Drone Training Run

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Most mornings, Ryno teams hit the trail in preparation for the upcoming races. My college friend and licensed drone pilot, Peter Bittner, joined us on our training run the other day and made this awesome drone video! Thanks Peter! He's visiting for one more week, so we hope to make another video or two before he leaves.

This season, Liz and I will be training the adults (athletes two-years-old and older), and Tyler will be focusing on the yearlings. Liz is signed up to run a second team in the Copper Basin, and Tyler is on the waitlist for the Quest 300. It's going to be an exciting season!

Progress

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This last week, we've had an army to help crank out the dog yard platforms, and we're making great progress! Rick Patton, Derek's dad, has been visiting for the past week and put countless hours in at the property. Liz Schell, who will be helping at the kennel this winter, also arrived last week and received a crash course in fall training and platform construction. So with the help of Rick, Liz, and Tyler, the platforms are close to completion! Derek and I are pumped!

What is next? We still have to finish the third platform (should take half a day once the lumber arrives), then paint two of the platforms (assuming the weather will allow it), then pound 48 posts. It's so close!

After the completion of the platforms, we'll get rolling on the septic, well, and decking for the cabins. Oh, and the dogs are looking fantastic on their training runs!

Rick and Liz staining the platform.

First on the List

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Jezzy modeling our first platform

At the top of our building to-do list are all the projects that require completion before the ground freezes: dog yard (pounding posts), well and septic, and outhouse hole. We've been busy building the platforms for the dog yard, and we just completed the first of three platforms! Yes, it's HUGE!! The platform is 24ft by 96ft and will hold 16 dogs. An isle will separate each platform, and that's where the teams will be hooked up for our training runs.

So why are we going through the trouble of building such monstrosities? Because they'll be wonderful! No more eating rocks (Blitz, Ham, Fire, Outlaw litter), no more digging holes to China (Perm, Katy, Vanessa, Lefty, Wombat, Niagra... and the list goes on), and no more mud! For the past several years, I've dreamed of building the dog yard on platforms, and now that it's becoming reality, I'm ecstatic! Given the size of the platforms, our 16x24 cabin might be mistaken for the feed shed.

Transporting the well pounder.

We've also started prepping for the well. Our neighbors have a well pounder and were generous enough to let us borrow it. Truthfully, I'm not entirely sure how we go about pounding a well, but I'm excited to learn. Even though we'll be living in a small cabin, we will have running water!

A big thanks to Tyler for helping run dogs at 6 AM then turn around and build all day! And we have more help on the way: Liz, who will be assisting us all winter, will be arriving tonight. Rick, Derek's dad, is flying in this afternoon for his Fall vacation. Somehow his "vacations" always turn into work when he comes to visit. A big thank you to all of them! We're about to make some progress!

Tyler cranking out the square.

Derek and Jezzy, working partners.

Terrell helping build.

Crunch is turning into a rock star leader.

A view from the air. Check out that platform!

Happenings

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Fall Training Has Begun!

Fall training has begun, the pups are getting more animated, and construction on the new property is progressing! Life is good! Tyler is handling for Ryno Kennel again this year (he helped out at the beginning and end of last year), and he'll be focusing on training the yearlings. He has already arrived at the kennel and has been helping train dogs and build. A high school friend from Durango, Colorado, Liz Schell, will be arriving in 10 days to help me train the main team. Derek will be filling in and assisting with everyone. We've got a great crew!

We've been making steady progress on the new homestead. All the logs have been peeled, the well and septic marked out, and all the lumber for the dog yard has been delivered. Three large truckloads of lumber are needed to build the yard, which will be comprised of three long decks. Each deck will be 24ft by 96ft and house 16 dogs, meaning the yard will be built for 48 athletes. I don't pretend to be a carpenter, so after picking Allen Moore's brain and visiting a few different kennels, I think I have a general blueprint of how to make this yard become a reality! Since the ground will most likely be freezing in the next few weeks, anything that requires dirtwork is our priority (dog yard, septic, and well). Once those are completed, then we'll crank out the handler cabins and main house.

Badger

Our kennel photographer and friend, Scott Chesney with Tailspin Media, visited the kennel a few days ago and took the yearly dog portraits. Stay tuned for those! Once I've updated the website with all the dogs' new profiles, then I'll open up the dog sponsorship program. Here's a sneak peek of what the photos will look like! We hope to see all our prior year sponsors return for another exciting season!

6 of the 11 pups

2x4s for the Dog Yard

In addition to training dogs and building, we've been busy promoting our new company, the Last Frontier Mushing Co-op LLC. Amanda Brooks (Smokin' Ace Kennels) and I have been to a couple tradeshows and were recently accepted to compete in an Alaska Tourism Association Shark Tank Competition! If you've ever watched Shark Tank, the competition is very similar except it's between Alaskan businesses that are competing for a $5,000 grant for a new idea. The competition takes place in Kodiak in the beginning of October, so we'll be sure to let you how it goes!

