October in Alaska

The wind is blowing with the force of a blizzard outside as I write this update, but unfortunately the precipitation is falling as rain, and not the white stuff that all dog mushers are dreaming of this time of year. The date is October 8, and I must first apologize for my tardiness in this first update. I settled in at the kennel, which is located right outside the entrance to Denali National Park, on September 26th and have been going full speed ahead with the dogs since. Like I said in a previous entry, I am running Jeff King’s yearling team (could also be referred to as his JV team if you so wish). Right now this means that I have a group of 26 yearlings to work with. This number is a bit much seeing as I will be starting at the starting line in March with 16; thus, several of these yearlings will likely be sold to other mushers in the coming weeks. I am hoping for around 20 dogs to work with in the end.
Training has been going splendid so far, minus the fact that the temperatures have been relatively warm (highs in the 40’s most days). We did receive a couple small snowfalls in my short stay thus far, but neither of them lasted on the ground more than a couple of days. Right now I am running the yearlings behind an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). The dogs could pull me on the ATV without the help of the engine, but it is easier to maintain control and keep a constant speed by using assistance of the engine. I have been taking the pups (I will often refer to them as pups and not yearlings) for runs of 8-10 miles per day, roughly 5 days a week. They are looking great at this distance and are definitely ready to move up in distance soon. For relative distances, I went with Jeff on a 46 mile training run with his race dogs on Monday.
Jeff King usually has about 5 litters of puppies every summer. This equates to 30-40 puppies, which equates to 30-40 names every year. That’s a lot of names to come up with every summer! So for ease of naming and to be able to easily tell what dog was from what litter, litters are named with themes. The yearlings I am working with came from the Friends litter (named after friends characters; eg. Joey, Ross, Rachel), Irish cities (Dublin, Belfast, etc.), hurricane litter (Betsy, Bonnie), shoe litter (Loafer, Chaco), weather litter (Chinook, Zepher). They are a great bunch of dogs, and I am getting attached to them quickly (some people don’t think you can become attached to 26 dogs all at the same time… try spending 12 hours with the dogs day in and day out).
The time is approaching to put the dogs in the barn for the night, so I must end this update here. Like always, I welcome any comments, questions, etc. Enjoy the week, wherever you might be and whatever you may be doing!
JJ