NEWS from Talkeetna

Dogs, dogs, dogs! Over the last few weeks and for the next couple of weeks we have been training dogs for the Jr. Iditarod. A week ago, Chelsea and I did a training trip from Willow, 35 miles up the Yentna River to the Yentna Roadhouse and back. Gay volunteered to stay home and take care of the rest of the dogs and keep the fire going so the house didn't freeze up. Since we heat with wood, if we are gone for too long all of the canned food and any water or other liquid in the house freezes, which is a real pain. It was snowing hard when we left Willow and was around -20 degrees F with about a 20 mph wind. I was driving a snowmachine (that is snow mobile to all of you from the lower 48, they are also called iron dogs, sleds, or snowgoes in the native villages) with food and extra gear and Chelsea followed a few miles behind with 12 dogs. The dogs started off fast, which is about 14 mph, but after a few miles settle down to about 9 mph. The trail cuts across a large muskeg and then drops down a steep hill to the Susitna River wich is a few hundred feet across. It was snowing so hard that I couldn't see the trail. The trail is marked with painted lath stuck in the snow about every 500 feet, but we couldn't see from one marker to the next. So I just looked straight down and followed the snow machine tracks. The dogs just trotted along, the trail was probably obvious to them! We thought it was 45 miles to the Roadhouse, and after 30 miles Chelsea was getting pretty cold and tired, and it was dark, so we stopped and snacked the dogs and Chelsea got off the sled and walked around to warm up. We were not really sure where we were, but started off again. Fortunately we were a lot closer than we thought and after about another 45 minutes we arrived at the roadhouse (which is nowhere near a road). The Yentna Roadhouse is run by a family that has lived there for a long time. There is a downstairs common area with a dining room and bar with a half loft upstairs with rooms. They gave us a half bail of straw for bedding for the dogs and some water. We fed the dogs, watered them and took their harnesses off and spread straw for them to sleep on. The roadhouse is an Iditarod Checkpoint and will be the halfway point when Chelsea runs the Jr. Iditarod race. There is a large wood stove in the common area and all of the walls are covered with Iditarod posters and signed photographs. We were the only guests, so we ate diner at the bar and the owner told us stories about life on the river. We told him we were going to head up the river the next day for a training run and then come back to the lodge for the next night. He asked me if I had a gun, which I didn't, and then insisted that I take one of his the next day. He said the snow was so deep that the moose wouldn't get off the trail and so you would need to fire some shots over their heads to scare them off, or if that didn't work, shoot them before they ran you over! Well he was well into his cups at that point and by the next morning he must have forgotten all about it because he didn't say a thing about a moose or gun. While we were eating breakfast in the dining room we were looking at all the posters, and there on the wall were the articles of faith! Quite a surprise! I asked him if someone in his family was Morman, and he mumbled something as he walked off, so I take it one of his kids or wife's kids is LDS. We didn't see any moose the next day. We actually see way more moose tracks on the trail to our house then we did that day. But it was a clear, pretty day and we had a great run. We went home the next day. In the daylight when it wasn't a blizzard, the trail was about 50 feet wide. We had a great run home and all the dogs did really well. Lots of fun in Alaska! I'll post some pictures the next time we go to town where we have faster internet. We are still on dialup at the house, can you believe it! Dogs, dogs, dogs, three dogs in the house right now, and one of them (Kenai, I think) has gas, PU.