Construction Begins! Kinda...

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First- Thank you to everyone who sent suggestions for puppy names! I'll be sure to keep you posted on the final name choices.

Now that I'm back in Two Rivers, I can finally get going on the preparation of our property at the Flying Mushers Raceway. We hope to move by the end of fall (yikes!), but we're well aware that usually nothing goes as planned. We're ready to be flexible.

Since purchasing this property a couple years ago, Derek and I have been so excited to build our dream home. However, as you can imagine, our priorities are slightly different than your average person. There was no road access to the property, so first things first, we put in a road. Our good friend Dave Greer (who's company Alaska Commercial Rentals has been a long time sponsor of Ryno Kennel) loaned us his D7 dozer. Something that size plows in a mile-long driveway in no time. We also used the dozer to put in an airstrip for Derek (one of the main priorities). All the dirt work was last summer's focus. Now it's time to build.

So what is on the to-do list?

1- Construct a platform dog yard- After battling holes, rock-eaters, and mud, I'm ready for the entire dog yard to be up on decks. Our new land is relatively low, so a normal dog yard would turn into quite a quagmire. Platforms are essential. I've been chatting with other mushers who have built platforms to learn more about the best design.

2- Build a handler duplex cabin- If you recall from this Spring, we harvested enough logs to build the handler cabins. While Derek primarily hauled them in by snowmachine, Tyler, Gunhild, and I had some fun hauling in logs by dog team. It definitely wasn't as efficient, but it was way more fun. Here's the video we posted from this spring.

3- Build our main cabin- We ran out of time to harvest logs ourselves, so we purchased 3-sided logs from a local manufacturer. The plan is to build a 20x20 cabin for our main house. Our long term goal is to construct a Hanger House (the downstairs will be a massive hanger for Derek's airplane and all my dog gear/dogs/sleds etc, and we would live upstairs), but for the time being, a 20x20 cabin will be perfect.

These are the main goals, but of course there's multiple steps involved in each one. Derek is still fighting fires (he's currently down in California), so while he's gone, I'm trying to do as much prep work as possible. The pups and I have been busy peeling the logs for the handler cabin (as you can see from the photo, they're not the best helpers).

I'm babysitting these pups for friend Riley Dyche from Darkhorse Racing Kennel

I'll be writing posts about our progress over the next couple months. If you enjoy shows like House Hunter and Extreme Home Makeover, then these will be the posts for you! And while all this is going on, we'll still be training and preparing for the races, so not to worry, there will be plenty of doggie posts as well.

We Have Puppies!

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Puppy Pile!

Yam gave birth to 11 (that's right- ELEVEN!) puppies. Seven boys and four girls were born a few days ago, and all are looking strong and healthy. I'll be splitting this litter with Riley Dyche, from Dark Horse Racing. As you can see from the photos, it's a colorful bunch. A couple have the black and tan markings of their father, Goblin, but all the rest don't resemble either of the parents. We'll be doing our draft picks when the puppies reach four weeks old. We're still deciding on name themes, so if you have any great ideas, please share!

Momma Yam

Future Puppies!

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We're excited to announce- puppies are in the future for Ryno Kennel! If all goes well, Goblin will be the father of two litters out of sisters Yam and Ace. Yam (from Riley Dyche's Dark Horse Racing Kennel) and Ace (from Matt Hall and Amanda Brooks's Smokin' Ace Kennels) are both expecting a litter in the next two to three weeks! We will keep half of each litter, so we're thrilled to welcome some new additions. Both Yam and Ace have impressive race resumes as well as leadership skills. And Goblin, as Ryno fans know, has been a leader on our Yukon Quest and Iditarod teams. We can't wait!!

Ace

Yam

Glacier Living

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Flash

Sorry for the radio silence this summer, but the team and I have had limited internet and cell phone access up on the glacier! The dogs have all been doing really well and are enjoying the extra attention from all the tour guests. Here’s a brief Q&A to give everyone an idea about our glacier summer:

How are the tours structured?
Guests arrive by helicopter to Dog Camp atop the Denver Glacier. After unloading, everyone listens to a brief safety talk and then walks to their respective musher’s yard. Prior to the guest’s arrival, I have selected the 8-10 dogs that will be on the tour and staged them on a picket line next to the gangline. I greet the guests as they arrive at my yard and then introduce them to all the dogs in the team. As I’m introducing each dog, the guests get to pet and greet the team. After all the dogs get some extra TLC, we head back to the sled. The guests (2-4 people) load onto either the main sled or the tag sled. I give a brief safety talk and then hook up the team with the help of my handler, a fellow named Matt from Texas. From there, we mush around a 1.5 to 2 mile loop, stopping for photos and more time with the dogs. When we arrive back at camp, I leave my team and walk with the guests to a puppy pen where they get to hold six-week-old pups. (Sidenote: the pups belong to Jessie Royer. I’m hoping to have puppies in a couple months, fingers crossed! I’ll be sure to share more info when the time comes closer!) After puppy time, I leave my guests and head back to my yard to prep for the next tour.

