SnowRunner RacingSiberians

2012-01-09T10:56:00.001-05:00

Hey all,

I know and I hate to say it but Facebook has taken over the world and its much easier to update and share pics and videos. So, check out my personal site on Facebook.
See ya there!

Fun run in Hill, NH some clips

2010-01-13T18:39:00.000-05:00

Day one:

Day two:

Hill, NH

2010-01-10T21:55:00.000-05:00

team SnowRunner came in second at the 12mile race in Hill, NH.
not bad for the puppy team.

the puppies first encounter with a snowmobile

2010-01-06T05:46:00.000-05:00

except of Waya the three other pups in the team (Wolk, Lobo and Lund) did very well when the snowmobiles passed.

tough training

2010-01-03T22:10:00.000-05:00

we had a nice trainings run today.

the 4th in a row but today we had 8" fresh snow. good for muscle building.

8 dogs

2009-12-27T13:39:00.000-05:00

first time out with 8 dogs. it's a bit different than with 4, especially when there are 4 puppies in the team ;-).
That was yesterday at the Devils Den.

rig training devils den, 11-29-09, puppy team

2009-12-17T16:55:00.035-05:00

I slowly figured out how to upload a video in HD. what you can see here is maybe just one percent of the quality of the original video. the original is in 1080p and I'm telling the truth it is blu-ray disc quality! I hope I will getting better with those codecs and settings how to upload a footage in best possible quality. The position of the camera needs to be adjusted too, I know.

The three puppies are fast - they think they are sprinters ;-) that was a 5mile run. Pure Quest, the old lead dog cant keep up with them any more. But he still knows a lot more tricks.

bow hunter

2009-12-14T05:44:00.005-05:00

two weeks ago I came across some friendly bow hunters while training the dogs on ATV

the pics are frame-shots from the helmet cam

there is a new dog in town

2009-12-10T05:57:00.000-05:00

I named him WaYa (Cherokee for Wolf). now we have three wolfs in different languages ;-)
10 month old, never trained, heavily overweight for a pup, I give him to the end of the year to loose weight and to get harness broken. hope to get him to the same level as the other youngsters by mid February. very friendly to our kids
promising? according to the breeder YES, but we will see.

Here some pictures mostly of him in the big kennel run.

morning run on Thanksgiving day

2009-11-27T12:38:00.007-05:00

click to see it in smugmug.

World Championship Dryland in Saguenay/ Canada

2009-11-11T20:06:00.004-05:00

some pics:

blog format

2009-11-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

somehow the format of my blog is screwed up. I hve no idea why and how. all the additional gadgets
are positioned always below the post. No matter if I use different templates.

If I cant fix it I will change to wordpress.

trainings run in Pineland

2009-10-19T05:40:00.008-04:00

we tried out the new trail in Pineland, ME where the DESDC has a race next weekend - that trail is just great 15-20 feet wide, no real steep hills no sharp 180, the dogs loved it.

I went out with Luc on the bike, then with Quest, the old trusted puppy-trainer. He trained Wolk, Lobo and Lund on the rig , and than again with Luc, Kaillou, Chinook and Lund.

you see in the clip below how the puppies behave the first 300m, Thanks to Mark for un-tangle them.

Hopkinton 2009

2009-10-04T19:14:00.011-04:00

the first little warm up for the season.

1dog bikejoring with Luc.

2dog bikejoring with Kaillou and Lobo.

Lobo created a little bit of a tangle the first 100m. He didnt really understand whats going on but then he was ok for a 10months old.

4dog rig with Luc, Kaillou, Lobo and Lund.
The old guys did their job, the two puppies where a little bit confused and run fast but didn't really pull of course. It was only to show them all of the excitement of a race atmosphere and for that purpose it worked well, good experience for the pups.

The surprise of the day was again Wolk. I did the 1k canicross with him and he not just run great, he did also some great passings. Good job for a 6month old.

puppies training video

2009-09-27T20:11:00.007-04:00

a little video of last weeks run (1.5miles) with the puppies.
Lobo, Lund and Wolk.

Surprise of the day was Wolk, who was so excited and eager to run with the older guys.
with his 5.5 months he starts to keep up. no pulling of course but did well without any major tangle.
Don't be worry, the paved part is only 200m long.

resting

2009-09-27T14:31:00.007-04:00

after a nice rainy morning run:

puppy training

2009-09-22T16:47:00.006-04:00

some pictures from last week training up the "blueberry hills" behind in our backwoods. first time using the ATV.

and here now the first time out with all three puppies:

Quest takes the for a 1 mile ride. the puppies are Lund and his brother Lobo (8.5 months) and also Wolk (5.5 months)

the surprise of this very first trainings run on a rig is actually the little Wolk. he seems to be enjoy the run with the big puppies and the big boss - Quest, his grand grand cousin

more pictures here

Wolk

2009-08-10T21:06:00.015-04:00

A week ago the latest member of team SnowRunner arrived at our kennel. Quest and Wolk are "related" they are grand-grand-cousins.

He is 4months old and comes from "Howling Spirit" in Wisconsin.

on a hike last Sunday at the Devils Den

Wolk and Lund

Together with Lund, Lobo and another pup from Germany he will build up the future team.

new kennel run

2009-07-06T20:07:00.021-04:00

Two weeks ago, I finally finished a long time project and closed up the fence for an additional 1.5-acre enclosure.

Still I do not know how the solution with the fence going through the brook last over the seasons. We will see.

