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Thursday, February 26, 2009
Streeper Kennels LINE UP for FUR RONDY 2009:
 Team 1
Eva - Myia
Casper - Chelsey
Echo - Dale
Danny - Swindal
Rocky - Eddy
Lance - Lyle
Flicka - Heidi
Oats - Ellen
Morgan - Arabic
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Team 2
Zora
- DEE
Dylan - Julie
Gwen - Dobson
D2 - Shadow
Ears - Sabrina
Emma - Rummy
Blondie - Dolly
Oprah - Greek
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Because of the current trail condtions, extremely fast and cool
temps forecasted, I have decided to start with 18 dogs. The 2 cuts were DEE, because the speed will be too high for her in
team 1, and BLONDIE who sustained an injury from the 2nd moose encounter. Lina will benifit greatly from this, as her
front 4 dogs all won this race last year.
10:12 am pst
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Painting on the wall...
Today we were invited to a mural unveiling on 4th
avenue, in an area recently renamed the sled dog district. the mural was titled:Fur Rondy World Championship and was dedicated
to all the past champions. Notably the painting incuded pictures of the 8 mushers, who have won this race 3 or more times.
Top of the list was George Attla - 10 time winner. Next was Doc Lombard - 8 time winner, then the 2 four time winners, Charlie
Champaign and Egil Ellis, followed by the 3 x winners, Roxy Wright, Ross Saunderson, and Raymond Paul. missing from the picture
was Gareth Wright also a 3x winner. Included in the mural was a list of all the race winners from the past 60 years.
Pictures from the event can be veiwed at: http://johngomes.smugmug.com/gallery/7454997_KRqvv#480858879_72uAQAfter the unveiling, we had to run dogs. I was running the yearlings again, as they will
be laid off for the duration of the rondy week. I took 12 dogs, and rested both Izak and Apple for obvious reasons after the
moose encounter. I went a short run of 6 miles, and all dogs did well, the trail is very fast and hard, making for quick
conditions. But all dogs enjoyed the faster paced run over yesterdays marathon.
After the run, we raced over to
the elementary school on northern lights street. There we were greeted by some very enthusiastic 2nd graders, who were thrilled
to see the dogs out and running around. I told the kids about the races and this weekend, and answered questions. Lina, Terry
and I handed out souvenirs to the kids and encouraged them to ask questions. It was fun to see their excitement.
Afterwards we came back to the room, where we would feed the dogs, same as every day, but today we had a reporter
from the newspaper stage photos and video our routine. He asked questions and got some very good tape, as I had him get
the pics of dogs leaping into their boxes and eagerly awaiting their feeding. The story will run Friday.
We had
a couple hours of chill time, when we noticed out the window that Mr. Bullwinkle was back in the yard. He hangs out at the
edge of the parking lot, some 50 meters from our room and dog truck. Lina went outside with the video and taped him close
up, at one pint she was less the 10 feet from him, with only a vehicle separating them. Lina came back to the room and we
waited 1 hour till drop time, when I went outside to see Mr. Winkle was bedded down beside the garbage dumpster. I proceeded
to get him out of here, but he went the wrong way, and walked directly between Arliegh and our trucks. When the dogs barked
vigorously, he didnt care, and non shalontly continued on his way. I followed him to a corner of the parking lot, and
urged him along, but he had no exit in that direction and angerly turned around and charged my direction. I was close
to some sea-cans and ducked between them, as he came around in front and slowly walked off the parking lot and into the
bush where I put a good run on him, and he finally went on his way, some 200 yards from our truck. We kept
a close eye on him as we dropped the dogs, keeping our more curious dogs chained to the truck.
Tonight we went
to TUDUR road bingo parlor where many dog club members gathered to present Jack Powers, parlor owner, with a plaque of appreciation,
as his lotto licence will be the main funding source for this areas club and races for many years to come. I tried my
hand at pull tabs, but only warmed the deck for fellow musherA who would go on to win as mush as $200. After we tried
a unique game called rat race. It's similar to roulette, however, instead of the ball landing in a number slot on the
spinning wheel, there was a gerbil placed in the center of a spinning roullette table and once the rat was uncovered,
itwould make his way off the spinning table and into one of the 36 holes on the edge of the wheel. I hit once on 24 straight
up, but slowly paid it all back.
Pictures from this event can be veiwed at John Gomes site: http://johngomes.smugmug.com/gallery/7456958_GhL8j#481004900_
Tomorrow we will be busy, drivers meeting at 10 am, then media press gathering at 11 am, followed by
trail viewing at 1 pm.
