No skijoring for a while

Walter had a benign lump removed from his forearm last week so we won't be skijoring until it has fully healed over. Oh well. Not quite ideal skijoring weather this weekend anyway.

Larose - First skijor of the season

20-30cms of snow dumped on us in a big storm this week (which in conjunction with a transit strike and the closure of one of the interprovincial bridges left traffic in quite a mess), so there was lots of snow for skiing this weekend.

Our first outing of the year went amazingly smoothly -- no falls or big tangles. One of my goals this year is to get better at staying on my feet during the first minute of the run. That's when the dogs take off like bats out of hell and, of course, when I'm most likely to think not so great thoughts like "Oh - dear - oh - no - oh!" SPLAT! (so eloquently phrased in an old Mushing magazine article). It was only toward the end of last season that I discovered the trick of holding onto the line when greater stability is needed, and it really helps at times like that.

To Lucy's dismay, we didn't come across any fresh deer tracks, or, even better, actual deer. Still, she's quite a happy, carefree skijor dog, enjoying the forest and the chance of coming across interesting smells. Walter on the other hand is more serious and somewhat concerned about what's going on behind him. Neither one, however, needs any encouragement to pull!

Here's a short video from today. This is the main drag up the middle of the area. A bunch of smaller, more interesting trails branch off from this trail and that's where we often come across the deer/rabbit/etc. tracks.



Conditions: Nice and fluffy but with a bit of a crunch underneath.
Weather: Cloudy, -6
Falls: 0
Kms: ~4.3

Soon...

A year ago tomorrow was our first skijoring outing of the 2007/2008 season.

This seasons's first skijor won't be quite so early. We've had a fair bit of snow recently, but also a few warmish days that partially melted some of it away. A few more cms this weekend, and some more called for this week, so maybe next weekend? Hmmm, except for possible rain on Wednesday.

We'll have to wait and see!

Until next year

I dare say Lucy and Walter's skijoring season is over for another year. With temperatures reaching double digit highs these days, the snow is steadily melting away. Apparently conditions were still quite decent as recently as this weekend, but I admit my skis have been put away and the dog gear hung up in the closet.

It was a wonderfully snowy year, within 15 cms of setting a record; what a treat it's been compared to last year when snow was pretty scarce.

We'll see what next winter brings!

Fun run at Big Sky Ranch Animal Sanctuary

Skijored with Lucy a couple of laps of the pastures at a fundraiser fun run at Big Sky Ranch Animal Sanctuary. Three goats were in one of the fields and kept running behind their shelter to hide from the dogs as each one passed. Lucy was curious about them but not obsessive about it. There were several trail volunteers along the course, handy for practicing "on by".

She really gets excited now watching the other dogs before it's her turn. She barks and tries to pull me to the start line. Now if only she'd get that excited about flyball maybe she'd have a chance of breaking into the 4s.

11-10 Trail and Gun Club Loop

After taking Walter up and down the main trail a bit just to get his crazies out, I hooked up both dogs and for the first time checked out the 11-10 Trail and Gun Club Loop. It really is just the first couple hundred meters where the two of them together is a little too fast for my liking, then they settle right down and it's a breeze and really nice spending the time with the two of them together. Well, except when it's icy, in which case it's a different story altogether and in those conditions I'll take just one dog, thank you very much.

The trail was gorgeous with some variation in scenery and lots of fun curves. In total it was just over 9km. We took lots of short breaks.

Oh yeah, and on our way out on the main trail we (the dogs) (well I was polite too of course) politely passed a couple of 1-dog skijoring teams who had pulled over to the side.

Rideau Lakes Cup

Took a little road trip out to Newboro, Ontario to run Lucy in the skijoring class of the Rideau Lakes Cup (they also had sled dog races). The skijoring course was geared to the novice/intermediate level at an easy 5 km, with the course set entirely on Newboro Lake.

The great thing about a trail that's on a lake is that there were no distracting prey smells. Woo hoo! On the other hand, there were some fairly icy sections, which often happened to coincide with moguls resembling frozen waves. The good thing is, I didn't fall on the icy sections - would have been a hard landing! Actually for once I managed not to fall at all.

Lucy was awesome on the way out, running fast and focused. After we hit the turning loop and started to head back, she was totally lagging and from previous experience I'm quite sure it's because she really really had to "go" but just couldn't find the right place to make her deposit. She got passed by a dog who hadn't yet learned the art of passing politely, and although she was surprised by the other dog's behaviour it didn't seem to bother her too much. As we approached the finish line, Lucy picked up on the cheering of the crowd and started to canter again, much to my relief as I really needed her assistance to get up the slight but icy incline to reach the finish line.