As for the first kennel, I used again the heavy-duty PP 7.5' deer fence. It is easy to handle and to staple/nail to the trees. I only have to run a couple of electric fence wires.

As you can see in the pictures below the dogs of course, love it in there. It is kind of free running. We let them in only once a day for one hour or so shortly before they are fed.

and also a little video:

new member of the team

2009-06-16T06:14:00.007-04:00

team snowrunner has 6 members again:

His name is Lund, he is the brother of Lobo.
They are 6 month old now. He is adjusting nicely.

It took him a few days to warm up to us but he immediately felt at ease with the big dogs and then with Lobo. He is quite the talker and does not let up easily when he wants to play with one of the big boys.

Slowly he is getting used to the leash and we have been trying to take him for walks to see how he responds with the other dogs. It is great fun to see him zipping around the dog yard with the other dogs.

Lund and Lobo

very first live stream test

2009-05-29T04:29:00.004-04:00

this is just a temporary test for a kennel camera.
what you see is the view from a first floor window into the kennel. ususally Quest rests in his house on the left.

sad just so sad

2009-05-06T20:38:00.017-04:00

That I broke my right hand a week ago and can't train for the next 12 weeks is so unimportant now.

Lars died this Monday.

I hope he had some joyful days in his short life of only five months.

If there is snow on the other side of that bridge I'm absolutely sure he will lead a sled.

It is one thing if a pup dies with 8 weeks or so or if an old dog dies, but in these last three month Lars came so close to us that his loss really hurts.
We will always remember him.

training puppies

2009-05-02T16:58:00.007-04:00

that's a picture from three weeks ago.
Quest my old trusted leader in front and the two pups in mini harnesses behind him.
We do 2-3 miles in that combination.
What a fun.

some clips from the Purity Spring race

2009-03-11T22:44:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-10T22:37:00.017-04:00

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

2009-03-08T20:20:00.005-04:00

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

2009-03-04T21:01:00.008-05:00

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

lost and found

2009-03-02T18:50:00.001-05:00

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:

Please welcome

2009-02-15T20:51:00.007-05:00

the two new members of team SnowRunner:

the brothers
LARS and LOBO

Hopkinton 2008

2008-10-06T21:12:00.019-04:00

Last weekend was again the NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND SLED DOG TRADE FAIR & SEMINAR in Hopkinton NH. Like last year they had a little dryland race. little in distance but seems to me, every year there are more participants. there was 1 and 2 dog bikejoring, a scooter class, 4 dog and a 5-6 dog rig class and new for this year a canicross. The loop is only 0.8 miles or so. it seems there are some issues to get the approval to cross a road so one stays inside the fairground. But that's ok. I like all the dryland stuff because it simply extends the time to be with other sled dog people and race.
team snowrunner went out in the 1dog with Kaillou, who did surprisingly well (first place), the 2 dog bike with Luc and Quest (second overall), the 4 dog rig with Luc, Quest and Kaillou (third overall). Quest is now in an age that he cant keep up with the 3 (Luc) and 4 (Kaillou) year old. He is now the one who slows the team down. BUT and we will see it later in the snow races he safes so much time because he is an excellent command leader.
Interesting is that team snowrunner seems to have a good pace for a mile. as it was last year there were some pretty good sprint dogs at the start but for some reason Luc and Kaillou seem to beat them over that short distance. the difference is of course that the real sprinters would keep that pace over another 5miles whilst the Sibs slow down. But that's the reason we train for mid-distance, the natural distance for Siberians.
In the clip below you can see the whole race trail and one can also see how Quest (in lead on the left) is always one step behind Luc especially in last third.
Since we went out first there is no other team in sight.

Canicross - mass start -
I chose to take Chinook AND Luc. I shouldn't. each of them alone would be fine but together they act as pack. some of the other dogs growled a bit at Chinook and he growled back so that Luc started to make some noises too. At the start I thought it is better to keep a little distance to the other runners. Half way in the run there was a tangle of two or three dogs and their leashes and runners :) so we took the chance to run on by, had a very good pace and would have passed the two others in front of us but those were the ones who growled at Chinook, so I decided to take it easy and keep back. Not to mention that Ed and his dog Maggie was way in front. :-)

more pictures can be seen here and here

Hopkinton is a good start in the season, we have to thank the organizers. Each year the fair, the seminars and now also the race is getting bigger AND better. People came as far as Ontario!

running the "backyard trail"

2008-09-25T05:56:00.010-04:00

Here a short clip of the trail I run in the woods right behind our house.
It connects directly to the back of the kennel. We can do up to 4miles on it. That's just enough for early fall training. There are 4 overflows, sometimes after a rain they are 2feet deep. Good for mental training. But pretty soon we have to go back to the Devils Den trails and ramp up the mileages.

This run is from last Saturday.

Watch at 4:40 how Quest turns the whole Gang back. For me he is THE excellent command leader, he accepts every command blindness, but unfortunately non of the others picked it up from him. Still hoping for Luc but... maybe there is not so much between his ears.

Dogrundog again

2008-09-23T06:30:00.012-04:00

the dogrundog in Norwich, VT on Sunday morning was really a great event.

It is so nice to see that it is growing so fast. Almost too fast, if it would double the participants next year again it would burst the event-center where it was held. I do not remember exactly but I believe more than 100+ people with dogs participated. I would say maybe 40 or so really competed all others took the opportunity to have a nice fast walk among other dog-lovers for a very nice purpose.

