Sorry it has been so long since we updated our website - we don’t have internet at the cabin in Montana and get into town occasionally.  Things are going well in Montana, with 2 races behind us in prep for the Iditarod.  Getting here is another story, with the the back tires of the dually coming off on the ranch driveway, and delaying us by a day.  We rolled  into Seeley Lake 12 hours before we were to be in Whitefish for our 100 mile race and with the temp being 22 below zero.  We unburied the dog houses, unloaded the dogs and went in the house to get some sleep, only to find the house covered in dead bees!  They must have gotten in during the summer, and died when it got cold - there were millions of them!  We vacuumed them up and got a few hours of sleep.  Occasionally we will have a live bee in the house buzzing around!  We drove to Whitefish for the 100 mile raced, which consisted of two 50 mile runs , and had a great time with fun trails and finishing respectfully, with Lach in 8th place and myself in 10th.   Our next race, the Seeley 200, was the following week.  The race started with warm temps in the high 40’s and at the warmest part of  the day, 3:00 p.m.  We both ran the same schedule, however, Lach’s team wa about 30 minutes  faster getting into the checkpoints.  We didn’t run together, but saw each other at  the checkpoints.  We both ran an Iditarod schedule, which means we rested the dogs for as long as the run took.   We ran 50 miles at a time before resting.  It took about 5 hours to run 50 miles, so we camped and rested the team for about 5 hours.  The trails were hard and icy, as it started raining.  It rained from Saturday morning until late Saturday night, and was so miserable for the dogs and mushers alike.  Thank goodness for rubber raincoats, because that is the only thing that would keep you dry.  It rained like it was April!  The dogs handled it well, even though I know they could not get comfortable on the wet beds of straw.  The last 50 mile run was worth all the unpleasantness of the rain, as it had snowed higher in the mountains, and the last run is up and over a pass called Huckleberry Pass, which is very well known to mushers as it is very hard on dog teams that are do not have enough training miles on them, and has been know to be a place where dogs decide to take a break on their own!  I am so proud of our dogs, as they motored up the pass without even looking back, and I passed 3 teams and left them behind.   There was a about 4 inches of fresh snow, the sky was clear and the stars were incredible, with Ryan’s Belt always just over the next ridge.  Lachlan finished the race at 1:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and I finished at 4:00 a.m.  It was fun watching the dogs work, and being on the trail with them camping, exploring and seeing what great athletes they are.  Each one bringing something special to the team-whether it was the leaders never missing a command, Cash taking naps when I stopped to pet them,  Geyser loping with a huge grin on her face, Travis kissing the dog next to  him in sheer joy of running, or sleeping with Ollie curled up with me while camping.  Our next race is the Race to the Sky, which Lach will do with 12 dogs.  It is a 350 mile race, and I will handle for him.  Alison Peticolas will come to Montana, and with Amy and Stephanie, our handlers, will run the dogs left behind.  Dave Wurtz, a very close friend and musher is in Montana (I am in Colo. for a week to catch up on work) helping Lach run dogs.  They are heading out for a camping trip, as soon as they can get the trail made with snowmachines.  We have been doing 20 - 70 mile training runs,  with both of us running 14 dogs.  I always said I would never run more than a 12 dog team, and somehow I am now running 14 dogs - alot of POWER!   I will update again as soon as I get back to Montana and keep you posted on our training and the race.  Thanks for being a part of Team Clarke and reading our website!

Linda

More to come after the weekend. Merry Christmas to all our friends following our log. Thanks for keeping up on Team Clarke

1/8-1/9 2010- Flatheadsleddogdays.com- 2 back to back 50 milers; a great way to start. We’ll have 2- 12 dog teams running.

1/15- 1/17 2010-Seeleylakedograces.com- a nice 200 miler for any new dogs to learn how to camp and rest. 2-12 dog teams running.

