Hello everyone!
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We’ve been very busy, and getting everything arranged to operate a “home kennel office” with no electricity has been a project. But thanks to modern technology, a little organization, and a little time I should have everything set up again to post regularly.
Its hard to believe that at our dog camp in Juneau, high up on the mountain we have all the amenities, running water, electricity, super fast wireless internet service, while here in the “suburbs” of Fairbanks, I have none of these luxuries.
Though we had really not wanted to come back to Two Rivers, about 25 miles Northeast of Fairbanks, it does have many advantages.
First of all, FRIENDS. I have such a nice core of friends here in Two Rivers who are always ready to give a helping hand or just hang out and have fun. I have set up our winter camp, which may be temporary depending on the weather, at my dear friend Kris Krestensen’s property. Kris is about 70, a former musher himself (he ran the Quest in 1986 under the name John Two Rivers), a former merchant marine, a native Norwegian, speaks 7 languages fluently, and a devourer of books. Needless to say he is not only a kind man but an interesting one. He is living at his “girlfriend’s” house and graciously offered his place for us, where we are able to “stay until we die.” Though the place isn’t much to look at, a small lot littered with Kris’s left behind junk, a couple of junkie broke down trailers, and a dead Toyota pick up, if I just keep my line of vision towards the dog yard I can pretend that none of that stuff exists. Plus it is right smack dab in the middle of Rick Swenson’s, Ray Redington’s, Bruce Milne’s, and about 5 or more other musher’s yards, all of whom were Grandfathered in, so not a word will be said any of the neighbor’s, whom for the most part used to be mushers themselves, about dogs barking. We can sit at home and say, “Ray must have gone to town tonight, he’s feeding awful late.” Or “Rick sure is getting on the trail early today.” It’s great! If I feel like running my dogs at 11 at night, because the full moon is lighting up the landscape and the northern lights are dancing, I can, and I have. Not a word will be spoken by anyone. Jim, my partner who came up with me from Juneau, says, “I don’t think that people insulate their houses for the cold so much as for the noise.”
Like I said though, we don’t have running water, which is the case for most of Two Rivers, but Jason and Susan (the owner’s of the 9 other dogs that I ran tours with this summer), have let us fill up our 5 gallon buckets for dog water daily so long as it is during the day, for they are not as fortunate to live in the “musher friendly” neighborhood, and are regularly being hassled by their neighbors about dogs barking. It has become quite nasty there too. Lawyers have been called, dogs have been poisoned, and gossip has been spread. Ironically, we are a little over a mile away, as the raven flies, so you can hear all the dogs in our neighborhood anyways. Hey people its Two Rivers! Dog mushing capital of the world, if you don’t like dogs, live somewhere else! If we don’t make it over to their house before dusk, which isn’t hard in December, in the interior, because the sun sets at 3:30, we can get water at the Laundromat for 25 cents for 6 gallons. This is also where we take showers, unless we drive out to Chena Hot Springs, just 25 miles down the road.
The other nice thing here in Two Rivers is the nice trail system. There are hundreds of miles of trails, on all kinds of varied terrain. You can travel on flat and fast trails, or climb some hills, or jump on the river when it freezes. Dogs learn good trail manners, passing other teams, running past loose dogs, crossing roads, running past moose. Now if only it would snow some more on all of those trails. It has been a hard early training season. We got about 6 inches of snow in late October, and have only got one inch since. Most of the mushers around are still running dogs on 4 wheelers. Let me tell you training dogs on a four wheeler is nice because of the control you have of the dogs but it is BORING and COLD. Ask any musher, there is nothing colder than sitting on a 4 wheeler for a couple hours. Top it off with the fact that it was colder than 20 below for 3 weeks straight in November, I have had it with this never ending fall training. I used my old sled for a while but I broke the runner so it was back to the ATV. We started getting into the bigger miles, 30 and 40 milers, and my brand new PrairieBilt Sled arrived that my Dad bought me, so now we are back on the sled with small teams, fingers crossed, and a daily snow dance ritual every night before bed. Wow! What a nice ride even over our bumpy trails. Thanks Dad! We just find trails to travel on until the mushers that are still on ATV’s come and pound them rock hard again, and then go find some more. It’s a divided issue. Those mushers on the 4 wheelers eye us with scrutiny and jealousy as we pass. I know they are mentally evaluating weather or not they too should put and end to their cold throttle thumbs and wind burned knees. I would say 40% of the mushers are on sleds and are questioned often by the other 60% during chance meetings at the local general store, “how it is going?” It is warmer now, which is nice; it has been over 0 for a week now. And the full moon and the meteor shower. It has been nice even without the foot of snow we need.
