Ryne and Pups in Galena

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  Ryne has taken her mandatory eight hour rest in Ruby, hit the trail with thirteen dogs and made it all the way to Galena.  She’s currently resting in Galena, and arrived there at 8:06 AM.  She’s been running an even run/rest schedule, so we can assume she’ll take about six hours in Galena before hitting the trail again at around 2 PM this afternoon. 

From Galena, Ryne’s next stop is Nulato, and then on to Kaltag.  These two checkpoints are the last on the Yukon River before she’ll make the eighty mile trek to Unalakleet and the coast.  This means she’s still got about eighty miles on the long, seemingly never ending Yukon River. 

So far, Ryne is running a great race for our two year old dogs.  Keeping them on a nice and steady schedule, and keeping them happy and healthy.  Being as competitive as Ryne is, I’m sure she has trouble maintaining a slower pace, but as always, Ryne looks to the well being of her pups and has an eye on the future of Ryno Kennel.

That’s all for now Ryno Kennel fans, tune in this evening to check on Ryne and her happy huskies!

Into Ruby

Good evening Ryno Kennel fans!  Ryne has made it into Ruby, arriving at 2:05 PM with thirteen happy dogs and has officially made it halfway through the race.  I’m not sure yet if she’ll be hanging out here for her mandatory eight hour rest, or moving on to another checkpoint.  I guess we’ll just have to watch the tracker and see! 

From Ruby, Ryne will continue to head down the mighty Yukon River towards Galena.  The Yukon River is often seen as a difficult stretch for many mushers as the scenery hardly changes, and if you get off the trail, you’re likely to end up in open water or overflow up to your waist.  Luckily, the Yukon is like a highway between villages and snowmachine traffic helps to pack down a path along a river that can be up to two miles from shore to shore.  As long as mushers stay on the trail, they shouldn’t encounter any problems.

While I have your attention, I’d also like to take a moment to talk a bit more about this morning’s unfortunate events.  There has been an outpouring of support from the residents of Nulato who were just as shocked as the rest of the world watching from the outside.  I’m including a touching article from ADN highlighting the village of Nulato and its residents.  The community of Nulato has been warm, welcoming and incredibly sorrowful following this morning’s tragic occurrence.  I am heartened by how many people are remaining positive in the face of such a heart-rending incident.  Great work sending out all that positive energy Ryno Kennel fans!

Substance abuse in rural Alaska has been a problem for many, many years, but there are also a number of out reach programs that aim to help educate bush communities.  I’m including a couple of websites that you all may be interested in checking out to see the great work Alaskans are doing for Alaskans. 

And lastly, I'm also including the blog post from Snowhook Kennels, home of Justin and Rebecca Savidis.  Their post is beautiful, touching and definitely a tear jerker!

That’s all for now, tune in tomorrow morning to catch up with Ryne and her happy huskies!

http://www.alaskanschangingtogether.org

http://www.akeela.us

http://www.adn.com/article/20160312/after-killing-iditarod-dog-nulato-unites-behind-mushers

http://snowhookkennel.blogspot.com/2016/03/prayer-offering-7-we-sing-for-our.html

Moment of Silence

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans.  In light of the devastating news we received regarding Jeff King’s team and Aliy Zirkle’s team, I’d like us all to take a moment of silence for them.  It is horrible and tragic that someone would feel the need to attack a team of sled dogs for any reason, and our thoughts go out to Aliy and Jeff. 

There has been a lot of speculation as to why this individual decided to attack Aliy and Jeff's teams with a snowmachine.  No matter the reason, I think what's important to focus on is sending positive energy, thoughts and prayers to the mushers on the trail for a safe, speedy and uneventful journey.  

Now, on to less macabre news, Ryne left Cripple late last night at 11:18 PM with thirteen dogs.  That means she has dropped two dogs in Cripple.  I’m not sure who they are yet, but we should be able to find out by tomorrow from Brad and Erin Authier, the wonderful couple who is taking care of our dropped dogs in Anchorage. 

