bow hunter

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

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.

running the "backyard trail"

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.

moose anyone?

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

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 :-)

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

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

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

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.

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

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. :)

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

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

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.

you should always hold on with two hands :-)

ride on top of Mt. Caverly

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

rooty trail

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

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.