Brent Beck called today and he was having truck trouble. He was in Watson Lake and
his truck would not start. He was trying to get a tow to Whitehorse, where hopefully his problem could be fixed.
11:59 pm pst
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Stage is set...
In the draw, I pulled position 12, which is late in the pack but
is a good position. My main rival will go out 14 minutes ahead of me, which will allow me to gauge his checkpoint times and
monitor my teams speed accordingly. Also the team ahead of me is fast and will give me a good run for the day, thus allowing
me to let my dogs run for a long ways, before having to ease them back for passing.
The trail is rock hard, and
in perfect shape and temps will be below freezing. This will equate to some fast times.
Lina had a good draw and
will chase a a proven race veteran, who will be knowledgable of the trail and course being run.
Tomorrow we
will be busy, the Rondy teams have to do some required promo events. We will visit an elementery school in the afternoon and
let the dogs out for petting.
10:09 pm pst
The starting order for the 2009 Fur Rondy:
1. Courtney Moore
2. Heather Hardy
3. Curtis Erhart
4. John Erhart
5. Egil Ellis
6. Shane Goosen
7. Bill Kormuller
8. Ed Wood
9.
Jason Dunlap
10. Ricky Taylor
11. Arleigh Reynolds
12. Buddy Streeper
13. Jacques Phillip
14. Brent
Beck
15. Marvin Kokrine
16. Lina Glad
17. Ken Chezik
18. Jack Berry
10:00 pm pst
AGAIN!!!
Again today, during the run with the yeraling team at Tozeir Track, my
team was stomped by a startled cow moose. At the 12 mile mark on the 13.5 mile trail, my 12 dog team was coming home and from
no where, we ran into a cow and calf directly beside the trail. In an instant the cow entered my running team from the right
hand side, where she proceeded to kick, stomp and march her way forward over the front 6 dogs. Once threw the leaders, she
continued on her way off the right side of the trail. Her ears were down the entire time and she was in the fight mode.
I stopped my team as the moose moved on ahead, some 100 yards into the bush, beside her calf, they turned and
looked back. I overlooked the team and surveyed that I had some injuries. Izak, right hand point dog was unconscious, and
completely locked up. I aggressively grabbed him and felt movement. I took my time unhooking him as he came back into it.
Also injured was Apple, who was leaking blood from his back, where I would guess the moose stepped on him. I loaded Izak,
and located the moose who were not moving. I took off, and they moved on in the direction of the trail further up. Fearing
that if I went too slow, that the moose would cut me off ahead, I let the dogs run for the next corners. After clearing
the area and safely being pointed home, I opened the sled bag to see I looking up. I stopped very close to home and put
him back in the team, easing the team forward he pulled and appeared to be ok.
After the run some of the other
dogs in the front 6 were sore, but luckily Apple, Izak and all the rest will be ok.
Tonight is the draw and
I want to get an early draw, but more importantly is the position in the line up. I prefer to chase my strongest competitors,
and use their times to gauge my teams performance.
Lina will be in a separate draw for rookies,
and will go at the end of the field.
I will post after the draw.
6:21 pm pst
Monday, February 23, 2009
 Closing in...
Less then 4 days from the start of the Rondy and we took our
main teams for their final runs at Big Lake. We have used the trails at Aurora Dog Club in Big Lake, the trails are very good
and easy running for large dog teams, not so much for the Tozier trail. Only down fall is it's about a 75 minute drive
one way to the trail head. I'm glad we won't have to make that trip for some time.
I went a shorter run,
just to let the dogs stretch and move. They all went really well and are running perfect and are about to peak. Lina took
her team on a diffrent trail and had a good run. There are lots of options at the Big Lake trails - she said it
was her best run with that team to date which is what you want just before your biggest race of the season.
We
left Fort Nelson on January 9th, with 36 open dogs. Today we looked at 36 open dogs. We have not skipped a race, or run smaller
teams in any races. We train 1 day on the 1-2 days off, then race weekends, and give 2 days off.
I know of
many teams in this state that will decide today, during their last training run if they will race this weekend. Not the ideal
way to race, running your last training run culling dogs for racing speed and strength.
Funny thing about mushers
is if there is a big race, like this year's Fur Rondy, the mushers train harder and therefore hurt, injure and wreck
more dogs, and thus preventing them from entering.
I was hoping to see a minimum of 20 teams this weekend, but
if there is not, I am not worried, as the teams that enter are the best teams.
