News

The days are slowly shortening. The last brilliant purple and pink fireweed petals hang to their tall, almost barren stalks and slowly, the weather is changing. It’s been a little cooler and a little rainier:  fall is slowly weaving it’s way into the landscape. The beginning of the end of summer is slowly coming upon us. The 2013 Iditarod movie was released several days ago and Travis has already studied it half a dozen times. The fervor of fall training starts to eat away at him.

“I really just can’t wait to train,” He tells me. “These dogs are incredible.”

A few nights ago, we were dragged out of the house by our friends in an effort to beat the heat and have some fun. We headed out to Bear Lake, a few miles north of downtown Seward to go boating and swimming. The water was warm — and not “Alaskan” warm either. The water temperature was a balmy 64.7 degrees. The best part? We launched ourself off an amazingly built rope swing only accessible by boat for a few blissful hours.

It felt wonderful to fling ourselves like Tarzan into the water. When we splashed, we would sometimes see the red backs of spawning Salmon jump up and flick the surface. When I first let go of the rope, I thought I’d come up gasping because the water would be cold but it was absolutely wonderful. We stayed out late and swam and swung ourselves off the rope for several hours.

What fun.

The summer heat is sticky. We don’t usually get weather like this here in Seward — it’s been in the high seventies. What is even more bizarre is that the weather has been consistently hot now for several weeks. These warm days remind me of growing up on the Cape where the air got hot and humid making your hair frizzle out. These are the days that make you think of eating ice cream, of going swimming, and having a good time.

The heat certainly doesn’t make you think of sled dogs…or sled dog tours! When it is 75 degrees it is hard to think of mushing down a trail at -20 or wearing beaver mitts to help you stay warm. All we can focus on right now is staying cool. It’s strange weather…but we are certainly not complaining!

Travis has begun working with new lead dogs — it’s one of the things we like most about our tour. It produces great leaders who really know their commands. He’s been working with some younger dogs — Goblin, Gremlin and Fidget — as well as some older dogs like Ginzu and Kermit. It’s great to see a large core of our Iditarod pool taking turns up front and will give us confidence throughout the winter. Still, Zema, Mary, Boston, and Tamere continue to be the main leaders.

In other news, my parents came for several days to visit with Travis and me. When they were here, it seemed like they would always be here in Alaska. We explored some and they helped with projects around the house. We also celebrated our one year anniversary of being in business doing dog sled tours on July 16 so they helped us throw a big party. Travis’ brother-in-law, Kris, cooked fish and Travis’ sister, Shani, made tartar sauce. You couldn’t have asked for a better meal.

Here are some photos from our summer dog sled tour that were taken by recent guests: