Time for update

Into the arctic mountains.

Its dog-season again. It has actually been that since August. So I think it might be time for some updates from the deep forest. This year WE HAVE WINTER!!!!!!!!!!! We have been on snow since early November and it has been below zero since the snow came. We have about 50km of trail out of the dog yard, and can go everywhere in the mountains. What a difference since last years F.... up winter
Life is going well, we are well installed in our new house and the training of the dogs is taking a lot of time. And this is the reason for the missing updates. There is a lot to do whit the house, and that takes quite a bit of my spare time. There is a bathroom to be made, a kitchen to readjust, insulating the roof and so on. And its the dogs of course. This year we are not training as much as earlier, and we are 3 persons to do the training, so at least I have some time for working on the house The reason that we are not training as much as the last years is that 7 of 16 dogs are yearlings, and we do not want to train the young ones to hard. They are not going to race this year, so the training we do this winter is more a preparation for next year (dog mushing is always next years sport). But the adults are going to do some racing. Lotta is going for Finnmark 500k (http://finnmarkslopet.no/race/musher.jsp?year=2009&entr.id=1219). And I will run Troms Quest, a new early season race we are having here in Troms.
To day I have been in to Dærtahytta for the first time this winter (we have been part of the way some times all ready). I took 15 of the 16 dogs whit me in one team (Vosko is resting after some surgery) . That is a long team! It was OK, whit 80 kg of wood in the sled (for the cabin), I was able to control the team and get the speed down. The weather was as good as you can get it. Clear sky all around, pink, yellow, orange and blue. And on the way home an almost full moon!!! Espen is out now for a second run after 4 hours of rest for the dogs. He is running under the full moon during the arctic night. I wish it was me!
Making the TromsQuest trail.

On Sunday I was braking some new trail from Rostadalen to Devvdes. This is part of the Troms Quest trail. It was new ground for me and the dogs. The trail looks good, its just to get it well groomed for the race. At least I have started. It was heavy conditions and slow going, but good fun. That's all for now, hope to be back soon.
PS I keep on forgetting my camera, so all the pictures are taken whit my mobile phone, sorry for the bad quality.

Rostoætno, canoeing in northern Scandinavia

Again it has been a long time since I last wrote something in this blog. There is so much I could have shared whit you, but time and the ability too use it right is not always there.
In May and June the priority has been water (frozen for skiing and running for canoeing). I have had two open canoeing courses and one for a local school class (grade 8). The plan whit the school class is to go for a one week wilderness canoeing trip in September.

In the end of June/early July me and some friends was on a eight day canoeing trip from Dividalen to Soppero in Sweden. In April we brought the canoes to Dærtahytta by dogs. And on June 23 we were ready for the trip. The first part from Dærta to lake Rosto was easy going on small lakes and some river. The weather was not the best, cold wind and some rain. On lake Rosto we met some problems. There was still some ice! So in stead of one day of easy canoeing we had two days of breaking ice, pulling the canoes over ice and portaging on shore. But we made it to the outlet at last. From here we were looking forward to lots of funny rapids and challenging canoeing. Well, dream on. The water level was high whit the river in full flood. This made for some big rapids and a lot of lining and portaging. The gradient of the river was a little steeper than expected as well. But still it was good fun.
Even at normal water level this river is for experienced canoeist or kayakers only. I lost the count of how many rapids and waterfalls we lined or portaged. But still it is a really nice trip in a beautiful area. The landscape is rolling hills and you are above the tree line for most of the trip.
After three days on the river Rostoaætno we came to the confluence whit Tavaætno, and the two rivers forms the river Lainioætno. From the confluence to Soppero the river is not as wild, but you are still in the wilderness. The river is still moving fast, whit long sections of grade 1 rapids. Here you can really go fast and far in one day. The only thing to look for is Ledakoski, two rapids that can be challenging. The first is grade 2 with some large rocks. Then there is a calm stretch before the next rapid. This is grade 3, but if you take a sneak rout on river right you can come down ok on good water levels. From here its plane old fun to Soppero, whit some big waves and fast moving water.

