Boreal Access

We’re beginning to think that we will be running in circles this year. On Wednesday Mark took Mel and Rob on an ATV ride to check out one of our favorite runs. The trail runs along the Ester Lake Road and we take a loop off the road that takes us through the Devilfish Lake Campground. (For the record, Devilfish lake is the lake that The Little Devil was named after). When the gang went up there, there had been what Mark thought looked like fresh logging and thought to himself “Oh No”. The “Oh No” was confirmed by a forester from the DNR yesterday…there will be logging all winter in that cutting. Oh boy…logging to the north, logging to the south. We think we’re going to be running in cirlces this winter.  

After spending Tuesday night in Grand Rapids for a work meeting on Wednesday and driving back in the wind and flurries and spots of freezing rain AND having to make a side-trip to Ten Squared near Two Harbors to pick up dog food, I was beat last night by the time I got home. Mark, Rob and Mel had a busy day yesterday accomplishing many tasks on a to-do laundry list of things to get done while the dogs’ feet are healing so they too were beat. While they unloaded the truck, I put things away in the cabin and re-packed my bag for the morning while cooking dinner. Mark also had to take a flat tire off the truck. He was backing it up to the shed and a tire side-swiped my rock garden and one of the rocks split the sidewall (of course it’s my garden’s fault) so today hopefully I can get new tires put on the truck. We needed new tires before the snows come anyway, this is just making us do it! After all that yesterday, I was looking at the inside of my eyelids before 10:00. Even after only one night away from home, it sure feels good to get back there.

Thank you to Dr. Dahl  of Grand Avenue Veterinary Clinic for coming up yesterday to give the dogs their rabies shots so they are now legal to race, or will be once we give them their yearly updates. However, Dr. Dahl got an Off The Beaten Path (OTBP) adventure story he can share with his collegues once he gets back to work today.

Mark was waiting for Dr. Dahl and was looking at the clock wondering if it was time to go out looking for him. Just as he was about to go start the Redneck truck, the 49-dog driveway alarm went off. It was Dr. Dahl alright, but on foot, not driving his truck. He had gotten a flat tire three miles down the road and found he didn’t have a jack with him. (Note to anyone traveling OTBP, be sure to have a jack with you along with something to cut a tree out of your way if needed). So Mark grabbed a hydraulic jack, tire iron and away they went in the Redneck truck back to Dr. Dahl’s truck. Mark was able to get all but one of the lugs off the tire before breaking the tire iron. So down to the dog truck he went to get his heavy duty tire iron and back to Dr. Dahl’s truck. They got the final lug off and then realized that the tool needed to get the spare down from underneath the truck was missing AND the key to open the lock wouldn’t work. After all that time, they ended up having to call a tow truck.

In the end, the dogs got their rabies shots and now Dr. Dahl has a heckuva story to tell. I bet when he comes up next year, he will have good tires, a jack, the tool to get his spare down and the key to open the lock up…that is if he will come back next year.

With the sore feet situation around here and the extra days off,  Mark has been worried that he’s falling behind on training the Varsity Team for them to be competitive in the Beargrease the end of January. So on Sunday he called one of the best dog trainers in the mushing world, Minnesota’s own, Jamie Nelson, for advice. With a dog mushers schedule of being in and out of the house, they played telephone tag most of the day and finally connected at 9:30 at night.

I had a good time talking to her while Mark was drying off from coming in from taking a shower. Her and I talked about Valor having to sit on my lap for part of the run last week and she said that those young dogs, especially the hounds, don’t have the tough heads to run through a little soreness. She said even though they might just have a little knick, those young hounds think they are going to die. She laughed when I told her “kinda like when a man gets a cold”. She then got more serious when I asked her if giving the dogs three days off this time of year is too much and her comment was “is it enough?” to get their feet healed up. The best quote while I was on the phone with her was “some of your best training is the runs you DON’T go on”.

After that comment Mark took over the phone and spent the next two hours talking dogs, training, foot remedies, etc. etc. Of course I couldn’t go to bed as I wanted to hear what she had said when he got off the phone. She gave some great advice some of it was things we have been doing, or always did, but it always makes you feel good when someone who is well-repsected reaffirms it.

While I was planning on being in bed before ten o’clock, it was after midnight before the lights went out. Needless to say, last night was an early night and more than likely tonight will be too!

