First and Last

Impressions from the first run of the "wheeled" season and the last remains of snow. It is time to say farewell to the 2009/10 winter and start looking forward to the future.

The muddy and wet stakeout area is waiting for us, with all it´s beauty of muddy dog feet and dirty faces, paw print designs on our clothes, and all the wonders of the spring thow-up.

Climbing the first steep hill always shows how strong and determined the dogs are as a team.

And down the trails on the last patches of snow.

We had a "little adventure" on the swamp, right before this picture was taken. I forgot we didn´t use the "atv" trail out of the swamp the whole winter, so the snow was loose, deep and had ice underneath. As a result of that, the atv slid down the steep traverse. It didn´t flip over (which was a miracle), but we had to unhook majority of the dogs and tie the main line to the trees on two spots (thank God I alwas carry some extra rope and lines with me), to get them facing the direction we needed to be able to get the machine out. Once again, I listened to my inner sense and asked Jachym to join me on this trip. How lucky were we to have him along!!

Now smoothly continuing the run, here getting through an "S" curve, leading us to the main road.

And on the road again.

Everyone remembered well the gee-over command to stay tight at the edge of the road. And Nitro, the leading newbie, did an excellent job with that.

A little chaos! It was actually Galena, the main race leader, who wanted to follow the road, being used to the long autumn runs toward the Svannavattnet lake trail system. But Nitro, despite running in lead for the third time in his life, had enough confidence to follow my "gee" command.

As you can see, the team was rather confused. The dog strongly pulling to the right is Maya. She is getting really good at following commands.

Hard to imagine that only less than a week ago, this was our snow trail. We can use this one only with sleds. It runs alongside the road and connects us directly from the kennel to all the great snowy trail systems in the area.

The forrest roads will have enough snow for another 2-3weeks for sure. Great for the dogs to roll in and cool off.

On the way back home. All dogs keep obediently to the right edge of the road. The first four visible dogs are Rapid and Granite and behind them Skittles with Balto.

All lines tight, all dogs lined up nicely. Just how it should be.

Neighbours´ cabin along the road

Loping through Vedjeön

Balto and Skittles on the last snow "island" left in the dog yard.

Grayling fits right in with the pack and team. He is a hard working boy with a lovely temperament.

HuggyBear went straight for the shade upon arrival. It was a warm run.

We even have our very own private "pond" :) The youngsters love to browse it and get all muddy. Hopefully soon it will dry up.

The last look at the sleds for a long while. We´ll put them under the kennel roof tomorrow, for a long summer´s sleep.

And that is the end and beginning of another chapter in the sled dog and musher´s life.