In Soppero Brit Mari had the coffee ready and soon the sauna was warm. Thank you.

News at last

I know it is a long time since my last entry here, and I am sorry for it. I should have been writing some from the Finnmarka Race weeks ago, but there has always been something else that had to be done. To make it clear, I am not so disappointed about the race that I have not been willing to write about it. In fact, to scratch was the only sensible thing to too this year.

All ready before I got as far as going to Alta I got the first setbacks. Skare, our old trusted leader, decided joined his forefathers and is now running in Sepalas all-star team. Then, one week before the race, Elvira got back from a training run whit a sore shoulder. Luckily I got to borrow three dogs from Arne Liaklev.

So coming to Alta the first i did was to pick up Sara, Chili and Puma. A little special to start the race whit tree dogs I did not know.

The start in down town Alta is always exciting. More than 1000 dogs ready to race makes some noise. In open class we only use 10 dogs out of Alta of security reasons. The last 4 we add to too the team at the restart 15 kilometers up the river.
Nine of my ten dogs were just standing or lying down waiting. Vosko had to have one person calming him down. I like it this way. Its called self control. But at the restart I had no chance to keep the dogs calm. This is one hour of intense barking. After that it is days of silence waiting.

The first legs, to Skoganvarra and Levajok were familiar terrain and mostly everything was just ok. But half way to Levajok I had to put Sara in my sled. She got an injury in her shoulder and started to limp. The race was over for her. Unfortunately she was not the only one that had to leave my team in Levajok. Chili and Smirre also got sore shoulders and Momba a sore wrist. Why four of my dogs came down whit injuries is hard to say, but I think it was going down from the mountain they got it. The trail was quite bumpy, and I should have used the brake even more. This was a set back and my mood was not the best. But I started out whit an intension to take the rest of the trip one checkpoint at the time. Going over to Skippagurra we had some wind and snowing crossing the mountains. Gunnar was doing his job really good. We even had to help a team that would not go in the conditions that the mountain provided. After six hours we were back under the tree line and it was time for a rest. After three hours it was back on the trail.
We had a good rest in Skipagurra, then went over to Neiden, were I arrived right after midnight (late Monday/early Tuesday) and a mandatory 16 hours rest. I can tell you it was good to get some sleep. Since Saturday I had only got six hours of good sleep myself.
Neiden to Kirkenes was pure joy. The team was doing great, and when I took a rest half way they all attacked their food. Coming in to Kirkenes I was starting to get tired again and I was a bit cold although it was just around zero degrees (32F). While trying to get some sleep I understood that something was wrong. I was laying inside a warm room in my winter sleeping bag whit my woolen underwear on and freezing. When I got up after 2,5 hour of sleep my handler Lotta soon was quite sure I had a fever, and ordered my back in bed for one more hour. After some more sleep and food I was still not feeling great. Of course not, I told myself. This is day four of a seven + days race. I am just tired. So I got down to my dogs to take care of them again. Kaos was still sore inn here muscles so I decided to drop here. She had done a fantastic job, and had been my best dog so far. Tutta also left the team whit a sore wrist. So whit 8 dogs I started back to Neiden after 9 hours of rest, three more than planed.
I have to say that before going I was really close to scratching. But my good friend Tommy got me going. He has done the race many times himself but was a handler this year. According to him I would feel better whit my self if I tried to go on and see if the fever got better. He meant that I would never forgive my self if I quit now, and the fever was gone in the morning. I can tell you that I was cursing him sometimes that night. It is the hardest time I have spent together whit my dogs. I was freezing inside my big down parka and it was hardly below 0. And I was exhausted. Many times that night I was planning to take the dogs straight to the car as soon as I reached Neiden. But in the end I did not. You never quit a race coming in to a checkpoint. After taking care of the dogs and three hours of sleep I went back to take care of the dogs. I still had a fever, and was thinking of scratching. Some of the dogs were a bit sore in their wrists, but they could still go on. But in combination whit my fever I found out that the best solution was to give up when we still had some fun. I could not be the last dog on the team in my condition, and that would mean harder work for the dogs. The decision was not hard. It had been a process that started in Kirkenes and I had given it a lot of thought during the night.

