New to the sport

Jim, Jennifer, Adam, David and Buffy. Jen learning to harness with Ruthie.

David takes a fast curve.

Adam negotiated the sometimes challenging loop very well.

Adam, 9, with his team, Buffy, Ruthie, Sherpa and brother, David, handler

David with his team, Buffy, Ruthie and Herman, handlers, Jim and Adam

Two young mushers hit the trails on Saturday. David, 11 and his brother, Adam, 9, took their first runs on sleds. Their runs were smooth and fast, they were adept and sleds were well controlled. Good job, David and Adam! Of course, the dogs were excited to have new drivers, as always. Their mother, Jen, did a great job at learning to harness, hookup, feed, etc. As is customary, the boys helped with the chores following the runs.

Hands ON

Visitors to SPK are asked to learn the whole 'deal' with Learn to Drive a Sled. Each trainee joins in the regular work of running a dog team, including bringing dogs out to the line, harnessing, hookup, chasing a team as a handler and giving soup to the dogs who have worked for them and the whole kennel.

It's a great sample of being a musher and guests most often ask to return for more instruction and experience. We are still offering winter camping this winter on our 80 acres, but snow has been a challenge the whole winter. It involves driving a small team to a campout site and enjoying a night under the stars with these great dogs. Contact us for pricing.

Winter

Cindy Henry with her four dog team.

Rob Likely returns for running a six dog team, ready for eight!

Ray is a returning driver and has moved from four dogs to six dogs, wow, Ray!

Dogs were very happy. In photo: Rob, Sherpa, Zoom, Kiddo, Herman, Ray, Jimmy, Julie

Mary greets Ray on his return. The hills are a bit daunting at times but he had a fast run.

This is a generally warm and low snow winter, but our winter activities have been quite good for the snow limitations. We pack our trails from the 'get go' and it keeps them firm even in the meltdowns.

Some new photos of people learning or coming back for driving a sled adventures.

Yukon Quest

And they're off and racing... Allen Moore drew Bib 1 , nice start! Check out
www.spkenneldoglog.blogspot.com for more detailed info and try the Yukon Quest main site for some pretty great live tracking and reporting.... you can click on Live Tracking and down on the side, click on Race Analysis, some really great data... shows 'hills' they're climbing,
shows a graph analysis of the progress.. very helpful.

Nice Runs

Another good day of running, good handlers, good drivers, happy dogs. This winter continues to be challenging... one day cold, one day rain, one day snow, the trails are on and off... they were great yesterday, today it's drizzle.

SPK Dogs

Yeti, pup of Martin and Frita (pretty obvious !) Sweet temperament, strong.

Eos, a nonretired retiree, she is a driven perfect gee haw command leader, sister to

Zeus.

Zeus, a perfect gee haw command leader, semiretired (don't tell him!) Super sweet,

fast, incredibly responsive.

Rosie, little fastest sprinter.

Sherpa looking a little like , are we ready to run?

Matriarch, Lillen, still tough as nails and a gee haw command leader. Infamous Yuksi's sister, hates her coat!Tsunami, strong and fast. Obviously Frita/Martin pup.

Matilda, beautiful gait and conformation, fast. Runs lead and any other position.

This is our 18th year and we've had great dogs through all of these years. The former dogs are still honored here by their pups... in these photos, Skinny's and Liller's pups, Rosie and Matilda, their granddaughter, Sherpa. Frita's and Martin's pups, Tsunami, Yuki, Yepa, Swix, Zoom.

All of these are running this winter, ready and willing and fast dogs. Zeus and Eos are looking great. They can all run sprint or middistance. We don't have a race team this year so the race cancellations aren't affecting us as we continue to have nice running trails, against some odds.

Nice Trails

Eight or nine inches of snow gave us some nice trails. However, today will be in the high 30's, so it's good that we laid a base again.