7:30 am. varying degrees between -2, 23 adn -14.

Rolex, one of our puppies loves to watch. He climbs up the fence, rests his front paws over and checks out the action in the kennel. He has no interest in jumping over, he just likes to observe.

The thirteenth started out with a warm morning and a little bit of snow. The trail was groomed nicely and the tour went well. Then the winds started to pick up. Sara left to groom and came back in just as the speech was ending. By the time we hooked up dogs and headed out on the trail (about 20 minutes) the trail was already gone.

Wind had blown snow over everything in drifts so high it felt like the snowmobile was riding on the ocean. Snow and ice were pounding down. If it wasn’t for the markers, I would have sunk off trail quickly. By the time we got to our first stop (about ten minutes) my face was covered in a sheet of ice. I wiped it off, got the sleds set and we headed back out.

We did gain some visibility as the tour went on, but the meadow was blown clean as if no one had ever passed through there. It was beautiful, and a hard workout for the dogs traveling through so much soft snow. We kept everyone really slow and bounced ahead trying to lay in a trail for them. Fortunately I’ve been over the trail so many times I have a sense of where it is even when I couldn’t see any tracks.

Heading back into the kennel was another challenge as the snow came back, visibility dropped and our tracks from two hours earlier had long been covered up. We made it in, the drivers were great and the dogs all seemed happy for a rest.

Feb 14, 2010 – I was surrounded by over a hundred of my best friends (the dogs). i had hoped to get out a little early to do some other work for another company. E-bear, Beagle and Stu-bird were on the afternoon tour while I stayed back and fed and cleaned up poop. We got a call that the one snowmobile was stuck, so I flew out to help. By the time I reached them, E-bear had gotten them out. Turns out the meadow was blown in again and E-bear took a right instead of a left at a turn and ended up by the edge of a cliff. He was able to get the snowmobile turned around and back to safety.

Feb 15, 2010. The skies opened up and the sun shone down with -14 degree temperatures. Kris is off in Montana racing and Sara was headed up to Three Forks for a private tour. We got our teams and sleds set up, harnesses laid out when we got the call that the one family that was on a time crunch thought the pick up was a half hour later than it was. We decided to have the dogs harnessed by the time they got there, quick speech and we sent them off on the trail.

The other three teams went out separately. I stayed back and fed, which was relaxing. Am starting to get a cold and have sore throat and fever. So it was nice to take it easy. The tours went well and guests all seemed happy. We celebrated with lunch at Double-Z downtown and then took a long, long nap!