We welcome Alaska Spirit Crafts as our newest sponsor just in time for the Junior Iditarod!
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Scout
Hi, my name is Scout. I am a new lead dog from Hugh Neff’s kennel this past summer. I come from Lance Mackey lines. If you know anything about mushing you know about Lance. He is practically royalty in Alaska! I am seven years old and a little hefty but boy can I run good with my team mate, Sidney.
I joined Team Ineka in July of this year and I have settled in. I am a quiet type of sled dog and I am all business on the gang line. Recently, my chain came loose while Ms. Michele was feeding my old friend Ringo in the “old man” kennel run, I moseyed on over and decided to give her a hand. I got to spend the whole day with Ringo, what a treat that was!
I am looking forward to the Yukon 300, Northern Lights 300 and even Ms. Michele’s new race the Independence Mine 200 this racing season. If you’d like to help me get to the finish line I’d much appreciate it. You can sponsor me here.
[button link=”http://www.gofundme.com/teamineka” icon=”” target=”” color=”red” size=”small”]Sponsor Scout[/button]
Sidney
Hi, my name is Sidney. I am one of the main leaders at Team Ineka and I have been known to be a bit of a Diva. Heck, I am even featured in an upcoming book about why female sled dogs are better lead dogs than the boys!
I come from Hugh Neff’s kennel in October 2008 and I have been in every race we have ran at Team Ineka including the Willow Junior 100 and Robert’s Tustumena 200 attempt where we had to scratch. I did my job though. When everybody else was tired and ready to go to bed, Robert put me up in lead and he ran out in front of the team up some really big hills. I followed him up and pulled the team to the top.
I have participated in some of the big races before I came to Team Ineka. I can remember at least one Yukon Quest…
I can often be seen doing my snow dance in the late fall when we are tired of the rain and ready for the sleds.
If you would sponsor me you will be a part of something special. Its not every day that you get to hang out with a diva like me.
[button link=”http://www.gofundme.com/teamineka” icon=”” target=”” color=”red” size=”small”]Sponsor Sidney[/button]
Barrel
Hi, my name is Barrel. I am part of the Nightmare Crew. We are named after characters in the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I am only a year and a half old and I hope to run on the A team this year in all the races here in the Valley. I am not big enough to go on the Yukon Quest 300 with Robert. There are too many mountains!
I have overcome a lot in my short mushing career. I had an injury to my leg and just the other day I got the tip of my ear bit off by one of my team-mates, Aussie. That’s okay though my favorite vet, Dr. Dent takes really good care of all of us so I just count my scars as badges of courage!
I like running with my brother Burton the best but I can run just about anywhere except lead right now. Maybe some day.
If you would like to sponsor an up-and-coming star I would really like that.
Fall Training is Underway!
It is the first Monday of September and what that means around here is that fall training is underway at Team Ineka. Our goal over the next few months is to run small teams of eight to ten dogs on our ATV starting at three or four miles a day and increasing as the dogs get in shape.
The plan is to build muscle, condition the team, work on leader training and see who works well together. This is time for the new dogs to shine and the older guys to teach the pups. 
This is our favorite time of year. The leaves are changing, the air is getting cooler and the dogs are excited to do what they love.
Each training run that we do we track on an iPhone app called MapMyRide. Our plan is to run each team at least 100 miles a month until it is cold enough and we have adequate snow to run on the sleds.
We hope that you will follow us on the trail as we prepare for our 2013-2014 season.
Run to Yentna Station
It was my first 100 mile run the weather was warm and raining. As always the start to any run is quite difficult, instead of going through the correct trail my leader Ringo decided to stay left and miss the turn so, I had to dip under a metal rope and ride through at least two feet deep snow to get onto the correct trail. After that it was smooth “sledding” until my dad thought we had missed the turn, we had ended up having to turn around two different times just to have it be that his leader Denali was right all along.
Subsequently, we hit the Yetna river and were on the right track. With my eight dog team trailing close behind my dad’s 9dog team he allowed me to pass him and I was out on my own the rest of the way. My team; Ringo-Vela, O’dale-Sidney, Casper-Shifter, and Ragnar-Zero were running great there butts moving quickly and their faces huge with smiles. We soon reached our turn off for Yetna station we then pulled up the hill parked the teams and got to unpacking our gear. Little did we know our cookers wouldn’t work so we had to get hot water from the station and sit and wait.
Well, while we waited Dandy on my dads team chewed through his tug line and shortly after O’dale on my team chewed through both my leader tug lines. As of result we couldn’t eat at the station we had to feed, create make shift tug lines out of neck lines and head on home. Furthermore my dad let me lead again but Ringo had taken a wrong turn and we had to cut across very deep snow. Poor Ringo got attacked by Shifter in the process. So once we go through the huge patch of thick snow my dad switched Ringo with one of his leaders Ty-Ty and gave her to me. Now finally that everything was running smoothly we were home bound for the long journey of six straight hours in cold weather and pouring rain without stopping except for a couple minutes of rest here and there.
Ty-Ty was doing pretty well for her first 100 mile run, her only issues was on open trail she weaved to much otherwise she was doing pretty well. Finally we got to the big hill my dogs trucked on and non-stop pulled me up the hill and were very happy to know they were close to being home. We were back at Deshka Landing and began unhooking in rain and ice. We packed everything up got all the dogs in the truck and headed home on the even icier roads. Shivering and wet we unpacked put the dogs back on there poles so they could go to bed. We were finally home; exhausted, hungry, thirsty, wet, and cold I stepped into the warm laundry room and pealed off all the wet clothes and headed up to my room. As to say my first 100 mile run wasn’t as bad as I had thought I had loads of fun and enjoyed my deep bounding with my dogs. I know now that for Willow 100 it’ll just be a great time.
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Nicole is a junior musher at Team Ineka and is going to run her first 100 mile race, the Willow Junior 100 in February.