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Yentna River

Gear: Trans-Alaska III Pac Boot

August 15, 2014 by teamineka

Pac Boot Team InekaI (Robert) have been using either Steger Mukluks or a combo-system with my Neos for years on the trails. My Neos have been worn for seven thousand miles over the last few winters and it is time for a change.

This year I plan on using the Trans-Alaska III Pac Boot.

Living in Willow, Alaska it can get pretty cold– usually we are in the mid-20s below zero in the middle of winter and out on the trails it will be much colder. I once measured -36 degrees on the Yentna River a couple years ago and I am sure I have been in much colder.

With these boots I plan to replace the liners with a beefier set that many mushers use. When I tried them on and walked around for a while yesterday they were light and comfortable. I typically wear a two sock set up–a moisture wicking material under a Smart-wool type. In my Neos my feet often got wet from sweat and made my feet very uncomfortable but the boot system was very light and I could get off the sled and run with no problems.

I will amend this review after I wear them for several runs.

From the Cabela’s website:

From the Iditarod trail to the treestand, these boots have proven they are true cold-weather performers. A 13mm Texel® removable liner reflects heat inward to minimize loss. Beneath that, the Moisture Trap footbed wicks away perspiration and condensation. A 1/2″ layer of EVA foam, coupled with the nylon-covered Phylon midsole, puts 3″ of cold-blocking material between your feet and the ground. The tough, flexible vamps are protected by a triple-layer, abrasion-resistant toe guard, and the rubber toe cap ensures longer wear. These boots have a reflective, lightweight waterproof shell with lightweight, reflective nylon shafts. Radiantex™ reflective coating. The 8″ liner allows for pants inside the boots, and the rip-stop nylon gaiter has a cord-locked drawcord to keep out snow. They’re easy to tighten, thanks to a one-pull ball bearing lacing system. Inside, a heat pack pocket allows you to insert toe warmer heat packs.
Height: 15″.
Average weight: 5.8 lbs./pair.
Men’s whole sizes: 7-13.
Color: Black/Tan.

Cost: $199.99 in-store or $219.00 on website

What types of boots do you wear on the trail?

Filed Under: Blog, Gear Tagged With: Alaska, Boot, Cabela, Iditarod Trail, Neo, Shoe, Wear, Yentna River

2014 Knik 200 Experience

January 8, 2014 by teamineka

knik 200 start

” The more difficult it is to reach your destination, the more you’ll remember the journey…” ~Brad Sugars

On January 4th I was on Knik Lake prepared to run in a 200 mile qualifier on some of the most historic trails in mushing. The trails that the great Joe Redington ran on and where the Iditarod once started.

One can say that the pieces are what make up a whole. And this weekend’s race experience is true testament to that!

This post is in no way complaining. I learned a lot and I am glad that we entered the race. A good friend of mine, Dave Scheer, always says, “there’s no shortcut to Nome.” Boy, is that the truth.

On Friday, the night before the race, our electricity at the house was out for more than 13 hours. True it was out for most of Willow, but when you depend on an electric well pump to feed your dogs it compounds the problem just a bit.

Our drop bags were due at the Eaglequest Lodge and we were told in our musher packet that if we wanted one bag to stay at Eaglequest then mark it as such. I did and the other one was headed to Yentna Station, some 100 miles down the trail.

I met Michele for a quick dinner and then we headed over to the pre-race musher/handler meeting at the Menard Center. What was supposed to be a quick meeting turned into a two hour affair of mostly banter between the trail boss and the mushers trying to figure out the trail.

The trail boss assured us that the trail was in “great shape” and “well marked.” Okay…

After all of this back-and-forth it was time for the musher draw for starting position. Since I was second to sign up, I was second to pick. I would be going out 15th (out of 41 teams) just behind my good friend Hugh Neff and defending 2012 Knik 200 champ Jake Berkowitz.

I was happy with my starting position. Pretty much right in the middle of the pack.

We got home about 10 pm just as my daughter, Nicole was finishing up the nightly kennel chores. She was awesome and really stepped up by melting snow on the wood stove so that the dogs could be fed. The electric finally came on about this time. We all headed to bed as we would be up early to get loaded up and on the lake by 9.

We were up by 6am and the dogs were fed, the team and gear was loaded and we were on the road by 7:30. We were one of the first teams to arrive and were told to park on the close end of the lake on the south side.

Shortly after we got all of our gear unpacked and on the ground, the Race Marshall came over and told us and another team that we were parked in the wrong spot and we had to move. Great! Luckily we were moving just about 50 yards away and it was a better spot for our launch into the starting chute. About this time, Dale, one of our biggest sponsors, good friend, and someone we are teaching how to run dogs showed up to give us a hand.

The race was supposed to start at 11:00am. Leaving 15th, I should be on the starting line at 11:30 sharp. It wasn’t until 10:30 that the volunteers finally came around for gear checks and to attach a Spot Tracker to the my sled. About this time the chief veterinarian came over and looked at the team. He expressed concern about a couple of the dogs being thin and I agreed with him. Aussie and Trapper have a hard time keeping on weight and we feed them like crazy. I just hoped that these two wouldn’t be a problem down the trail.

About this time Michele and I were getting ready to feed the team a beef snack. As we were taking them out of the package, Burton, the youngest dog on the team and in his first race jumped up and grabbed the snack out of my hand. As he did he got my ring finger on my right hand and it immediately started bleeding profusely through my glove. Of course we didn’t have any first aid supplies so Michele ran across the lake jumped into her car and ran to the gas station to buy some Band-Aids. By the time she made it back we were five minutes from the first team going out and 20 minutes before I was to leave. Blood was all over everything at this point: my parka, my sweatshirt, a couple of the dogs and my sled bag. The cut was pretty deep and I could have used a stitch or two. We wrapped it as best as we could with some gauze and medical tape and I put on two pairs of knit gloves.

We headed to the starting line. Nicole and Dale lead the team out and Michele was on the runners with me. at 11:30 she kissed me good bye and off we went on the trail!

The trail off the lake winds through houses and dog yards as well as the Mushing Hall of Fame and the Redington homestead before reaching a few lakes and some rolling hills on the way to the Nome Sign.

Our first 25 miles on the trail was un-eventful and just a few teams passed us. The trail was well marked and well groomed. I knew this trail well from the Goose Bay 150 and the Nome 40 race last season. At the Nome Sign we turned right heading into the Big Swamp on our way to Willow and the first checkpoint, Eaglequest Lodge.

Then before we hit the swamp there were a few hills to contend with and by this time people were beginning to snack their teams. One of my biggest problems in racing, and it comes from lack of experience of my team comes from when mushers snack their teams on the trail with kibble. My dogs immediately stop almost every time to gorge on the left overs and usually a tangle ensues.

The Big Swamp trail was punchy, slow, and not very well marked. It was beginning to get very warm and I would later find out it was almost 40 degrees. way too hot to be running a race with my team who is used to running at night and much colder temperatures.

I could immediately tell when we came upon the trails that are maintained by the Willow Trails Committee. They were well groomed and well marked. As we headed into the Willow Swamp Loop we had to first run parallel to the Nancy Creek Recreation Area. This section of the trail was the most fun of the race with several switch backs, ice bridges and up and over a few up and down hills.

As we came into the Willow Swamp it was now dark and I could see the familiar sight of the flashing red lights that were near the checkpoint. The dogs were running very good. We had stopped a couple times to snack with beef and salmon.

I arrived at the checkpoint at about 6:30 as the snow began to fall. Nicole and Michele were there to cheer me on and Michele was able to snap a quick picture and wished me luck.

I had planned to stop here for a couple hours and feed the dogs. We were lead to the airstrip about a quarter mile from the lodge.

I parked my team, took off their booties, gave them a quick rub down and walked with my cooler to the lodge to grab my drop bag and some hot water. I grabbed the water and looked all over for my drop bag. It was not there! Only the Knik 100 drop bags were there. My bag, that I clearly indicated to stay at Eaglequest was taken 50 miles down the trail to Yentna Station. Great.

I added two packages of fish and a package of beef snacks to the water and let it soak for about 45 minutes. I fed the dogs, bootied them up and was back on the trail at exactly 8:30 on the way to the halfway point on the Yentna River.

I have run this trail many times. My dogs knew it like it was their home trail and I had no problems making my way down the river. It was snowing pretty good by this time and by the time we saw the sign that we were 10 miles from Yentna Station I knew we were making decent time.

We arrived at Yentna about 1:30. Just about a five hour run for 45 miles. That is, what, about 9 miles and hour? Not bad. We were told to park right behind another team, whom I would later learn was Jamaican Musher Newton Marshall and parked next to me was Tim Osmar. I thought to myself, man we are all parked pretty close together and what happens if a team that is parked behind me wants to leave before I did?

I was told that I could leave a 7:55 am. This was a mandatory 6 hour stop plus time differential. I had planned to stay about 8 hours but with the team directly behind me I knew I would have to leave at my appointed time.

Over the next several hours I melted snow in the cooker, fed the dogs a good meal and tended to my chores. All the dogs looked good except I could tell they were tired. We ran close to 100 miles with about an hour and a half rest. I was proud of them.

Nobody in the team had any injuries, and all their feet looked good.

About 5:00 am I had just finished heating up some soup for myself and I laid down in some straw and covered my head with my parka. It was snowing very hard by now and we got at least 3 inches of wet snow through the night.

I headed to the warming hut at 6:30 and talked for a bit to the volunteers. It sounded like several people had taken wrong turns and three had scratched so far.

By 7:00 I had given my dogs a snack, and prepared to leave at 7:55. Booties were on the dogs that needed them and we hit the trail right on time.

The sunrise was slow as we worked our way down river and the snow eventually stopped around 10:30. Several teams passed me but we were making decent time.

As we reached Corral Hill coming into Eaglequest, Scarlet started hesitating and her tug went slack. I knew she was tired. She is the oldest dog on the team, 9 years old, and by far the smallest. I knew I was going to drop her at Eaglequest.

We made it to the checkpoint at 12:30, a little faster than the run the night before. I planned to camp here again for a couple hours but the volunteer said that they were wrapping up the checkpoint. I signed in and out and dropped Scarlet and asked the vet to call Michele to pick her up.

A few miles after we left Eaglequest I began seeing teams camped out along the trail in the Willow Swamp. I found a spot to pull over and gave the dogs a snack. I could tell the dogs were pretty tired. We stayed about 25 minutes and hit the trail. As we were running through Nancy Creek Recreation Area Trapper started to limp. I stopped the team. It looked like a sore shoulder.

This is were the proverbial wheels fell off and our race was coming to an end. I couldn’t get Trapper to stay in the bag, he had never been in there before, and I decided to have him sit on the drag. Shortly thereafter the team got slower and slower and I began to see them pulling over to the side to want to rest. This is exactly what happened last year on the Tustumena 200 and I knew that they need to rest.

We pulled off the trail, somewhere in the middle of the Big Swamp and I let them rest. They looked exhausted. They could barely keep their eyes open. It was about 3:30pm and the sun was beginning to set. I fired up the cooker and used my last bit of fuel and made the dogs a meal. Trapper’s sore shoulder was not getting any better. I massaged it and placed a heat wrap on it. After the meal I walked him around and he was still limping pretty bad. Trapper is the biggest dog in the team, weighing at least 65 pounds.

At about 5:30 I got the dogs up and tried to get them going. They didn’t want to budge. We would go for a half mile and they would want to lay down again. The scariest thing in mushing is your team quitting on you. I switched every dog around trying to get them to go down the trail. Nobody wanted to lead.

I knew that at least four teams were behind me and it would be several hours before I saw anyone because they couldn’t leave Yentna till at least 10:30 plus a four to five hour run up the river and then here. I knew I was at least 25 miles from the finish and ahead of me was the punchy trail of the Big Swamp and the big hills after the Nome sign. I decided I would turn around. The trail back to Eaglequest was relatively flat and groomed. But if I turned around my race would be over and I would have to scratch.

Even after turning around the team didn’t want to go. I finally fashioned a leash out of necklines and hooked it up to the first section of the gang line behind the leaders and started walking back to Willow.

Trapper was in the sled bag at this time and I had tied my sleeping bag and dog coats (which I shouldn’t have brought because it was so hot) to the top of my sled using extra necklines. I walked for more than two hours. My feet were soaking wet by this time from all the overflow on the river and sweat and I had developed pretty bad blisters by this time.

Finally something clicked and the dogs started to pick up speed! I had Sidney and Aussie in lead by this time and they practically ran me over. I jumped on my sled and away we went heading back to Eaglequest! As we hit Nancy Creek we passed the teams and one called out, “where are you going?”

“I have to scratch,” I said.

We ran all the way back to Eaglequest, slow, but we were moving and made it in at about 9:30. There was nobody there with the race and I knocked on the door to the lodge. I called Michele, told her where I was and what happened. She and Nicole were already at Knik Lake waiting for me to finish.

