7:30 am. 11 degrees.

Today is the first day of running sleds instead of four wheelers. I couldn’t wait. We got set up, went over proceedures with the new guys and headed out. I choose teams and leaders and we got set up. I was the last team out, so released the other guys. Then I got ready. I held on, but forgot how hard the dogs pull as they first take off up the trail. It was incredible, however I immediately realized my mistake. I had put E-bear on the sled with a team of smaller females while I was on a team of strong males. Needless to say, I was riding the metal break most of the way. At the first stop we switched and I got to run with the girls. They did a great job with Bambi and Stormy in lead. Halfway through I put McKinley up and she was a little flaky, but did a great job.

For the afternoon run, we bumped up our teams to ten dogs each. The difference was incredible. I was on the brake the entire trip. Just watching them pull was great. I had six bags of 40 lb food on my sled for weight and they still had no problems pulling up every hill, on some hills I even had to use breaks.

Next day of work and tours will begin!