Sweetwater Challenge #1 A Success!

No photos yet but I hope to post some soon. Blaine may be able to get some photos up on the MiDD website this week too (http://www.michigandogdrivers.org/)

The weather was fantastic this past weekend - sunny skies both days, high temps in the mid-20s on Saturday; teens on Sunday. The trails allowed for some snowballing on Saturday then set up nicely overnight in the frigid temps. It was about perfect mushing weather all weekend. The deep base held up really well, even on the extreme downhill sections where full-on braking was the norm.

We had 18 teams that ran on Saturday including Blaine and I. We had entrants from WI., IL. and all parts of lower Michigan. We offered 12.5 mile, 17 mile and 24 mile trail options with a dog drop/spectator location along the way (a very special THANKS to Ed Setterington for hanging out at the dog drop and talking with spectators both days.) The Lake County Sheriff's Reserve Unit provided road patrolling to keep snowmobiles off of the unplowed road sections of trail - a very boring job as they didn't even get to see dog teams go by in their locations. Our snowmobile trail help, T.J. and Gwen Stahly and their friend, Chris manned two important locations on Dexter Rd. and had their hands full a couple of times directing dog team traffic. T.J. and Gwen were entertained by a low flying eagle at one point on Sunday - no teams around, all was quiet and the eagle flew down by the road and circled around and over their snowmobiles. Lee and Claudia Nowak were at the driveway crossing early in the run - saying hello to mushers and their dogs and Lee taking photos of everyone. They also brought some tasty treats for everyone to eat in the lodge. We had chili and soup and fixings available for mushers, handlers and helpers both days. A special thanks to Ann Nelson for all the wonderful food that she brought with her and for helping with the timing duties. She gets to run their awesome Sepps in the next SWC. Her husband Ted got the team this past weekend and they looked strong coming in from their 24 mile runs.

We had several people taking photos all weekend so we should have some nice shots to share soon.

Our next Sweetwater Challenge (#2) will be held February 28th and March 1st, providing Mother Nature doesn't throw us any curve balls.

01-19-09 Trail Update

Greetings,

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the trails are in awesome condition - Rick packed all the trails yesterday since we got about 10 more inches of snow since the previous weekend. We are expecting one warmish day (at or just above freezing) and then back into the deep freeze for the weekend. Forecast temps for Saturday and Sunday are in the teens and single digits. Bring your long underwear if you are joining us for the Sweetwater Challenge #1 this coming weekend. I'm sure glad we didn't get the 18-24 inches of snow they got just west and north of us this past weekend. This is the most snow we've had here in our area since 1980-81.

Pre-weekend Update - 01-08-09

No photos today - just a quick note that conditions are good for this weekend. The trails were hard and fast a few days ago from some melting and refreezing but we've gotten about 4 inches of snow on top of that and it's still snowing as of noon today.

We are expecting a few mushers here for the weekend. I won't be around (heading to the Tahquemenon Country Sled Dog race north of Newberry - tagging along, not taking a team.) Rick will be around all weekend to help out in any way. Email me today or call this evening if you are planning on heading this way so I can let him know.

New Year Weekend Run

We had some fun on the trails this past weekend.





Here's some photos of some of the teams on the trail.





The conditions were great after some hard and fast trails earlier in the week - we even had some sunshine!






I was taking photos from the runners so these aren't the greatest shots - some are a little off balance.