2/12-2/17 2010- Racetothesky.org- The final pre/slection race for Iditarod team.300 miles: 1 team entered. May run other dogs in the shorter race if they decide to run a 100 or 200 miler in conjunction with the main race.

3/6-3/20 2010- Iditarod.com. May have tracking devices on each sled so watching may be more fun this year.

All dogs(36) continue to train and run well but the 8 yearlings will go to Krabloonik in Snowmass to run tours their first running year; as much as we’d love to run them in Iditarod they’re too young for 1000 miles.

The dog yard before we snowshoed in trails.

The dog yard after 2 hours of snowshoeing in trails!

We were up this morning at 4:30 a.m. for a 14 mile run. Sunday 5 dogs went to Krabloonik for the season; so grateful that Dan MacEachen allows us to try out some of his best atheletes. Brought 2 back to try out for the team: Linda and Alison run a 16-dog team;  myself , Steph,Cam or, whoever else I can get to help me run a 20-dog team; the downside to training 36 dogs for an Iditarod team. within the next week or so we should have photos and/or video of some of the runs. This a.m. we went out to hook up dogs it was snowing hard but only about 1-2 inches of snow on the ground; by the time we finished the run there were 8-10 inches and it continues to build! For once this storm was not overrated. Came up the driveway, the last 2 miles or so at just 5 mph., pretty tame for 20 dogs pulling about 850 lbs. Shell and Walter were superb, slugging a way when it was tough but up to 12-13 mph. when conditions permitted. Linda had Ellie and Screamer up front doing great work in tough conditions. The yearlings we’ve raised are amazing! all super enthusiastic even in deep snow. - Lach

Linda - We had a great run this morning, as Lach described the conditions above.  Alison and I took our 16 dogs out and decided to start out with an easy loop around our South Woods area.  It was snowing so hard we couldn’t see the turns, and could see the  reflectors for the turns as we were passing them.  Ellie and Screamer were our leaders and were fantastic, seeming to know that we were having problems seeing.  They put up with me saying straight ahead, even though I wasn’t sure if a turn was coming up,  but knowing it was there somewhere.   At the end of our run we were on a trail that winds through a heavily forested area, and there was about 8 inches of snow on the ground.  The dogs had to break trail, the only problem was that the trail winds through trees and things look a whole lot different covered in snow - to us anyway.   We were looking for the turn that would lead us out of the woods and not really paying attention to the lead dogs,  and  noticed that  they were looking around and a bit confused.  Before we could do anything they turned left into the woods looking for the trail and we were  heading in the wrong direction, and not on the trail.  The woods are pretty dense at this point and you can’t just weave a 16 dog team around in the woods  and turn them around wherever  you want, especailly on a 4-wheeler.  I jumped of f  the 4-wheeler and undid some of the dogs tugs,  as they were all pretty excited about this new “trail” we took and wanted to just keep going and exploring!  We couldn’t go further as the trees were too close together, so we turned them to the right.  I was running in front of  the team (I’m glad I had an adrenlin rush, because it was hard work) and Alison was driving the 4 wheeler.   We found an area that we could safely turn them in a big arc, and get back to the trail we just made.  All went well, with the leaders understanding that they had to follow, however slowly, to get out of our situation.    I was so grateful that Alison was with me, and that our dogs were  calm and knew they had to be obediant and follow me.   Most of our runs are smooth with no problems, but sometimes we get into situations which are less than ideal.  There are times when you have time to think and process the situation, as we did, and there are times when you have to make an instant decision and think fast.   A great book to read is Gary Paulson’s book” Winter Dance”, which is a true story of  Gary’s training for his first Iditarod.  It is very funny, and every musher can honestly say t hat their story is similar to Gary’s in some way!  Have a great day - it’s time to put the snowshoes on and go stomp down the snow in the dog yard.   - Linda

This week we’ll be upping the miles and getting several young, new  dogs from Dan MacEachen to try out for the  team. Dan has been instrumental in helping us improve with his solid mentoring and coaching.