Ed beat his own time from last year and came in in an unbelievable 16:17min! And the 5K course is not flat! here his little superdog Maggie:

Christa took some more pictures, you can see them here

I was with 43:20 1:30min slower than last year at the 10k but given the fact that I jogged only 100k over all since last year's dogrundog and 50k of that within the last two weeks - that's kind of ok. Luc did his best to drag me over the distance.

As you can see in the picture above it is always difficult to convince the dog to run the second loop when the two only others in front of you turn in to the finish line.

Km 6 and 7 are then like still-stand and waiting for the guy behind us so we have someone to chase again :-)

In the end it was just the right start and motivation to the dryland season.

Still training with the rig but not more than 2-3miles, we had 15 hook up's since mid August, no porcupines so far! knock on wood!

so bored

2008-09-10T14:04:00.009-04:00

when does the real training start?

we are so bored!

Finally!

2008-08-17T22:28:00.001-04:00

Today was the first day of training in the new season.

I always wait until the temps are below 60F in the morning and the dew point should also be far lower than 60F.
This Sunday morning it finally dropped to 56F at 5am - that's cool enough. By 5:30 we were on the trail, only two miles, but that's long enough for the next two/three weeks. Important is to get the routine back, stretch the legs and have some fun.
In September the training will be serious and we'll start once again with short hill runs and will have some more weight in the rig.

Quest

2008-05-29T11:22:00.003-04:00

Quest had two weeks ago some pain turning/shaking his head. from one day to the other he was stiff in his upper back. something between his shoulders hurt him. but then two days later he was completely fine again.
the vet thinks there are still some traveling quills in his body and they cached a nerve. but he also thinks the body sooner or later will absorb the quills. hopefully!

knock on wood!

still here!

2008-05-20T15:43:00.006-04:00

but much too busy at work and at the new addition.
therefore I will only post some of my favorite pictures from last winter, starting with this one:

Dec. 08 2007;
Nils had some friends over and we went out on the trail behind the house. The dogs and I gave all of them a sled ride.
After 5x 1mile loops with bouncing kids in the sled the dogs had enough - me too I was sweating like a pig.

working on it

2008-03-19T15:07:00.005-04:00

the dog yard in January 08

and still in March 08

No blogging means less time on the computer and resizing pictures, cutting videos or other stuff but being more out there and train the dogs or being out with the kids – what is more important?

Somewhere I read, "burn your TV – play with the dogs" It should say burn your computer and train the dogs! However, end of the week I hope I have some more updates, pics and videos from the last weeks.

We still have 2-3+ feet snow on the ground so I'm still out on the trails but its getting warm and humid, and in 5 weeks will be the first runners event - the muddy moose trail race. Now I myself have to get a bit in shape :)

Sunday, January 13.

2008-01-17T21:54:00.000-05:00

last week it was pretty warm with some rain.
I couldn't train at all because the trails, even there is still more than 1foot of snow, were hard and icy. nothing for sledding or skiing or training with the rig.
actually during the intense trainings/ racing season I try to run the dogs at least every three days so that they stay max. for two days in the kennel.
1 week without running and these guys getting nuts and starting to run in the kennel like maniacs.
so I finally changed the tires on my bike to the studded nokian 300 and trained at least Luc and Kaillou on Sunday morning on our back roads.
parts of those dirt roads were completely covered with a sheet of black ice. I never could do that with normal tires.
But the real challenge on our back roads are the free running dogs especially if I run with Kaillou.
this time we encountered 7 of those. not the big ones are tough to come by but these small "fiffies"; so it was a good "ON BY" - yelling - trainings session.

BTW:
That paved road ends up there. everything else is dirt road, hard packed sand/gravel.
otherwise I would dress the dogs with booties.

moose anyone?

2008-01-08T05:58:00.000-05:00

when I was in the White Mountains last week we came pretty close to a moose.
It came down the slope about 100feet on my right side of the trail and stopped when it saw us.

The dogs didn't realize the moose because they couldn't see or smell it.

What to do?

stopping? Ok, I heard a lot of different storries about the moose. most of them are more horryfying than fun.
but since the dogs were quite, I slowly grabbed the camera and took the first picture but of course the autofocus focused on the bushes. so I adjusted the camera and took a few shoots until the dogs realized whats going on and went nuts. the moose turned around and seemed to leave but then turned its head, when the the dogs started to screem.

there is a current topic at sleddogcentral right now.
where they give different opinions of what to do, from bearspray to a .44 magnum.
Since I'm from central Europe and not so used to guns as the folks here, the magnum isn't an option.

In the end I think bells put on the collars of the dogs, using caution and having respect to the moose in their invironmet is the only thing I can do. And hope simply not to run into an angry moose.