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We
have been playing with a moose, who has been hanging around our hotel for 2 days now. He was bedded down not 100 feet
from the hotel doors, and maybe 150 feet from our dog truck. I was able to get him up and chase him off... hopefully
we don't see any more of him.
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Tomorrow we will go to a special ceremony, an unveiling
of a new painting on a building downtown. The painting is a dedication to past winners of the Fur Rondy, it should be cool
to see and I will take some pictures.
We just got back from a great dinner at Bev Steven's house.
She made her famous pizza and we enjoyed the company of the 3 amigos - Bev, Kim Wells and Kris Rasey. All are very competitive
limited class mushers and ski-jors, and it's fun to hear their stories and tales.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
  Our newest sponser - ABC Rentals, has supplied us with a vehicle for our use. Please visit http://www.abcmotorhome.com/Less then 1 week from the start of our major race of the season and today was a meet the
mushers event at the ULU Factory. There were 7 dog trucks and 10 or so mushers, greeted by hundreds of spectators and fans,
free hot dogs, pop and chips were available.
I let down 10 or so dogs, and allowed all youngsters to play
and touch them. The kids really like the hands on approach, where they can mingle with the dogs, lots of questions, and plenty
of pictures taken.
Wwe trained our main teams on Friday and they went well. We will run the yearlings tomorrow
at the club trail after the juniors races, who are having their own championship race right now.
We have a few
events this week, the draw is on Tuesday night, then we have a wall miral unveiling, (a painting on the side of a building)
which has all the past 3 x champions of the rondy. Later that day we will do a visit to a elementery school, where the kids
will come out in groups of 2-3 classes, and ask questions, and see the doggies. Thursday is trail veiwing and press day, and
Friday is race day.
A New video is now online at www.furrondy.net it's a trailer to a 30-40 minute video about the dog race.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
videos.Videos
Some new videos I made with the Rondy event for the promotion
of the races. They had a professional write the skits and I did the acting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFpA6BA1rcoWe have had a coupe good days, our main crew went their longest run of the season and they are
looking good. My team is stronger then it has ever been, and is running right where I want them to. Lina is learning
quickly how to go slow... she had a major change from here super fast 10 dog team, to running 16 dogs 80 minutes. There is
more skill to drive a team slow and paced then wide open and fast. When you go fast, all you do is let the dogs run as quickly
as possible. But when you add distance to the equation, basically any run over 20 miles, you must pace the team and run
at a moderate pace. It's a fine line between going too fast and crashing, and walking the edge to running competitively.
This race will be a good experience next season, when we change our season schedule.
Today I ran the limited
team, 11 dogs and I went 13.8 miles. This was their farthest run many of these dogs have ever been on and they did well. I
took my time and ran very easy, and used diffrent leaders to gauge their ability. I was very impressed with some of them
and will be glad to add them to the main team next year.
The old race in Manitoba is taking place this weekend
in The Pas. 12 teams will run. Most races would be disappointed with a 12 team field but it's the norm for that one. Next
year this race will loose 2 of the entries, as the Cook racing team is running their last time. This team has dominated this
event for the last 20 years and have only been beat a couple of times there. So next year the field will be 10 teams
or so, and 6 of those teams are from NWT. My question is, of all the mushers in Canada, minus the NWT
teams, there are only 4 that want to race the PAS???????????? makes one wonder????????????? what's the
problem????????
Tomorrow we will do a luncheon with the R organizers, then we will train
our main teams at big lake on Friday and Saturday. We will have a meet the musher's event at the ULU factory. It's
a 2 hour event, where musher's meet with fans and spectators.
Until then, here is a video I filmed
at the zoo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35KGyfBVl-s
10:08 pm pst
Sunday, February 15, 2009
.
photo courtesy of John Gomes- Anchorage
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Lina finishes tied for 2nd in 10 dog raceLina
had a good race today and held here postion to finish tied for 2nd overall. She drove 10 dogs again and had her first clean
heat of the race. On both previous days she had to make multiple stops to manage the team.
She raced our number
1 up and coming superstar yearling leader, TROJA - who is a Myia / Pride daughter. This is her 3rd race in lead
and she seems to get better each run.
Also on her team was:
Ty - Troja
Blaze - Apple
Balto
- Larry
Baloo - Arrat
Gaither - Hebrew
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On Saturday after the race, we
ran our open teams 13.8 miles, and it was very warm, +4c, and sunny. The runs went well, Lina followed me with her 14 dog
team and I drove 11 dogs, with Eva and Myia in lead. All dogs went very well.
