The Ball Games

Lucky´s kids (aka the Love Litter) are a very playful bunch. They sure have picked up the playful, fun-loving and super friendly personality from her.

So does mother

so do kids

Everyone seems to enjoy playing some ball games!

A Bit of a Big Scare

No worries - this is a happy ending story!

Couple of weeks ago, the very last day of Rebecca and Steve´s work and stay at Kipp d´Amundsen Kennels, the crew (including newly arrived help - Kristyna and Flores) went out to play with the kids. 

All went well, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the retired dogs and pups were playing with each other and with the handler crew. 

Jachym and I had a lot of stuff to sort out indoors, and we got a very disturbing surprise when they guys rushed Granite, all bloody, into the house.

He was in quite a distress, seemed to have cramps in his jaws and desperately pounded with his paws over his nose. A behavior I´ve never seen before. Apparently, the dogs were playing, Granite was somewhere behind the kennels and suddenly the guys heard screaming and dogs fighting. Music attacked Granite and Granite was snapping bag. Granite NEVER fights.  And Music won´t  attack him just all of a sudden with no reason, besides, they are used to running and playing together every single day.

We tried to calm him down, which we partially succeeded in. I took towel with warm water and washed off the blood from his front legs and his muzzle. No signs of bite marks, except for his nose, which started swelling a bit. He was breathing heavy, which was a very worrying signal. He wouldn´t close his mouth properly and sometimes grinded his jaws together. Really strange. We gave him Rymadil as he seemed in a lot of pain, and we suspected that Music must have somehow "hit" his nose so hard that the breathing became painful, otherwise we could not explain what is going on. 

But Granite would calm down, and then all of a sudden, like in an attack, start desperately rubbing his feet over his nose again. We examined his mouth numerous times to find nothing. Nothing broken, nothing swollen, except his gums being scratched and a bit bloody, which could have been from the claws as he kept rubbing his face before we prevented him from doing that further.

He wouldn´t drink and thus interested in food, he would get this strange reaction again.

Nothing made sense so we decided we need to rush him to the vet. As we were about to call them for emergency appointment, Granite coughed real hard, when Jachym tried to offer him kibble again. 

I looked on the floor and found this:

Yes, this stick is almost 10cm long and must have been stuck in his throat!!!

Granite immediately got lively, calmed down, jumped at us and gave us kisses, and went on to chow down the offered kibble! 

Phhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Can you imagine the relief???!!!

The reconstruction of the story is like this:

We have raspberry bushes in the dog yard, right behind the senior dogs´ kennels. The dogs love to munch on the berries in summer, leafs in spring and the dry branches in winter. Granite often seeks something to chew on and that is what he was doing this day as well. This raspberry stick got stuck in his throat and he was desperately trying to get it out with his paws for a while. That explains the scratched up gums. Music noticed Granite being in distress and attacked him. Some dogs do this, it is a behavior I truly dislike, but I´ve noticed some dogs have this kind of behavior. When the crew found them fighting, they of course assumed Granite was in pain from the fight. What remains a mystery is where and how well did the stick hide in Granite´s mouth, as we did not manage to notice it despite checking his mouth with a headlamp light.

As a reward for such trauma, Granite got to spend the day in the house, with his grand-nieces and nephews (aka the Love Litter) and ......

....... the night in bed. 

He was quite satisfied!

The Gods Heard Us!

The Gods have heard our prayers - It´s snowiiiing!!!!!!! After training for weeks on trails that resemble concrete narrow roller-coaster, the white gold is quickly covering the ground!

We are SO thankful.

Our nerves can now relax and are thankful.

The dogs are thankful.

The doggy feet and all their muscles are thankful.

The doggy wrists are extremely thankful.

Our feet and ankles are very thankful (try to ride drag brake on concrete ice for hours almost every day, while a team of dogs in good shape drag you around as they feel no resistance (and mercy).

The doggy shoulders are thankful.

The mushers are super thankful (wait, I already said that, but at least you see how very thankful we are!)

Of course our handlers are thankful - ask them how it is to feed and work with dogs without having ice skates on.

We prayed for snow, all the way during the short, recovery run today after yesterday´s long and hard run. Hard not in terms of distance, but the surface is crazy. The risk of injuries is very high and every run we pray and hope no one from the kids will get injured, and we drive the teams as carefully as one only can in such conditions. 

