The 2008/2009 season was a frustrating one, but it ended on a real high note – finishing 3rd in the 300 mile Race to the Sky in Montana, and only 12 minutes out of second place!!! Prior to that, though, the season was highlighted by the first snowfall coming about three weeks later than normal, thus delaying and shortening our sled training, our first planned race (the Seeley 200 in Montana) being cancelled due to weather and avalanche danger, and the decision to withdraw from our second planned race (the Beargrease in Minnesota) primarily for financial considerations. This last one was a tough decision, but the race was going to cost about as much as my entry fee for the 2010 Iditarod and I felt like prioritizing my main goal – the Iditarod – was a good decision in the end. So, it ended up being a short race season. And while the season didn’t evolve as originally planned, there were many events and occurrences during the year that I learned from greatly, and the season ended very well indeed. With this, my team and I will be even better and more competitive next year!!! Watch out!

View pictures from the
2008/2009 Season »

The goal for the 2007/2008 season was to run as many lower-48 races as possible in a competitive fashion and begin my team-building and qualifying for another attempt at the Iditarod in 2010. Essentially, my theme this season was "moving to the front of the pack"; and that we did -- we finished 6th at the Seeley 200 in Montana among some serious competition, and finished 6th at the Race to the Sky in Montana among different but equally good competition. At the 400-mile Beargrease in Minnesota we weren't quite as successful, scratching at mile 260. Nevertheless, overall we had a great and successful season moving to the front of the pack.

View pictures from the
2007/2008 Season »

The 2006/2007 season had some real emotional highs and lows. This was my rookie Iditarod year. After a successful 200-mile Cascade Quest where we finished 2nd, we headed to Alaska to acclimate and train the dogs for our 1,100 mile journey from Anchorage to Nome. But that journey was cut short by a severe ground blizzard at Rainy Pass, where I lost the trail, struggled for 5 hours to find it again, and returned to the Rainy Pass checkpoint with 8 frostbitten fingers – a handicap that caused me to scratch from the race. But the month of training in Alaska for the race was one of the best months of my life, and, despite only making it to Rainy Pass, my experience on the Iditarod taught me some invaluable things about running the race next time.

View pictures from the
2006/2007 Season »

The 2005/2006 season was a success. We met our goals of assembling an Iditarod-ready dog team and qualifying for the Iditarod by completing the 200-mile Cascade Quest in Washington (in 3rd place) and the 350-mile Race to the Sky in Montana (in 12th place). The Race to the Sky was definitely a challenging and frustrating race for me as my leaders took me off the trail and headed the wrong way on several occasions. But I managed to recover from all these mishaps and by the half-way point I was able to relax, get some sleep, get some food in and rest on my dogs, and we finished the race with a strong 9 dog team, running the last 72 miles straight through.

View pictures from the
2005/2006 Season »