In the second team, I drove 12 dogs,
with Danny and Heidi in lead, they did very well, and i was surprised at the speed this team wanted to run.
So
of the 37 dogs we trained , 36 are race ready and will be selected for the rondy. I will likely start with 20 and hopefully
lina will run 16.
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Attached is a video of the 10 dog team going to the line
day 2.
Second link is to a news story from the Fort Nelson News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7QOoSTgooQ
http://www.fortnelsonnews.ca/classifieds.php
Friday, February 13, 2009
7:32 pm pst
Raven Electric 10 Dog - Day 1
| Place | Musher | dogs | time
Day 1 | | 1 | Egil Ellis | 10 | 31:57 | | 2 | Lina Gladh | 10 | 32:13 | | 3 | Nathan Sterling | 10 | 32:15 | | 4
| Christian Taveau | 10 | 32:26 | | 5 | Dori Hollingsworth | 10 | 32:58 | | 6 | Jennifer Probert | 8 | 33:22 | | 7 | Greg
Sellentin | 8 | 33:37 | | 8 | Bev Stevens | 8 | 33:49 | | 9 | Evelyn Beeter | 10 | 33:54 | | 10 | Jennifer Sterling | 10 | 34:42 | | 11 | Mari
Wood | 10 | 35:06 | | 12
| Trish Seibold | 10 | 35:13 | | 13 | Kathy
Barnhart | 10 | 36:02 | | 14 | Susan Anderson | 8 | 37:06 | | 15 | Forest Seibold | 10 | 37:15 | | 16 | James Arndt | 10 | 39:10 | | 17 | Rick Cavens | 10 | 40:32 | | 18 | J.P. Norris | 10 | 43:10 | | 19 | Gail Hoekman | 10 | 43:27 |
7:26 pm pst
Monday, February 9, 2009
Go Away Moose!!!!
Well after the moose on the trail, I'd be happy not to see
anymore - not the case. After we got back to the hotel from our training run today, we were letting the dogs out for
dinner when I heard an aggressive bark coming from the dogs over the snow bank. I climbed to the top of the snow-pile
that separates the parking lot from the nearby open area, and I saw the too huge bull moose with about 10 dogs barking
and surrounding the animals. In an instant, Blondie approached one from behind, only to be met sharply by the kicking hoof
of the angered animal. She was flipped over backwards and came scrambling back to the dog truck. I called all the dogs back
and we began to load all remaining dogs back into the truck. After having all dogs safely loaded, Lina and I went to
see where the Moose were, but they had retreated 200 yards back to the open field and were moving quickly the other way.
I gave a blondie a look over, and other then a lightly bruised shoulder, the most damage she endured was the emotional
scars she felt from "only wanting to smell the big guy". She will be fine thankfully.
Today I ran a 7 dog team, 6 miles at the club. It went well and Lina will run her 10 dog team there tomorrow. I guess the
moose who went through my team on Sunday is part of a mother and calf combo, who are still hanging around
that area as they were spotted there again.
I hope that's all the moose stories I will have to report
for awhile!  
7:28 pm pst
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Double wins at EXXON
Lina was first in the 4 dog and I won the OPEN over
the past weekend in Anchorage.
Trails were in near perfect conditions and all dogs went well. In the
open class, I ran away from the feild the 1st day with a 20 mph avg for 15.2 miles with 18 dogs. At the 10 mile mark I was
50 seconds ahead of second place and I extended the lead to 80 seconds at the finish.
On day 2, I ran
all 18 dogs and had an eventful run. All dogs were ready to roll and they ran hard. At the 7 mile mark, I had a moose
come from nowhere and cross my team. I was running 20 mph and he come out from a group of trees, I never saw him prior,
then he kinda reared up on to his back feet and slammed down on Lyle who was 4 sections up. He knocked him over and kicked
him over. I immediately thought Lyle broke his back from the 1000 lb animal stepping on him, but a split second later he was
up and running and ok. The entire wreck took less then 1 second and I continued on. Super close call, very fortunate
and lucky to avoid that disaster.
