January 10th - Copper Basin 300 starting in GlennAllen, Alaska at 10 a.m.
(http://www.cb300.com/)
Today, Tricky and I will head to Anchorage to pick up part of my handling crew for the Copper Basin: Laurie from New York! HOORAY! She will stay with us and handle for the Copper Basin, Kusko and Northern Lights. We will be so spoiled!
Mari, our kennel handler, has been of immense assistance helping us get packed up for all the races. We have been working on preparing drop bags which contain dog kibble, dog meat/fat (snacks), musher meals and snacks, extra gear, sorted and wrapped booties, fuel for the dog food cooker, hand/toe warmers, drinks, etc. The ones for the Copper Basin are now loaded up in the dog truck. That's a relief! Dog coats, a new gangline, extra dry gear, extra sled plastic, etc is also prepped and ready.
Tomorrow, we will do a final test run of the 12 dogs that I plan to run in the Copper Basin: Felon, Stormy, Eewa, June, Yama, Yoshi-No-Mi, Zumi, Taki and Mimi, as well as Suspect, Kroner and Norton from Husky Homestead.
Kaze, Charlie, Roosevelt and Willow will be running with Mary Helwig of Bravo Kennel in the Copper Basin 300. Mary lived here at Bacon's Acres with her team last year, so my dogs know her team well.
Libby and Hunter have very minor injuries and will likely be joining us for the Northern Lights 300. Rascal and Canyon have been training with the race team up to this point; however, I have decided it's in their best interest to stay home.
On Friday morning, we will meet up with good friends of mine, Dwight and Heather (the rest of my CB300 handling crew) and drive to GlennAllen. We will deliver our food drops, do our required vet check, attend a pre-race meeting and get organized for Saturday morning.
Wish us luck -- this is our first 300 mile race!