It took them almost an hour to bring the truck to Eaglequest. While I waited for her I spent time with each dog and gave them a hug and told them I was proud of them. They had no idea we didn’t finish. They were just happy to be done, I think. All the dogs seem to be injury free and Trapper even seemed to be getting better. He was walking around without much of a limp at all as we waited for Michele and Nicole.

Michele and Nicole finally arrived and we loaded up the team and the gear. We had to drive all the way back to Knik to get Michele’s car. We handed off my Spot Tracker and officially scratched on the lake.

We were home by 12:30. 37 hours after I started. We put the dogs back at their houses and headed to bed.

I awoke Monday morning frustrated and wanting to throw in the towel on the season. I spoke to my friends Hugh and Tim on Facebook and they encouraged me to not give up. Many of my fans on our Facebook page said the same thing. I decided I would think about it over the next couple days and decide what I was going to do.

As I always do after a training run and a race I debrief and try to figure out what I learned on the trail.

This is it:

1. There is a saying in sports: Race as you train and train as you race. This was my biggest downfall on the Knik. I was suffering from a major case of kennel blindness. I thought my dogs were ready. We had plenty of miles, over 500 in December alone and lots of time on the sled. But all but one run was on our home trails. Any dog will perform if it knows where it is and how far it is from home.

2. My dogs were underweight. I could tell that immediately when I saw some of the other teams on the trail. This is another case of kennel blindness. When you see the same dogs every day they look the same each day. You seldom notice if a dog loses a few pounds when they are in a group of 30 where they have lost a few pounds too. I don’t know what am doing wrong on my feeding schedule. I thought I was doing what everyone else was doing. We were and are feeding an appropriate amount of kibble and meat.

3. I did not give my dogs enough rest. I should have stayed at Yentna for 10 hours. It’s what they needed. Instead I let others influence my trail schedule. One of the biggest mistakes in mushing.

4. I should not have trusted the race crew to keep my drop bag at Eaglequest. By doing so I did not feed my team properly on my outbound stop at Eaglequest.

5. At some point on the trail I lost my Nalgene water bottle. I did not hydrate my body enough and I knew I was getting dehydrated.

6. I should have let the team rest on the Big Swamp for at least 4 hours instead of trying to coax them to go. In hindsight if I would have done that my team probably could have finished even with Trapper in the sled.

7. I was carrying way too much gear. I should not have brought along the dog coats, my parka and I should have worn different boots.

8. It was way too hot to run this race. I know my team does not perform well in temperatures over 30 degrees. Any team, mine especially does best when it is minus 20 degrees or below.

9. I probably should have withdrawn when Burton bit my finger. While I was able to use my hand, I did lose quite a bit of blood.

What went well:

I am so proud of my dogs. They gained experience on the trail. Burton really became a sled dog on this run. I am proud of Denali. Just a couple weeks ago he had been getting laser treatments for a sore back and during this race he didn’t show one sign of soreness.

Even though we didn’t finish we ran over 200 miles over the weekend.

I had so much support from my family, friends and fans. Their words of encouragement were so uplifting.

What’s next?

This weekend we are going to run a fun sprint race with some of our fastest dogs and then concentrate on Nicole’s races in February, the Willow Junior 100 and the Junior Iditarod. I plan to also run the Goose Bay 150, our little Independence Mine race and the Don Bowers 300 (if it happens) in March.

I don’t know if we will meet our original goal of qualifying for the Iditarod this year or not. If we don’t our plan is to travel to the Lower 48 next season and run in some of the races down there that have been on my mushing bucket list for a long time: The Race to the Sky, The Beargrease, and the UP200. Anyone want to be a handler??

True we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get where we are today, including buying our home here but, do you know what? I am proud of where we are. We are a family run kennel that works hard and we love what we do. We are not rich and we don’t have big name sponsors but that’s okay. To some people they are just sled dogs but to us our dogs are our friends. We do what ever we can to provide for our team. We are not done for a long shot.

See you on the trail and see you in February!

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Filed Under: Races Tagged With: Alaska, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Joe Redington, MUSH, Sled dog racing, willow, Yentna River

Goose Bay 150

September 9, 2013 by teamineka

It was Friday night about 6pm and Michele calls me on my iPhone. She is at Underdog Feed and just spoke to Lisbet Norris.

She says to me, “Have you heard about the Tug Bar 150?”

Yes, I said.

“Well it’s tomorrow and I think it would be FUN if you ran it!”, says Michele. You see how I underlined fun? We will get back to that in a little while.

