Happy Thanksgiving!

I was at Camp K this weekend, in preparation for the Camp K Fall Warm Up Weekend that Michael, Doreen and I are hosting next weekend. It was our intent to look around, make sure the trails were in good shape and open, while getting our teams out for their first run of the season. The puppies are 10 months old, so I thought I'd harness them into the team and run a 10 dog team with the ATV. The dogs get no throttle assistance from me, and if the hills are tough, I jog alongside to keep the momentum.

The Cougar Loop is one of my favorite trails on the Camp Koinonia property. Tight and curvy, and ablaze in fall colors the dogs just charged through, making very short work of it.

The first run of the season seems to be always fraught with mishap for me as we iron out some kinks. I was glad I was scoping out trails for the following weekend as we were less than 1/4 mile from the start point, when the team charged straight through an intersection into a newly cleared campsite. I had not seen this one before, and by the time I realized it dead-ended, I was in serious trouble as we were well inside the site, and needed to turn around. Turning around a 10 dog team in a tight space is not for the faint of heart, but certainly easier on an ATV, than a dog sled. The trouble is that the team has had 4 months off and they were full of beans. A gang line does not like to make a Z shape, so by the time I back tracked the dogs and put them out onto the trail, the lines were a holy mess of tangles and I had slammed down on the ground on my knees (yes the same knees that require the services of a surgeon!), when the puppy Pete ran between my legs. Finally I had everyone sorted out, and thought "great, now I have to get the machine backed up and turned around" when I looked behind me and magically the machine was already straightened out. Michael had heard the shrieking dogs while out doing train maintenance and had come along to see if there was a problem. OH YEAH!

Back on our way and the dogs were rocketing along, when we went charging up a hill and suddenly the dogs came to a stop just over the top. I'm learning that running a 10 dogger one cannot always see what the lead dogs see, so I stopped the ATV on the hill, set the brake and walked up to see what was the problem. A great big tree down across the trail was the problem. I walked up and down it to see if there was a way to bush whack around it, to no avail, and it was just to big to go over. Time to turn the team around, AGAIN, in another tricky situation. This time I had to be careful not to let the machine tip over when the dogs yanked it around and backwards on itself on the hill. Remembering flipping my machine last year I thought for a bit and decided to run the machine up to the log, jam it into the bush and give it as much turn around space as I could muster. Well of course this meant yards and yard of slack gangline, so another holy mess of a tangle ensued.

More unhooking of tugs and necklines to sort out who went where, and finally I had the team pointed down the hill, the machine still pointed up the hill. 'hmmmmm I thought, as I looked at the angle..... still can flip the machine on its side' so this time I de-tugged the team, minimizing the pull, and whew, got the machine around with no mishap! I reset the brake, hooked everyone up again and called "alright" as I released the brake.... or so I thought. My brake was jammed, so while I wrestled with getting it unstuck, the dogs dragged the machine back down the hill. Finally the brake let go and we were off again!

Yup, first runs...... always an adventure!

Pups did great, I'm going to have to be cautious with them, they have much enthusiasm, and in grown up bodies it is hard to remember that they are only 10 months old. Here is Pete snoozing in the afternoon sun.

Thanksgiving weekend. I have a lot to be thankful for.