As always, our January programing reflects our daily life experiences with the dogs!  And the long winter nights mean running the team in the dark, gobbling batteries for our powerful led headlights, and focusing our concentration down the tunnel of light they throw over the dogs.  Occasionally, though, on the rare smooth stretch of trail, we lift our eyes from the team and are amazed by the beauty of the Northern Lights!  Join us for our January Special Event to celebrate them! ( http://www.kigluaitadventures.com/aurora )

December was great month for us!  We introduced, for the first time, our “Santa with Sled Sleds” Special Event.  It was a huge success and a hoho merry good time was had by all!  We are already looking forward to next year!

Here is what some of our participants had to say:
“We loved the program!!! It was awesome.”  Bridget in New york

“Can't thank you enough for the awesome event!!” Judy in New Jersey
“WOW!  What a fantastic conference.  That was probably one of the best conferences I have done with my students. Thanks so much for sharing all of that information in such a fun and educational way.  My class is so excited now for Christmas, the conversation is still going about who should pull Santa's sleigh.”  Stephanie from Dallas, Texas.

And finally, with December come and gone, the mushing race season is in full bloom!  Upcoming races for us are the Tustimena 100, ( http://www.tustumena200.com/ ) where Charlie will be doing his last race before heading off to college!   And the Don Bowers 200 (http://www.donbowersmemorialrace.org/ ), where I will get the team back.  Training is in full swing to be prepared!  In honor of that, January's overall theme is sled dog racing!

In Decemeber, we (the dogs and I) ran one race- The Excursion 120 ( http://www.callintrailkennel.com/alaskaexcursions120.html )- it didn't go to well!  But that's racing!

I will admit I was very disappointed!  But when I reviewed everything that happened I realized the dogs had a great experience!  And that's what's important!  The goal now is to turn that positive experience into some faster race times.  Join us for one of our Mushing series programs ( http://www.kigluaitadventures.com/virtualmushing) to see all that goes into meeting this goal.

The heart of the Alaskan winter also has us excited about a few other events! Partnering with Millwuake Museum, Kigluait will be providing customized mushing programs for their new themed unit on Jack London ( http://www.mpm.edu/education/programs/big-read/ ). And, in addition, as we move closer to the Iditarod and Yukon Quest race sled dog races, Kigluait will be offering special events to help support the many teachers around the country who plan Iditarod Units for the their students!  Check out the new and improved Virtual Sled Dog Race ( http://www.kigluaitadventures.com/virtualrace ) to learn more about this!

We are back and watching the Ion Tracker for the race. Rich will post shortly with his update so you can understand what is happening. 

This is Fluffy, Charlie's lead dog.

And here is Charlie at the Start. For more pictures go to the Gallery.  

Well it's the end of the day at the end of a very long weekend, that really started over a week and a half ago when we got the the word there was enough mushers to run the 2009 Jr. Quest sled dog race.

11pm alaska time on a day that started at 2:00 am!  So bare with the punchyness of thought, spelling, and grammer!

Well Charlie won!  Yahoo!  He ran a perfect race as a musher.  He took dogs that- I believe- even he would admit weren't conditioned as well as they could have been, and ran them to their absolute best!

 And he won to boot!  His first ever win!  

 It wasn't easy by any means- and there is so much that I want to explain about how he did it- but there isn't room here.  It is probly enough to say that he not only won the race but also won the Humanitarian Award which goes to the musher who gives his dogs the best care.

Charlie and I began learning to race dogs together.  And for the past four years, 4 Jr. Iditarods, 2 failed Iditarods, a number of mid-distance races and shorter Jr races, we have struggled to learn how to keep the dogs running at a consistent pass through out the race.

But Charlie turned the corner on that with this was!  He went out hard and as fast as our dogs can genetical go and stayed there- holding a steady pass - and they lead - for nearly the entire way, holding off a mid race surge by the 2nd place musher and a very slow dog drop at the Valley Center check point that cost him a third of his mid-way lead!  But his steady, never wavering pace won the day.

And a lot of just good, solid, dog-reading judgement calls!

The secret- foot care!

Even though his dog went into the race undertrained, they finished barking and banging the harness ready to go more!  An observation I over heard many of the spectors at the finish commenting on.  In fact, I am sure had the race been any longer the time between him and second would have continued to grow just as it had through the last two checkpoints.  Tonight as I fed them, and Charlie slept, the lunged and barked and generally looked ready to start another race- stronger even than they were before this one!

That is the first time ever that any of dogs have looked anything like this at the end of a race!  Yahoo!

This is Charlie last year of Jr races and then he is probably off to college soon after- though thoughts of holding off a year and running Iditarod or the Quest are bouncing through his head- It's been an absolute pleasure to be part of this with him and I am VERY of all he has done and learned over the past four years!