So, with less than 12 hours notice we prepped to run the race. I had already planned a 30 mile training run that night so after Tyler and I got back with the teams we started packing.

We quickly realized right before I headed out on the training run that we had no trail snacks for the dogs during the race. We called Kathy Smith of Mushers Feed and Supply. She was in Nome. She is Lance and Jason Mackey’s mom. If you are reading this and you don’t know who they are, well…

So Michele ran to 3-Bears and Tyler and I hit the trail.

30 miles and a couple hours later we headed back up to the house to start packing for the race. On the kitchen island were four 5-hour energy’s (a musher’s little secret) and a bag of beef jerky. My preferred trail snack, and two boxes of hamburger patties. You know, the ones like you ate in school.

I guess they will do.

We got everything packed. Since this was just a 150 mile run with only one checkpoint and no food drops I will have to carry everything in my sled.

Saturday

We arrived at the Tug Bar on KGB road at about 10:30. For those of you know don’t know, the Tug Bar has been the host of several races over the years and is rich in mushing history. It has been host to the Klondike 300/Willow-Tug 300/Northern Lights 300 (yes all the same race with different names), as well as the Tug Bar 150 for at least 15 years. Some of the past winners are named Buser, Smyth, Reddington and Burmeister.

We got our vet checks out of the way and headed inside for the musher meeting.

The meeting last for almost an hour. Most of it was going over crudely drawn trail maps on pieces of paper.

We were supposed to head out at 1pm but changed it to two so people could have time to broth their dogs.

There were nine mushers and I drew number 3. I would be heading out at 2:09.

The start

Right before we harnessed up, Bud Smyth, I am sure you know that name too– Ramey Smyth’s dad and legendary musher that ran some of the first Iditarods– spoke to me again about the trail. He was listed as the “technical advisor”. I said, I am sure I will be fine I will just follow the trail markers.

We pulled up to the starting line with Tyler and Nicole as my handlers across a sheet of ice in the parking lot. As the countdown ensued I was ready!

In just the first twenty yards of the race I was in trouble. We had to cross KGB road and up an embankment. My brake caught an ice berm and the sled tipped over. Here I was not 45 seconds into the race and I crash. I made it up right with the help of a couple spectators and headed down the trail. I was not the only one that crashed at the start mind you.

The first 19 miles were rolling hills through the woods passing over several road crossings and driveways. Then we made it to 9-mile hill! 9 mile hill rivals any of the hills we have in the Mat-Su Valley. It was huge and steep. That early into a run the dogs are still eager to go at full speed and I had to stand on the brake with both feet just to slow them down as we headed toward the base.

Throughout the afternoon we mushed on through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining. It was a little too warm to be mushing dogs, in my opinion, but we were going to take our time. I had planned on a 10 hour run to the checkpoint on the Yentna River, stopping to snack about every three hours.

As night fell we crossed over the Big Su River and headed onto Alexander Creek Loop. This is part of the original Iditarod trail and is currently used for many races including the Junior Iditarod.

About halfway into our 78 miles I saw Lisbet resting with her dogs on the trail. We said our hello’s and I mushed on.

We passed Eaglesong Lodge and started seeing signs for moose in the area. I didnt see any moose but there were plenty of moose holes and a short time later Denali, my ever trusting leader, stepped in one and started limping. Great!

I stopped the sled and ran to the front of the team. He didn’t seem injured but I took him off the line and put him in the bag. I put Sidney up with Cassie and away we went.

As we hit the Yentna River we were about 10 miles to the checkpoint. The Northern Lights were out and absolutely breathtaking. The river is huge. At least a half mile or more across and there are hundreds of dog teams and snow machine trails criss-crossing it. I did not see any of the T-120 markers and allowed Sidney to work her way down river following whatever scent she could.

The rivers here are our super-highways in the winter. Many dog teams and at least five or six races use the river to train and run on. Hundreds of people live on the rivers and snow machines and boats are their only way to get to their homes. I have seen many times people hauling big screen TVs on their snow machines down river, along with building supplies, and bulk purchases from Costco.

I arrived at the checkpoint on the river at 12:05 am. 9 hours 56 minutes after I started the race. Not bad. I am right on schedule!

I did my chores and laid my sleeping bag out on a bed of straw next to Bodhi and Cassie, Vela and Sidney. I could hardly fall asleep with the Northern Lights dancing above me in a spectacular display of greens and red.