Finally what nice about living out here is how convenient it is to be a dog musher in Fairbanks. This really is the dog mushing capital of the world. There is 4 feed stores all geared for mushers, and if I don’t feel like driving into town I can have dog food, straw, meat, whatever, delivered to my doorstep. Many of us here in Two Rivers try to see how long we can go without driving to town. I figured out that if I plan my groceries right, I could stay out here all winter! Except I like to watch football, and the new owner of Two Rivers Lodge is trying to do away with his bar crowd, so I have to go all the way into town or all the way out to Angel Creek Lodge (out by the Hot Springs) to watch the game. We haven’t been venturing in lately though because we have been very focused on training up the dogs.
Our first 2 races have been cancelled due to lack of snow, but our main focus is the Yukon Quest 2008. Every race and training run we do this year is just in preparation for the Quest next year. I have a nice group of 13 dogs that are in my “A” team. Unfortunately, hard trails mean injuries for dogs. I have only had one major one in this A team, but I have been taking a lot of preventative measures to keep the team together. The dogs are inspected carefully after every run. If I know they have been traveling fast on hard packed trails, or cruising down hills I massage the dog’s feet, wrists, and shoulders with a Diluted Rosemary oil mix after the run. The bigger dogs really pound on their wrist so I wrap them with wrist wraps directly after a run, sometimes icing them too. We have had only one serious injury, poor Alcor hurt his shoulder, so he will have to take some time off for a while. Jim has been training another group of dogs that are too young or old for the A team or new comers in the yard that are behind in miles. Next year, many of these dogs will be moving up to the A team.
We have 6, 4 month old pups that are terrorizing the kennel. Which go on jogging runs with me or bike runs with Jim.
We do have a few retired dogs that I wish I had more time for. Saturn has to live inside now because he can no longer handle the cold. Lyra has to come inside also if it is really cold out. Ester has a permanent injury so she can’t pull a sled anymore, and Misty is just old. All of these dogs would make excellent pets if anyone is interested in helping out these dogs in their golden years, contact me at coyotecosmic@yahoo.com These are all my buddies for a long time, we’ve been on a lot of adventures together, so they can only go to the best homes, they deserve it!
Well I’m off to get my chores done in the yard, so I can get on the trail and be back in time to go out to the Hot Springs tonight. This month’s Two River’s Dog Mushers Association meeting is being held out there, oh darn! And if you have any unwanted snow down there in Texas and Oklahoma, or wherever, send it our way!
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We’ve been very busy, and getting everything arranged to operate a “home kennel office” with no electricity has been a project. But thanks to modern technology, a little organization, and a little time I should have everything set up again to post regularly.
Its hard to believe that at our dog camp in Juneau, high up on the mountain we have all the amenities, running water, electricity, super fast wireless internet service, while here in the “suburbs” of Fairbanks, I have none of these luxuries.
Though we had really not wanted to come back to Two Rivers, about 25 miles Northeast of Fairbanks, it does have many advantages.
First of all, FRIENDS. I have such a nice core of friends here in Two Rivers who are always ready to give a helping hand or just hang out and have fun. I have set up our winter camp, which may be temporary depending on the weather, at my dear friend Kris Krestensen’s property. Kris is about 70, a former musher himself (he ran the Quest in 1986 under the name John Two Rivers), a former merchant marine, a native Norwegian, speaks 7 languages fluently, and a devourer of books. Needless to say he is not only a kind man but an interesting one. He is living at his “girlfriend’s” house and graciously offered his place for us, where we are able to “stay until we die.” Though the place isn’t much to look at, a small lot littered with Kris’s left behind junk, a couple of junkie broke down trailers, and a dead Toyota pick up, if I just keep my line of vision towards the dog yard I can pretend that none of that stuff exists. Plus it is right smack dab in the middle of Rick Swenson’s, Ray Redington’s, Bruce Milne’s, and about 5 or more other musher’s yards, all of whom were Grandfathered in, so not a word will be said any of the neighbor’s, whom for the most part used to be mushers themselves, about dogs barking. We can sit at home and say, “Ray must have gone to town tonight, he’s feeding awful late.” Or “Rick sure is getting on the trail early today.” It’s great! If I feel like running my dogs at 11 at night, because the full moon is lighting up the landscape and the northern lights are dancing, I can, and I have. Not a word will be spoken by anyone. Jim, my partner who came up with me from Juneau, says, “I don’t think that people insulate their houses for the cold so much as for the noise.”
