Dog

New Sponsor: FitBark

November 28, 2016 by teamineka

We are Team Ineka, a 40-dog mushing kennel located in Willow, Alaska. FitBark has been so kind as to sponsor our team for the upcoming race season as we prepare to qualify for the biggest dog sled event in the world, the Iditarod!

Currently our A-team of 12 dogs is using the FitBark trackers for not only the miles we travel on the trails through the wilds of Alaska but also to give us great data on sleep cycles, activity levels in comparison between one dog and another but also we have found that by seeing the activity levels in the middle of the night we know when their might be a moose in the yard or the team is just singing a song under the moon!

It is a challenge to keep track of 12 FitBarks! We have come up with a system to use different colors of duct tape that we found at the local big box store. Did you know they have duct tape in paw print, leopard print, and even tye-dye? We also use these little pouches from a company that makes a product called Quiet Spot. They are intended to be hung off of your dog’s collar and you place the dog tags inside so they don’t jingle in the night. The FitBarks fit perfectly.

Did you know that you can set up your FitBark with your human fitness trackers like a Fitbit or even your iPhone? We did this and quickly found out that the dog team is getting much more exercise than the human’s on the team, the mushers.

Over the next few months we will spend hours and hours on the trail as we train our dogs for well over a thousand miles to prepare for our races. Did you know that a mile is 1508 points on FitBark? At least that’s how many it is for our dogs.

We are setting up something cool for our Sponsor a Dog Program. This program allows individuals to become a part of the team and they can not only get some cool perks from Team Ineka like a signed picture and a dog bootie but also they will be given access to their sponsored dog’s FitBark profile so they can follow along and even compete with their housedog against ours. How cool is that? In the coming days we will be adding stories and introductions to all of the dogs on the journal page of each dog’s profile.

We post lots of pictures over on our Facebook page and we are on Instagram and Twitter too. We would love for you to follow along and become a part of the team, it is going to be a grand adventure this year and we are happy to have FitBark along for the ride! We look forward to posting blog articles here to share our journey along the way.

The Dog Days of Summer

June 17, 2014 by teamineka

Here in the land of the midnight sun, the mosquitos are out and the dogs are enjoying their vacation. They spend their days lounging around in the barking lot and wishing for the colder days when training will start again. We are truly in the dog days of summer here at Team Ineka.

That does not mean that nothing is happening, the mushers are busy running triathlons, working their summer jobs, fishing for salmon that they will use for trail snacks and backyard BBQ’s, plenty of chores to be had, dog houses to build and kennels and fencing to be installed, bees to attended too and cord wood to be stacked.

We are already planning our season. Robert will attempt (once again) to do his Iditarod qualifiers IF the snow comes and none are cancelled like they have been for the last two seasons. Nicole will run the Junior Iditarod for the last time before she heads off to college in the fall of 2015, Michele plans to enter a small race or two and our friend Dale will too.

We are always looking for people to be a part of the team too! You can learn more about our incredible athletes, the mushers and our daily life with 40 sled dogs.

You can sponsor a dog, booties or become a race entry sponsor, or help with the daily kennel needs with your generous contributions.

It takes a small army to get to the starting line. Our sponsors and supporters are not just people that donate money, goods or services to us. They are part of the team. We appreciate your support and look forward to new partnerships.

Our sponsors receive letters and pictures directly from your favorite mushers. You have the opportunity to meet the team at race events and if you are up in Alaska we can teach you how to drive your own dog team. The mushers are always willing to travel to speak to our sponsors and supporters and to school and other groups that would like to learn more about living a life with dogs!

If you would like to find out more, comment below or check out our sponsorship page by clicking the button below.
[button link=”http://www.gofundme.com/teamineka” icon=”” target=”” color=”red” size=”small”]Sponsor[/button]

Eagle River Classic

January 13, 2014 by teamineka

This past weekend I participated in the Eagle River Classic sprint races put on by The Chugiak Dog Mushers Association. It was my first sprint race in more than 14 years!

After last weekend’s Knik 200 I needed to get out and run dogs and just have fun.

Michele, Nicole and I, woke up early Saturday morning, 5;45, did the kennel chores and loaded up the team. Being a sprint race we needed very little, almost none, in the way of gear. We grabbed a snack for the team, mixed up a meal for them after the first heat in the cooler, some booties and the sled.

We arrived early at the Chugiak Dog Mushers Association. After parking the truck we headed over to their beautiful clubhouse, paid the entry fee (over a hundred bucks) and waited for the other teams to start to arrive.

By 9:45 the driver’s meeting was underway. I drew bib 2 for day 1 in the eight dog class. That means I would be going out second in a field of 8.

The eight dog class wasn’t scheduled to run until 12:50 so we had plenty of time on our hands to watch the action. The skijor class went out first, then a couple novice races and then the 4-dog and 6-dog classes.

