The Lull Before the Storm

2 February 2012
10:30 PM

Sunrise at	9:34 AM	in direction	131°	Southeast
Sunset at	4:36 PM	in direction	230°	Southwest

Duration of day: 7 hours, 1 minute (6 minutes, 43 seconds longer than yesterday)

First - notice anything special about the Sunrise/Sunset times?  Today is the first day of 2012 that the sun is above the horizon for over 7 hours.  For me 7 hours of sun with our wonderful extended twilight is enough.  It may not be as much as I would like or the heavenly light overload of summer, but it suffices.  The sun is up as you can see through the spruce tree in the photo below.  It is far brighter than what I captured .. that is always the case.

Just after 10:00 AM, 2 February

I went out to SP Kennel today to visit with Aliy and visit the two dogs Teresa and I sponsor.  I actually visit with all the dogs at the kennel.  They recognize me now and know that I will visit each one for at least a little while.  I noticed something very different about them today.  They were not as eager for my attention in the sense that once I'd said hello, that was good and they were content to go on about their business.  They are running all days that the weather is reasonable and each dog in the kennel has had some serious race miles.

A view of the dog yard with Boris howling happily

And today was warm (I mean for Fairbanks in February - warm).  The temperatures varied between 0 and 10 everywhere I was today.  I think the dogs were taking advantage of the warmth to lie low and conserve energy for the days to come; maybe they will even gain some of the weight back they burned through the really cold days of January.  In two days, many of the dogs I loved today will be on the Yukon Quest Trail with Allen.

I took time to give some extra attention to two of the kennel.  Cutter made it through most of the Don Bowers 300, but began to limp right at the very end - a major disappointment for several of us.  I hope he will shake it off and be good to go for Ryne's team on the Iditarod.  Then I visited Puppet.  Puppet came from Paul Gebhardt's kennel.  I made her acquaintance from visiting with those who lived near her; Chica, Nacho, Dingle, and Cutter.  They are the rock eaters who live on a platform and she was put back by them.   She is by nature, reserved, but I didn't know that because she'd always been open to me.

Puppet is racing in the Yukon Quest and I wanted to spend some time congratulating her on moving into a place on the team.

Cutter with Puppet blending with the now behind him.

Sired by Lance Mackey's legendary lead dog, Zorro, Nacho and his three sisters, Quito who runs in lead, Bonita, and Chica provide consistent strength to the SP Kennel teams.

Nacho is an affable, but very tough dog.  

I also visited with the two Litters born over the summer and then chatted with Aliy about this and that.  One phrase a musher had said on crossing overflow stuck in my mind .. "had my boots gotten wet".  Well he'd just gone through overflow, so wouldn't his boots be wet?  I asked Aliy about the exact meaning of that statement.

Aliy showed me the previous boot design that had been used.  Those boots were Loben wool felt with over boots that were "water proof".  Water can seep up above the level of the boot, but they also get small fissures and tears through use.  Once on the Iditarod trail, Aliy passed through overflow and she was in long enough that a leak formed soaking her wool boots.  She talks about how she solved that problem in this blog post:  Iditarod 2009: Tails of Trail - Nice Boots!

The newest version of arctic foot protection do not claim to be water proof.  Instead, they 3 are (4?) inch high platform souls to give mushers an edge for shallow overflow and the permeable (yes, I said permeable) outer linings.  The inner linings are polyester covered foam.  When the foot gets wet due to overflow, the liner is removed and rung out.  Then the heat of the musher's foot wicks remaining moisture away from the foot and out to the liner edges.  This technology made it possible for Allen Moore to successfully cross deep overflow without feeling the effects of wading through icy water crossing Birch Creek last year during the Yukon Quest.

Allen is first to leave this year - a big change from last year's 18th position.  Mike and Sue Ellis of Tsuga Siberians are expecting a good run this year.  They have consistently posted the fastest Siberian race times.  Mike says the Siberians are not as fast as the Alaskan Husky because they will always hold something back.  There are lots of times mushers have to brake to keep their teams from pulling too hard and wearing themselves out.  But the huskies were bred to run the long distances of Siberia and are valued for being able to continue over those distances rather than speed.  So, the fact that he gets more out of his team is quite a big deal in my book.  They are extremely conscientious and wonderful people, being the only duo to win the Humanitarian Award in the Yukon Quest history.

More about all of this on Saturday.