What a whirl wind trip this past weekend was. I was quite impressed on how things went and on my continuing to learn about training dogs and getting them ready for races. When we started this season, we had no race plans and no set training schedule. Being that this was a year off and wanting to run dogs for the fun of it and not as a job for the first time in many years.
Our training leading up to the weekend`s race, as this was very last minute decision to go down to run it,  entailed  5, 25 mile runs and other than that 13 milers, like maybe 15 of them.

The dogs were just awesome and really showed thier natural athleticism  in the race. We had not run over 2 hours before heading down there and they ran 4 hours no problem and finished 10 minutes faster than any other team the first day. It was a very soft trail  and was a slow run in the middle part of the trail. 
The second day the trail was better but still somewhat soft as it had snowed some more overnight. The dogs really turned it on though. I had to start last due to reverse starts, and I was able  to pass all the other teams except two, Dave Turner and Kate St Onge. They were in sight at the finish.  So overall I finished about 20 minutes ahead of the next team .

The Flathead sled dog races were held in Whitefish, Montana and were very well attended.
The race was really well run as the main organizers are all dog mushers and know what the little things mean to mushers.  Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers for all your hard work!
Tyler Dinsdale was a last minute deal  with us  to run a team in the 8 dog as Kate is still in knee rehab. Tyler has had lots of dog experience and Kate and I felt comfortable with him running our dogs in the race. This was his first race and I will let him say a few words on his experience when I get something in writing from him.

So all the dogs did great, I was really pleased with them all.  We brought a couple of yearlings that were just been harness broke this past fall, and they did really well. Jake ran on Tylers team and I had Jackal on my team`. I decided not to run him on Sunday as he was a liitle unsure of what this race stuff was all about. He will be a awesome dog in the future, so I decided to let him off the hook and sit out day 2.Widgi ran both days for me in lead. He has been for sale since the summer, and is just an awesome dog all around, pricing on him has just gone up.

I need to head out on the trail to drag it as we got another 6 inches of snow and need to tend to the trail. I will write more later.

Cheers!
Warren