The skijoring class was a very small field with only five of us in total. We came in at just under 22 minutes, placing third, with the top two teams coming in around the 15 minute mark. Much to my surprise, this race had a cash purse, with all participants taking home part of it. We took home enough cash to cover the entry fee, pay for the gas, and buy some tasty treats for the dogs to counter the somewhat guilty feeling I got from "making money" off my dog. If we ever finish in the money again, it would be cool to donate it to a rescue, but the chances of me getting a share of a purse ever again are really extremely, extremely low, at least until I greatly improve my skiing technique and Lucy learns to stop inspecting all of the interesting smells along the trail! :^D

AMHL Fun Race at Larose Forest

This was the second time I skijored in an organized, timed event. The first was last year when I skied with Walter in the same race. The race is open to skijorers and dogsledders and is a fundraiser for the Alaskan Malamute Help League. This year's race was somewhere around 5.1 to 5.3 kilometers, shorter than last year's race which was advertised as being about 5 km but turned out to be 7+ km. Click here to see coverage of the event on the local news.

Lucy was my race dog today since her stamina is much better than Walter's. I wasn't sure if she'd be in an "oh boy yeah let's run!" mood, or a "hmmm, what is that...? It smells interesting... oh wait what's that on the other side of the trail, that smells interesting too..." mood. Luckily for me she was mostly in a running mood. She ran really well, not trying to sniff the crisscrossing deer paths too too much, maybe thanks to the fresh dusting of snow muting some of the enticing smells. We got passed by about 5 other teams, and I pulled over, stopped, and held her for all of them, and she was totally fine. I would have tried a running pass if the trail had been wider, but given the actual trail width she probably would have inadvertently got in the way of the passing team which no one would have appreciated. :-)

Right from the get-go my skis felt s.....o s....l........o............w. Given the mild temperatures I probably should have rewaxed with violet instead of blue. But, I talked with someone else who had used blue and didn't feel slow, so who knows.

I only fell once, and we only got tangled once when she stopped to sniff something and it took me a minute to unwrap the line from my leg.

Another thing, I was a bit apprehensive about two ditches that were part of the trail. Previously on recreational outings I totally wimped out at the ditches, taking off my skis and walking down and back up. Well this time I thought what the hay, let's go for it, and for each ditch we had just enough momentum going down to manage to come back up without tooooo much trouble.

I had a feeling she would be really slow coming down the homestretch because it has a clear view of the parking lot at the end, and on recreational outings she always slows down there and stops to sniff *everything*. Well, she was slow there, but it was because she was pretty pooped by that point. It felt like forever coming down that homestretch, but the encouraging, cheering crowd kept it fun. Now, if the hot dog barbeque that was set up near the finish line had been operating during the race and if the wind had been blowing right, the homestretch may have been a different picture. ;-)

We ended with a time of 28.5 minutes, placing 11th out of 17 one-dog skijor teams, an average of about 11 km/h. This seems a bit strange given that last year with Walter, we averaged about 10 km/hr. Strange because with Walter we took tons of breaks and I thought he ran slower than Lucy. Go figure.

Skijoring being the first class to race, the dogsledders headed out after and all the events were finished several hours after our race. So, we headed out after for a quick casual ski. J. hitched Sammy and Walter together for part of it, with Lucy and I following, and I was happy to see Walter running ahead well without me. Then we hooked up Lucy and Walter and went home. Having Lucy and Walter run together was much easier today than previous outings on my skate skis since only one dog was fresh. If I can just manage to stay on my feet for the first few hundred meters until the dogs burn off their craziness, then skate skiing with the both of them together should be a doable thing.

11k at Larose

Skijored with Lucy over what appears from calculations done afterward at home about 11 kms. Took lots of breaks and I always let her go at whatever pace she offered, which usually was an easy lope.

Saw two deer on Malamute Loop! I don't think Lucy saw them though. When we got to where they had been, no immediate reaction from Lucy compared to last Saturday's outing, but a bit further on she started her oh-my-goodness-the-deer-were-just-here!!!!! yipping.

Also, at one point on either End Loop or Logging Loop we noticed a lot of longish fur and specks of blood, but no bones or flesh or anything. I wonder what happened there.

Had two uncomfortable falls due to getting a ski tip caught in the edge of the trail, ending up on the ground with each foot/ski pointing in opposite directions. Ouch.

Some differences between skijoring with Lucy vs with Walter:
- Lucy's stamina is great; Walter gets tired much sooner (already knew this from regular walks)
- Verbals (whoa, left, right) for Lucy are pointless since she's so focused on the smells; Walter's very responsive to verbals
- Lucy's nose is usually sniffing out the nearest deer trail; Walter sometimes sniffs but not usually to the point of trying to drag me off the trail
- Lucy sees stops and breaks as an opportunity to see if a deer trail is nearby, and if not, she'll probably sit and relax; Walter sees stops and breaks as a time to roll in the snow, mill about and tangle me, whine about the fact that nothing's happening, then roll in the snow some more

Larose

Conditions were not quite as nice today as they were yesterday, being more crunchy. Started on the 1st trail with both dogs and quickly decided that that was not fun so returned Walter to the car and just took Lucy out. With both dogs being fresh and raring to go, it's too much on slick conditions and slick skis. I'll try them together again sometime but only when conditions are nice and the dogs aren't fresh.

