3 more miles of fun today!

So awesome. The dogs look like they're having a blast!

I also notice your fir trees are starting to lose their needles, just like over here on the East Coast. We have some strong winds today and most of our street is covered in orange.  

glad your out having a blast! love the updates, i wish i could run ours and have a team like that! maybe one day.... cant wait to see how you all do this season! keep the pics coming

I second that emotion!

Thanks all I'm so excited about how the girls are taking to the sport! They are so excited to bounce to the gang line and hit the trails. Tight tug lines for all- makes me a super happy momma! First race will be at the end of the month in Michigan at the SHCA National Specialty rig race (running 4 dog), first 6 dog race will be our local Dirt Rondy mid November

We had another beautiful run yesterday- we even loaded up the nephew visiting from Arizona for his first ever run on a dog cart Very proud of how the team performed even with an additional load!

In other news Denali will be back with us next week and joining the team soon after

Looks like so much fun! Nice-looking trails, too. Do you have to go far to get to them?

Not really far at all for us- about 20-30 min drive is all Great early season trails, the loops are expandable up to about 8 miles and are only open while the trails are clear. Once we have snowfall or need more mileage we'll be bumped to a couple further training spots.

Upped the training mileage and worked on some more team building skills with a great group of fellow mushers

Happy dogs!

Beautiful dogs! I absolutely love to see photos of them in action.

Those are some nice looking trails too. The ones I've discovered "close by" have been pretty narrow. Works for me because I've only one dog but man... A nice wide trail never hurt a girl and her dog!

Denali's back and back in harness! Team started and finished strong- time to bump up!

Yay! I love the pic of the field and the semi-gravel road. Looks like the dogs are running into the mist.

How far was today's run?

We did 3.5 miles today- probably bumping up to 4 on Sunday. It was foggy when we started and burned off by the end of the run, love running in the fog

Increased to 5 miles today- team is looking good We even saw a Moose while out on the trails today! Glad she steered clear of us!

What pace do you guys go?? I've always wondered because pictures can be so misleading in that aspect. Is it a faster jog, or an actual run?

I'm aiming for a sustained lope when we go out- we typically start out at around 12mph and are ending around 10mph, depending on if this is a conditioned run or if it's an endurance building run-

Hmm, sled dog mud drags, wonder how the hillbillies missed that one  

Team Keahi participated in our first race of the 2013 season in Midland MI for the SHCA National Specialty Rig Race. Placing 8th overall we could not be more pleased with our team's overall performance, the experience, and the fun memories! Great times, new friends

First local race of the season and we couldn't be more thrilled! Placing 2nd in the 6 Dog Sprint with vast improvements over the two days and leaving the trail wanting more- not much more we could ask or want for!

Team looks great! Congratulations! Glad you had such a great run to kick off the season. Hope this means continued success throughout!

Training run 5.5 miles with new addition Harvest!

Denali is middle left, yeah?

Oh yeah, I was wondering something. Link has always known "right" because I always walk him on my right and I wanted to teach him to never cross in front of me. I am starting to work on "left" now that he's stronger and I am allowing him to pull ahead on walks in the woods and I think it'd be cool for him to know command for choosing which way to go at splits in the trail.

For sledding purposes, is there a practical reason for not using Left and Right? What's the story behind Gee and Haw? I know they're relative to what side of center you are on as the driver...that's about it.

A lot of it does come from 'tradition' as they are terms more common to working animals (draft horses come to mind). But also from the 'crispness' of the words themselves. It is often felt terms like "mush" and 'left/right' are 'softer' words and less distinguishable over excitable dog teams. Gee and Haw are very different sounding vs both left/right having the t at the end, and roll off the tongue with a bit more conviction.