Hollingsworth Huskies

The past couple of weeks I’ve been gathering gear, running over supplies, and generally getting the kennel ready for a good winter of mushing. This year we plan on entering a few races as a three, maybe four dog team.

For the first couple of weeks in training (September/October), we’ll be focusing on slow, steady runs. This will give me a chance to work on behavior correction with the dogs, and get their muscles and ligament ready for the longer runs we’ll put in on the snow. At this point we’ll be using a dog scooter for training during the first few months - and I’ll be taking out two seperate teams. I’m not quite comfortable taking out a team of a three quite yet - on just a scooter. Later in the year, as the dogs become more trained - I might be ready to attempt a run of this caliber.

So - that’s the plan thus far. I’m really excited about this year, and will have a blast working with the dogs on the trail. Thank you for following us - and for your continued support.

Cheerful Trails,

Christian

This past week I decided to take my small team on a run with my sled at my house – due to the large quantities of snow we were so graciously being gifted. I would have to agree that it wasn’t the smartest choice to take a dog team by sled on only four inches of snow, buy hey, what could happen? Right?

In short – the run went flawlessly. No problems, mess ups, or injuries. I watered the dogs, and got them back into their enclosures. It kept snowing.

It snowed another two inches throughout the day so I decided to go on a second run at dusk. I mounted the sled, pulled the hook, and we were off. At this point I was expecting the dogs to be a bit more tired because of the morning’s run, so I wasn’t prepared for how fast we took the first corner. The sled tipped - and I was drug on the ground for about ten mud filled feet. As my face was meeting the non-friendly sticks and rocks on the ground – I quickly up righted the sled and jumped back onto the runners. All while running as fast as I could to not fall again.

We got onto the trail - things were going fine, and I was using the drag mat to slow the team. At about halfway through the run I decided to put up the drag mat - as it was quickly gathering snow and wasn’t needed at that time. Later in the run I put my foot down where the mat should have been and WOOSH! My foot caught on the ground (since I had put up my drag mat), and I tripped. I regained my balance, and we were off again. Tripping due to something so simple put yet another dent in my dwindling amount of confidence.

On the way back home I stopped in a field to fix some twisted lines, and as I was bending down to fix a dog - WOOSH! The dogs were gone. I lost my dog team for the very first time. For those that have lost a dog team - the following scene beholds a mixture of humor and fear. It’s almost humorous to see this terribly fast team speeding along the trail in perfect sync - with a little, lightweight sled tracking nicely behind the dogs. I quickly pursued the dogs in fear of a tangle or bad crash.

I ran for approximately a quarter mile and joyously found them at a Y in the trail - deciding where they should take their adventure next. I jumped onto the sled, caught my breath, and we made our way home.

Now I know to never let my guard – and never, ever underestimate the power of a dog team, no matter how small it may seem.

Hopefully my little mishaps and adventures brought a smile into your day – and remember that sometimes we just have those training runs that never seem to relent in the amount of precarious problems they present.

By the way, did you see my awesome pumpkin carving of Keeva in the Monthly Bark newsletter? If you missed it, here it is once again:

(click on the image, or here, for a larger view)

Yesterday morning I took the dogs out for a 4 mile run. Coleton, my brother, went along as well on his bike. He acts as my “backup” support, and it’s nice to have someone along with me.

The run took us about 70 minutes, but we took 2 REALLY long breaks of about 15 minutes. I wanted to make the run fun for the dogs, and didn’t want to overwork them too much. All in all, according to my GPS, we were averaging about 10 miles and hour when we were actually running.

The dogs are getting quite strong already, and easily drag the cart around; sometimes while I am not ON the cart either! I am having to constantly keep an eye on the dogs and hop on the cart in a moments notice, as they just go go go!

I am hoping to do about 3 more runs before next weeks trip to Oregon for the La Pine Mushing Weekend; as I want to do a couple 7 milers while I am up there. Next week on Monday/Wednesday, I will probably jump up to 5 mile runs here, and then do the 7 milers in Oregon. This will be quite easy for my dogs, as we will be adding more dogs to my team while we are up there; which will make less weight for each dog to pull.

Once again, I will definately post photos of my journey here after the trip.

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I hope everyone had a great Halloween Holiday!

Cheerful Trails,

Christian

I decided to go out on a short 2 mile run yesterday even though it was pretty hot. In the 50’s. The dogs did excellent, ran well, and listened. In only 2 short weeks I will be headed up to La Pine Oregon for Karen Yeargain’s Mushing Weekend with Kathy Miyoshi (mushing mentor), so I would like to have the dogs up to a good solid 5-6 miles before then. At this point they could easily do a 4 mile run, but it was just really hot yesterday.

I will be going out on a 4 miler tomorrow morning, and see how the dogs fair in the warmer weather. When we get to La Pine, we will probably do around 7 mile runs, but the good thing is that I will have 2 more dogs added onto my team, so the dogs will easily be able to run the 7 mile runs. It will just be like going from dryland to snow, because of the extra weight that will be carried by two extra dogs in the team.

It will be quite fun to run a 5 dog team! I will post photos, and let you all know how the trip goes. It should be awesome!

Talk to you soon,

Christian