Copperdog 150 and Other Stuff

  This last weekend was the Copperdog 150 race up in Calumet, Michigan.  Jeremy chose not to race the shorter race up there, the Copperdog 35, which is actually closer to 40 miles.  We decided that the dogs were not really up to that right now, as our training has been a little spotty with trailer issues and then truck issues, so we just went up to watch and support the people we know that were racing.  Unfortunately, our friend Matt, who was racing the 150, which is a stage race that is around 50 miles a day for three days, ended up having to scratch about 40 miles into the first leg because he had a couple young dogs that were just too tired to continue and he decided to do the best thing for his team and end his race there.

Matt, right, getting his bag checked.

Some of Matt's dogs.

The race starts at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night, so its dark, but this is Matt shortly out of the chute.

A couple more not very good shots of teams heading out on the trail:

A nice little story about our son, Elliot this weekend on our trip to Calumet...he always wears shorts, all winter long, all the time, no pants, always shorts.  We think nothing of it because we are used to it, but it brings lots of weird looks and lots of comments when we go to races.  When we were at the Jack Pine 30, he helped handle to get the team to the starting chute and the announcer commented on how tough us people from Ironwood are, because obviously it was balmy to us in Gwinn, on account of Elliot wearing shorts.  He got pictures taken of him by people who thought he was crazy.  This weekend was not much different, but apparently because of the way he was dressed, some kind soul who was also there to watch the race thought he needed help, like maybe he was homeless or just needy? because she took it upon herself to stop him on the street and give him some money to buy some food with.  We were not with him at the time or we would have assured her that in reality he is well cared for and actually pretty spoiled and certainly not going hungry, that he's just a bit crazy and stubborn refusing to wear pants.  As it was, he was totally taken by surprise and really didn't know how to react, so ended up taking the money (he is a 13 year old boy, after all).  Both kids were talking about it for the rest of the trip and now have a fun story to tell their friends.  Luckily, it wasn't very much money, so we didn't insist on finding the lady to return it.


We've been training still, fun runs now that our race season is over.  We'll hopefully have a longer season on sleds now since we got a nice dump of snow last week, like 16 inches or so.  We're trying to work with the pups a bit more, Lara has been running lead for me, the chase team.  She's great at it, but she only wants to chase lead right now, and is easily distracted and goofs off if there's not a team ahead.  Hopefully, as she matures, that will change.  She is only 11 months old, so is still just a kid, really. 

Lara in lead on the right.

Jeremy up ahaed.

You can see Lara from behind-in lead on the left. 

We are also running Storm more-he's eight months old-he's in point (second row fromt front of team) on the right.

A little more professional looking here.

Spike vs. Thunder

This is what happens when a little fuzzball pisses off a husky:

The vet had to staple this wound up and put in a drain tube for a couple days.

Of course, it happened shortly before we had to go to Gwinn for the race, so he spent a lot of time in the truck while he still had his drain tube in.

The drain tube after we removed it.  Its about four and a half inches long.  EEWWWW.

Hard to get a good pic, but you can kinda see the staples.  He's lucky to be alive-it was very close to his jugular.  He's been a very good, easy patient, though.

Normally, all the house dogs get along just fine, but the dog that is pretty new to our house hold, Tika, went into heat and everything just went nuts around here.  No more problems with fighting since, though, and we are being very careful now, keeping them separated or supervised as needed. 

Jack Pine 30

We traveled with our new trailer over to Gwinn, Michigan so Jeremy could race the Jack Pine 30, which was a 26 mile, six dog race included in the U.P. 200 and Midnight Run weekend in Marquette, Michigan.  He decided to run Thunder, George, Scout, Hail, Scooby Doo, and Chico.  They came in 10th out of 15 with a time of 2:45:56 for the 26 miles.  We are happy enough with that time, as we were expecting it to only be 18 miles and only found out it would be 26 miles at the musher meeting an hour and a half before the race start.  We have mostly been training only about 20 miles and the dogs actually hadn't run at all for a week prior to the race because our trailer broke and we bought a different trailer and were working on it for the whole week before and literally up until the time we left on Friday morning to head over to Gwinn.  We went over Friday so that we could watch the start of the Midnight Run Friday night, then stay over and be at the musher meeting at 8 am on Saturday, then the race start at 9:30 am.  After the teams headed out on the trail, us handlers had to drive the trucks to the other end of the course to meet them.

At the finish.

After the race-we had to park the dog trucks on the side of a highway, but it worked out okay.

George.

The trailer worked out nice on its maiden voyage-about 300 miles there and back, plus some driving around while we were over there.  It started out a long time ago as a pop up camper, but had long since been gutted to be a hauling trailer.  We had our eye on it for a while, because we really want a bigger trailer with two axles and enough room for more dogs and to haul four wheeler(s) or snowmobile(s).  When our small trailer's bearings went out when we drove it to Marenisco about a week and a half ago, we decided to just go buy this trailer.  The guy we bought it from had built a little shack on it, for what, I don't know, but the first thing we did was remove it, which meant we unfastened it and pushed it off the back.