Yesterday, Star showed no signs of lameness and came all fine home after the 70km run, but her left wrist joint was painful when we examined her after the run. Despite massage, REIKI and bandage, her joint was painful and warm this morning, so she is on Rimadyl for a few days to take the pain, swelling and inflammation away.

Grayling started to limp about 25km from home. Knowing the trail will be mostly downhill from that section and even more icy and rock hard than the previous 45km, I loaded him in the sled. We can´t afford losing one of the absolute top dogs and adepts for the Pasvik Trail race. Fortunately, the biggest dog of our kennel and his about 25kg of weight was no weight for the remaining nine. 

A session of massage with Emu Oil (of course in the bed, where else?! :)), REIKI and application of wrist wrap over night helped tremendously and the limping (and pain) was gone by morning, but he will get couple days off just to be sure.

So now you can imagine and fully understand why we prayed for a few centimeters to come, cover and soften the trails. And the Gods heard us!

One more time: 

T H A N K   Y O U ! ! !

Running With a New Focus

 

Things are, as the old saying is: "Same, same, but different".

Since we have re-focused from Finnmarkslopet to Pasvik Trail, which starts on March 29, there are a few changes and going back to running an open-class team.

First of all, the focus is steadily building up the dogs´ condition back up, and doing a few longer runs.

The trail conditions are quite challenging at the moment, with temperatures above zero and occasional freezing over night, the trails are polished and icey and the warm temperatures force us to stop frequently and let the dogs roll in the snow and cool off.

We are back to the 3 day on and 1 day off, but would like to do a bit longer miles on each run, which is difficult with as warm temps as +5°C.

The kids are much, much better now, and I start to see the spark in them, I like to see.

And that, of course makes me smile :) 

As a friend says: "happy tails make happy trails" and the same counts for mushers :)

We are back to running two teams - one of 10 and one of 8 dogs for the moment, due to icy trails.

What is truly fascinating and what I totally love about this time of the year is the LIGHT!
These pictures were taken during our March 8 run, sometime after 6:00pm. Just look at all that light!!! :)

 A definite treat after the dark months of winter :)

What you might like to know: The kids back in training for the Pasvik Trail 300 are:

Tazlina, Rapid, Galena, Snowy, Magpie, Ziggi, Krtek, Skittles, Rizey, Star, Comet, Runner, Hawky, Frostie, Goosak, Grayling, Magneto and Misa.

As you can see, the core from the Tobacco Trail is still there, just without two great dogs: Chilli and Nugget, who we decided need more rest and time to gain proper weight. It is sad to leave these guys behind when we head out for a run, they are two amazing dogs and of course two of the absolute best in our kennel. But there is always a next year!

And that´s it for the "new and old" stuff going on the trails of Vedjeön! Happy Trails!

The "Puppies" Reach the Next Level

One of Steve´s jobs at our kennel was running the yearling team, aka "the puppies". It made a huge difference, being able to give these young guys the regular exercise they so much love, enjoy and need, while Jachym and I focused on training the main string.

Chip, Chisana, Lucky (who is now on maternity leave with her five gorgeous babies), Joey, Iceman, Inuk, Modra and Dasher got integrated to the main team and ran the entire fall season with the experienced dogs and even did a bunch of camping trips. 

But by mid December, the main string was doing tough, intense runs five to six times a week and the young dogs needed to be "cut back" a bit. 

Those of you who know us personally know, that it takes us a while before we entrust our kids to anyone so you can imagine what kind of responsibility we "hung" on Steve´s neck! :)

And he did do a great job with the kids!

One of his wishes was to see "his" team step up to the next level in form of a longer run together with the main string team, before he, Rebecca and Tove left. 

And so on Sunday, two days before their departure, we headed out for a longer run together.

And what a lovely day we chose!

These are the main string guys (and their musher), that were supposed to run the 500km Finnmarkslopet.

Steve´s team, led by Modra and HuggyBear. 

Modra is turning into such solid little leader - watch for big things from this smart girl in the future! :)

My leaders - Galena and Rapid, munching on a chicken snack.

The "puppies", looking GREAT, after they have already gone further than usually. All smiles and focus.

They not only managed to make the almost double length of run without signs of being tired, they also did it in a pretty good time!

Thank you Steve for taking such good care of the kids. Maybe they will be waiting for you to race next year....??! :)

Three, Two, One - Go!