Sprint racing is MUCH different than distance. Everything is hurry up and wait and you can sense the tension in the air as the mushers prepare to run. All of the sleds are aerodynamic, and are slick rocket-shaped designs. The newest models use skis for runners. These multi-thousand dollar sleds are designed to shave off seconds of a run time.

The dogs are much different as well. Most teams are running tall, thin and sleek hound-crosses. I believe our team was the smallest (in size) of the bunch. There were several husky looking dogs but not many in the 30 or so teams lined up in the parking lot.

As we got closer and closer to race time we started in on our pre-race chores. Dropping the dogs, booties for those who needed them, harnesses and getting the sled ready. We were all parked side-by-side and each of us had a pole to use as a tie out. At 12:40 we were ready to go.

Each team “pulls the hook” from their pole near the truck and heads to the starting chute. I had Vela-TyYy in lead, Gabby-Shock, Cession, Sidney, Dandy and Spencer in wheel. Nicole and Michele got me up to the start line and the countdown began.

At exactly 12:51 I was on the trail! I had to remind myself not to use the brake going out of the chute. After the first turn I could quickly see I was on the nicest trail of my life. It was a beautifully groomed trail about eight feet wide. It ran through the trees, up and down a few hills, through a tunnel, and even a bit of overflow that they made a big deal out of in the driver’s meeting. It was just a bunch of ice, something we see on our trails every day.

Within a few minutes teams started passing me. All the passes were uneventful with no tangles. Those super fast hound dogs blew past me like I was standing still.

But standing still we were not. My team were running. FAST! Those little dogs have never run that fast in their lives probably. We had no weight in the sled. No gear, nothing to weigh them down. We were even running too fast for Vela who was in lead and I had to slow the team down several times to keep the gang line tight.

We finished the eight mile course in just over 37 minutes. Almost 13 miles per hour! We are used to going 8! We were in last place but who cares.

We got back to the truck, feed the dogs and let them cool down a bit before we put them back in the truck. By 2:30 we were back on the road.

We had dinner in Eagle River and where home by 6.

The nicest thing about sprint racing is you get to sleep in a bed at night. Most of the time your own bed.

Sunday morning we were back at it and on the road and back in Chugiak by 9:30. We had a quick drivers meeting, bib draw and trail report. I was going out 8th because of my last place finish the day before. Thats okay. No passing and all chasing!

We left the chute at 12:04 and I made it back in 20 seconds faster than the day before! What? We went even faster? 20 seconds, but still…

We were done and loaded up by 2:00 and hung out a while in the clubhouse before heading home.

We were home in time to watch the second half of the Bronco’s game!

Things I learned:

1. We had a blast.

2. Several of our dogs got some great experience around all the chaos of racing.

3. The trails were beautiful. It was like running on a highway.

4. While all the mushers were intense, everybody was very nice. I think we even made a couple new friends.

5. Our dogs did great! Even though we were slow by the rest of the competitors standards, each one of them showed me that they could run fast and they all came back happy and wagging tails.

The Chugiak Dog Mushers are great and I can not thank them enough. They put on a great race and we were honored to be there. Even though it had been well over a decade since we have done a sprint race, the weekend brought back a flood of memories.

What a great weekend. Hope to see you down the trail…

Official dog team of the Mihmiverse

November 18, 2013 by teamineka

We are now the official dog team of the Mihmiverse!

Our good friend, Christopher R. Mihm, is a filmmaker from Minnesota and he has graciously agreed to be one of our top sponsors for Team Ineka.

The Mihmiverse is a collection of films and fans of uber-cool 1950’s era style sci-fi films. They include such titles as The Monster from Phantom Lake, The House of Ghosts, Attack of the Moon Zombies and The Giant Spider.

Check out Saint Euphoria Pictures and become a part of the Mihmiverse today!

Spencer

September 29, 2013 by teamineka

Hi, my name is Spencer. I joined Team Ineka in 2011. I can run anywhere on the gang line but I enjoy the wheel position the most. I get to be closest to the musher and help pull the load of the sled. At feeding time I stand on my house and bark with excitement at the handler until he fills my bowl. I am looking forward to this season and helping Team Ineka run qualifying races.

I know people love my blue eyes against my black and white coat. Well, I dont know if people like it or not, but I think I am super-cool, anyway!

[button link=”http://www.gofundme.com/teamineka” icon=”” target=”” color=”red” size=”small”]Sponsor Spencer[/button]

Nome Sign 40 Re-cap

September 8, 2013 by teamineka

This past weekend my son Tyler and I participated in the Nome Sign 40 race. It is a 40 mile race over the original Iditarod trail to the Nome sign and back. It starts on Knik Lake in the heart of Redingtonville. There is more mushing history in the first two miles of this race than probably anywhere in the world!

This was actually Tyler’s first race ever. He was super excited to give the dogs a run when we decided to go late Saturday afternoon. We packed up the gear in a hurry Saturday night and made our lists of the dogs that would be going. It was the first race for the Nightmare Crew pups as well as some others too.

