Saturday was a wet day with some very wet snow falling here at the kennel. It was probably raining in town.
It continued through the night, only it got marginally colder, leaving us with 6-8" of the white fluffy stuff.
As many of you know, after a big snow fall, there are always new trees down and your very familiar fine looking  trail turns into a  destruction zone thanks to mother nature, downed trees, willows bent over backwards leaving you very covered in snow trying to clear the trail enough to get through with a dog team.

We have worked for days on the trail to Ahbou lake.  I hope we have done  enough to keep major difficulties in keeping the trail open to a minimum. We got 6- 8 " here, there is over a foot on that trail.

We have been running 28 miles, the dogs are strong and running that mileage with ease. As said before the limiting factor for speed will be the dogs themselves. I will most likely start on sleds, with 8 dog teams. They are amped to go and will be hard to stop. We are training like a stage stop team.  All the leaders have been doing well with their commands and tangles have been kept to a minimum. 
We are using fairly short lines, tugs about 18" and no necklines and about 6' between sections. Our mainline is made up of a 5/8 thick "multi line. I believe it has a 7500 breaking strength. This system allows for the dogs to move around and teaches them how to behave and also get themselves untangled.
 Starting on Friday, I'll be heading to Ahbou Lake starting 4 consecutive 54 miles runs.
-10 C this morning.

Warren