One Hundred Miles

I have been keeping busy training dogs. I am building up their mileage in preparation for the Canadian Challenge, a 350 mile race up in Saskatchewan. I reached one goal this week of running 100 miles in two days. I did this by running 40 miles one day and then the next day doing a 20 in the morning and a 40 in the afternoon/evening with about three hours rest in between. The dogs are handling it really well. The hardest part is that the musher (me!) gets so terribly tired. The next step is 200 miles in two days, which I am contemplating doing this weekend.

Today was a rest day for the dogs. It gave me a chance to catch up on some chores. One of these chores was fixing the sled. It needed new brake tips. Get a load of how worn out the old ones were! Those are the new ones on the right for comparison. I can hardly wait to try it out on the trails now that I will have real braking power!

In other news, Abba got sick, so I brought her inside. She was just lying outside, letting herself get completely crusted with snow. When she refused to eat, I knew something was terribly wrong and I had better get her inside and warmed up or risk losing her. Here she is still crusted with snow but starting to melt. Luckily, one night inside made a world of difference, and she is totally healthy again, but she was very weak and wobbly for that one night, and I thought she smelled of parvo.