Jachym took some great shots of the race team and the yearlings right after start, as Steve and I took them out for a lovely 50km run last week.

MY TEAM - THE RACE GUYS

Led by Galena and Rapid, in swing are Taz and Runner

This is Taz aka Super Taz, dogs behind her are Nugget and his brother Goosak

 Alone in team is Frostie, wheel dogs are Grayling and Magneto

STEVE´S TEAM aka THE PUPPIES

Led by Huggy Bear and rising star among the yearlings - Modra (Mouse x Nugget´s daughter).

Handsome Nitro in wheel, all smiles, as Steve is all focus :)

Difficult Decision - But It´s Not Over Yet...!

It took a LOT of thinking, sleepless nights and many inner fights. The decision was one of the most difficult ones we ever had to make. We will not be running the Finnmarkslopet 500 this year. 

As much as you may imagine we are disappointed, please know that we are absolutely positive it was the right decision to take.

The kids have not recovered all from the Tobacco Trail (and our 11 hour run over the mountains in the storm) as much as we would have liked them to. Or I should say not as fast as we would like.

Tazlina was on antibiotics for over a week as a precaution measure as the chief vet of Tobacco Trail Anette Johansson was worried she might be developing pneumonia after her epic performance and trail breaking in single lead for 11 hours, leading three teams in the storm. She is absolutely fine (thank to our quick judgement and treatment) and never developed any illness, but she was out of the team and missed a number of runs that were to keep the kids in shape between the two races.

Chilli was quite skinny after the race. Upon arriving to Övre Soppero II where we ended the race, he had a swollen wrist and limped slightly. The wrist healed within two days of intense massage with Emu Oil, warmth of wrist wraps and Reiki therapy. So did Grayling, who recovered from the swollen wrist within a day. 

The problem we had was that majority of the girls in the kennel were in heat prior to the race and we even had two in heat during the race. Once back home, the boys were fully love sick all over again and more "depressed" that they weren´t in a team together 24/7.

It was hard to "feed them up" although we tried with all sorts of soups, cooked meat and snacks - they still did gain weight quite slowly due to their lack of appetite.

During one of the training runs it became obvious that Chilli is out of the Finnmarkslopet team as he was simply too skinny. I hate the thought of not being able to get the kids all in a nice, preferably "chubby" state, it is generally very hard for me to accept that some things simply cannot be achieved on that matter and only so much can be done.

Deep down I knew I can´t run the dogs the way we should before the tough race, more running = lower chances of gaining weight. They needed more rest to get to the shape I would like to see them in, and willing to take them on a 500km journey in the arctic.

We took them on shorter runs where they were doing fine. Grayling, Goosak and Runner put weight back on. I kept saying to myself that I will decide during the next run. Until this past Sunday, when Nugget didn´t pull much at all and seemed tired. He too, just like Chilli, got skinny and never gained anything back and it became obvious to me that he would have to stay home.

The other main string dogs were not trained for a longer period of time, after we left for Tobacco Trail and it simply led from one thing to another until we had to decide.

In Kipp d´Amundsen Kennels, we strongly depend on sponsorship and support of our family, friends and fans and a few of our great corporate partners. This year we received an overwhelming amount of support, for which we will always be endlessly thankful. We know that all these folks support us in following and living of our dream, and because they believe in us and our philosophy. 

We feel very fortunate to have such wonderful people around us, and it makes this decision easier to make, knowing that our family, friends, supporters and fans trust our judgement and the fact that we would never put the health and happiness of our dogs in jeopardy and on second place after our own ambitions.

The dogs are the true athletes and heroes and the reason why we do all this.  For us, it always has been, always is and always will be about them. Having doubts regarding their condition and health prior start of a 500km race is not about a challenge and adventure, but about being responsible. And that is why we, all packed and ready, have followed our inner feeling and withdrew from the race we dreamed of for so long, just few days before start.

We are grateful to those who support us no matter what and who second our decision and respect our difficult choice. 

And on that note, let us present to you our "plan B" :-):

www.pasviktrail.com

And you bet we´ll enjoy ourselves immensely and bring you loads of race info, pics and updates from the far arctic! Excited? We are!!

The 2012 Crew

Front l to r: Steve "Badger" Millar, Kat, Rebecca Millar, Kristyna Dostalkova
back: Flores Bakker and Jachym

It takes a group effort and a great, dedicated crew to operate a kennel, keep the dogs happy and healthy and reach goals such as long distance races.

