Rocket (9 years old) said he prefers not to run at all, due to overheating and possible laryngeal paralysis, but if it’s cold enough (below zero), he’ll consider running with the Z team on a four mile run.

Chester announced that at ten years old, he’s just not up to twenty mile runs and that he’d rather stay home and eat what he can find in the dog yard. Like Rocket, he said he will consider short four-to-seven mile runs.

After a two year retirement, Frankie (9 years old), said he would like to run in lead with his former girlfriend Monkey-Tail on four mile runs. He said although he has a sore back, he needs to get out and about, and that the team needs a strong leader like him.  As long as he can stay inside and take over the couch, he’s happy to run. We’re glad to have him back on the team.

The team was composed of Rattles & Rocket in wheel, Monkey and Punky in point, and Red, our fearless leader, in Lead.  I tried to take Peetie, but he wasn’t interested in going. Rocket decided he wasn’t going to be a mushing dog this year and Greg hasn’t been taking him, but he said he would run four miles just for me.

Not only was this my first run of the year, it was also a first run for Red, Monkey, and Pumpkin. Red lead the way from the house down to the field perfectly. Once we got to the field Rattle commenced his sneezing ritual and Red decided to see what was in an outbuilding on the field. Next to the outbuilding are Yaks and sheep, so he probably was interested in their scent; and he hasn’t been down to the field since the new neighbors moved in and brought farm animals with them.

After untangling everyone, with the help of Munkin I managed to get Red to go passed the building and animals. We mushed into the woods, over the hill, and Red decided to lunge to the right and drag everyone with him. He was distracted by Maureen, who was off on a side trail looking for her missing dog Nemo. Maureen helped me straighten out the team.  We mushed for 100 yards and Red was distracted by a person and her dog who were in deep snow trying to stay out of our way.  Maureen came over and helped me straighten things out again, and we were off.

Note: Greg and I like to, and usually do, mush at night when the trails are mostly  abandoned.

We got to the winter trail and almost ran into a huge arctic cat blocking the trail– probably someone’s Christmas present. I chatted with them for a minute and found out they had driven up from North Pole, and they had not seen Nemo.  I complemented them on their fine looking machine.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing. Red, Monkey, and Pumpkin were so happy that they finally got to go for a run. Rocket and Rattles weren’t as ecstatic, but seemed to have had a nice time. I was really happy that I finally got to be out with the dogs.

Other news at Stinkypup is Decker’s radial subluxation. On Monday June 21st, Decker got beat up during a puppy party. Greg wasn’t around, so it was just me who pulled one dog off & hooked them up, pulled another dog off & hooked them up, and so on. I’m not sure who started the fight, but many snouts were involved, including Monkey, Pumpkin, Capella, Spike, Chester, Rocket, Ahab, Zeus, Nikki and Roo. All ten dogs were pulling and jumping and tugging on poor little Decker. Dog fights suck.

After I got everyone back on their chains I fed them, and then tended to Decker’s wounds. She had a couple of puncture wounds, which I shaved and cleaned. When Greg came home he helped me tend to the rest of her wounds. She had a long laceration on her back leg and bleeding puncture wound near her left armpit. We cleaned her up, gave her Rimadyl, Tramodol & Cephlex and put her in the pen. We’ve seen a lot worse, but were keeping an eye on her. She didn’t eat much on Tues. Wed. she ate a little and her wrist began to swell. We put ice on her wrist, which helped the swelling a lot. On Thurs. her entire arm began to swell. We iced it and the swelling went down, but she wasn’t getting better.

On Fri. we brought her to the emergency vet, who thought she just had a bad infection. She gave us Clavamox (a stronger antibiotic). Although the swelling went down, we now noticed she wasn’t bearing any weight on her leg and her wrist was floppy. She was breathing hard (a sign of pain in dogs), but I thought she was just too hot.

On Tues. we brought her to Dr. Flemme at Mt. McKinley animal hospital. Flemme is an expert in canine orthopaedics. He diagnosed her with lateral radial subluxation. He took e-xrays to confirm the problem. We left her at the vet and he was able to manually reduce the injury (meaning put the bones back where they were supposed to be without having to do surgery).

She needs to stay in a crate for 10 days and she’s quite uncomfortable. After that we’ll move her outside to the pen. I already told her she can move inside, but I think she prefers living outside with her sisters. She’s a shy girl.

Decker sporting a $200 cast.

Decker

So, that’s the current news from the StinkyPup ranch. Magic is adjusting to his cropped tail (I still need to take some pics), and of course, we all desperately miss Sam.

Later that night, Greg and I took a closer look at his tail. He had a laceration on the backside of his tail, around three inches from the base. We shaved the area, cleaned it with a water/betadine solution, gave him cephalexin (and antibiotic) and Rymadyl (doggie aspirin), and put him in the pen in the front yard.

