Mother Nature or Old Man Winter ?

I am not sure which one gifted us with 6 inches of fresh powder but thank you for looking out for me ;) It's not a good idea to ignore a gift, so we thought we'd enjoy it while we could. Folks in town were whining about the snow, but us funhogs and fundogs don't like to complain, we fired up and took the matter into our own hands. We know how to solve this problem, we've been training all winter.

Can you recognize the Alaska State Dog in the picture? (click any picture to enlarge)


At the trailhead we ran into our neighbor Amy who adopted Yukon from Malamute Rescue of Alaska. He's looking like a fundog to me.


Lookie here, The Funhogs and the Fundogs. All of us in one picture, ain't that sweet.


Saint Nicki!


I don't know what it is about Rocket, but when somebody goes down in the snow, he has to clean them up a bit after laying all over them. Sometimes he frenches them Yuck!

Sure was a fun evening after work.

That Leg

You know the one that had the ACL operation back in December. Its looking pretty good, good enough to pull and go out and pull for a long weekend of fun.


We enjoyed a 9 mile skijor out to the Denali View Chalet during a beautiful sunstorm. We gave Jago a rest day on Saturday and only skijored her 4 miles. Then Sunday it was 9 miles out in a blazing snowstorm with about 6 inches of wet snow for her to deal with.

No ill side effects. She pulled strong all day, was ready to go the next day and no limping the entire time.

What Denali looks like on the approach to Kroto Lake. Looking over Valley's noggin.

A Grand Day in the Neighborhood.

What a grand day it was, sunny, warm and no wind. In town the mood is spring, in the mountains we are still talking powder. We took advantage of the day and toured to a mountain in our neighborhood, McHugh Peak, which we can see up the valley from the house.

The dogs are always happy to go someplace where the can run.


This is the first grass they've been on since mid-October.

and


Mt Redoubt the volcano in the background. Is it blowing steam? Or is that a cloud over its top?


They love being in a spot where they can look around. Usually when I get a picture of one of those two peaks we are at the bottom.


Outdoors, they are always looking around, they always have the eye on the lookout.


Lunch is a great time to take a break, although the scenery never seems to.

and over Rocket's shoulder is the Kenai Peninsula in the background with Turnagain Arm in the foreground.


They love to run. For them running after us as we telemark down hill is the most enjoyable fun of the trip.


and


Not sure how much longer we'll be able to take the dogs out. Mother Nature and Old Man Winter will dictate that. As soon as it quits freezing in the morning, and the dogs start breaking through, that will be the time for them to quit the snow season. Six months of fun will come to an end.

Tipped Over

My Gosh Darn Malamute tipped over, now what do I do?

Snowcamping snowdogs

We had a weekend of camping with the ski club and our dogs. It was fun, temps down into the single digits below zero F zooming up to near freezing during the day. We had a great tp to climb into after dinner to enjoy life thanks to Jeff.



We had about 12 inches of powder going into the weekend and awoke to fresh
snow every morning. Jago even joined us for the trek into the camping spot, although she didn't get the chance to run around. Which is fine, we enjoyed her warmth in the tent while sleeping.


this is the trail in and out


Rocket gave us the look to let us know when it was time for bed.


But the scenery was great


and the snow conditions good.

Lovely Pair

A lovely pair don't you think?

Two of my favorite "girls". A lucky man I am.

Four Play

This is a one of a kind picture. About once a year I seem to get our 3 in a picture together, and now I have Four! Quite the magic spell I must have worked. Ok, but the big question is, one of these dogs isn't one of ours, which one is it?

Skijoring Fan Hitch

I've been asked several times how I run 3 malamutes together. Lucky is the word that comes to mind.

Running from each dog back towards Nicki is a fixed line, individually they are attached to a central O-Ring, which is attached to a single line running directly back to Nicki.


This is a picture of the middle or central portion of the assembly. This is the "fan hitch" connecting device, a 1 inch metal o-ring purchased at the local hardware store. You can see the colored 4 foot fixed lines leading to the dogs. The one inch webbing returns to a flexi leash connected to the skier


Back at the skier we have this.


