Kobuk 440

Finishing the Kobuk 440 race

Just got a call from Hugh. He and the team are back in Kotzebue and had a good night's rest. They arrived yesterday afternoon at 3:15 in 5th position. Hugh was happy with his race. He finished with 8 happy dogs. The four dogs that were dropped along the way were the one's that hadn't done the Sweepstakes so they had a little less recent training. They had a good experience though that will help them next year. The dogs will be flying to me in Anchorage this afternoon. Until then, I'm hanging with 9 dogs here at our friends house. We can have them all loose in the backyard and its fun to watch them play together. Hugh will fly back tomorrow morning. It's amazing to think back over this past season. 3200 miles of racing combined with about 2000 miles of training. That's a lot of country these dogs have seen. Hugh and the dogs raced in the Cantwell Classic (Denali Hwy), Kusko 300, the Yukon Quest, Iditarod, Sweepstakes and Kobuk. People often ask how we pull it off, getting to all these races every year. I think Hugh has always just decided what to do and then made it work. If you think about things too much your mind can always come up with reasons why you shouldn't or can't. When you set you mind on doing something, your feet just follow. Our main goal is that our dogs are happy and seeing the dogs at the finish lines this year I would say mission accomplished!

Finish of the 2008 Yukon Quest