Currently Ryne is camped on the trail with Kristin Knight Pace (yay, go Kristin!) and Sarah Stokey.  In light of this morning’s events, I’m glad to see she’s got some company on the trail, especially a couple of tough ladies like Kristin and Sarah!  It looks as though they’ve been camped for awhile, so I’m thinking that she should be getting ready to head on down the trail any time now and will be into Ruby sometime in the late afternoon or early evening. 

Alright Ryno Kennel fans, that’s it for this morning, check back tonight for your second daily dose of Ryne Olson and her happy huskies!

Halfway Home

Good evening Ryno Kennel fans!  Ryne has been a busy lady out there on the trail!  She came into Cripple at 4:43 PM today, and I bet you anything she’s getting ready to hit the trail again as I write this to you, our adoring fans. That means she’ll be almost halfway through with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race!  Wooohoo! 

I think here in the next day or two (100 to 200 miles) we’ll find out whether or not Ryne and the dogs want to move from the back of the pack to the middle of the pack.  It’s really all up to the four-legged athletes, and Ryne will make her decision based on how they look and how well they’re eating.   Don’t forget, our race this year is much more about showing the younger athletes what its like to run 1,000 miles.  Since we can’t sit down to chat with our dogs in English and let them know how many miles they have left, it’s important for them to have this experience.  When they get to next year’s race, they’ll understand how far 1,000 miles is and what we expect of them.  And you better believe they’ll be ready to rock your socks off!

From Cripple, Ryne has several checkpoints to choose from along the Yukon River where she is required to stay for eight hours.  This is her second mandatory layover and it must be taken at one of the checkpoints along the Yukon River, Ruby being a long standing favorite.   

That’s all for now, folks.  Tune in tomorrow morning for more tails from the trail!

On the Road Again

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  After a nice 24 hour rest, Ryne and team are on the trail once again!  From the GPS tracking info, it looks like the dogs must have been all fired up after leaving Takotna as their run into Ophir had them travelling at almost 10 mph.  That’s cruisin’ for a dog team! 

Ryne opted to run straight through Ophir and camp along the trail, and she is currently in the middle of a camp out as I write this.  My guess is she’ll stay at her camp out for about four or five hours, so she should be taking off again at 11:30 AM or 12:30 PM.  Not ideal to be taking off during the heat of the day, but it looks like it shouldn’t get too hot out there, with temperatures right now in the teens. 

We’ve also finally had some contact from the musher herself!  I got a call from Katy Olson (Ryne’s mama) last night and she heard from Ryne while she was on her 24 in Takotna.  Ryne had a good story to tell about her encounter with a bison herd.  Apparently they ran into one along the trail, and the dogs spooked them, much to the delight of the team.  Ryne, on the other hand, had to hang on for dear life, since she was right in the middle of the Farewell Burn with limited braking ability!  The dogs had a great time chasing the herd down the trail, and Ryne and her sled made it through without too much wear and tear.  Included in this post at the bottom you'll find a link to an interview with Ryne about this story from KNOM, sent in by one of our wonderful readers.

For those of you dog sponsors who are following our blog, we’ve got some dog news as well.  Fenton, who started out a little on the slow side has turned into a bulldozer of a dog, getting stronger and stronger as he pounds out those miles.  Katy, Cartel, Niagra, Jana and Goblin have been her main leaders during this race, helping to guide our younger two year olds down the trail.  And all in all, it sounds like both Ryne and the Ryno Kennel athletes are in great spirits. 

That’s all for your morning update, check back this evening for more news on Ryne and her happy huskies!

http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2016/03/10/iditarods-middle-and-back-of-the-pack-find-camaraderie-amid-offbeat-surprises/

24 Hours of Golden Slumber

Good evening Ryno Kennel fans!  Since Ryne is on her 24 and not doing much moving about, in this evening's blog we’re going to talk about what its like being out on the trail.  Our world is very different from most people and revolves around dogs 24/7, even more so when we’re out on the race trail.  A typical day on the race trail will see about eight to twelve hours of rest for the dogs and one to four hours of rest for the musher. 

Every musher runs a different schedule, and many factors play into how each schedule is set up.  During our mid distance races, Ryne ran a competitive schedule, while I ran a puppy schedule.  That means that Ryne would run for anywhere from five to eight hours and rest three to six hours, and I would run what we can an even run/rest schedule.  For every five to eight hours I’d run, I would rest for five to eight hours. 