Wed. night when we were cleaning his tail, I noticed that it wasn’t painful– meaning he just didn’t have any feeling in his tail. We decided if the emergency vet was open, we’d bring him in. It wasn’t an emergency, but the ER vet is sometimes cheaper than the regular vet, and I was stressed about his tail. Turns out the ER vet isn’t open on Wed., and we opted to not call McKinley or Aurora to have a doc on call look at him.

Greg dropped him off at Aurora this morning. The doc told him that he had circulation in tail (there was blood flow), but he didn’t have any feeling (nerve damage), so the best thing to do is to amputate his tail.

Whaaaaaa!!!! Poor Magic. While Greg is out of town, I may try to integrate him with the inside dogs and see how he does. I’ve tried this before, and he didn’t really want to be inside, but maybe he’ll change his mind.

Luke also went for a vet visit today. The vet wasn’t sure if he has a torn muscle or if it could be having back problems. Instead of doing ex-rays right away, the vet prescribed Methocarbanol (500mg every 8 hours). Methocarbanol is a muscle relaxant. Luke’s back thighs are very muscular and super tight.

Higgs and Luke added incredible strength to our “A” team. They are both big dogs (70lbs), who usually run in wheel and carry the team. With Rocket & Decker (a great leader) on bed rest due to a shoulder or wrist injuries, and Asa off the “A” team because he doesn’t like to run without his brother and he doesn’t like to run with Greg, we are left with Nikki, Chevy, Ahab, Capella, Zeus, Spike (who has harness rub on her chest), and Roo (who can’t run more than 100 miles). Soooo, my secret plan to run the Chatanika 200 and possibly the Quest 300 isn’t looking good this year.

The next day (March 21) we got up late, and eventually left camp at around 1pm. We were following the trail that had  started at the park headquarters. Since this year was such a big snow year, the bad section of overflow and glare ice (around 1 mile after park headquarters), wasn’t bad at all. Soon the trail petered out and we were following a ski trail. The snow was very deep, so I put on my snow shoes and broke trail, then ran back and mushed with my snow shoes still on. Repeat process.

Unfortunately, the ski trail we were following let us to the park road and the road had just been plowed. It snowed a little bit the night before, so the road had some snow cover on it. We cruised down the road to the Savage River camp site. We stopped to set up camp (around 4:00pm), and it took us a long time to melt snow and take care of dogs– but at least this time we were able to do chores in the daylight. We kept Sam and Bruno, with the rest of the dogs, on tie-outs and let Chester and Storm free. Storm was very needy.

After a night of endless whining from Bruno, we woke up at around 9am and began morning chores. After chores, we scouted a possible route back to headquarters that would have led us through Jenny Creek. There was a lot of open water on the creek, as well as no-snow spots, and we didn’t see a definitive trail, so we decided to head back the same way we came out. We saw HUGE wolf tracks and tons of fresh wolf scat; HUGE bunny tracks; and a big fat bird that was waiting for us to leave camp.

We probably left camp around 2pm and were quite bummed to see that the road had been plowed again– and this time it was plowed to the asphalt. We mushed for around 1/4 mile on the road (Yuk) and eventually got back to sections of the road that had some snow. We found the turn off for the ski trail, and with a little maneuvering got the teams to make the turn. The rest of the mush home was uneventful.

Dogs

We brought 21 pulling dogs and one fun dog (Chester).

Days 1 & 2

Ilana

1. Nikki / Chevy (no one wants to run next to Chevy because he nips at his running mate)
2. Ahab / Decker
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Asa / Higgs
5. Peetie / Red

Greg

1. Frankie / Storm
2. Dutchess / Rocket
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Roo
5. Monkey / Pumpkin
6. Luke /Spike

Day 3

Ilana

1. Nikki/ Chevy
2. Frankie / Dutchess
3. Sam / Bruno
4. Monkey / Pumpkin
5. Asa / Higgs

Greg

1. Decker/ Storm
2. Ahab/ Rocket
3. Rattles / Simba
4. Roo
5. Peetie / Red
6. Luke /Spike

Trip Planning
Since I was traumatized by Spot being killed, Greg was in charge of packing and trip planning. I don’t know the exact amounts of what he brought– but it was a lot of food. For dog food he brought two 40lb bags of kibble, a block of turkey skins, Champagne race meat, energy pack, 42 pieces of big fish, some left over snacks from the Serum run (which Peetie, Sam, Bruno, and Chester stole from my sled) and some fat. We came back with most of the turkey, race meat, energy back, and 30lbs of kibble).

Gear

• Our Mountain Hardware winter tent is great, however our 20+F sleeping bags really aren’t appropriate for -20F.
• Once again we had stove problems. Greg purchased a pump for our MSR stove, but there are two separate pumps for the Whisper Lite and the DragonFly, so the pump he bought didn’t work with the stove we brought. We also had issues with our Colman stove.  Note to self: bring fire starter paste!