So back out we went, took the 1st trail to the 4th, up the main trail to End Loop, then back via 4th and 1st. Or something like that. On End Loop my skijoring partner and I switched dogs for the fun of it. Lucy in front and my new dog in the back. I found it very entertaining having this new vantage point on Lucy whose nose was glued to the ground, especially compared to this dog who was trotting happily along not sticking her nose in the bush or sniffing all of the trails. After a while Lucy was entering full hound mode so I spared my companion and we swapped back to our own dog. For the rest of the run she remained in hound mode.

On the way back on the main trail, there were a couple of people going for a walk who had moved over to the side. Lucy couldn't wrap her brain around this and did some barking. Seeing as they were dog people I took her over to them to see that they're just people, not scary abominable snow people, and she was happy to get some good lovin' from them.

Lucy's stamina is so much better than Walter's for some reason even though she gets less offleash exercise.

Skate skijoring!

This was my first time on skate skis and I have three words: What A Difference.

But, since this is a blahg I could never just leave it at three words, so here are some more details.

To get a feel for the skate skis first I went out for a few minutes sans dog. Found out quickly how much difference the extra length in the poles makes for poling.

Then I hitched up Lucy and we hit the trails. It was awesome. The skate skis are infinitely better than classics, in so many ways. For one thing, now I can actually ski fast enough so that I'm not just being towed along by the dog. This is great because it means I get a lot more exercise, and the dogs can run fast without having a lot of pulling pressure on them. For another thing, manoeuverability and control have increased tenfold. Even as a novice skier, I'm now able to corner and snowplow with ease, including in the more icyish areas. I was hoping skate ski equipment would be worlds different from my junky old classic gear, and it sure was.

However, I'm still not exactly proficient at skate skiing and dread to think of what I looked like to my skijoring friend who was following behind us. :-) But, this was a great start and it can only get better from here.

Oh! We had some excitement on the trails today: on the JGL trail, two deer hopped out of the bushes about 100 metres ahead of us and ran down the trail for a bit before dashing back into the woods. The dogs didn't see the deer as they were obscured by a slight rise in the trail, BUT! What a reaction from Lucy when we came to the part the deer had just been on. All of a sudden there were strange yipping sounds and I thought, "Who is that barking? Seems to be coming from Lucy? Has she hurt herself somehow?" No, it was just her going into overdrive at the superfresh deer smell. I'd never heard her make any kind of sound like that before. Our skijoring partner's dog (a herding breed) didn't seem too interested, and neither did Walter (also a herding breed) later on when it was his turn, so I wonder if it's a hound/hunting dog thing?

Looking forward to our next outing and trying both dogs together. The dogs, however, are off in la-la land...



Some more la-la land photos while I'm at it, highlighting the rudolph nose Walter sports in the winter (appropriate for lead reindeer and lead dogs):

Skate skis!

Finally bit the bullet and bought skate skis/boots/bindings/poles. Haven't had a chance to try them out yet, but here's what I've noticed about them so far:

- the skis (cheapo Fischer LS skate cut) are several inches shorter and a few centimeters narrower than my old classic Karhu skis
- the poles are a lot longer and for now feel awkward compared to the shorter classic poles
- the boots: WHOA what a difference. To compare, I put a new boot on one foot and an old boot on the other. How I managed not to brake an ankle in the old ones, I'm not sure. They had zero, zippo, nada ankle support. The new boots on the other hand feel great; I couldn't flop my ankle to the side no matter how hard I tried.

Can't wait to give it a try this weekend now that some new snow will improve conditions after the major meltdown we had last week.

Skijor clinic

Great skate ski / skijor clinic today at Larose. First half was about skate skiing technique, sans dogs. I had no idea there were so many technical aspects to skiing; it was a real eye-opener. Failed miserably at pretty much everything and I like to think it's due to my pathetic, beat up classic skis (which I hadn't waxed at all) and short classic poles. Needless to say I'm coming closer and closer to deciding once and for all to get skate skis. But I've been saying that for a year now. :-) Hmmm... maybe I'm procrastinating so that I can keep on whining and blaming the equipment instead of my lack of skiing abilities. Heh.

At lunch time a friend and I went out for a short skijor. First I took Lucy out solo, and she was good except when she wanted to stop and sniff. And when we got to the trail leading to the car, she totally forgot how to pull. Then I put her back and took Walter solo. He was a good boy and did his lefts and rights wonderfully at all of the intersections we came to.

The second half of the day was with the dogs. Started with passing distractions (on foot), which at first were a stuffed animal and dog food, then progressing to a bunch of dogs on leash at the side of the trail. Brought Lucy out for the first bit but then decided Walter would get more out of this exercise as Lucy was ignoring the other dogs anyway. He did really great, what a good boy. Also did some left and rights through a snowshoe-created labyrinth, again on foot. Compared to our skijor earlier in the day he was pathetic at the directionals, I'm guessing because it was a very distracting environment with about a dozen teams wandering through the small area at the same time. Then we did a short head-on passing exercise which went fine. Oh yeah and also a line out exercise. Finally we went out for a short group skijor and Walter was fine with being passed (same direction) and we passed one dog as well.

The conditions were excellent, so skijoring was a LOT more enjoyable than our last, icy, outing.

Anyway the dogs have the right idea as I write this: Time for a snooze!