Wind Chill

Windy and cold are the words for today. Mike finally put up the wind gauge and temperature sensor for his weather station, so now I have wind chill information at my fingertips. The low wind chill for today was 38 below zero, and the average ran around 20 to 30 below all day. The actual air temperature hovered near zero. When I woke up in the early morning, I could hear the wind howling, so I knew I was in for a cold one. I was tempted to stay inside all day, but nooooo, I had dogs to train and chores to do.

I did my first run with Voltage and Charge in lead, and Voltage set a scintillating pace. My face was cold, my hands were cold ... if I wasn't so pleased with the dogs' performance, I might have wished them to run slower to create less of a wind chill. Today I bumped the mileage up to 13 miles, and they averaged a little over 12 mph. An extra 12 mph wind in addition to the 20 or 30 below wind chill makes for a wind chill of ... well ... I don't even like to think about it. But I survived! The dogs stopped panting the minute we stopped, and that is very unusual in my experience, so it was even cold for them. I noticed a couple of them picking their feet up as though they thought the snow was cold, too.

The second run featured Ghost and Gravity in lead. I am still running 6-dog teams, so I have to make two runs to get the 12 main dogs out. I am also running two alternates, so I actually need to run three teams to get everybody out. I do not have a loop trail available at the distances I am running, so I go out a certain distance and then turn around and come back. Turning a large team around like that can cause big, snarly, dangerous tangles, so that is why I am still running 6-dog teams. The second team seemed a little slower to me, but the overall time showed that their average speed was the same as the first team.

I was extra glad to be done with my chores and get inside this evening. The house dogs seem super glad to be inside as well. I have the wood stove blazing and plenty of wood stacked nearby. I am going to snuggle under my electric blanket, and listen to the wind in total comfort. Ha!