BTW.
last year at that time I almost run in to a black Bear. it was in the same area. that bear seemed to like running in front us on the trail. he also was 100 feet away and finaly left the trail to our rigth side. It looked actually quite funny because he looked like a giant loping gorilla in the snow. :)
the wildlife service which I called afterwards told me, beacause of the unusual warm wheather some bears did not start hibernating and were still looking for something to eat.
but that was last year, even it is very warm right now (+15°C) we still have 2-3 feet snow on the ground.

pulka training 12-30-07

2008-01-04T19:38:00.000-05:00

it was a day with perfect conitions in the White Mountains.

first I run all four on the sled up the Bear Notch road and back the trails in the experimental forest.
then I took Luc and Kaillou for a Pulka run.

looks like the dogs are getting in a good shape but now I struggle to keep up with them.
to much cookies in the last time :)

But here a short clip how it is running behind the pulka.

canicross with 4 dogs and a sled :-)

2007-12-26T06:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning we went out again to the Devils Den for a fast 13miler.
We had warm temperatures and a bit of rain the other night so the trail had some icy spots and frozen overflows. Overall it is still a very good trail with a 1foot base or so.
I decided to simulate a race like training. Means I pulled out my "Icebug" sneakers with the studs and wore my running close.
so fare I trained like that the dogs could go their own pace I didn't forced or interrupt when ever they decided to mark or poop on the trail.
Not so yesterday, race means pooping and peeing on the go. No still stand allowed, most of the time I encouraged them to lop, not to trot. Also and especially on the hills. So far I let them pull my self standing on the sled on the hills no help, no pedaling sometimes we hardly moved but I didn’t help.

Yesterday I hopped from the sled every time the pace was slower than 12km/h or so.

All the time on the sled I wear a skijor/bikejor/canicross belt and hook my self up to the sled. That way I maybe get dragged but never loose the team. I wouldn’t do that with an 8 or 10 dog team ;-)

So it looks like canicross with 4 dogs and a sled between us. Of course I can do that only on the hills, otherwise they are to fast. And I assume and hope with a 6 dog team you do not have to run at all. (we plan to have two more dogs next year)

Here some pictures of the conditions from yesterday morning

first longer run on snow

2007-12-22T20:09:00.000-05:00

had a 21km run incl. a 5km tiring trailbraking (on purpose to get it in their head) at the Devils Den this morning, after that I took Luc and Kaillou out for another 5km quick skijoring just for fun and to give them the idea of whats to come in the next weeks. thats the plan for the remaining weeks befor the races, 10-20miles all together with the sled and after that 5-8 miles skijoring or pulka with the two Sepps.

This video is from yesterday early morning, we did a 14km run. The light was just enough to take that clip. It finally looks like Christmas, doesn't it?

and here some Pictures how it looked like, when I drove home and passed the Merrymeeting Lake.

almost perfect

2007-12-19T21:26:00.000-05:00

are the conditions at the "devils den" trail right now.
they must have groomed last night and when I came early morning today there was a nicely 4m wide hard packed trail. not all of the side trails are groomed yet but it is good enough to do a 8-9 mile fast trainings session. I put new QCR-runners on yesterday and we were just flying.
The dogs and I enjoyed it.

Hardcore Training 12-16-07

2007-12-17T05:50:00.000-05:00

meanwhile we received almost as much snow as we had the whole winter last year.

Sunday morning we had another 8-10" fresh, more heavyer snow at -13°C.

Plan is plan so we trained in that stuff. the trails are still ungroomed and our own track from the day before was gone of course so it was a serious 17km training for the dogs. but that should be enough with the muscle build up training. Now we need some long and slow runs to get the distance and time on trail in the head and mind.

the good thing is that kaillou keeps up with the other three even he lacks several weeks of training. And it is not that he floats.

hope the snowmobile club starts grooming in the next days.
However, next run is Wednesday night.

sled training 12-08-07

2007-12-13T20:04:00.000-05:00

this footage is from last Saturday morning.
I started right out of the kennel. the first 500m are on the trail I cut last summer, you will see there are still some trees in my way :)
it was a nice, short run, still not perfect.

we had some rain and ice over the week and just now received another 5" snow on top of an 5" packed. the forcast says 10" more on Sunday. that should make nice runs over the weekend at the devels den. hope to finaly get some mileages in. for the coming two weeks it is important to increase the distance on snow to at least 12miles every trainings session, otherwise I can forget all the longer skijoring/ pulka races this season. because of the porcupine story we are 6 weeks behind the trainings schedule.

12-06-2007 our first run in the snow this season!

2007-12-06T06:15:00.000-05:00

got up at 4am in the morning today. we have 10-12" snow since Monday.
AND Kaillou is back on bord finally !
So I decided to do a short run (3miles)on our backyard trails up and down the blueberry - hills . good idea - bad idea. they dragged me right behind the kennel for appr. 50' :)
Of course the dogs were extremly excited. and of course there is no packed stuff yet to cramp in the snowhook but it was so much fun. It was a pretty good workout (for the dogs) with the mat down and plowing through the snow :)
the trail is tight and winding and the brunches of trees are full with snow so that they hang almost to the ground. it kicked me off the sled twice :) but since I lost the team two years ago on my very first attempt on a sled I always wear the skijoring belt and hook my self up to the handlebar. that way Im getting dragged but I do not loose the team anymore. with four dogs that is still duable.
It was a real nice adrenaline shot in the morning and the best thing:

Kaillou is fine and can run again!

eager to go

2007-12-04T06:07:00.000-05:00

in typical Sepp manner - Luc is ready to go. He screams and jumps in the shoot.
That was Saturday early morning.

and as you can see, there are just three dogs - Kaillou is still limping.
Not sure if his limping is related to quills (they still com out of the nose) or if he has something else.

rig training at the "Devils Den" in New Durham, NH

2007-11-12T20:09:00.001-05:00

here's a short video of the "sprinters loop" how I call that short 5mile loop. It is just flat, sandy, without any obstacles; a simple out and back. 5miles.
The camera is mounted pretty low on the rig.
So, it is the view of a wheel dog. :)

trainings run with the rig

2007-11-10T11:16:00.000-05:00

Just with three dogs today, Quest, Luc and Chinook. a short run in the "backyard"
Kaillou started to limp again thats why he stayed home.
we started rigth out of the kennel. the first 500m are fresh cut last summer.
The rigcam is mounted pretty low on the rig, so it is the view of a "wheeldog".

