OK, maybe we’re a little over-excited considering this is Alaska and it is known for it’s long, cold, snowy winters. However, the Duncan effect has been in full flow since we got here. Summer was warmer than normal, much more sunshine than normal and autumn (or Fall, if you prefer) has been incredibly mild and un-Alaskan. Most mornings it is barely below freezing and recently one of my neighbours was telling me that this time last year, they were already running sleds.

So, it was lovely to wake up and look outside to see the dogyard covered in snow. Barely covered admittedly, but it’s a start. The forecast for the coming week is cold but sunny, so it may not stay, but hey, we’re Scottish, we’re used to that.

Introducing the final pair of dogs collected during the trip, 2 more Seppalas from Deer Creek Sleddogs.

Oak is a delightful, friendly in a very “in your face” kind of way – provided she likes you. When I first met her at Tabby’s, she wasn’t at all happy to see me and the whole world knew it. Over the thousands of miles we travelled to get from Wyoming back to Alaska, I think I won her over – and the proof of that, for me, was when she slipped her collar at one of our rest stops on the Alcan.

Middle of nowhere, chucking it down with rain, 7 dogs on drop chains and she is running round loose only a few yards from the road. Fortunately, my wife has trained me well (she’s a great fan of dishing out doggie treats) and I had got in the habit of having treats on me and also placing them in the dog box everytime the dogs got put back in.  The pups, Rimi and Hop especially seemed to like this idea and I actually had trouble sometimes stopping them trying to get back in their box. Anyway,  deep breaths, calm demeanour,  and sprinkle a biscuit or two about. Oak darted here, there and everywhere, visited all the other dogs before deciding I wasn’t so scary after all and could be investigated. She got her treat, and several more besides,  and since then, she has been openly affectionate and very well behaved.

Quizno or Quiz as he gets called here, is another from Tabby. He’s a young male and like Oak, was a little unsure of me at first. He too has come round although maybe not quite as openly affectionate as her, he loves one on one attention and is a real wriggler.

Oak of Deer Creek

Deer Creek's Quizno

New dogs numbers 5 and 6 came from TJ Schrader’s Cold Canyon Sleddogs kennel.

I’d been writing back and forth with TJ almost as soon as the litter was born. From an early age he was full of praise for these pups, and has high hopes that they’ll develop into being as good dogs as their parents, Boogie and Blaze. Once we had agreed to take 2 pups, it was the tricky matter of trying to decide which dogs to have – from 3000 miles away. So far, it seems to have worked out well !

I was planning on having the pups flown up as I figured that at 18 weeks old, the long truck journey might be a little too much when they had never met me. However, TJ has had the pups going on camping trips, long truck journeys and eating on tethers and he was sure they would be fine. And how right he was. The two I took away with me never caused me any concerns on the trip and the only thing I would say about them was that I felt bad that they never got enough “playtime” on the road. They’re making up for it now tho’ !

As for names, well, the boy is called Rimini – not after the Italian resort but a Colorado mine apparently and the little girl was called Whopijaw – an old time Colorado word meaning out of whack, out of kilter, squint etc. I was never sure how that was pronounced and TJ was calling her Whopi – I called her Whoopi, Wop, Wopi and Whopi and in the end, I gave up and decided to call her Hop.

They have settled in really well and are playing wildly with Fionn and Ciara. Rimi also has a rather disgusting habit but I’ll save that story for another day.

Cold Canyon's Rimini

Cold Canyon's Hop

and introducing  Junior……….

Wild Wind's Junior

Junior’s a big boy and should fit right in amongst our big guys. He has behaved impeccably so far, ate and drank like the seasoned traveller he is during the long drive with me from Minnesota to Alaska.  Aaron and Natalie of Wild Wind Siberians did a fine job with training this guy and I’m truly grateful to them for letting Junior come live with us. They did “warn” me about a couple of Junior’s slightly less endearing habits – he is a bit on the amorous side – but our girls have managed to fend him off so far without causing lasting emotional damage to either party.

Lightfoot,

nope, not a superfluous reference to the fabby 70’s film, but in fact the name of another of the dogs that now calls Gealach Mor their new home kennel.

Lightfoot is a delightful, bouncy, friendly, outgoing, hardworking 4 year old female. When I saw her working during my visit to Jedeye Siberians, she seems to just float down the trail, very light on her feet. Blake told me that she has always been that way, even as a puppy, which is how she came by her name. It only took her a couple of days living here before she showed me her party trick – she loves to run and jump up into your arms and be cuddled.

