Well, as my team and I wrap up another great season of racing and just having fun hanging together. I have many people to thank before we ride off into the season’s sunset. I have to thank Dale and Dan for doing a great job holding the fort down while I was traveling this past winter. I need to thank my handler, and good friend, Lori Stauffer for helping me with all that is evolved with racing a dog team, from training to travel arrangements. I hope you come back next year. She now has to go back and make amends with her family that she deserted back in October. I want to thank my friend Steve Fox for all his help, including letting me use four of his dogs this racing season. I hope your back next year training with me because it was not lonely out there on the trails when I knew you were somewhere on them close by. I also need to Thank Desha Utsick for taking photos during the season and last but not least Stacey Materna for sharing her daughter, ten year old, Darian Hewitt so I could train her to run her first ever dogsled race. It was a blast. I also must thank Progressive Insurance Company for signing on as a sponsor of the team, “Thank you!”
Ok, here is the run down on the season: First race in Michigan was cancelled, believe that, no snow in the Upper Peninsula. Our second race was a 32 mile race in Clarendon, PA. We finished second with a run time of three hours and eleven minutes. Our third event I chose not to run in, The Midnight Run, a 100 mile race. I did not feel I had enough miles on my dogs at that point in the season to have them make that race. Last race and a big meaningful race to the team was the International Can-AM Crown in Fort Kent ME. We were in the 60 mile race which is a qualifier for the 250 mile race we want to do next year.. I will blog on our face book page details of how this race went in the near future but the dog dirt on this is, we finished 20th out of a field of thirty, 5 did not make it to the starting line and one other scratched during the race, leaving 24 mushers on the trail. We did qualify for the 250 next year. Congrat’s to my team and all who had a part in making this season a successful one.
Read more from our Newsletter: DJI_Insurance_Spring_2011_Newsletter_V5