Video Pineland day2

2007-11-08T21:07:00.000-05:00

Here a footage from the "bikecam".
I still have not the right bracket for that thing that's why it is very wobbly. They come out with a bike bracket in two weeks.
I mounted the camera with velcro and a pipe to the fork. but better than nothing.
Watch what happend at the end of the video when Ed Clifford passes us. It was of course at the steepest part of the whole trail.

And here the same run with a "helmet camera".

Edit:
If you have a fast connection and a screen where you can see both videos, let them run at the same time. start the helmetcam 8 sec or so earlier.

Luc and Kaillou in Pineland

2007-11-06T17:34:00.000-05:00

Now a short reflection how actually Luc and Kaillou performed in Pineland over the weekend.

We competed in the two dog bikejoring class.

start

flying Kaillou :)

Luc is just great he is focused, he is strong and he has above that speed. He loped almost the whole 2.3miles and was pulling the whole time. He also pulled Kaillou who was “neck-lining” a lot. Luc reminds me on Quest when he was in that age.

I’m not sure if it was that Kaillou missed three weeks of training, that he still suffers from the quills or that he simply is not that fast, poor Kaillou. If the race would have been longer I would have taken of the neck line, but just the 2.3miles that was ok.

The time was 2:30 min faster on Saturday (9:56) than last year and approx. 1min faster on Sunday. That’s a huge improvement especially on Sunday because it was pretty muddy in the woods. Ok last year Luc was just 8 1/2month old and we had a borrowed bike and other issues but still.

The course is an up and down like a rollercoaster and the last 1/2mile are on grass, which is sometimes muddy and wet. So it is a pretty tough course for the dogs. Nothing compared to where we train at home but still tough.

I will also post some videos from both days. I had a camera mounted to the helmet and one mounted to the bike. Let’s see what they look like. It just takes a while to process these video files.

pictures from Sunday in Pineland

2007-11-05T23:24:00.000-05:00

Christina Eagle

Marc

Betsy

Ed

and here all the pictures from Sunday.

Pineland, 2007 Down East Dryland Championships

2007-11-04T20:17:00.000-05:00

I took a ton of pictures on Saturday.
You can find them here
Since it was very cloudy and overcast I took the pictures mostly in ISO1600 which makes them a bit grainy. But I needed at least 1/640s to catch the movements of the dogs.

Sara Vanderwood in the four dog class.

This picture shows the two fastest 5K-canicrossler in the North-East.
Ed Clifford of Raymond, NH who will be in Italy at the WC in two weeks, and Jason Sperry of Mexico, NY.

More to come tonight.

trainings run with luc

2007-10-24T05:46:00.001-04:00

Luc is the first who can train again.

I made it fun for him means I let him run more ore less free. On the leash of course. I pedaled a lot so that he didn't pull that much.

The camera is mounted to the handle bar. Sorry for the crappy noise. It is a new camera, the "gopro digital hero3". I will descripe that thing in a later posting.

Kaillou and Quest still need one more week rest.

Why we probably can't go to Lake Placid

2007-10-15T06:03:00.000-04:00

Friday night, at around 8pm the pack decided to have a little bit fun and chase a porcupine.
I spent halve of the night at the emergency vet in Concord.
Now more than 48 hours later just Luc seems to recover. He is almost back to normal.
But Quest and Kaillou are still limping and do not really eat. Their mouth is still swollen inside. Especially Quest makes me worry, the vet needed to cut one of the quills out of his foot and needed to staple the cut. The staple has to stay 10 days. He limps pretty hefty.

So - no training for at least a week for Kaillou and Quest. But more important then training is at the moment, that they do not have migrating quills or better that if there are still some quills in the body, that they are travelling out not in!
Luc has already one coming out of his nose. it sticks 3mm out.

Kaillou

Luc

Quest

Luc

Kaillou

Luc

Quest

Kaillou

Quest

Quest

rig race at the Hopkinton fair

2007-10-01T13:23:00.000-04:00

After just 5 training runs with the new rig I decided to compete in the 4 dog rig class in Hopkinton.

And yeah – team SnowRunner run in to the second place overall, just 5! Seconds behind Ed Clifford’s hounds. And that with just three mid-distance Siberians! Next team was 30 seconds behind. Not to mention first place in the pure breed section. 13 competitors over all.

It was a very short trail, just 1 km. A distance Siberians still can keep up with the acceleration of hounds.
Everybody took it as training but still, coming that close to Eds team is great for team SnowRunner. And of course it is also because of the new fast rig!

Now I’m ready to go to Lake Placid.

here some more pics.

But really interesting was Lance Mackey's speech!

dogrundog

2007-09-18T14:47:00.000-04:00

Luc run in to the first place in the 10k competition in roughly 42min.

It was a very nice event, great organization, nice folks even some mushers around. They also had a vet check before the race. The race fee goes to local animal shelters.

The only thing was that the course was completely on paved roads. For dogs who pull really hard it is a bad thing to run on asphalt.

Ed Cliffords dog Maggie wore down all four booties! But Ed and Maggie run like crazy, 17:37 for 5k. Congrats to the new "World record" Ed :) !