Jedeye Lightfoot of Manitou

Avery is a 3 year old female, also from Jedeye Siberians at Manitou Crossing.

She was the sole female pup from a litter between 2 of Jedeye’s famous dogs, Trekkie and Fiona, and we feel very fortunate to have Avery come live with us. She was initially a little reserved but she is such a sweetheart that on the journey from Minnesota to Alaska, she decided I was ok  and worth getting to know better. She had been training with the Jedeye main string dogs earlier this fall, and is well ahead of the rest of our guys in terms of miles this year.

She is a bundle of fun and little pocket dynamo.

Jedeye Avery of Manitou

Oscar

Oscar of Jedeye

Introducing the first of the new dogs I gathered on my mega exursion across the US of A recently.

Oscar is a 5 year old male and in the short time he has been with us, he has lived up to his billing and been true to his character. He came from the Freking’s Manitou Crossing Kennel and seems to have settled in well with us. He was one of the 38  dogs that made the trip with them to Alaska for the 2008 Iditarod, just missing out making the final 32 for either of their teams for the race.

I’m looking forward to working with him.

It’s only fitting that the long running saga that was the building of our dog boxes for our new truck should be matched by an equally long running saga that was the trip to get it from New Hampshire to our new place in Willow, Alaska.  Once I knew it was ready to be collected, I started planning the route and trying to work out where exactly I would be passing through. To further complicate matters, I had 3 different kennels I had to visit on the way, rather than just head directly for Alaska.

Finally, after a long overnight flight from Anchorage to Manchester NH, via Seattle and Newark, and a ride from Bob of Mishawum Siberians,  I was able to collect my truck and look forward to the drive west. Next stop – Minnesota. Well, actually not – because I need to sleep. So, the first stop turns out to be Erie, Ohio after a day of driving in torrential rain. Up bright and early, well early anyway, as once again it continued to pour down. Several hundred miles later, another night stop in Tomah, Wisconsin. The next day saw me reach my first intended destination, Manitou Crossing, home of Jedeye Siberians in northern Minnesota. I spent a couple of days there meeting Blake and Jen plus a couple of their handlers, Phil and Kim. I got to go out running on several of their training runs – on delightfully cold mornings at 20 F.  I also got to spend a little time with the 3 dogs I was taking away with me, Avery, Lightfoot and Oscar.

Leaving Jedeye Siberians with 3 new dogs and my new truck

After that nice break, it was time to hit the road again, a short 350 mile drive down to southern Minnesota to spend the night with Aaron and Natalie of WildWind Siberians and to collect Junior. Needless to say, it chucked it down all day Thursday.

Friday was spent driving across South Dakota on possibly the worst surfaced Interstate I’ve been on. The upside of a 75 mph limit was countered by the rough road and what can only be described as dreadful fuel consumption – I saw 7.6 mpg on the computer ! My driving, refuelling and bladder emptying routine was also disrupted by the fact that now I was carrying 4 dogs that also needed to be refuelled and have their bladders emptied too. Saturday saw me hit the Badlands and drive through country that had me remembering all those Westerns I used to watch as a kid.  I reached my next stop in Wyoming, the home of Allan and Tabby Berge of Deer Creek Sleddogs, to collect another 2 dogs, Oak and Quizno. I was also able to collect another 2 four and half month old pups from TJ of Cold Canyon – TJ is based down in Colorado but kindly made the 5 hour drive north to hook up with me at Tabby’s and save me a days’ driving. These two youngsters, Rimini and Whopijaw faced the long trek west with the rest of us, but despite their youth, they had already experienced a whole lot of driving, camping and eating on the road.

I left Wyoming around 6 PM on the Saturday and after all those days of driving west, finally felt like I was heading home as the truck’s computer showed “N”.  I headed up through Wyoming and on into Montana. The dogs and I settled into a steady routine, drive, drop, feed,drop, drive, hydrate, drop, drive, eliminate,  drop, drive and then some more driving. That next day, we sailed through the border crossing at Sweetgrass, Montana into Canada. That day, I managed to log 950 miles, getting deep into Alberta and on past Calgary and Edmonton. If it’s Monday – it must be British Columbia – at least for several hundred miles or is it the Yukon now. The days, distances and places are all beginning to blur into each other and quite frankly, grabbing naps in the truck instead of a proper night’s sleep in a comfortable bed contribute to that.  Monday evening involved dodging the famous herd of buffalo near Liard Hot Springs, driving 30 miles driving behind a snowplow and nearly running out of fuel.

