This Entry Appeared in the December 12, 2012 Edition of the Seward Journal
Mother Nature is such a tease. For the past two months we have had bitterly cold weather without the slightest hint of snow. We are not alone in our search for it. Mushers all over are collectively asking, “Where is the snow?” To make matters worse, until the snow arrives, our trails in town are exceedingly limited. The long runs needed at this time simply cannot be done in Seward. We’ve been forced to do a lot of travelling.
Travis has now spent more time in Knik this November than he has here in town. He’s stayed with mushing friends and has enjoyed the long uninterrupted runs he’s been able to put on the dogs.
The dogs to impress us. We often compare our team to a freight train; they start their runs slow and gradually they gain momentum. At times they seem invincible, roaring up steep hills with a casual elegance that makes us wonder if they are really even working. We suppose they must be, but they simply make it look easy. They often end runs stronger and more excited than when they began. These are things we love to see. Just last week the dogs covered about three hundred miles.
On Thursday, we came home and participated in the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Sea Life Center by delivering Santa with the dog team. We used our four-wheeler because there wasn’t enough snow. The dogs didn’t mind though, we’ve been training on the four-wheeler for almost three months now. We have to admit that we were a bit nervous though: our dogs have never run in crowds or in parking lots so we were putting them to the test.
We truly were impressed with our lead dogs, Tamere and Boston, who drove the team through the crowd as if they had been doing their entire lives. It was magical giving back to a community who has been so supportive and to see our dogs take right to it. Travis steered them around the parking lot as if that is where they had been running their entire lives. It was awesome. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
If anyone has pictures or videos from Thursday night we would love to see them. You can either post them to our facebookpage: www.facebook.com/turningheadskennel or email them to us at info@turningheadskennel.com
