Second place times two

Lost Lake was a great weekend! I had to flip flop teams a little, but everything worked out perfectly in the end. The trail was incredible. I just can't get over how great it was to be able to let the dogs really open up.

I wanted to go out with a bang, and I'm excited to say that we finished in second place not once, but twice! The 3dog class was out of 35. Tune ran PERFECTLY in single lead with Brew and Joppie behind. Petunia was simply amazing. Joppie was giving her all and worked her butt off. Brew was solid and provided so much power. That boy has come so far! (Did I mention that I led him the other day?) We were beat fair and square by a semi-retired team that has worked very hard to get where they are now. I respect this competitor very much and we are becoming very good friends. I was happy to see her win. I'm still just thrilled to be at the top of that many teams.

My 5dog team was Fred, Fox, Heini, Wiskee and Tanick. Freddie gave me exactly what I wanted. She was 100% the main leader for that team. On Saturday, I ran Heini up there with Fred and Heini helped a little with speed but she didn't pass as strongly as I had hoped. I was going to put Wiskee with Fred on Sunday, but I didn't want to risk him pulling a Kazon on me, so I used Fox instead. We were way too fast for her, but she gave her all. I ran Tanick at Atlanta and loved her, so I was more than happy to use her this weekend. Just like last time, the little alligator dog drove her heart out! The 5dog class was the highlight of the whole weekend. I had second place on Saturday by almost 2 minutes, so I didn't expect to be able to make it up. In first place was a friend of mine whom I helped learn to mush back when we were like 10 and I've even been on family vacations with her. On Sunday, I was dying to catch her....and I did. I passed her right around a mile from the finish. Her team hung on all the way in. She and I both thought I had it. We were both wrong. We were able to laugh about it a few hours later when times were posted, showing she had beat me by 20 seconds. It was such an exciting chase and finish. We both loved the competition.

Lost Lake might go again this weekend as a race. We're waiting on word from Drummond about snow conditions. If LL doesn't go and Drummond does, I just plan to call it a season and run at Ft. Custer this weekend. Kinross is a certain go, but I'll wait until next season for that one. This weekend was the last race of the season, but next weekend might be the last race, too.