While the dogs get to go to sleep pretty quickly on a nice bed of straw, the musher is tasked with de-bootying, starting up a cooker to melt snow for dog food, massaging out sore dogs and re-organizing their sled.  Everyone is a little different, so I’ll just give you a quick outline of what I do when we stop.

As soon as I can, I try to get straw down for the dogs.  If its been a particularly long run, I’ll give them snacks as soon as we stop.  These snacks come in a variety of forms: poultry fat, beef, liver, BLT, (not bacon, lettuce and tomato, but beef, liver and tripe. Yum!) or salmon.  Then I’ll take booties off, and if its cold outside, I’ll put on jackets and cover the dogs with fleece blankets.  My goal is to get the dogs bedded down and sleeping comfortably as quickly as possible.  Once the dogs are settled, if there are any sore dogs I’ll massage them out and apply heat.  We do this by putting on a t-shirt specifically made for dogs that has little pockets I can put hand warmers in to keep their muscles warm while they rest.  Once that’s done I’ll get my cooker started up to so I can have hot water ready to make a delicious meal for the dogs which will be a mix of beef, kibble and supplements.  It typically takes the cooker about 30 minutes to go from snow to water.  If the dogs are really sleeping and they’ve had a good snack, I might wait another couple hours till I feed.  During that time I’ll re-organize my sled for the next run, get some food for myself and maybe snooze a bit.  Once the dogs are all fed, its time for me to get some real rest, though by this time it usually only amounts to about an hour or two. 

I’m not particularly fast, so I like to give myself a good hour or more to get ready before its go time.  In this hour I’ll walk out dogs that have shown any signs of soreness to see if they’re looking better, drop any dogs that might be too injured to continue, re-massage dogs and get everyone’s booties on for our next run.  After we’re all walked out, massaged, bootied and packed, its time to pull the hook and head on down the trail.  Rinse, lather, repeat. 

That’s all for now, folks, tune back in tomorrow morning to see how Ryne’s doing as she hits the trail again after her 24 hour layover!

24 in Takotna

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  I apologize for the radio silence last night. There’s been lots of activity since yesterday morning both here and on the trail!  Tessa and I ran all our six and seven month old puppies yesterday, and we’re busily preparing for our adventure trips coming up just a week after Ryne returns from Iditarod.  But, enough about home life, and on to the trail!

Yesterday morning I left you with Ryne resting in Nikolai.  She has since hit the trail, made it all the way to Takotna, and (I’m assuming, so don’t quote me on this) taking her 24 hour layover.  For any fans that aren’t sure of all the ins and outs of Alaska’s premier long distance dog race, mushers are required to take two layovers, a 24 hour layover anywhere they choose, and an 8 hour layover somewhere along the Yukon River. 

I had thought that Ryne would run straight from Nikolai to McGrath, forgetting that Takotna – and her 24 – is less than twenty miles from McGrath.  So, rather than running Nikolai to McGrath, Ryne treated the run as Nikolai to Takotna, making it about seventy miles total.  This meant that she would need to camp along the way, as she’s been consistently keeping the dogs’ runs at about 40 miles or less.  It looks like she took 3 or 4 hours along the trail, and then continued on to Takotna blowing through McGrath.  

And now we wait. Ryne got into Takotna just after 10 PM last night, so we’ve got a little while until she starts moving again. 

If any of you have seen pictures of Ryne, videos or articles, please don’t hesitate to share!  I’ve been scouring the internet, but the more eyes on the prize the better! 

Safely into Nikolai

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  Ryne has made it safely into Nikolai and is currently resting there with the dogs.  It looks like she’s made it through the Farewell Burn just fine.  My guess is that she will take about five or six hours in Nikolai before heading down the trail to McGrath, which means she should hit the trail around 11:00 AM or 12:00 PM. 

Nikolai to McGrath is about a fifty mile run, and I think she’ll go straight through as this section of trail is fairly straight forward.  She’ll be crossing a lot of lakes and swamps and have a bit of time on the Kuskokwim River, but it should be flat and fast. 

The dogs are will be going into mile three hundred during their run from Nikolai to McGrath, and once they pass that point, it’ll be the furthest they’ve gone in a race for many of them.  If I remember our drop bag packing, I believe Ryne intends to take her 24 in Takotna, so just as the dogs are getting to the point where they’re probably starting to wonder why they’re still on the trail, they’ll get a nice long snooze, and Ryne will get a bit of a chance to relax herself. 

All accounts I’ve heard from fans say that the dogs are happy and sassy, just how we like them.  I’m including a nice article from the Anchorage Daily News with some quotes from Ryne and Kristin. 

Unfortunately I won’t be able to write a blog tonight, but check back in tomorrow morning for another update on Ryne and her happy huskies!

http://www.adn.com/article/20160308/iditarod-mushers-get-soaked-hauling-dogs-across-happy-river

Out of Rohn and on to Nikolai

Good evening Ryno Kennel fans!  Here’s your nightly update on Ryne as she makes her way 1,000 miles across the Alaskan wilderness.  Ryne left Rohn at 3:01 PM with fifteen dogs and has travelled about 35 miles towards Nikolai.  She still has about 40 miles yet, and I’ve been anxiously watching the tracker to see whether or not she’ll camp during this run. 

While the run between Rohn and Nikolai can be one of the most notorious along the Iditarod trail, many mushers have been reporting smooth sailing and fast trail conditions.  If the dogs are looking good, Ryne may elect to push onwards and head straight into Nikolai without camping in the middle.  Many of the dogs in her team have done exactly this during the 300 mile races we ran this season, and have finished their mid distance races as strong if not stronger than when they started. 

Photo Credit: Nicholas Guy

So far I haven’t seen any video footage but I do have a report from one of our many fans that they saw a video of Ryne and the team coming into Rainy Pass, tails wagging and full of attitude, so it sounds like everyone is in great spirits.

Much of what I write here is speculation since we don’t get to follow Ryne down the trail as we do with the Yukon Quest, but judging from her steady speed and the fact that she still has fifteen dogs, I’d say things are looking pretty good!  Stay tuned for our morning update!

Coming into Rohn

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  Ryne is heading steadily towards Rohn, and should be there at around 10:30 or 10:45 AM.  She and our friend Kristin Knight Pace from Hey Moose! Kennel have been doing a lot of travelling together, and we’re glad Ryne has someone to keep her company out on the trail.

As I suspected, Ryne rested in Rainy Pass before hitting the trail towards Rohn at about 4:41 AM.  My guess is that the climb up to Rainy Pass was a little slower and may have been a bit tougher on the dogs as she elected to stay about six and a half hours in Rainy Pass. 

From Rohn, she’ll be hitting some tough sections of trail that are often windblown, glaciated and full of obstacles that haven’t been covered by snow.  Her run from Rohn to Nikolai should be about eighty miles or so, and we expect her to camp somewhere in between. 

That’s all for now, folks.  Stay tuned for our evening update!

On to Rainy Pass

Hello Ryno Kennel Fans! This is your evening update on Ryne and the team.  It looks like they’re doing well out on the trail and keeping that nice conservative pace.  I’m sure Ryne’s champing at the bit to go faster, but she’s always got the dogs’ best interest in mind, and keeping them at a slow pace this early in the race will help them to be strong and healthy as they hit some of the tough, windy conditions on the coast. 

We got news from the Authiers (wonderful couple in Anchorage taking care of our dropped dogs) that Kindi was dropped in Skwentna.  She’s got a sore tricep and sore toe.  As soon as Derek and I heard a dog was dropped, we immediately thought it might be Kindi as she was going into the race with a little stiffness in that tricep.  Bummer for Kindi, I know she’s probably still got miles of energy! 

Ryne left Finger Lake at 6:02 PM with fifteen dogs, and is headed towards Rainy Pass.  She should be there shortly.  I’m assuming she’ll take a little rest before hitting the trail to head towards Rohn and the Dalzell Gorge, but its all speculation from my comfy cabin in Two Rivers.  That’s all we’ve got for now, check back tomorrow morning for more updates!