The two inch webbing is actually the shoulder strap to a duffle bag. You can see the metal O-ring again from the hardware store at each end of the webbing. The quickdraw is a device used by climbers and can be purchased at any outdoor shop that handles climbing equipment. Connected to one of the carabiners is a webbing version of the flexi leash.

The 2 inch nylon webbing goes around our waist, we clip in and unclip using the other carabiner--the one not attached to the flexi leash. We then run the belt of our back pack through the handle of the flexi leash adding stability and comfort.

This is a comfortable and convenient system we've used for years. Maybe you can find something useful here for your dog driving days.

Even on a snowy day....

it's fun to get out and run with the dogs.

Blowhard

We had a little bit of weather blow in so we stayed near home for skijoring and touring. The wind was blowing about 30 mph (48 kmh) with temps in the teens F. A great time was had by all but you can judge for yourself :)

Groundhogs Day

We celebrate Groundhogs Day like its a national holiday. Why? Its Nicki's birthday. We go out to dinner, I make a dee-licious chocolate cake and a few presents are opened. Its almost like Christmas, only different :) So while Phil is out checking for his shadow, we are whooping it up having a good time.

Sweet Day in the Mountains

We have had some good weather and captured a video of some of the fun we've been having.

Wake me up when its time for fun

If you have met Valley you might have asked about her kicked back style. In the back of your mind you were probably wondering if she ever woke up or how she might accomplish such a herculean task of moving from one spot to another. When you asked me, I probably said something like LOL "She's saving her energy up for some action". For those who haven't met her, let's just say, once she chose her spot, that was pretty much it for the day 'cept for breathing.

Well I actually captured her in motion and thought I would share that with you hehehe.

The windup


and running the line






Watch out Rocket!


Head Fake!


Tag your it



That wasn't the only time Rocket had to suffer on leash. She came after him again


and again



all day long. In fact when I let him off, he got the zoomies and struck back!




Body Slam!


I guess paybacks are hell.


Sitting Pretty,



I know its hard to imagine but seeing is believing. ;)

Moonshine

We like to make the most of things when the moon shines. to do that there is nothing like skiing on a full moon.

35th Anniversary

Its the 35th Anniversary of the first Christmas which I skied. For 36 Christmas', each and every year since the first one, I've gone cross country skiing. Always after opening presents and before dinner, its usually a couple hour event where we can celebrate the day. No Food, no commercialism but outdoors with ourselves and our dogs. After all these years, its a special event or tradition of its own. It started as a way to blow off some steam before going to dinner with some friends, when I first left home to go to college. At one point I think we had something like 30 folks skiing with us. Nowadays, its just Nicki, myself, the dogs and either some close friends and neighbors.





Two happy Christmas skiers.


Its a great time, too bad it only comes around once a year :)

Powder Burns

We had a great snow for about a week. Four five days, every day we were on the receiving end of 3 or 4 inches of fine light powder. The kind that falls at temps below 10degF or -11degC. Some folks would call it champagne powder. We'd get home from work, eat a quick dinner, harness the dogs and load them and the skis up and head to the state park about 5 minutes from the house. Going to work Dead Tired was fun.

The best was Thursday evening where it was snowing so hard the headlamp was worthless. 12 inches of powder on a hard base. I couldn't see and both Valley in lead and Rocket were pulling me out into the darkness. They stopped, I wondered why but with the headlamp on low I could see enough, that this was our normal stopping and turning around spot. They knew exactly where they were, how they got there and were ready to head home. Without them I wouldn't have known how I got there. They didn't seem to care about the deep snow, the darkness or the falling snow. They were out to have fun. Fundogs they are.

Then the wind kicked up. 55 mph winds for a few days. I am not sure where our powder went but its gone.

Our neighbor Amy slicing a turn on our new found hard snow.


And Valley disappearing in a 55 mph wind gust.


Wishing you, a very merry holiday season, and a healthy 2010.