Here some pictures.

l'odyssée appalachienne

2007-08-20T16:43:00.000-04:00

Yeah, they let me participate!

Thats a race in Quebec/Canada and they are so kind and let me do it with a Pulka-sled in the 8dog/30miles competition. Just as a demonstration but at least I can be there.

Start is on February 3rd 2008.

Merci beaucoup!

late summer training

2007-08-19T15:36:00.000-04:00

Fall training is around the corner. One can smell it. And you can hear it, when the dogs play like crazy at 4:30 in the morning. The mornings are cooler now with temps around 45-55°F; not perfect for real training but cold enough for some hook ups.

The early morning training runs in August are always more something for the soul and the spirit of the dogs and of course for me too. I keep the runs short starting with 2-3miles. These runs bring back the routine in hooking up the dogs.

We still have no rig so I go out twice with the mountain bike. That's still ok for those short distances but very soon I have to increase the distance to 5miles and later in October to 8-10miles.

At that time I hope the rig is here and the training will be easier.

2007 Pineland Farm Trail Challenge, May 27.

2007-05-30T17:21:00.000-04:00

It was a nice day for running still too warm for the dogs but ok and much cooler than the days before, temps around 68-70°F at 10:00. The first loop has at least 4 miles or so open fields’ means the dog also runs in the full sun exposure. So I had to carefully watch Kaillou whom I decided to take for the first loop for any sign of dehydration. Even though it was very warm the last days I had not expected that there would be almost none puddles or brooks on the trail. That made it difficult to keep the dog hydrated. At every water station I stopped and poured water over his head and body. At kilometer 8 or so Kaillou stopped running and just walked beside me. So I started also to walk and we lost a couple of minutes, I did not force him to continue to run not to mention to pull I thought he simply knows what’s the best for him. So we walked up two or three hills until he again started to run.

At kilometer 10 or so a security officer from Pineland came with his Jeep and tried to get me off the trail – no dogs are normally allowed – I told him “er kann mich mal sonst wo” and he could try to cache us if he can (he was a big guy). There is an exception just for that race and no one informed him.

After 15k we came back in the start/finish area in 01:40 still 5min. faster than last year. Christa was there and Jeff helped us to change the dogs. Thanks to Jeff and Mark for helping Christa out with the Kids and the dogs.

Luc of course was very excited. And made some loops around me until he realized what’s going on here and that he has to run – in front of me. But then he surprised me, he simply was so excited that he pulled the whole time up and of course down the hills. Luc is an awesome dog. We managed to run the second loop in nice fast and steadily pace including a long stop at the water station and that just because of Luc was really good focused. We came in 2:26:56min, more than 30min faster then last year. There is still a lot of space for improvement but we are on the right track.

There were 6 or more starter in the 4K canicross. Nice to see more people finally running with there dogs.

Even if everybody has still to work on how to “mass” start with a dog. That “chaos” was nice to watch.

All pictures from Pineland here

Now I could say the season is over. But actually that was our first trainings - run for the coming winter season. Especially for those mid distance pulka runs I will train on next winter.

And in 8 weeks the 16miler in Newbury Port is calling. :)

Muddy Moose Trail Race 2007

2007-04-27T11:09:00.000-04:00

Mud, Mud, Mud!
They had a big picture on page 1 of the sports part in our local newspaper, the “Baysider”. The picture doesn't show the amount of mud you actually have to run through.
What they always forget is that the dog indeed pulls you but the dog also pulls downhill and there you lose a lot of power in your legs because you have to brake for two. The dog pulls you also through the mud but here again you have to slow him down because you have to run careful and watch your steps. Thanks to Luc we came in second in the Old-Man-Age-Group and we made it to 10th place out of 91 over all.
That race is a lot of fun, I'm always surprised that I do not twist my ankles. This year I just run the 4miles to be more relaxed for the upcoming Pineland race.

2007 Bartlett, NH 24 miles

2007-03-16T12:46:00.000-04:00

That race was the longest distance our dogs run so far. During the training over the last months we had just two runs with 19miles. But those two runs where exactly on that trail where they put that race on. So I decided – let’s try it. First I thought to bother the race organizers again with the question whether I can race with a pulka or not. But since I was very unsure about the conditions and if it would be ski-able at all I decided not to take the pulka.
There were two other reasons; I liked to have that experience from the Mannsville Quest race two weeks ago sticking in the head of the puppies as a very good one. And second the trail here in Bartlett was an out and back with a big turnaround in the middle. That would mean that we would have to have a head-on-passing with each single other team. And that maybe would be difficult for the two young dogs pulling a pulka.
Ok, so we did it again with a sled and four dogs in a field of 13 others which all raced with 6 dogs, actually over all there were 21 competitors if you count the open class together.

here some scenes from the stake out and some starts

To be out there and race just with four dogs doesn’t matter that much anymore since I’m meanwhile getting used to be the fifth dog and run and push mostly on the hills. But it is really noticeable an those long hills if you run with a third less of the power than of 6 dogs.
I knew it would be difficult for Chinook to keep up with the three racers. He has his limits at a speed of 14mph or 22kmh or so. That’s where the puppies and Quest just start to loop. So, I expected to even put him in the sled bag to be faster on the last downhill. It ended up that I just took him of the neckline and let him run on the tugline. What he did, he actually run beside the sled.

You will see it in the video.