Jana and Katy leading a tour.

How many tours per day?
I can give anywhere from zero to eleven hour-long tours per day. The first part of the summer, the weather held out and we gave tours every day; however, the last week, we’ve had several “weathered days,” meaning low clouds prevented helicopters from reaching camp and causing us to cancel tours. Each dog runs only 2-3 tours per day assuming we’re giving tours. Anytime I have a day off, the dogs also have the day off.

What is the living situation?
The dogs and I will be living on the glacier through August (weather dependent). I fly down to Skagway once a week for either 36 or 48 hours off, during which time I can take a shower, do laundry, and update the blog! On the glacier, there are several different sizes of weather ports. The weather port that I live in is partitioned off into two sections. I live in one section with my tent mate, MacKenzie, from Kansas.

What amenities are on the glacier?
We have a lounge tent with a TV, DVD player, and Nintendo 64. That being said, I mostly read, play cards, chitchat, or workout. There’s a bench with an impressive amount of weights, especially considering we’re on a glacier! We also have a full time cook, Virginia, who prepares three delicious meals per day and always has tasty snacks sitting out. Stormy’s favorite place is the kitchen tent with Virginia. She has her own chair in the middle of the kitchen where she spends most of her day. There’s a cell booster; however, cell connection is very spotty and unreliable.

A sunset in Skagway

I’ve LOVED having the opportunity to work with the dogs every single day, especially the youngsters who seem to have limitless energy. The African Litter, Amelia, Cooke, and Flash have been maturing so fast, and I can’t wait to work with them more this upcoming winter.

Feel free to write more questions in the comments below, and I’ll answer them in the next blog post!

Exploring the glacier.

Cloudy days on the glacier.

Cloudy days on the glacier.

Glacier exploration with the crew.

Enjoy the flight to dog camp!

A sightseeing helicopter flight.

Another photo from exploring the glacier.

The Last Frontier Mushing Co-op

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We have some exciting news! If you recall from an earlier post, Derek and I purchased a large parcel of land in Two Rivers and subdivided it with our friends/fellow mushers Chase Tingle, Matt Hall, and Amanda Brooks. Not only do we get to live next to other dog lovers, but we have recently combined our tourism expertise and created the Last Frontier Mushing Coop!

By joining forces, we can continue to focus on racing throughout the winter but also expand our tourism to create even more mushing fanatics. Derek and I will spearhead the spring Adventure Trips, and we'll have even more options throughout the winter. Bring on the winter!!

Check it out!

Life on the Glacier

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Handsome Yuker with a big smile!

The dogs and I have been up on the Denver Glacier in Skagway, Alaska for about 10 days, and the dogs are loving it! The first several days, the entire yard barked and played late into the night, enjoying the change from mud to snow. At first their enthusiasm was adorable, but it soon lost its appeal as the dogs barked at 3:00 and 4:00 AM. Now that we've started tours, the dogs have settled down a bit and keep playtime between 5:30 AM and 10:00 PM, thankfully.

Tours are a "walk in the park" for the dogs, with each tour averaging between 1.5 and 2 miles. I've been trying different youngsters in lead and have been particularly excited about King Louie. He's a tank! Even if the team is hauling 5 people through soft rotten snow, Louie puts his head down and propels forward, motivating the whole team behind him! I hope to continue working with Louie and other pups and yearlings through the summer to build their confidence and turn them into incredible leaders next year!

You'll notice from the pictures, all the structures are white. The sun is exceptionally bright on the glacier, so to keep the structures from attracting sunlight and causing the snow to melt faster, everything is white. My lodging consists of a tent, which I share with three other employees. In addition to sleeping tents, we have a cook tent, lounge, and communication tent in our little glacier city. Helicopters fly up to the glacier, drop off tourists from the cruise ships, and then return later to pick them up after they've had a sled dog ride. There are almost 230 dogs on the glacier! The ride itself is only approximately 20-30 minutes, so the rest of the time the dogs are getting extra love and snuggles!

Gorgeous skies!

Several of the camp tents.

Sunset over the dog yard.

Off to Summer Camp!

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Tomorrow morning Ryno Kennel is headed to Skagway, Alaska to the Denver Glacier. That's right- 40 athletes and one human- ROAD TRIP!! We'll be living on the glacier all summer and giving tours to guests from the cruise ships. If you happen to be traveling through Skagway, catch a ride on a Temsco helicopter up to the glacier and come visit the dogs! We'll have limited cell and internet access throughout the summer, but I'll be sure to post pictures of the pups and glacier life.

Have a great summer!!