I scratched on Thursday morning. Friday night I still had fever, which I was quite pleased whit. My decision had been right.

In the weeks since the race I have spent my spare time skiing in the mountains and I have been on some trips whit the dog. The young ones are given some more attention and we are trying to train them a bit to.
Trangia has moved to a neighbor, and Sunda and Dønning are soon ready to go to new homes. We are also looking for a new home to Sting. The reason for this is that we have 7 young dogs ready for the team next season. I will not be going to the Finnmarka race in 09. Whit so many young dogs we will not have a 14 dog team, and I am not going back to the 500 kilometer (8 dog class). But we hope to have someone run the 8-dog class whit the dogs that are old enough.

uppdates

For uppdates of the Finnmarksløpet go to www.undervegs.blogspot.com

Almost there

I have not been that good to update my blog this winter. I am sorry for that. But at least, here is an update before the Finnmarksløpet 1000km. I am ready, just waiting for the start next Saturday ( march 8th) in Alta. The dogs are just as I want them now. The energy level in the dog lot is high. Although there was hardly any winter before early February I have got the 3500km of training I was aiming for. Of course it could have been better training whit more long runs, but when the winter is totally f... up, you have to adjust to that.
frustrated that I am running slow, its hopefully because I rest. To day I had a nice 60 km run in the mountains. The team is working good. Now its just to hope that they will do just as well when racing. I have a race schedule that says a lot of resting early in the race. I will be resting between checkpoints as well on some legs. So if you are getting Espen will be in the home team, sitting in front of his Mac and talking in the phone for the hole race. He will be leaving coments on the race on his blog as well as on my neighbours race blog
This might be a good source for information during the race.

About the team. I have presented this years team in an earlier entry, I think. But there have been some changes. I will start whit 11 of my dogs, and borrow 3 from a friend of mine. The dogs that will run is Gunnar, Momba, Sting, Trangia, Elvira, Kaos, Elton, Tutta, Dønning, Kesam and Vosko of my dogs. I will also use Sara, Chilli and mr x from Arne Liaklev.
The three dogs from my team that is not coming is Smirre: he had some injuries en the early part of the snow season and lost to much training. Sunda has developed epilepsy, so I don't find it wise to take here along. Our good old leader and grand old man Skare decided it was time for him to go over to Leonard Seppalas team, running down the endless trail and resting on fresh straw every night. Thank you Skare, for all the good miles we made together and I hope you are fine on the team on the other side.

Well, in some days I am of to Alta. I am ready and fit for fight.
So long.

What´s happening

It is a long time since my last entry on the blog. So what is going on? Yesterday we finally got some snow, about 20 cm. This is the first snow we have had since long before Christmas. I have not been able to train the dogs whit sled from back home since the first days of December. This has made a lot of work, or more precisely, a lot of time in the car.
In December we could do some training in the mountains of Dividalen. I have also been some (6) times in Kiruna, since November, a four hour drive each way. We even had to do some training with the ATV in January!!!!!! just to get the dogs out. Lake Altevatn, that usually provide good training conditions have also suffered lack of snow. It has up to recently been more or less just ice up there. But some days ago we could finally go there as well.
So what do this mean for the training of the team? It means that we have been training longer distances but not so often. I have had three trips of 200km and a lot of 50-60 km trips, but no short, fast and fun runs. So the dogs have the same distance as last year, but they lack a little of the spirit needed to run fast.
Now that we finally have got snow we are going to do some short trips back home this week before I do some longer trips over the weekend.
The situation in the dog yard is that 13 of 14 dogs are in good shape. Smirre, one of my yearlings have had problems whit a sore wrist and have been resting quite a lot. So I don't think he will be ready for the Finnmarka race. This mean that I have to borrow one or two dogs. And that should be no problem.
That's it for now. So its just to hope for good snow conditions for the last 6 weeks.