Over all it was again a good experience for the dogs and it turned out as a perfect exercise for passing, being passed and most of all head-on passing. We came in 8th place in 2:38. Which is again as I believe not that bad since Chinook and in the end also Quest “necklined” a lot. The two puppies especially Luc are doing what I expected from them to do (pedigree), focused on the run, getting stronger each run, getting faster each run and leading the small team without distraction. (more or less)

see some more pics here

and here that video from our ride up to Mt. Caverly

2007-03-15T08:04:00.000-04:00

I finally put that video together.

That hill is approx. 1200 feet, it is nothing spectacular though it has has some tough parts on the trail especially on the way down.

Again the view from up there is amazing!

Mt. Caverly

2007-03-05T11:39:00.001-05:00

I went with the dogs up to Mt. Caverly. last fall I was there with the mountain bike and I never thought we make it with the sled especialy down the hill. But with 1,5 feet of snow all the bumps and holes and washouts are filled and it wasn't as scary as I thought. good to have a mat brake!
All four dogs digged great even Chinook.

What you see in the back is the completely frozen lake Winniepesaukee.
For my friends in Germany: Just for comparison that lake has the sam square-km like the Mueritz in Germany. imagen the Mueritz freezes competely and you can drive on it with a Pickup truck :-)

more pics here

A video of that ride will come soon.

2007 Mannsville, NY 10.7 miles Mini-Middistance

2007-02-27T11:37:00.000-05:00

it was a great location in Mannsville, upstate NY, nice trails 4-6' packed snow, nice people, I definitely come back next year. our first pulka race ever and it work just fine.

I raced with the Luc and Kaillou and as usual Kaillou acts still like a puppy even he is already two years old. For what reason ever, he doesnt like to pass or to be passed. so he starts to bend over to the other team and likes to "greet" or if we passed an other team he looks back for the next 5min and waits for the other team.
After passing and repassing in the first three miles with Erin (the other Pulka racer) I had enough and worked my self up the pulka poles to him and told him it's enough now, no more - I bit him in his nose. that worked - next passing worked just fine we passed like a MIG27. hope he got it now. :)
Luc with his 12 month is doing what I expect from him he leads us the whole time, picks up the the speed after an hill, doesn't mind if there is another team or something else etc. maybe he really has something from his father in his genes.
It took us 1:15 for 10,7miles thats not great but ok for the first real pulka race. My goal will be to reach that speed in the comming years as an average including breaks for 30 -60 miles .

some more pics here

you should always hold on with two hands :-)

2007-02-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

2007 stratford nighthawk

2007-02-12T10:13:00.000-05:00

Our very first "sled" – race ever.
Saturday 02/03, First day 6” fresh snow, which was very soft but hard to run on for the dogs. And they have beautiful scenic trails up there! What a nice views! The 15miles (which were actually just 11.5 according to my gps) had in the beginning light hills to climb on but nothing bad.
The Sunday was almost perfect with groomed, hard trails. But after 38 teams in front of us it wasn’t so hard anymore :). Crisp cold with -18°C + wind but not to cold to run. I had a lot of fun and for that that we are a team of two puppies, a multiple injured lead dog and a showy stubborn fluffy I'm proud of my guys with the 12th place in the mostly 6dog class. In fact I did a lot of running too so I felt like the fifth dog :) Someone told me it looks like canicross with 4dogs and a sled between us. I always use a skijoring belt and a skijoring-bungee-line to be hooked up to the sled. that way I don't loose the team, they just drag me :)

here some impressions from the stake out and the trail:

and here some more pictures.

Nils' first ride in the sled

2007-01-30T09:56:00.000-05:00

Visit from England

2007-01-15T08:36:00.000-05:00

Ali, Christa's stepmother from England came to us in the hope to go skiing and have fun in the snow. Instead we went to the beach in York, ME with almost summer like temperatures (68°F).

But the next weekend we went out for a ride in the White Mountains to the Bear Notch. It was fun and the dogs had their workout (me too as I was skijoring and the other day jogging behind the sled :)

and here a short video, the dogs were a bit confused since they normally listen to my voice from their back.

ride on top of Mt. Caverly

2006-12-27T15:39:00.001-05:00

I went up to Mt. Caverly the other day.

It was a cold and sunny day and so were the views:

Lake Winnipesaukee

Merrymeeting Lake

rattle snake island

uphill was ok but downhill with this two maniacs was almost a nightmare

my new pride and joy

2006-12-27T11:28:00.000-05:00

a Specialized EPIC Marathon Carbon, here with studed tires.

It is simply a dream to ride this beautiful bike. And because of the disc brakes and the studded tires I have so much more control over the dogs that I feel absolute comfortable to hook up three of the them and go out of those sometimes icy trails.

rooty trail

2006-12-27T10:44:00.002-05:00

looks nice - or :).
Approx. 0.5miles uphill with an elevation of 250ft. thats one of the easiest uphill trails around the devils den.
especially if yo discover a gate on the end of that rooty trail with a sign "private road". :)

New trail - Devils Den

2006-12-18T09:18:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of a newly discovered trail system 15 min from our house.

over all you can do 12-15 miles without doing a loop twice. and that does not include the side trails I see all the time

The NHMA sponsored some nice sled dog signs which I nailed at the four entrances.

Click on the titel on top of that post to see the whole gallery.

to much energy

2006-11-27T11:55:00.000-05:00

Die beiden Puppies Luc und Kaillou haben noch viel zu viel Energie. Selbst nach einem schnellem und gutem Trainingslauf von 6km. Klickt an den Titel um mehr zu sehen.

