My Dog Team

When I was done working with Dave for the season he gave me four dogs!  I offered to take two dogs that didn't make his Quest team, Mary (7 yrs old) and Squiggy (5 yrs old).  In order to make room in his yard for the new puppies he needed to find homes for a few dogs.  Then, he decided to retire his training leaders, Tear and Torn (both 10 yrs old).  So I took them too!

Andrew was able to take scrap material from his construction job and build beautiful dog houses for them. 

Going clockwise starting with bottom left... Squiggy, Mary, Tear and Torn

Toklat was very intrigued by the new dogs but knew how to keep his distance.  Naughty kitty!  Causing quite a ruckus many days.

With no dog truck or traveling boxes like other mushers have, they just rode in the Rav4 with me.  I strapped my sled to the top.  Some friends down the road gave me this sled!!!  He built it for her years ago when she ran dogs! It's a perfect sled for me....sturdy and light enough for me to load myself! She made the sled bag too.

We had a blast the last 6 weeks of winter!  Even though the trail conditions were not the best.  All of our snow melted in January (because the whole month was above freezing) and we barely got any after that.  But it was enough! :)

Tear always takes advantage of his breaks and Torn always wants to keep going.

Some days we saw up to 30 caribou while out on the Stampede Trail.

Andrew walking on ice from a small creek.  This was madness crossing with the dogs! They seemed to do OK but the sled had no traction and I couldn't slow them down.

Then in May when I came back from Tennessee, I took this little girl from Dave.  She was the runt of the litter and would not match the rest of the teams pace.  I named her Winnie, as in Winnie the Pooh.  Her mother's name was Panda, so I tried to stick with the bear theme.