I’m talking about the ponds, not a deep freeze where we get three feet of frost this winter. We determined yesterday morning that the dogs are going to get a couple of days off to rest up their feet unless we get some snow. The forecast is saying that we might get down to single digits at night in for a copule of days so hopefully the infamous beaver pond will freeze.

After morning chores yesterday, I went to check out the Crossover Road to see if the ATV could make it across it’s deep water spots without breaking through ice so Mel and I could take the JV team for a run. I made it across most just fine, but there were two that I broke through the ice halfway through the expanse and barely made it out. Thankfully I had the common sense to put the ATV in 4WD before I went or I don’t know if I would have made it. All I kept thinking to myself was “put it to the wood and don’t stop” (a Geoff saying). If I would have had dogs hooked up to the ATV I wouldn’t have been worried about making it through as I would have been in 14-WD, but the jagged ice would have wreaked worse havok on their feet. As it is most of the Varisty Team is walking gingerly and so far only a couple of the JV dogs have sore feet and we intend on keeping it that way.

Since we didn’t run dogs yesterday, everyone spent the day cleaning: me, our cabin; Mark his garage; and Mel and Rob the Bunk Barn and by the time dark rolled around I think we all were coughing up dust and/or dog and cat hair. Today’s day off calls for a little construction work in-between dog chores and Tuesday finds Dr. Dahl from Grand Avenue Vet coming out for rabies shot day. Since we moved up here, Dr. Dahl makes the drive all the whole way up the shore, and every year he has brought snow with him…Dr. Dahl, we are counting on you to bring it with you again! I say one more time, wish us luck!

We need some snow, a couple of inches between the hard frozen gravel and the dog’s feet would be nice. What would also be nice is a good hard freeze to get the infamous beaver pond solid enough for the ATV’s to drive over without breaking through. Between the gravel and the jagged edges on the ice, we have some pretty sore dog feet around here. Each day after a run another dog comes back with a sore foot. It would also be nice to have the pond frozen so the dogs, the harnesses and the snaps aren’t caked with ice when they come back from a run. When the harnesses are really wet after a run we will hang them on the side of the cabin to let them drip dry some before bringning them in the cabin for the night to dry out. The other night Mark brought this group in and we just had to take a picture of them standing up by themselves, frozen solid.

Rob and Mel have been doing a great job. They are very observant and let us know when someone seems “not quite right”. Yesterday morning Rob noticed that Caribou wasn’t his normal squirelly self and after Mark let him loose to run around and checking him out from nose to tail, we found he had a slightly sore muscle in his back leg. So, Mr. Caribou got the day off from running. They did take Valor with them yesterday though and said he did awesome and was barking and screaming to go, hitting the line any time they stopped. We did however, double-bootie all four of his feet before they left. Speaking of booties that’s another reason we need snow. We have been double-booting any sore foot and when they get back from the run, most of them are shot. At at least a dollar a bootie, yesterday we figured we trashed about $50 worth. Does anyone want to be a bootie sponsor? Most years we go through at least 1,000 booties…

I finished re-doing the BL.A.C.Klub page! I have been also told by Mark that our Athletes page should have more detailed information about each dog such as age, personality, races run/finished, etc. which will take quite a while to put together. So until I get the Athlete’s page rebuilt, the two will be combined.

Check it out…Buster is even included!

Yesterday was a “Townie” day for all the humans of Off The Beaten Path. Mark had to meet me in town at 9:00 for an appointment and afterwards headed to the chiropractor for a good crack, then head further down Highway 61 to drop one of our snowmachines at the Sled Doctor in Tofte for some electrical work. (We’re trying to be ahead of the snow curve). Then it was back to Grand Marais to wash his disguistingly (sp?) dirty outside clothes, lunch with his wife, pick up his clothes before one final stop at Superior Lumber before heading back Off The Beaten Path.

Rob and Mel took advantage of a day off from dog running, running errands themselves. They too were at the laundromat (I think between the four of us, we paid the bills for Carleen and Pete today as I did our normal laundry and all the linens off our bed too). They then headed to the Gunflint Tavern for lunch and other errands. I’m sure Mel will have an entry in her blog giving the play-by-play of running around Grand Marais and the chance to use a toilet that flushes!

If the rain ever stops, the gang will be back to a day of running dogs today. Now that the harnesses are clean and you can tell they are blue.