I visited Ilana and the crew in Manley, which was a nice trip to the end of the Elliott Highway. More news is on the Serum Run site, including a blog, message board (where you can send messages to your favorite musher: Ilana!), and GPS trackers to follow the expedition every day.

Storm and Simba stayed home, due to shoulder injuries limiting their multi-day endurance. That makes for a team of 10 dogs, plus Ilana and Heather. The dogs are all eating well and doing fine. They are: Decker, Chevy, Nicki, Roo, Higgs, Asa, Rocket, Ahab, Luke and Storm. Weather is fine, and the trail has been good so far.

Heather’s snow machine is ready, and will haul a huge sled with lots of gear. Ilana’s dog sled will also have days of booties, first aid (for dogs, people, and the sled), food, dog jackets, and more. It’s a major expedition, and both challenging and fun.

These dogs were all immunized with broncozine, against kennel cough, but we didn’t have enough to give their second shot. Usually the vaccine requires a second dose the first time they get it, then a single dose in later years. This vaccine is great for keeping kennel cough outbreaks to a minimum, but doesn’t prevent all cases. Since only the new dogs have relatively light symptoms, I think the vaccine did help, but not prevent. They should be ready to run in a few more days, although the extreme cold seems to make healing slower. No mushing for them, until they’re better.

We kept Luke inside overnight, but he didn’t like it much. Ahab is getting antsy, after being inside for a few days, which is a good sign he’s getting better. We also had Monkeytail inside overnight, since she always has breathing problems in the cold.

The route is 50 miles one way, then a 4-hour layover at Angel Creek (mile 57 Chena Hot Springs Road), then the same route in reverse. From the starting point at the Pleasant Valley store (mile 22 CHSR), we headed west to trails that Ilana and I use quite a lot, for a loop around the Jenny M. hill, then back east through the extensive (and confusing!) Two Rivers trail system. From there, a road crossing at mile 27 puts us on the winter trail (the Yukon Quest trail), paralleling CHSR all the way to Angel Creek. So, about 30 miles from the road crossing to Angel Creek, and about 20 miles in the Two Rivers trail system.

Temperatures were as high as 10 degrees or so above zero during midday, but mostly were -5 to zero until the return trip, when temps dropped to -15 or so. Very nice weather for mushing. I saw some northern lights on the return trip, though they were faint. This was the shortest day of the year, and in fact I had great views of the sun barely climbing above the horizon (around 11am) and then setting (before 3:00 pm). There was one incredible photo moment when I was heading directly south, with another musher ahead of me, into the midday sun — with the sun barely above the horizon. Too bad I didn’t have a camera.

Overall, I finished #25 out of 27 mushers who completed the race (two mushers scratched during the race, and there was another field of 5 mushers who did a one-way 50 mile race instead). I was quite pleased with my team, and happy with my times: about 5h 25m for the first leg, then about 6h for the second leg. This is a steady pace of 8-10 mph, which is the speed we’ve been training the dogs to run. It was a field of mushing luminaries, including Jodi Bailey, Lance Mackey, Ally Zirkle, and many other competitive mushers. Also some less competitive ones like the StinkyPups. A good time was had by all.

The snow was great — we had some fresh snow that was packed, but not too hard. There was literally zero overflow (open/flowing liquid water), which was a first for my use of the trail to Angel Creek. There was a little open water in the slough (where I took my bath earlier in the year), but the trail bypassed it.

My mush was free of incidents, but I did get to help another musher who lost his team (his main line broke, so his team ran off without him and his sled). The trail was exceptionally well marked.

The team lineup on the way to Angel Creek: Dekker & Chevy in lead, Ahab & Storm, Higgs & Rattles, Rocket, Luke & Spike, and Nikki & Roo.
On the way back: Dekker & Chevy in lead, Nikki & Roo, Rattles & Ahab, Rocket, Luke & Spike, Higgs & Storm.

Dekker & Chevy are very steady leaders. The only dogs who had trouble on the way back were Spike (who seems to be the new Pumpkin: she likes to lollygag, and doesn’t really pull much after she’s tired), and Rattles, whose missing toe seems to be bothering him. Rattles is probably not going to be continuing with hard training for the SerumRun. Back home, Storm was limping a bit, but this isn’t unusual and she did well during the run. We’ll try to find out what’s bothering her over future days.

My last note on this is the incredible amount of time we take to put on booties. Before the race, Ilana and I started to put booties on dogs 40 minutes before my targeted start time, and didn’t finish all 11 dogs before I needed to start. Mid-race in Angel Creek, I allotted 30 minutes for the job, and ended up leaving 10 minutes after my earliest start time, to finish the job. This is for booties on 5 or 6 of our 11 dogs, not all 11. Back home, we only have a few dogs who always get booties (because they have sensitive feet, or get ice balls), while most don’t regularly get booties. So when we try to give booties to more dogs, it’s slow: they don’t cooperate as well, and it’s just a lot of work. This is something we’ll get better/faster with, over time.