaned the girls feet again and then we were off and running again! After that though, the whole team just lost steam and seemed to slow way down. We made it home and they were definately tired and ready to take a break in their pens.

We are inside now and resting for a bit ourselves before heading out to clean pens and feed them. We are hoping to run another 4 miles with each team at some point this week and then maybe get them out to 6 mile runs next weekend!

Really hoping Mother Nature will bless us with some decent amounts of snow over the next few days so we can get the sleds out!!

Happy Trails!