And Jachym and I are blessed to be surrounded by people who care, are willing to be a part of a team and contribute their hard work and time to the mutual goal. And as Steve says "you don´t need to be mad in order to work here, but is helps" :-)

It is time and place here to present and thank our 2012 crew, without whom we could not do and accomplish what we have set out for.

Sincere thanks guys!

Tobacco Trail 2012 - Part IV - "The First Leg to Övre Soppero"

JUKKASJAARVI - ÖVRE SOPPERO

The start by Jukkasjaarvi Ice Hotel went smooth and the kids launch forward with a greatly coordinated speed and energy. 

With my excitement and adrenalin, I miss a race marker that commands us to turn right on the lake and we follow the trail for the tourist teams. I notice that almost immediately, seeing friend and competitor Jonny Näas ahead of us, following the left tracks. I command the leaders to go right, but they get confused and still full of adrenalin, so I ask them to turn around, we reach the spot where we took the wrong side, and I call them to go right. Now they really don´t understand what I want from them. The team that starts after us is catching up by now and is headed the wrong way as well, so I wave at the musher to go left.

Back on the right track, we finally settle to a nice and smooth lope over the Torne river and I can enjoy the beauty of the setting sun. 

I ride the drag brake and tell the kids to go "easy" the entire first leg. I feel the temperature is sinking, the trails are hard packed and fast, not only on the river, but also on the marshes and woodland we run through.

As the dusk falls upon us, two yellow glowing large balls appear above the trees to our right. It gives a feeling of being watched by some alien settlement. Later on I learned they are the towers of Esrange Space Center. We are passing their A-Zone - the impact area of their sounding rockets. We were lucky that their attempt for the most recent rocket launch had been successful, just few days prior the start of the race, so there will be no re-routing or other changes of plans for the Tobacco Trail and I am sure the organizers must feel a great relief.

For a while, we run within sight of Jonny Naas and Bernhard Klammer, but we steadily get into our own pace and eventually it is just my twelve best friends and I on the quiet arctic trail. 

It takes a while before another team catches up and passes us smoothly. By now it´s dark and hard to tell who is who, bib numbers and faces are unrecognizable.

This is a fast and very smooth, uneventful run. After two hours I stop to snack the kids, couple of the boys don´t want to eat, but I am sure their appetite will settle and improve as the race progresses and their focus from girls in heat will change into the race mode.

Birgitta, running also siberian huskies, catches up with me right after the kids finished their snacks, but when I ask her if she wants to pass, she says she´ll follow. 

From time to time, I check back to see how far she is behind us, she drives about a kilometer behind, sometimes I see her and sometimes I don´t. 

A group of teams appears behind and we get once again ready for passing. The first is fastest, and smooth. The second takes a while before they reach us, then their lead dogs start sniffing my sled instead of passing. I stop the team and pull the other team´s leaders by their neckline forward. They stop. The musher tries to get them passed my sled a few times, but his dogs perhaps smell my girls and lose focus. I offer help, anchor my team, help him untangle his guys and lead them pass my team. The musher politely thanks us and off they are. It makes no sense now to get going again, I decide to wait for the last teams of that group to pass us. We are in no hurry, we want to have a steady, controlled and stress free run on this first leg.

As one of the teams passes us, I  notice one of the swing dogs being quite caught up in the lines and shout at the musher "you´ve got a tangled dog there". She probably doesn´t understand me and soon enough I hear the dog scream and whine, she stops and needs help of the other team to untangle him and sort it out. Now my guys are finally getting impatient. 

Finally moving again, Birgitta catches up with us once again and this time passes us. We follow her all the way to the checkpoint.

Village lights appear on the horizon and we drop onto another river ice, where we drive for couple of miles before reaching the first checkpoint. The first leg took us 4 hours and 35 minutes.

ÖVRE SOPPERO

The checkpoint is set up directly on the river. Two lit up torches mark the "entrance" to the staging area and I can see the busy buzz of mushers taking care of their teams, steam from trail cookers, and all the typical checkpoint atmosphere. Many dogs are hyper and bark, not being tired at all, after this fast and easy run, including my guys. As soon as we get navigated to our post and a checker helps me by putting my anchor around the birch pole in the ice, the dogs start to whine and bark - they want to keep going. That sure makes me smile.