Once I hit the airstrip at the 9 mile mark, I could see the team
behind me was over 20 seconds up on me. After the long straight sections on the airport, the trail goes into the bush for
2 miles of the twisty section of trail, lots of hard corners, non stop turning, and no straight sections, I can hardly see
me leaders for the entire section. It's a tough spot to run a large team, and i know it would be easier with a small team
of 12 or less dogs. I was worried that the 2nd place team would gain lots of time in this area, so once out of the bush, I
drove the team the remaining 3 miles. I pushed on the gas and they responded with my fastest mile of the day 2:54 for the
14th mile. I crossed the finish line with all dogs still driving. I waited anxiously for team 2 and 1 minute passed,
meaning I had WON my first Exxon Open Title!!!! Then 2 finished and beat my day time by 15 seconds. Good to know
my team has the size and speed to out run a limited sized team on a windy trail that should benefit a small team. Great
job dogs!!!!
Lina had a good race in the 4 dog, she won both days and used a new young leader. In the 8 dog we
scratched her team, after a troublesome run on Saturday, we felt it was best to fully rest all the dogs, so we didnt run any
injured dogs and get them back to 100% for next weeks 10 dog race.
In the open, Lina had a very good weekend. The
team had nearly 3 minutes of stopped time with having to pass 2 teams that were wrecked with broken sleds, and having to wait
for the trail to clear. She needed to re-adjust her team after those passes, but managed to finish very strong the final few
miles each day. This team is steady and smooth, hopefully it will maintain its pace in a few weeks and make up some time on
the other musher's coming home in the RONDY.
We will give the main dogs two days off and run a longer
easy run on Wednesday. Then we will race in the 10 dog race this weekend.
10:38 pm pst
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Exxon - Day 1
I spoke with Terry and Buddy and it was
a perfect day for racing. Clear, sunny skies with temps starting the day at -20 C and ending around -10 C.
Lina
was first in the 4 dog but unforunately had some bad luck in the 8 dog class. She had caught up to Egil and when his team
went down a wrong trail, her team followed. She wasn't able to set a hook to get them turned around and ended up finishing
in last.
As for the open, Buddy was rollin' and set a new track record covering the 15 mile course
with his 18 dog team in 45:36.
Open:
1. Buddy Streeper - 45:36
2. Egil Ellis - 46:56
3.
Arleigh Reynolds - 47:22
4. Bill Kornmuller - 48:24
5. Ed Wood - 48:51
6. Ricky Taylor - 48:56
7. Courtney
Moore - 49:08
8. Heather Hardy - 49:58
9. Curtis Erhart - 50:04
10. Jason Dunlap - 50:04
11. Chuck Erhart
- 50:18
12. John Erhart - 50:22
13. Lina Glad - 50:23
14. Eddie Dayton - 50:46
15. Marvin Kokrine - 51:06
16. Jeff Conn - 52:25
17. Ken Chezik - 53:11
18. Jack Berry - 57:21
19. Eric Renneberg - DQ
8
Dog:
1. Jennifer Sterling - 28:03
2. Wendy Callis - 28:08
3. Jennifer Probert - 28:42
4. Evelyn
Beeter - 29:00
5. Ken Chezik - 29:04
6. Amanda Byrd - 29:08
7. Helen Lundberg - 29:15
8. Egil Ellis
- 29:49
9. Greg Sellentin - 29:59
10. Jason Dunlap - 30:11
11. Brenda Burge - 30:43
12. Kathy Barnhart
- 31:44
14. Dori Hollingsworth - 34:20
14. Norm Hayashi - 34:20
16. Lina Glad - 42:40
Day two will
be very interesting with this many close times. Stay tuned!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Anchorage
Its been nice in Anchorage this week, temps have been cool,
-15c, and mostly clear skies. Today, Wednesday, we trained our 3 teams. I drove the limited team of 12 dogs - 10 miles and
then Lina ran an open team of 15 dogs. They went the Exxon trail, a distance of 15 miles. I ran my 18 dog team after,
and all went well, the trail is in very good shape, and all runs went very well.
Lots of teams were running there
today, Arliegh Reynolds, Courtney Moore, Ed Wood, John and Chuck Erhart, Ed Dayton, Brenda Burge, Bev Stevens, Jeff and Kathy
Barnhart , Ken Chezik, Probert Kennels, among others. From what I heard, everyone was happy with the trails, and had a good
training day.
The forecast for tomorrow is heavy snow, 3 inches possible. all will help around here, and we will
hope for more.
I anticipate a large feild this weekend. Exxon Mobile has put up $33 000.00 , and all classes will
run for good money. I assume th open class will be most entered, probably 20 teams or more.
Tomorrow morning I
will do a commercial for the Rondy event, kinda excited to see how it goes.
12:23 am pst
Monday, February 2, 2009
10:53 am pst
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