By 4:30 the first teams in where preparing to leave. I still had a couple hours so I headed into camp to warm up and grab a bite to eat. The race put up a very nice checkpoint with food and a couple places for mushers to sleep. I have always preferred to sleep with the dogs, even though I was sleeping in the middle of a river that night I could not ask for a better way to spend the evening.

Sunday

30 minutes before I was to leave I gave each dog a rub down and inspected their feet. I was still a little concerned with Denali even though he did finish the run into the checkpoint last night. I had him in team just ahead of the wheel dogs so could watch him. Instead of risking injury I dropped him at the checkpoint and he would get a ride back to the finish in style.

I was allowed to leave at 8:05. I left at 8:20 down the river. Since it was just after sunrise I could see the trail markers now as we travelled the 7 miles down the Yentna before we took off towards Flat Horn Lake.

As 10:30 approached we were in the middle of a swamp and it started getting very warm with little in the way of shade. My dogs slowed way down and I just took it easy. They were dipping a lot of snow and I could tell that the heat was bothering them. I never want to put my dogs in jeopardy so I vowed to stop often and just enjoy the time out here on the trail with them.

Throughout the day the view was awesome! Sleeping Lady (Mount Susitna) was to my right the entire time and she is massive! We circled through the swaps a couple times and about 1:30 I came upon Lisbet and Monica Zappa camped out with their dogs. Monica had gotten lost early in the morning on the river and had run all the way back to Eaglesong before turning around.

I snacked my dogs and talked with the two ladies about mushing and dogs (of course) and then hit the trail. My dogs didnt think it was right to leave their new friends behind so we had a frustrating 15 or 20 minutes with them looking back. The ladies caught up to me and I let them pass.

The three of us travelled more or less together for about two hours until the race marshall approached us on a snow machine with a scratched musher and his sled. He told us we were going the wrong way and we needed to turn around.

We were only 19 miles from the finish, near the Nome sign.

Those 19 miles are the toughest section of the trail. Remember I told you earlier about 9 mile hill? It was steeper going back and this time the dogs were tired and hot so I had to push the sled up all of them.

As I turned the last corner and onto KGB road I saw Nicole run across the road, presumably to tell them I was coming in. As I approached the intersection, where I wiped out the day before, my son and daughter were the first to greet me. It was a great feeling. I crossed the finish line and flashed my wife a smile. I got in at 6:41. 10 hours 21 minutes and that included me getting lost. Not bad.

I pulled up to the truck and spoke to J.P. Norris for a few minutes as I stood on the brake while Nicole and Tyler un-hooked the dogs. He said he was following my progress on my Spot Tracker. Very cool.

We fed the dogs, loaded up the gear and headed inside the Tug Bar for the banquet. They had every type of food you could imagine including corned beef and cabbage. It was St. Patricks Day after all.

I received the Red Lantern. No worries. It was a great training run for us and I got my first Iditarod qualifier under my belt, not to mention just 48 hours before we knew nothing of it.

Things I learned

First, I tried out a lot of the team in lead. They all did pretty well. I learned during the Tustumena experience I can’t count on one leader to pull me into the finish line. On this race I had Cassie, Sidney, Vela, Denali, Rasp and Aussie all in lead at one point or another.

Second, I am so proud of Trapper. He is a big boy we got this summer from James Wheeler and is part of the Kasilof Crew. This was his first race and the longest he has ever ran. This was his first time camping too. He did great!

Third, have fun! That is what Michele said to me before I left. I did. Yes, it was too hot. Yes, there weren’t enough trail markers but you know what, I did have fun. This is why I mush dogs. Just the sheer enjoyment of being out on the trail and spending time together is all worth it. Better yet, having your family greet you at the finish line and to see them with a smile on their face when their dad crosses the finsih line is priceless.

Sure it was only 150 miles. A far cry from the Iditarod. But each mile I run with those dogs is a treasure I would not give up for anything in the world. It is why we moved to Alaska. For moments just like this. I am in no hurry to run the BIG race yet. Heck, look at guys like Jim Lanier. He is running it in his 70s. I still have 30 years!

Mush on!

 

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Filed Under: Races Tagged With: Iditarod Trail, Junior Iditarod, Mount Susitna, MUSH, Yentna River

Thinking about winter

August 6, 2013 by teamineka

20130806-081147.jpg

This is the team running on the Yentna River in Alaska

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Alaska, Facebook, Mushing, Recreation and Sports, Sports, Travel and Tourism, United States, Yentna River

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