some clips from the Purity Spring race

And here the videos from our attempt to do the 4 dog class at the NESDC Purity Springs "Sled dog classic".
Both clips are pretty long and show almost the whole course. I cut only the really boring / slow sections.
But especially the video from Sunday's run gives you a pretty good impression about the trail and the excitement in such a short event. There were a lot of head-on-passings, passing and re- passing, a crowded turnaround and so on, you will see.
Since our focus is on "longer" skijoring/pulka races, the team is used to running on a heavy tobbogan-sled 8-20miles in training. So, the "short" 5miles was something different for us. But since I still have a stiff knee and can't stay on the skies and I wanted to do at least one more race this season Purity Springs was the choice.

As I already wrote, the temperatures were springlike in the 50's F (10-13°C), but a 2+feet hard packed, well groomed trail and a very dedicated crew made it possible to run even at 4:30pm, when our class started. At that time the trail was of course slushy and chewed up but still in good condition besides some water sections .

Here is the run fom Saturday:



Nothing special to say except I was surprised to see how long the switching of two dogs can take .

Sunday's run:



Much more exciting because first we started in reverse order and immediatley right after the 4dog pros. Therefore there is more to see.
You may realize one dog is missing from the start. Chinook was fine until I put the harness on him and I saw that he limped a bit so no question he had to stay at the truck.
You will see that I took Quest of the neckline because he was pulled a couple of times by the two youngsters and he was "neck-lining". Almost immediately he started to fall back and run next to the sled and I had to watch that I did not run in to him. The last mile or so now there were only 2 active pulling dogs, Luc and Kaillou. A lot of running/pushing for me but that's fine.

With 8 years Quest is actually not that old but he had a ton of injuries and surgeries in his life and runs very stiffly. So I have to accept that he slows down now. But again; he is an incredible command leader.

In the end I'm pleased with the performance of the two youngsters. It was the first time for them in"lead" in a race and they handled it well.
And with our new additions, the two Sepp puppies, there will be an all Seppala Siberian 4dog sprint team next year. So watch out folks

skijoring pictures from Purity Springs, NH

We went to the NESDC Purity Springs "Sled dog classic" last weekend.
Since I myself still can't stay on the skies I had to attempt the 4 dog sportsman class. More of that and some videos I will post within the next days.

The temperatures were springlike in the 50's F (10-13°C), but a 2+feet hard packed, well groomed trail and a very dedicated crew made it possible.
I took only pictures of the skijoring class but they had all classes from 1 dog Junior up to the open class.

On Saturday early morning the trail was still somewhat icy but doable for most of the skijorers.

Here some of the pictures:

Dillon's flying dogs :)

Sadie Therriault, second place over all.


Fran Plaisted


Johnn Molburg,
what you doing with that tounge, Johnn?


Jim Blair


Don Tibideau


Betsy McGettigan


Jim again


Kelley McGrath


Ed Clifford


Elaine Stasney


More of the pictures I took you can find here

liv's ride

befor I post some pictures from last weekends race in Purity Springs, here a very short video from Liv going out with us the Sunday before.



She is a toughy that little girl. First sitting for four miles in the sled and then on our way back she stood on the runners for four miles.









Unfortunately she wasen't allowed to enter the 1 dog junior 100m dash at Purity Springs last weekend because the NESDC requires the kids to be five years old. But she sayd she is rady for next year.

a short video

from the Boston Globe about the CAN AM sled dog race,
Christine Richardson of Canaan, NH came in 10.

lost and found

lost and found the video from Lake Placid last year ;-)



It was a pretty wet and muddy trail, but we had a lot of fun in Lake Placid: