Play Ball!

Its pretty common for folks to take their dogs to the little league fields for exercise and play after the baseball season has ended. The ball parks are completely fenced in, folks will not enter the field if another dog and owner are in there, and we found it a wonderful place to work on recall.

They love to run run run when they are first released, then we start walking around practicing the recall and finding ways to play. This time we didn't expect to find not only a baseball but a golf ball as well. We found this evening they love to chase after the ball, play catch with themselves and when the ball escapes, all 3 get in the action to scoop the ball up and play keep-away and bitenecking.
In the first picture you can see the golf ball below Valley's left eye and next to her schoz-ola. Tthe 2nd picture shows Ganik playing catch.

Twenty or 30 minutes of this kind of fun make for some dead tired dogs after dinner. I know the Lathrop High School in Fairbanks has the Malemutes as a mascot, maybe I can sign these guys off to play for a little league team next summer.

Batter Up!

Fall Colors

Fall colors are full out on in the tundra. Great time of the year to get out and ooooo and ahhh at Nature's Lightshow. We walked into the first snow of the season. Snow mixed with Rain. Woohoo, winter is knocking at our door.

Row Row Row your Boat

We launched the FV Ganik tonight. That's FV for Funhog Vessel not Fishing Vessel.

I added the rowing mechanism to the canoe so I could maneuver the boat by myself and gave him a lifejacket since nobody gets in the boat unless they are wearing one. He was a little nervous at first but settled right down and enjoyed the view. We chose the lake to see how it goes, if he keeps it up, we'll gradually improve to some running water. The Ruff wear Lifejacket fit well and seems well constructed. You can see its a color easily seen even on bad days, has a sturdy handle on the back to grab him with and the life jacket holds when you lift him with it.

With his back, this might be a good ticket to enjoy the out of doors with him.

It'd definitely be the way to go if I could teach him to fish. I'd be happy to run the net if he could reel them in.

Time to Play Hockey

Well not playing hockey but playing in the hockey rink. The rink is fully enclosed except for an entrance so we blocked it off. Let the dogs loose, then they chased each other. After a bit of that we had them chase us. Then we practiced their recall. Baseball diamonds, like the little league down the road are good for this, if they are fully enclosed like ours is. A much softer surface, but they were working on it so we went with our 2nd choice, the neighborhood school hockey rink. Fun for all!

Here we have Valley giving chase to Ganik, and Valley coming to her call. (As always, click on the picture to enlarge.)

Winner of a Day on Winner Creek

We had a winner of a day on Winner Creek. Looked like it was going to rain at the house today. As I drove south saw a whole different situation developing. A sunstorm!









Valley seems happy with the view from the pass doesn't she?

Mrs. Bullwinkle

Out on Bullwinkle Patrol and a fall color check in the Tundra. Mrs. Bullwinkle and calf were out looking for somebody to shoot their picture.

Bullwinkle

Valley and I were heading back to barn today after visiting Rabbit and McHugh Lake when I looked to my left and saw this rack protruding from the bushes. Hmmm, I said to my self, I wonder if there is a bullwinkle to be seen.








So I walked around the bushes and Bullwinkle appeared, giving me this full frontal shot. My lucky day.










Valley, as you can see, is as interested in Bullwinkle as I am and was held back. No disturbing the Bullwinkles Valley.



















That's a nice rack you have there Bullwinkle.











All good things come to an end, Bullwinkle goes off and we headed down the trail back to the rig.

Hanging Valley

That's the name of the valley we hiked to, not what we did to our dog :)

On the way back we picked a bunch of blueberries. Saw some sheep up high, and while taking a break near where this picture was taken, heard some ducks coming into the lake sounding like a jet landing, that was cool.

I think I should have fallen over and died.

I can't believe it, I think I should have just fallen over and dropped dead when it happened. A buddy I went hiking with let Valley loose in a very busy parking lot, with 4 young women bearing down on her. I asked her to sit, probably in a frantic voice, she sat and let me walk up and get ahold of her. She definitely was uncomfortable, she had that look on her face. But I can't believe it, she did it! Oh my, and I am glad she did.

So I guess all our love, kindness and practice paid off.

Anyway, here's a picture of Valley earlier in the day (far away from moving cars and girls bearing down on her). She's our Girl!

Another Hike :)

We started out hiking like we wanted to scramble up Manitoba Mountain. The same place we ski, but when we got to the bridge crossing Mills Creek we saw the Bridge Closed Do not use signs. Looking at the spans we could see one was broken and while it might have supported an individual. There was no was I was going to cross the bridge with a dog tethered to me and risk falling in the water if it did go, so we decided to head to Summit Pass. (Click on the image, to enlarge)







Even though it was cloudy, it was great hiking weather, not too hot, not too cold. Even so the dogs need to roll in the snow to cool down. They love it!

Gold Rush Dogs

Check it out, here's a picture taken back in 1898 by Eric Hegg. This is from the Special Collections of the University of Washington Library Digital Archives. I changed the contrast on the original photo as displayed at Uof W so I could see the dogs faces, harness and "gangline". The engine is the same as now-a-days, but the gangline and harness are different. The sled is kind of too, but one still sees some of those up here. Click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see some of the detail that I am talking about.

