Race Season is Rollin'

Tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM Coach Cartel, 12 canine athletes, Tucker, and I will be hitting the road and heading for Glennallen and the Copper Basin 300! After a few year hiatus, I can’t wait to head south and see many familiar humans and canines at one of my favorite races. PLUS, by a stroke of good luck, the weather looks perfect with temperatures ranging from -10F to 10F (which is a huge improvement from the -60F temperatures we saw the last time we were at the Copper Basin).

So which canine athletes will be competing in the Copper Basin? Enjoy Tucker’s video to find out!

The final team roster was difficult to pick since we have a big pool of race age dogs in training. Ultimately, we prioritized youngsters. Every two-year-old is racing except Havarti (100% healthy but a little on the thin side), Cheddar (100% but she had a slight wrist after the Solstice 50 so she missed some training runs), and Fox (one of the strongest two-year-olds but he was a teeensy, tiny bit stiff after a camping series). We hope to get these three in a race or two later this season! You’ll notice some other big names missing like Etta, Smoky, Bowser, Louie- honestly, a lot of the core team in the past. They’re giving the youngsters a chance to shine. Tucker will be taking lots of rest on the Copper Basin and showing these youngsters how exciting racing can be! Cartel and I will do our best to rake straw and not haggle them all from the sidelines.

And if you were unable to watch the video, the Copper Basin team is: Tobin, Elmer, Thresher, Dracula, Mozzie, Muenster, Beesly, Tuna, Mose, Yoshi, Spit, and Fly. Oh and Tucker!

While we’re on the topic of racing, last Sunday, Faff, Cooke and I attended our first Alaska Dog Mushers Association race at the Mushers Hall in Fairbanks! We competed in a 6.2 mile skijor race. We learned a lot (like how to get passed by speedy, speedy hounds) and had an absolute blast. We also cheered on Rose, Rachel, and Gregory as they competed in the kids races!