You can see the shack laying upside down behind the trailer-forgot to take a pic before, but I think you can get the idea.

Jeremy had to build a frame for under the dogbox to get it up above the wheel wells of the trailer.

We had Jeremy's two brothers come over to help move the extremely heavy dogbox over to the new trailer.  Futuer plans are to build a single row of boxes on the back, and build the frame of it up to support four wheelers ar snowmobiles on top of it.

Jeremy's First Race

So, finally, after 12 years of having sled dogs, Jeremy entered his first race.  He raced the six dog sportsman class at the Apostle Islands Sled Dog Race in Bayfield, Wisconsin.  Its a little over 18 miles a day for two days, and he took seventh out of 16 overall.  We are pleased with the results, the dogs did well for their first time under any kind of pressure.  Racing is different from training.  The dogs have to deal with crowds of people at the starting chute, and at different spectator spots along the trail, along with all the other teams on the trail and in the parking lot.  It was also very warm, 40 degrees or so with the sun shining the whole time, so that was added stress, but they all did well and finished both days happy and healthy, which is what we really wanted.

Jeremy eating some snacks before the big start.

Our friend, Matt, in the chute of his race, the 6 dog pro, about 30 miles a day for 2 days.  He took 4th place.

Matt's daughter, Mallory, also ran the 6 dog pro and took 5th place.

Jeremy's team in the chute day 1-I'm holding the leaders.

Jeremy leaving the chute day 1- leaders-George, Thunder, team-Hail, Scout, wheel-Chico,Aspen

My sister, Jennifer, and my dad, came out to see the race on Saturday, along with friends, Joe, and his girlfriend, Shauneah.  After Jeremy left the start, we all drove out to a nice spot about halfway through his race to get some pics and video of him going by.

From left-Jennifer, Joe, my dad in the chair, and Shauneah.  The weather was so nice and warm for the spectators, but it was too warm for the dogs.

Jeremy coming through the spectator spot-looking good.

In chute day 2.

Leaving chute day 2-leaders-Aspen, Thunder, team-Scout, Hail, wheel-George, Chico.

He had to stop and switch leaders out on both days- starting with Scout in team both days and putting her in lead replacing George on day one and Aspen on day two.  Guess he should have started with Scout in lead, but she had seemed so nervous before the race, we weren't sure she'd be able to handle it, seems we were wrong!  He also managed to actually roll his sled taking a corner on the first day, but held on and didn't lose the team.  His overall time for about 37 miles total for the two days was 3:33:03, which is pretty good for our dogs, they are not super fast race dogs, so we are happy with it.  The next adventure is in two weeks-he entered the Jack Pine 30, which starts in Gwinn, MI, and ends in Marquette, MI, and starts the day after the UP 200 and Midnight Run starts.

Little Girls Point

We've been running the sled dogs a lot, but we have four little dogs that often get overlooked for exercise, so yesterday we decided to take them up to Little Girls Point, on the shore of Lake Superior, which is about 10 miles from our house.  There is very little snow right on the shore line, and the lake is nice scenery in the winter as well as the summer, so it was a really nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon in mid January.  The weather was nice for it, about 25 degrees or so.  There was no one else up there and we decided to check out some of the things that we can't during any other time of year- a rental lodge that is closed in the winter, which we simply walked up to and wandered around outside, and a ropes course in the forest nearby the lodge.  Our daughter, Autumn, was with, and she had spent a couple days there about three years ago for Camp Superior, a program that sixth graders get to enjoy through their school.

Tika enjoying stretching her legs.

Shorty rolling in god knows what-we suspect deer pee.

Autumn overlooking the beach we swim at in the summer.

Autumn down on the beach.

Jeremy and his buddies out over the water-the ice just piles up on the shore-the lake doesn't usually freeze very far from shore.

Tika.

Autumn and Spike, Jeremy and Shorty.

Autumn reminiscing the high ropes course.

She apparently had to climb this wall twice. We didn't make her this time.

Low ropes.

This is the exercise that they do during the course.  Harder than it looks I guess.

Boris climbed this ladder like it was any old steps!  I was impressed.

Got Shorty to go this high.

And Spike would only go this high.

Cute little tiny mouse tracks.

Deer congregate up at Little Girls Point because the snow is not so deep.  This is one of several spots we came across where a deer had been resting-laying down.

The view out back of the lodge.

The dogs sniffing another spot that a deer had been laying down-on the VERY edge of the cliff down to the lake.  Seemed like a strange spot-if it had been startled or spooked by anything, it almost certainly would have fallen over the edge.

A small gathering of deer at a house right near the Point-the people who live here feed the deer, which attracts tons of them, but we were there at the wrong time to see the big herd that comes for the feedings and only caught this small group.