The checker asks in Slovak (Slovakia and Czech Republic have been united in the country of Czechoslovakia for many years, our languages are very similar and we can talk to each other and perfectly understand) how our trip was. That is a very neat and uplifting surprise, to meet someone from almost my home land this far above the arctic circle. I learn that Pavel lives in Kiruna and is a boyfriend of Rebecca, who is in charge of the race office and updates of the race´s trail blog.

We have a brief chat as he hands me a paper with the time we can earliest sign out. There is an obligatory rest of 2 hours here plus for my team another 30 minutes of time differential leveling. My race plan is to rest the kids here for 3 hours, give them a light soup and take it easy on the second leg to Saivomuotka as well.

Galena and Rapid - the girls in lead, are curiously watching me as I work with the straw bale. They know the campout routine well. 

 As soon as we get into our "parking position" and the kids get a proper rub, I remove their booties and go grab my shiny, beautiful new and easy to recognize blue dogbooties.com drop bags from the depot area. Jachym is here to give me a quick welcome hug and he takes a few pics of the dogs as he hangs out in the staging area. What a difference this is comparing to the Polardistance race. Although the handlers are not allowed to help us in any way at all, it is so much friendlier, letting them take pictures of the teams and chatting with the mushers, and nobody is sending them away, threatening with the musher´s disqualification.

The kids get their arrival fat snack that Rebecca and I made to try out, and they really like it. 

I then move on to my checkpoint routine - spreading straw and cooking water for their light soup. 

The temperature at the checkpoint is -25°C, so while the water cooks, I decide to throw a blanket over each dog who doesn´t have a coat on. They fuss quite a lot and it isn´t easy to keep the blankets on them :)

This is an excellent and super efficient trail cooker.

While I take care of the team, the dogs are curious about our neighbors who were just fed and bedded for a rest. It´s interesting to see how other mushers work with their dogs, what kind of equipment they use, what are their routines.

Thankfully everybody ate the light meal I made of Vom og Hundemat meat, Troll Ekstra Energi canned food and a bit of kibble.

After the kids had their dinner, they finally settled down a bit, still not really tired. Because Magpie and Snowy were in heat and the dogs weren´t tired, I put cable resting necklines on them all before climbing up the river bank to get some food myself, change my clothes and rest a bit before we head out again.

The checkpoint building is a home of Per-Nils and Britt-Marie Päiviö, a Sámi couple who with their family operate Min Eallin outdoor adventure company, offering experiences of the Sámi culture and every day life. They have reindeers, horses and sled dogs and work hard to make their living.

They opened their home to all the mushers, handlers and race staff, offering reindeer stew and traditional home baked bread with butter and cheese and coffee. The large dining area, decorated in the traditional Sámi way, is full of people eating, chatting, someone is warming up by the open fire place and couple mushers are stretched out on a bench by the window, taking a nap.

There´s a fantastic homey and friendly atmosphere in here. Jachym told me they let him plug in the headlamp battery charger, which is much faster than the 12V one we have in the truck. 

After I have devoured two bowls of the soup and drank some tea, we head out to the truck, where I need to change most of my layers of clothes - the change between twenty five below, then taking care of the kids, going indoors and outdoors again, make everything damp and not suitable for the 77km run ahead of us.

Within minutes we are ready, Jachym made me new set of warm drinks for the way and we head back down to the river and to the resting team. They curiously watching all happening around them and they are all rising up, happy to see their musher and excited to see what´s next. All signs of them being fresh, in good shape and not tired at all. A good thing to see! 

It takes me just a few minutes to put booties on those who need them, take the blankets off and re-hook the team into their tugs. Just to stuff all up back into the drop bags, quick good bye to Jachym and off we are, into the night. It´s 23:40 pm and we have stayed exactly 3 hours and 5 minutes. As the team passes a few other resting teams, I notice our siberian husky competitor Birgitta is just getting her team ready as well. We might get a company on the night run over the mountains.

Tobacco Trail 2012 - Part III - "The Start"

LOVELY MORNING OF THE RACE DAY

The kids are getting dropped and fed several times, being checked by chief vet Annette Johansson, who advises us to use booties as much as possible due to recent fresh snow dump and cold.  

The boy are not really into eating, because Magpie and Snowy are in heat. It worries me a bit, but we´ll have to take it step by step and in the worst case drop the girls in heat.

