Season Opener

Today was our season opener skiing. A little tour for turns down in Turnagain Pass. Last year we got 80 days in, and today we started towards that goal. We skied that little ridge to the above and right of Valley's ear in the shadows in the foreground of Kickstep mtn and below the bowl to the left of kickstep. Kickstep is the peak to the right, Sure feels good to get the skis on again and get out.

Crusty down below 1600 feet, nice powder above that. Surface hoar everywhere. I hope something comes in wet to take that away or we are in big trouble this ski season.

Portals of Love

When you build something yourself you can take the time to build in stuff you'd like to have to make life easier. So I added Portals to the deck railing so the dogs could look out and see what's going on outside their yard. Here's Ganik looking out one of the portals.






this is one of the portals looking towards Flattop in Chugach State Park.

















And the actual portal Ganik was looking out when I took the picture.

every dog I know that has lived in porcupine country encounters them sometime in their career as a dog. Some are worse than others. Here's Valley's encounter with the bristley beasts. Ha! 3 quills. Not too bad. I've had to pull hundreds out of dogs before. Lucky us. Ganik ignored the thing and Babe(jago) trotted way out of her way to avoid the thing.

This weekend marks our 4th anniversary with Babe(Jago). No other dog has changed our life as much as she has. To live with her we saw that we needed to change the way we lived with dogs, particularly a shy dog. From a malamute who stayed in her dog house for a year, she's now falling asleep on our thighs and chest. From a dog who blew our her adrenal gland in fear, she now leads runs around confident and happy. Thanks Babe for all the positive things you brought to us!

Hiking up Tincan.

Its always nice to hike up and see the places where we ski. We get an idea of the "true" slope of the hill for avalanche purposes, and we can see the anchors hold the snow, plus its pretty neat terrain. Here we are up on Tincan, for our annual cleanup trip. We collected a pair of Bolle sunglasses and lots of dog booties, along with all the beer bottles, pop cans and more. The number one item continues to be energy drinks. Down low on the mountain are the water containers and energy drinks. Up high its beer (in bottles!) and energy drinks. We've found a car battery, shovels, shirts, shoes and socks.



It was snowing when we got there. By the time we left the sun was out and we were able to nap in the sun. It'll be awhile before we get to telemark ski here. But Old Man Winter is knocking at the door.

TR: Devils Pass Cabin

Six of us and 7 dogs (all rescues) hiked up to the Devils Pass Forest Service Cabin this weekend to enjoy a weekend retreat and a bit of fun. 10 miles in on a relatively sunny day. Cloudy and a bit cooler on the way out, nonetheless fun! For dinner it was Shrimp Fettucini with giant shrimp from Florida. Breakfast was eggs and hashbrown with bacon. Yum Yum.



Here's Tom at the Pass before the Cabin. I don't know why but he kept trying to drive a motorboat up the creek and into the cabin while we were all trying to sleep :) He can really motor.













This is Babe (Jago) and Valley at the cabin, hanging out pretty much where the spent the night sleeping. Valley in the foreground, Babe in the background, and Devil's Pass behind them. They were the only dogs who slept outside.
















Billy and Pharoah at the cabin right before we are going to head back after spending the night.













Ganik!













Siku at the cabin.












Yvonne and Billy right before they left us to run an errand in Hope.













Ginny.













Saint Nicki!












Happy Valley with her brand new pack. She was a bit shy on the way up but warmed up the next day. I think she was happy to let everybody pet her.












And finally Valley Again!

Valley's first off leash run

We took all three dogs to a baseball diamond with closing gates. This means everybody can run off leash and if they don't want to be tied up to go home, we can catch them in a confined space. Ideal for a shy dog who hasn't learned the value of human companionship. Here's Valley running around on her first time offleash out....the expression on her face says it all!