Luc mit seinen 9 Monaten macht sich immer besser, er faengt langsam an zu ziehen und kann inzwischen auch das Tempo von Kaillou und Quest mitgehen, dann allerdings mehr oder weniger im freien Lauf, weil die "Grossen" sind auch dann noch schneller als er, sebst wenn die ziehen.
Das Gute so weit ist, dass er sich nicht so leicht wie Kaillou von freilaufenden Hunden ablenken laesst.

2 dog bikejoring in Pineland, Maine 2006

2006-11-16T14:00:00.001-05:00

The video shows the start end the end of the 2 dog bikejoring day two at the downeast championship in Pineland, Maine in 2006.
Both dogs are Seppala Siberian Huskies, 8 months and 2years.

Watch the crash after 1:40 minutes or so.

Two or three curves after that needle pin curve I had a very nice pace and both of the puppies loped very fast and smooth. I came out of a curve and right there on the left Jean stood there and had a tangle or something else with her dog. I was on the right side but my dogs cut the curve in the inside so they came out on the left – and run full speed in to her dog. It was may be 20 ft behind the curve. I haven’t seen it because I concentrated on pedaling in and out of the curve. So we crashed, the dogs fought, growled and so on. The seat on the bike was turned. Shi…happens.
The only bad thing here is that a puppy should have just positive experiences in its first races and he was the one who was growled at and tangled and dragged by the other dog. But it looks like he is strong minded at least as of know. I have to watch him carefully in the next races.
Over all it was a very nice weekend!

Dryland in Pineland, Me 2006

2006-11-16T13:59:00.001-05:00


Dryland race Pineland , ME 11/05/2006

Training Bikejoring 10/23/2005

2006-11-16T13:57:00.001-05:00


bikejoring with my lead dog Quest (the white one) and Kaillou (at that time one year old) You can see early in the video that Quest isn't full running, he still suffered from a surgery in his right shoulder. Sorry there is no sound in this video.

test

2005-10-26T15:29:00.000-04:00

Das ist ein erster Test nach mehr als einem halben Jahr

chinook sehr ungewoehnlich

Neue Fotos

2005-02-18T22:45:00.000-05:00

hallo zusammen,

es gibt mal wieder ein paar fotos von unseren Hunden
und zwei neue Galerien:

http://rpf.smugmug.com/Winter+in+New+Hampshire

http://rpf.smugmug.com/gallery/403562

rpf

new pics

2005-02-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

hi,

zwei neue fotos von nils gepostet:

http://rpf.smugmug.com/gallery/index.mg?logOut=1&AlbumID=398949

rpf

schlittenrennen

2005-02-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

gestern und heute war schlittenrennen in laconia hier in new hampshire. eines der aeltesten rennen in der rennszene ueberhaupt. ich glaube seit 1929 oder so. sogar seppala hat hier schon mitgemacht.

habe mit meinem neuen spielzeug (konica-minolta digitale spiegelreflex) ein paar fotos (knapp 500 in ca. 3h) geschossen, mit digital ist das ja kein problem mehr. :)
ca. 200 habe ich gepostet.

http://rpf.smugmug.com/Sports/57288

viel spass beim anschauen.
rpf

fotoseite

2005-02-13T09:50:00.000-05:00

auf grund dessen, dass der aufbau der blogseite unguenstig fuer viele fotos ist, werde ich von nun an neue fotos hier posten:

http://rpf.smugmug.com/

diese seite ist insofern auch guenstig, dass der betrachter sich die groesse der fotos selbst einstellen und somit der geschwindigkeit seines internetzuganges anpassen kann.
wer will kann sich die fotos auch in originalgroesse ansehen bzw. per rechtem mausklick auf seinem rechner laden. aber vorsicht die originale koennen bis zu 5mb gross sein. :)
z.zt. habe ich noch keine beschraenkung oder passwoerter fuer das downloaden vorgesehen.

rpf

Sunday morning vor dem Training auf dem alten railroad bed in Wolfboro

2005-01-11T21:40:00.001-05:00

Sunday morning vor dem Training auf dem alten railroad bed in Wolfboro

2005-01-11T21:40:00.000-05:00

2005-01-11T21:38:00.000-05:00

Winter in NH 02, die Strasse zu unserem Haus

2005-01-11T21:37:00.001-05:00

Winter in NH 01

2005-01-11T21:37:00.000-05:00

squirrels?

2005-01-11T21:36:00.001-05:00

Snow

2005-01-11T21:36:00.000-05:00

Kaillou im Schnee

2005-01-11T21:35:00.000-05:00

im Auslauf 02

2005-01-11T21:31:00.000-05:00

im Auslauf

2005-01-11T21:30:00.001-05:00

Kaillou and Quest

2005-01-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

Quest and Kaillou 01

2005-01-11T21:29:00.001-05:00

Quest allein

2005-01-11T21:29:00.000-05:00

Die grosse weisse Hoffnung fuer die naechste Saison, Quest and Kaillou

2005-01-11T21:28:00.000-05:00

Kann der denken?

2005-01-11T21:27:00.000-05:00

Chinook and Kaillou

2005-01-11T21:26:00.000-05:00

Kaillou

2005-01-07T20:39:00.000-05:00

Die Dreierbande

2005-01-07T19:17:00.000-05:00

Chinook, Quest and Kaillou