The teams (This is the first race for dogs with an *):

Robert

TyTy-Vela

Rasp-Shock*

Barrel*-Dandy*

Cassie-Burton*

Shifter-Denali

Aussie-Trapper

Tyler

Ringo-Sidney

Scarlett-Lock*

Ragnar*-Zero*

Casper*-Raegan

Bodhi-Spencer

(Lock didn’t run in the race as we found she was in heat at the race)

Sunday

We were on the road early Sunday morning for the hour drive to Knik. The roads were terrible, it has snowed almost two feet in the last 24 hours. We had 22 dogs loaded up. All of the spots in the dog box were doubled, we had two in the cab in my truck, two in the cab of the Ranger and four in crates. We need a bigger dog truck!

About 10 miles in I realized I forgot my beaver hat and Tyler calls from the other truck and says we forgot the snacks for the dogs! Rather than turn around we stopped at 3-Bears and bought the hamburger patties again. No the optimum trail snack for the dogs but the seem to work.

When we arrived at Knik Lake there were just two other mushers there, one was my friend Karen Cline who I met on the Serum Run Boot Camp last year.

We had about an hour and a half before race time and several other mushers arrived pretty quickly.

Our musher meeting consisted of paying the 50 dollar entry fee and drawing our starting order from a coffee can as the race organizers came around to our trucks. Pretty informal.

There was only six teams in the 40 mile race and several others in a ten miler-six dog class. I drew bib 2, Tyler number 4. We would be going out four minutes apart.

Race Time!

Our friends and sponsors of the teams, Kim and Dale came out to help out and see us off. They were a huge help in getting us to the starting line (we actually ran off right from our trucks). In usual fashion I was yelling hurry up from the back of the sled as the “handlers” scurried to get all of the dogs on the line before the last second. And I was off!

The race left the lake and winded through Redingtonville and past the Dog Mushers Hall of Fame before hitting 7 mile lake. Just about 5 miles into the race, Rasp, one of my best swing dogs quit on me. She laid down right on the line and wouldnt get back up. I quickly set the hook and couldn’t find anything wrong with her so I put her in the bag of my new sled from Sled Dog Systems and dropped the 50 pounds of weight I was carrying on the side of the trail.

I travelled with Rasp in the bag for about an hour as teams passed us and we passed them. I think Karen and I passed each other three or four times.

We ran up and down the rolling hills and I made it a point to let the dogs work up each one. I wanted them to learn that hills mean to continue to pull. The trails were awesome with the snow falling and not too cold. It was a perfect day for mushing.

About 15 miles in Rasp was anxious to get out of the bag and I put her back in the team. I don’t know what happened to her back there but I am thinking that she had a stinger or something, sort of like when you lay on your arm and it goes to sleep.

As we approached the halfway point the other four mushers passed me going the other way. I knew I was getting close when Karen said, “the turn around is just up there.”

Sure enough there was the Nome Sign. The nome sign is a piece of mushing history that has been there since the early days. It points towards Nome (of course) along with a symbolic 1049 miles.

About a mile heading back towards the finish I passed Tyler and let him know the turn around was coming up. His team looked good and he was in good spirits.

We mushed on for a few hours by ourselves occasionally seeing Karen in the distance.

At about 7 Mile Lake Tyler caught up to me. He was running Sidney in single lead! We decided to mush in together. It was fun talking to him on the trail and enjoying each other as we headed toward the finish.

The Finish

We arrived at the finish line at 4:42. Five hours, 38 minutes after I left. Everyone else was in and up at the Knik Bar except for Karen who (I believe) was resting in her truck.

Michele overheard one of the mushers say as they came onto the lake on a snow machine, “I have ran every race with those guys and they come in last every time. It is like they don’t train their dogs to run.”

Excuse me?

I am very pleased with our run. We knew we weren’t going to break any records. It was Tyler’s first race ever and we had eight dogs that I had never experienced this, ever!

All of our dogs came in with their tails waggin’ and were happy. No dog was pushed too hard. We finished with all the dogs, including all of the Nightmare Crew, in the team and “smiling” as we gave them a snack at the truck.

I learned a long time ago that mushing is not about winning or losing. It is about spending time out in the woods with your dogs. It is about the bond you have built over countless miles on the trails with the team and knowing what to look out for on the trail. It is a sad day when mushing as turned into; I have to be first no matter what, or I have to win because I have to be in the “money.”

If mushing is that way for some, I am sorry. That is not what Team Ineka is about. We are a family kennel with dogs that we love and care about. Sure we have several dogs from other kennels that make up our teams but for us it is about raising our two litters–The Nightmare Crew and the 9-11 Crew–to get out on the trails and have fun with every one in the family taking part. That is what mushing is about, at least for us.

Mush on!