Trip north

What a trip it feels like there was nothing we didn't do. First on the list was not bringing a map. Just assuming my GPS would work all over the world was the begging of the miss haps. Apparently there is no life north of Edmonton.  What should have been a three hour trip from High Prairie to Dawson creek turn out to be over four hours. To be honest I lost track of time by the second or third wrong turn. Jenny and I left on Wednesday to head up to Lisa's in Athabasca spent the night there. Thursday we started our journey. Planning on stopping to visit Louise and Eric just outside of High Prairie. Louise and Eric is where I got Rob from last year. This time we wanted to stop for a visit and see the guardian dogs. Louise and Eric breed sarplaninacs.

I got to see a son of Rob. He was too cute holding his dish in his mouth.

Finally after hours of driving we arrived at Dennis and Jean Gelling's place just outside of Dawson Creek, BC. The trial field was a nice rolling terrain framed by trees. Each day we ran a different course. The first day we ran to the left. 

Day two

The first day I was surprised by how well my dogs worked. Rob place 5th and Isla a couple of spots behind him. Each day the top three dogs qualified for the double lift on Sunday. Rob missed it by two points. Day two the sheep got the best of my dogs by breaking back to the set out. Rob actually got the sheep off and he brought them through the trees but I was impatient and had already left the post to go and help him.

Dennis and Jean worked their butts off setting sheep and making sure everything was running smoothly. I will definitely be back. Friday night a pig was roasted for the handlers dinner. It was awesome.

This was the exhaust hill from hell the sheep refused just to run up the hill. No they would try to bust through to the trees. By the time you got to the top you were exhausted. Then you had another couple hundred yards to the pen. Most of us did a fine job. Some handlers lost a single sheep in the trees now and then.

Dawson Creek also happens to be the beginning of the Alaska highway. Mile 0 happens to be right in the middle of an intersection. Jenny and Lisa braved it for a photo op.

Our last adventure of this trip was to visit Karen Ramstead and her Siberian husky sled dog kennel. Karen has run the iditarod many times and was happy to take us for a ride. She is also good friends with Lisa. Up at the crack of dawn to beat the heat of the day. We hooked up a team to the quad and went for a run. After the team run we each got a turn of our own. Two dogs hooked to a scooter. It was scary fast but really fun.