Sawtelle Trail

Today I ran a team around the Sawtelle Trail for the first time. This trail can be made into a loop of about 15 miles, and I am very tired of doing nothing but out-and-back. There is a locked gate on this trail with a steep bypass that threatens to dump you into open water below, so I stayed with my 6-dog team for safety. It turns out that the gate was opened just today, but I was glad, nonetheless, for my small team since they still wanted to take the bypass. It seems that whoever unlocked the gate didn't really go through it, so there was no track for the dogs to follow. It took a little convincing to get them to just go straight ahead through the gate and pick up the packed trail a few yards beyond. Silly dogs.

I had my good command leader, Fresca, in lead with Switch. Switch did a really good job of following Fresca's lead, and she did a great job of keeping the team strung out. Switch is my fastest dog, but she does not always pull as hard as I would like. She pulled real well today, though. Her best buddy, Breaker, got a break from leading today and followed just behind in the middle of the team. Breaker's daughters Raisin, Almond, and Walnut rounded out the team. It was an all girl, mostly-in-heat team today.

The Sawtelle trail is a beautiful, wooded, hilly, winding trail. I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did the dogs. The weather was very warm, close to freezing. I will run the second 6-dog team around the loop tomorrow.