Winter is pressing its way to step in for autumn. Minnesota is still relatively warm, but winter always arrives. The temperatures are dropping well into the single digits in Alaska!
I took a week off of work to head up to Alaska to visit Anna and the dogs. It seems that our two-year-olds have grown up into such mature adults. Rolls, Beamer, Porsche, Lambo, and Regal are all grown up and are leading the younger dogs now. Even Iliad and Oddessey are learning to be quite good leaders! Now our kennel has grown with a couple of puppies! It is exciting to help raise future sled dogs.
I get to go back up in a month for the rest of the season to be with everyone!
When we had our first winter in AK in 2022 all of our main leaders seemed like such veterans; they knew everything and we knew nothing! There was a lot of truth in that. The luxury car litter, the Homer boys, and Regal were like us, they didn't know anything and we were all on the cusp of some crazy adventure we couldn't ever dream of. Some of those dogs have since retired: Hope, Llama, Yankee, and Qnut, but in their time at the kennel they taught us so much. Hope and Llama especially taught me to persevere through the challenges, and that the finish line will always eventually arrive and at the finish line there are always snacks and a warm bed.
While I was up they were still in fall training, also known as dryland training. Anna and Olivia have been taking the dogs out on the back roads and trails with the ATV. The dogs go on the gangline in front of the ATV just as they do with a sled and they pull with a little assistance from the driver. I compare training for a race season to a human would for a marathon; small mileage at first, then more with mid-distance races sprinkled in, and then tapering before Iditarod. Dryland consists of sitting on a cold ATV for hours on pretty boring back roads. Anna and Olivia have been doing all of the hard work to prepare the dogs for snow season. A huge thank you to both of them for holding everything together.
A fundraising update!
A huge thank you to Sven-Saw, Ely Outfitting Company, Positively Third Street Bakery, and Core Realty for being top sponsors! Collectively, they have donated $7,000 to get us to the starting line! On top of that folks have donated over $27,000 for a total of over $34,000! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has made this season possible so far.
Where does all of this money go? Here are a few things I've purchased so far and what they cost:
Iditarod entry Fee: $4,000
Supplements for dogs: $3,000
Kibble: $4,000
Meat for the whole season: $6,000
Sled: $5,000
Flight home from Nome for us and our handlers: $1,500
Dog booties for the season: $4,000
What else is upcoming? Here are a few things left on the plate for us:
Kibble for the rest of the season: $8,750
Cargo flights to Nome (gear + food for Iditarod finishing dogs): $2,000-$4,000 depending on weight
Housing for handlers for the season: $5,000
What remains still feels like a lot to me, but every donation, no matter how big or small, impacts what remains financially for us this race season. Again, thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far!
If you are thinking about donating, there are options for donations on emilyontrail.com.
Some other options are PayPal: emilyontrail@gmail.com Venmo: emily-ford-63 or snail mail to Emily Ford PO Box 68 Willow, AK 99688
Winter is nearly here!