Running the teams ...

We FINALLY found time to run the teams today!!

Team 1
Baleen & Sherman - Lead
Dude & Kivek - Swing
Tanner & Rufus - Team
Kako - Team
Zena & Marco - Wheel

Tom had planned to run the team with the 4-wheeler for the added safety of having a 700 pound machine at the back end of a team that hasn't been run at all this year!!  But, neither of the wheelers would start.  Plan B ... use the dog sled!!  The trails were awesome and the sled was the right way to go!!  Tom drove the sled while I rode in the sled.  This team did a GREAT job.  We only took them about 3 miles for this first run but they looked great.  The weak link we have right now is weak leaders but these two actually did a great job.  Kept the line out tight and followed most directions!!  They did the 3 miles in 20 minutes!

Team 2
Shasta & Jasper - Lead
Bolio & Stubby - Swing
Rallie - Team
Gus - Team
Yeti & Shelby - Wheel

Got the change out accomplished pretty quickly and we were on the trail with this team in no time.  We took off from the house with Tom driving again and me riding.  Got about a half mile into the run and as we came around the corner there was something in the trail.  My heartbeat took off because at first I thought it was a moose in the trail.  Turns out it was just our neighbor, Oliver, coming home with his team hauling a load of fire wood.  We stopped our team and I went up to the spot between the leaders and the swing dogs.  Tom got in the middle of the wheel and team dogs.  Tom also turned the sled on it's side to help slow it down if things got out of hand.  Oliver was running a very inexperienced team to so we held our team off to the side while he led his team past ours.  Yup, we all need to work on the passing thing!  Oliver got past and took off toward home while we went on our way to the turn around.  This was a good experience for all dogs involved!!  After that, we made it around the trail without any trouble at all.

Team 3
Muktuk (11) & Kia (13.5)  - Lead
Patton (9) & Panzer (9) - Swing
Hannah (7)  - Team
Sioux (13.5) - Team
Shammu (11) - Wheel

This is the "old dog" team (ages beside their names).  They did the 3 miles loop without any hesitation, though, much slower than the other teams!!  :)

All in all, it was a good day of running the teams.  Now that we have the first run of the season out of the way, I will try to remember to take a camera next time and get some pictures or video.

Happy Trails!