Tramps Like Us...

"Someday now, I don't know when- we're gonna get to that place..." -- Da Boss
Ahhhh, how you all doing?
My aging body might feel a bit muscled up this morning but Quest food drops are finally finished. The Carbon Hill race was yesterday as well, a thirty mile loop around the Annie Lake area. Now in most 'sports' home field advantage usually helps a team's chances of performing well. In dogmushing however it can be quite the dilemma to have the pooches run by their warm houses with the smell of food in the air. Luckily for us our three squads eventually made it past our oasis and back on the trail to the finish line, some fifteen miles away. My squad's leader's Annie and her mom Colby swerved towards the house 3 times- they know where the couch is at. Juho and Boris each ran 8 dog teams that performed admirably. The temps. were in the high teens with flurries- nice mushing weather. A punchy trail ensured quality Quest training. A sunday morning 'church' service- northern style.


Juho's team coming off Annie Lake. This pic was on the cover of the Yukon News on Monday. Leaders Wild Bill and Wonka, followed by Delilah, Amigo, Denali, Tyler, Simba and Oscar.

The funnest part of the race was the last mile otherwise known as "No Man's Land". At this juncture of the race we merged with another trail that kids were having a skijoring race on. A ten year old punk on skis with two pooches pulling him was now hot on our heels. I urged the pooches on the last few minutes as this kid's fresh pooches slowly came up on our side. We would finally cross the finish line a second or so ahead of them. I could not help but giggle- we had finally 'met our match'. The dawgs were happy to be on a good snowpacked trail after all the nasty conditions we've experienced so far this year. It's interesting how we travelled all over Alaska looking for decent conditions and the very best were actually in our own back yard.
Immediately after the race commenced we flew back home to watch the Super Bowl- especially Bruce at halftime. We then jumped back in the truck to go to the award cermony- thankfully Tamra was there to accept our prizes because we were late. Boris finished 11th in his 1st race, Juho was 8th while my squad came in 3rd. (Crispin Studer won easily)I was happy with their performance considering a few of the pooches running we had just received recently from a friend in fairbanks to check out. It's always fun to watch the younger pooches experience their 1st race - as well as our 'handlers'. At Laughing Eyes Kennel we have one guarantee- when a person decides to stay with us for the winter- you will probably be running dawgs nearly everyday, and you will definately be racing as well! Because baby- they were Born To Run... HHN http://www.laughingeyeskennel.com/