Copperdog

  Jeremy participated in the Copperdog 40 on Friday night.  Its a six dog, roughly 40 mile race that starts in Calumet, Michigan and ends in Eagle River, Michigan.  He ran Thunder and Storm in lead, Hail and Salt in point, and Nakiski and Aspen in wheel.  Storm and Salt are yearlings that have never raced before and with the troubles we had the last month or so, we actually hadn't been able to get any training runs of that distance in this year, so we were a little worried that they might not even finish, but they managed and came in 10th place out of 12.  The dogs were tired, but not exhausted and finished looking happy and eating and drinking well at the end.
  Jeremy's chute time was 8:14 pm, and he finished at about 12:50 am.  The kids and I, along with our friend, Doug, who rode up with us, had to drive from Calumet to Eagle River, maybe 20 miles by road, to wait for and meet Jeremy when he finished. We have to give a shout out to the community of Eagle River, who had a nice spread for handlers and mushers at their town hall free of charge and set up till after the very last musher finished.  It was nice to have a warm place with great food to wait for the mushers and for the mushers, who came in tired and hungry to be able to warm up and eat their fill.  Afterward, we had to head home right away in order to take care of the dogs we left at home.  Thankfully, Doug was nice enough to drive most of the way home, so Jeremy could get some rest.  We got home about 4:30 am or so.  We all had fun and Jeremy is hoping to be able to do the 150 mile race up there next year.
 

Jeremy coming back from registration with his goodie bag.

From inside the truck during vet checks.

Elliot got lots of attention from his wardrobe.  He never wears pants, only shorts, no matter what the temperature is!

We brought the grill along and made brats and chicken legs for dinner.

Elliot and Doug carrying a big snowball over to break on the pavement.

Watching the front end loader filling the paved areas in with snow.

Sunset over musher parking.

Inside the truck to get warm.

In the chute.

Moving so fast he's a blur!:)

They had fireworks after all teams were safely away.

At the finish.  Had to quick snap a pic before grabbing the leaders to get back to the truck.