Like I said though, we don’t have running water, which is the case for most of Two Rivers, but Jason and Susan (the owner’s of the 9 other dogs that I ran tours with this summer), have let us fill up our 5 gallon buckets for dog water daily so long as it is during the day, for they are not as fortunate to live in the “musher friendly” neighborhood, and are regularly being hassled by their neighbors about dogs barking. It has become quite nasty there too. Lawyers have been called, dogs have been poisoned, and gossip has been spread. Ironically, we are a little over a mile away, as the raven flies, so you can hear all the dogs in our neighborhood anyways. Hey people its Two Rivers! Dog mushing capital of the world, if you don’t like dogs, live somewhere else! If we don’t make it over to their house before dusk, which isn’t hard in December, in the interior, because the sun sets at 3:30, we can get water at the Laundromat for 25 cents for 6 gallons. This is also where we take showers, unless we drive out to Chena Hot Springs, just 25 miles down the road.
The other nice thing here in Two Rivers is the nice trail system. There are hundreds of miles of trails, on all kinds of varied terrain. You can travel on flat and fast trails, or climb some hills, or jump on the river when it freezes. Dogs learn good trail manners, passing other teams, running past loose dogs, crossing roads, running past moose. Now if only it would snow some more on all of those trails. It has been a hard early training season. We got about 6 inches of snow in late October, and have only got one inch since. Most of the mushers around are still running dogs on 4 wheelers. Let me tell you training dogs on a four wheeler is nice because of the control you have of the dogs but it is BORING and COLD. Ask any musher, there is nothing colder than sitting on a 4 wheeler for a couple hours. Top it off with the fact that it was colder than 20 below for 3 weeks straight in November, I have had it with this never ending fall training. I used my old sled for a while but I broke the runner so it was back to the ATV. We started getting into the bigger miles, 30 and 40 milers, and my brand new PrairieBilt Sled arrived that my Dad bought me, so now we are back on the sled with small teams, fingers crossed, and a daily snow dance ritual every night before bed. Wow! What a nice ride even over our bumpy trails. Thanks Dad! We just find trails to travel on until the mushers that are still on ATV’s come and pound them rock hard again, and then go find some more. It’s a divided issue. Those mushers on the 4 wheelers eye us with scrutiny and jealousy as we pass. I know they are mentally evaluating weather or not they too should put and end to their cold throttle thumbs and wind burned knees. I would say 40% of the mushers are on sleds and are questioned often by the other 60% during chance meetings at the local general store, “how it is going?” It is warmer now, which is nice; it has been over 0 for a week now. And the full moon and the meteor shower. It has been nice even without the foot of snow we need.
Finally what nice about living out here is how convenient it is to be a dog musher in Fairbanks. This really is the dog mushing capital of the world. There is 4 feed stores all geared for mushers, and if I don’t feel like driving into town I can have dog food, straw, meat, whatever, delivered to my doorstep. Many of us here in Two Rivers try to see how long we can go without driving to town. I figured out that if I plan my groceries right, I could stay out here all winter! Except I like to watch football, and the new owner of Two Rivers Lodge is trying to do away with his bar crowd, so I have to go all the way into town or all the way out to Angel Creek Lodge (out by the Hot Springs) to watch the game. We haven’t been venturing in lately though because we have been very focused on training up the dogs.
Our first 2 races have been cancelled due to lack of snow, but our main focus is the Yukon Quest 2008. Every race and training run we do this year is just in preparation for the Quest next year. I have a nice group of 13 dogs that are in my “A” team. Unfortunately, hard trails mean injuries for dogs. I have only had one major one in this A team, but I have been taking a lot of preventative measures to keep the team together. The dogs are inspected carefully after every run. If I know they have been traveling fast on hard packed trails, or cruising down hills I massage the dog’s feet, wrists, and shoulders with a Diluted Rosemary oil mix after the run. The bigger dogs really pound on their wrist so I wrap them with wrist wraps directly after a run, sometimes icing them too. We have had only one serious injury, poor Alcor hurt his shoulder, so he will have to take some time off for a while. Jim has been training another group of dogs that are too young or old for the A team or new comers in the yard that are behind in miles. Next year, many of these dogs will be moving up to the A team.
We have 6, 4 month old pups that are terrorizing the kennel. Which go on jogging runs with me or bike runs with Jim.
We do have a few retired dogs that I wish I had more time for. Saturn has to live inside now because he can no longer handle the cold. Lyra has to come inside also if it is really cold out. Ester has a permanent injury so she can’t pull a sled anymore, and Misty is just old. All of these dogs would make excellent pets if anyone is interested in helping out these dogs in their golden years, contact me at coyotecosmic@yahoo.com These are all my buddies for a long time, we’ve been on a lot of adventures together, so they can only go to the best homes, they deserve it!
Hi Abbie!
ReplyDeleteGlad things are going well for you. Keep up the good work! Love ya, Emily