Morning Dog Drop at Teslin, Yukon

Tuesday saw me pass Whitehorse and resist the temptation to go into the city and visit the Yukon Quest Headquarters. I could now sense that I was close to home and just wanted to push on. The drive through the Kluane National Park was stunning.

Kluane Mountain Range

The road from Destruction Bay to the US Border was a nightmare – it’s full of massive frost heaves, huge dips and was really hard on the truck and the dogs. Crossing the border was a breeze and I grabbed a cool photo.

Crossing back into Alaska with my new dog truck

Suddenly, the prospect of the journey being over was very real and I wanted to push on and get home.  Passing through Tok, I took the Tok Cutoff, heading for the Richardson Highway and one last night of sleeping in the truck. The next morning, I drove the last few hundred miles, through some snow at Sheep Mountain, in bright sunshine past the Matanuska Glacier and than back into “civilisation” onto the Parks Highway at Wasilla.

It was with some relief that I finally pulled into our driveway on Wednesday morning, with 8 more dogs than I started my journey with,  5 937 more miles on the dogtruck and some amazing memories.

Anyone got a beer?

After a long period of waiting, we were finally able to arrange to have our new pups fly over from New Hampshire to join us here in Alaska.

They were born on 14 April, and they are now 5 months old. They coped with the flight well, including their 3 hour delay in Salt Lake City, and despite that, they jumped in our car for the drive north without a qualm.  Finn settled down for a nap but Ciara seemed much more interested in the scenery and proceeded to look out the window and lick the door handles for the next 90 minutes.

Ciara and Finn lazing in the sunshine

It didn’t take them very long to seem at home and they quickly have established themselves with the “house dogs” and the 3 bitches that are in heat. However, that first night in the house was enough to convince us that they truly were outside dogs and we duly established a separate pen for them in beside fellow new arrivals, Ruby and Mermaid. Subsequent nights have been much more sleep filled for all !

Our kennel practice here, and back in Scotland, has always been to feed our dogs on tethers or chains. I consider it a useful training tool, it helps the dogs get used to untangling their feet and legs, it creates a calmer environment for the slower eaters who don’t feel pressured, it allows us to monitor who has eaten what, to administer any medications required etc etc.  Our guys are all used to it, and as the only times they go on chains are to be fed or to go running, it’s regarded as a “good thing” to be called to your dog house and get clipped in.

However, for two 5 month old puppies who haven’t had collars on, who haven’t had leashes on, never mind chains, it was going to be an interesting time. As indeed it turned out to be………..  The pups are in the “new arrivals” yard just now, so they do have an example of how to behave on a tether right there. However, the youngsters weren’t quite as composed or quiet or co-ordinated. Poor Fionnghall in particular seemed to find the concept of not wrapping the chain around his legs a difficult one to grasp. He was also a bit verbal in his dislike of the situation he found himself in. Of course, nothing happens instantly with dog training and usually patience and perseverance are called for, in order to bring about the changes desired.

True enough, it hasn’t taken either of them very long to figure out that not hurling yourself to the end of your chain is easier on the neck, and not tying your legs in knots is just easier all round.

Finn calmly eating dinner.

Ciara figured it out quickly.

On Saturday we went along to the local Community Centre where the Willow Dog Mushers’ Association was holding it’s annual Canine Athlete Symposium.

As well as the scheduled speakers and planned sessions, there were several vendors selling a variety of tempting and useful things and we duly spent some more of our cash. Rather predictably I think,  I bought dog stuff and Joyce bought a limited edition piece of artwork. Actually, the picture is really good, drawn by a local, David Totten and was the official poster for the 1997 Yukon Quest. David took 3 of the prints from the original run and got all the entrants to autograph the picture.

For me, it’s still very odd to see people wandering around that I have spent a great deal of time reading about or watching on DVDs. I know the old adage to avoid being awestruck of remembering that we all put our trousers on, one leg at a time, but it’s still a funny feeling to be standing talking to George Attla, or listening to Joe May telling self-deprecating tales.

We attended 4 different sessions during the day, the one on Extreme Cold Weather Survival (obviously),  Dog Lots Hints and Tricks, Canine Accupressure and Trail Etiquette.  They were all very interesting and informative and provided some excellent food for thought.

The main speaker was George Attla and the whole hall listened closely as he talked about his racing history, his favourite dogs, training methods and rivalry with Doc Lombard.  At the close of the day, George, Joe May, JP Norris and Sue Firmin sat on a panel and answered questions – for me, I think that was the most enjoyable session.

So, thank you to Erin and the WDMA for an excellent event.