Fun run in Hill, NH some clips

Day one:






Day two:

the puppies first encounter with a snowmobile

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

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

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.

Hopkinton 2009

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

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.

new kennel run

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:

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

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

sled training 12-08-07

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.

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. :)

trainings run with the rig

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

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.

trainings run with luc

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.

2007 Bartlett, NH 24 miles

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

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!

you should always hold on with two hands :-)