Friday, 10 a.m.

The trails have held up through the thaw and rain...it got down in the 30s overnight and it's supposed to get cooler as the day goes on getting into the teens tonight. 6 inches of pack left where we've been packing trail all winter - I've been measuring where Rick plowed once - a nice mistake to find out about this a.m.

We will try to find time to shovel some snow on the driveway where the trail crosses the drive. 32nd St. is in good shape. Our driveway is mostly bare with a few icy patches.

Looking forward to running dogs this weekend!

Thursday photos

Photos from noon today, 02-16-11

Here's Sting on the trail next to the driveway.

Here's a shot of the metal ruler, tapped into the snow pack - shows 6.5 inches of snow pack left on the trail.

A kennel shot to compare to the one on Saturday.

A look at the Coyote Pass trail where it crosses the driveway. The leaves are on top of the packed trail, not showing through the snow to the ground.

A view of the kennel from Saturday, the 12th

Like I said, we have LOTS of snow...we got a little sleet overnight, now the sun is out. We'll see how much rain we get tomorrow night....

Waiting out the melt....

Been reading about folks north of us getting rain overnight, last night...not here thankfully, we got about a 1/2 inch of snow. In the 30's today with lots of sunshine. We do have a LOT of snow pack on the trails...waiting to see how things hold out for the weekend. We have a really nice location for our impromptu campout. If I can figure out the new camera, I will post a photo from Saturday, the 12th showing all the snow in the kennel.

First Sweetwater Challenge of 2011 A Chilling Success

We had a fun weekend with really cold temps - Saturday night was below zero. Saturday featured wind and blowing snow coming out of the trees. It was like being in your own private snow globe. Sunday was crisp and cold all day with lots of sunshine. The trails were awesome, hookable even. Everyone had good weather for driving home - those with Sirius radio in their trucks were entertained by football on their drives home. Go Packers!

No photos this time. I lost my camera on the trail on Sunday, DRAT! I know I got some nice photos of the teams starting on Sunday. It's snowing heavily right now so the chances of seeing it again before spring are nil. Rick and the Totten boys looked for it yesterday, everywhere, on two different snowmobile runs.

I am happy with how my dogs ran this weekend - they were so flat the weekend before. The cold really makes a difference in their ability to "go the distance." I also changed my pre-run watering program (lesser amount) and stopped snacking them at the 1/2 way point. We might make the Copper Dog 35 yet!

An update for the weekend, Sweetwater Challenge #1

I thought a couple of photos will speak more to the trail conditions, than my words.

The two photos below are from Sunday, the 16th, Patty and I taking a break at the turnaround point to the far west.

It was not reliably hookable but it's getting there - it's snowing right now with a couple more inches due overnight. More snow coming on Thursday and Friday too. It should be a great weekend!