Frostie, whom I´ve jokingly nicknamed "the old man" as he´s going to be turning 10 years this coming April. Still strong and in a great shape. Funny, when I sometimes hear some mushers calling their eight year olds "old". I know many good distance mushers and teams, whose most accomplished and treasured team members are in what they call the "golden age" - between 7 and 9 years old. 

He´s calm, experienced, good eater with a positive attitude and has never been injured nor had even a tiny cut on his paws. Very good, tough dog. 

Here are some of the boys - right to left. Goosak, then Chilli, who is a bit skinny and it´s been a challenge to put and keep weight on him the whole season. He will wear a coat the entire race, unless it gets really warm, which is not predicted. Then Runner - it´s his first big race, he´s only 3 years old. And last Nugget, Goosak´s brother. 

Thought we´d have more pics of all the kids before the race, but we don´t. 

MUSHER MEETING AND ALL THE PRE-START NECESSITIES

The first half of the day is filled with registrations, weighing of mandatory dog food rations, vet checks and finally the musher meeting.

We got bib nr.3 and start at 16:04 from the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjaarvi, some 40km outside Kiruna.

Taisto Thorneus, the "father of the race" informs us about tricky parts of the trail and shows different types of trail markers used.

The trails are supposed to be very good, hard packed and fast all the way to the first checkpoint Övre Soppero, then looser and a bit "sandy-like" over the low mountain area on the way from Soppero to checkpoint nr.2 Saivomuotka, on the Finnish border. It is the same way back from there to Övre Soppero, before the last leg to Kiruna.

The total length of the race is measured to be 308km (after the race one of the competitors measured it with GPS and found it a bit longer, actually).

Distances between checkpoints:

Jukkasjaarvi Ice Hotel (start) - Övre Soppero = 61km,

Övre Soppero 1 - Saivomuotka = 77km

Saivomuotka - Övre Soppero 2 = 77km

Övre Soppero 2 - Kiruna, Arena Arctica (finishline) = 93km

Mandatory layovers: 

2hours plus time differential leveling in Övre Soppero 1

6 hours in Saivomuotka

6 hours in Övre Soppero 2

FINALLY - THE START

We have to be at the race start 1,5hours in advance, and checks of mandatory equipment will be performed there.

After the meeting, a feeling of panic got me - we needed to feed the dogs a light soup one more time, pack all neatly into the sled, I had to change into racing clothes, grab something to eat and drink, and Jachym cook tea and prepare drinks for my camel bag and thermos, then get to the Ice Hotel on time. 

Luckily, we had most things on place, and thank to making a list in advance, I had the sled packed and ready within 20 minutes.

We got to the starting area right on time, I managed to take a bite in the car on the way there and we had enough time to prepare the sled, lines, snow hooks and all for a start from the truck. I got a compliment from the race marshal who checked the mandatory gear personally, about my nicely organized sled and we joked about the "woman´s touch".  It felt nice to not be called a "freak" for once, but rather get praised :)

We watched the teams of tour operators pass by on the Torne river, big teams with huge sleds, carrying several excited tourists each. These huskies sure work hard and earn their and their musher´ living.

The temperatures dropped quite low and I realized it´s getting seriously cold when I touched a metal part  of my sled and got skin on my hands "freeze burned". 

The sun was setting down and visitors of the ice hotel and many others started to fill up the starting area on the river ice. Many volunteers from the Kiruna sled dog club members have come to give a hand and help the teams safely to the starting chute, which was greatly appreciated.

Waiting. Still relatively patiently...

Grayling is starting to loose his nerves and graps the neckline. Magneto gets all hyped up as well.

Now, knowing all is done, prepared and ready, I was finally calm. Walking up and down the line, calming the kids and having a talk with each one.

Soon, guys, very soon.

Nugget and Goosak getting mad.

Yeah, really beautiful, guys! People will think I run a team of ware-wolves.

The boys were not the only ones getting mad. Snowy looks like no fun to mess with, Tazlina behind her as if she´s just about to take off and get air-borne, while good-ole Magpie belongs to the group of calm, relaxed dogs under any circumstances.

Finally at the starting line. Look how professionally calm Galena and Rapid are. What great lead dogs.

READY?!! LET´S GO!

And off we are. Thirteen excited happy campers, on our way for the arctic adventure!

To be continued...