I am sure the dogs are freighting loads for the Klondike Gold Rush.

Just Passing Through ...

Kodie is the latest dog in the funhog--fundogs foster program. Kodie is a 1 yo and playful as a pup, in fact he's in the back yard ripping around with Valley and the neighbors dog. Poor Valley though, she's tuckered out from all the hiking this weekend. He's going to be a fun dog to have around, kind of fits that daffy looking noggin of his.





You can see his profile on petfinders at: http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=6713383

Weekend Dayhiking.

Out for a day hike at the South Fork of Eagle River. We couldn't believe we arrived at the trailhead at 9 am which is plenty early and the parking lot was full! We had to park on the road which is no big deal but a surprise. Lots of folks spent the night at the lake including a group of Native Alaskan students in town for a month to learn the 3Rs. One student in particular took a liking to the dogs and she petted Ganik and talked to us for 20 minutes about dogs. It was kind of fun talking to Jen.

Yesterday we walked from Glen Alps to indian via Ship Lake Pass. Quite a few folks were out on the Glen Alps side of the pass, and we were surprised to see two horses and riders past Ship Lake. but after that we didn't see anybody. Easy to see why. Once you get to Indian Pass there is knee high to chest high grasses making travel difficult. I was pleased Valley snaked her way through the high grass. Not a pleasant thing to do. She eventually tired and let me lead. Slow going but we made progress. Eventually we were met by Nicki half way to the pass and walked back with her and the dogs. It was exciting to hear the WooWoo from Babe when I spied them on the bridge. She was stoked to see me again.

Flower Power

Here's a shot of Valley while out on a hike up Falls Creek today. The girl turns 3 pretty soon and I have no idea how I can top this!

Weekend Backpacking

We like to backpack in the summer and go places where we don't see alot of other folks. Its quieter, we like the wilderness and its easier to manage the dogs. This l.ast weekend we hiked out Center Ridge which gets some traffic but not alog and after spending the night hiked up to Taylor Pass and down Taylor Creek. The first day was cloudy which was fine but Sunday the clouds broke and it was spectacular, which made the 1800 foot climb hot with our packs on but well worth the views of scenery. (Click the pictures to enlarge)


This is a view from our campsite south towards Kickstep Mountain. Its great to let the dogs loose when not alot of folks or no wildlife can be bothered. They love the freedom and get a good charge out of running around. A tired Malamute is a good malamute.




Lyons Creek isn't major but it does empty glaciers and big snowfields so it would have been really cold and uncomfortable to walk through. Not alot of fun in my book, so when you can find a snow field like we did, its so much more comfortable and easier to cross.





Here's a view from one of our restbreaks looking south. Knee high grasses and plants to walk through, on a relatively steep slope on that nice sunny day made rest breaks really nice.






Mrs Funhog at a real nice flat spot at the toe of Pastoral. Nice thing about going new places is finding great new places we can camp at. The pass is just a hop skip and a jump above us, thank goodness because we're really hot at this point.






Everybody gets to carry aload backpacking, and so do the dogs. Here is Ganik at Taylor Pass, he's got our apres' hike shoes, leashes, and pillows in his pack.




And finally a view of the territory ahead (from the pass) to hike through. Cross country backpacking isn't easy but it sure is might fine.

Wipe that smile off your face

Spent Independence Day out on a day hike to Williwaw Lakes. Clouds were down, sun didn't come out all day but it doesn't seem to affect the dogs all that much now does it?

Committing Homicide

Valley and I climbed Homicide Peak last Saturday. We left the rig at the Indian Creek Trailhead about 9 am, summited about 2 pm and took a long break about 2:45. About 3 we were surprised by 4 dall sheep, 2 ewes, a yearling and lamb of the year...Cool!

Here are some Pics:

I got me a red head malamute now!

I woke up this morning and in my groggy state of mind walked into the living room to find a blood red carpet and a blood red dog bed. My focus, as groggy as it was, turned to the dogs and I found Babe with blood red paws. Now I am thinking, "Oh no, we have an emergency visit to the veterinarian, I wonder what happened". I turned to Valley and found a blood red head and was wondering how they hell they got into a fight without me waking up. Wakened into a state of concern I put my clothes on and started to mobilize.

Right up until I saw the red pen they both chewed on :)

Malamutes got to love them.

Hot and Cold

We opened the backpacking season with an overnighter to Rabbit Lake. Not far, its 4 miles in but about 1 mile in there is snow. The mile of snow was easy to cover then we switched to the west side of Rabbit Creek where there was no snow for the rest of the hike in.

You can see looking over Ganik and Nicki the lake is still frozen and some of the surrounding lakeshore is too. It wasn't too hard to find a camping spot, enough of those were open. But snow was always nearby. We arrived in extremely warm temps, you can see Nicki is wearing shorts, but not long there after the wind kicked up from the north, not too strong, but it was a cold wind.

We headed into the tent for some napping and reading. Upon arising for dinner we saw some campers across the creek. The next day we visited and realized they were folks who had gone on some ski trips with us with the nordic ski club. Its a small world.

It froze that night and the wind was slight again. Not cold but if you weren't prepared for it. Nice easy trip out, instead of punching through the snow, we walked on it. And it warmed up as we headed out. A nice weekend to get out.