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Manitou Crossing Kennels Blog - 2008 Journal
  11-22-08 Blake & Jen Freking, dogs Scotty & Tuuli pictured with 20 dog houses sponsored by several fans, built by Dave Lundberg and painted by Bonnie Lundberg and several Sponsors.
Fall Training has begun!
MCK welcomes Alice as an official handler this season!
March 28, 2008 Hello All! Thank you very much for your support, sympathy, and generosity. We are amazed by the number of letters and emails we have received and certainly felt your thoughts and prayers while we were on the trail. We are very grateful that we have had several generous donations which has helped us cover the charges from Aries' emergency care and medical expenses. We were horrified to hear of Lances encounter with a snowmobiler and can only hope that some changes may come from these tragic accidents. Aries is doing very well and adjusting to life with three functional legs. He picked up a ball the other day and went for a 2-mile jog with me yesterday. Even with just three legs, he is still faster than I am. He has gone on free-run hikes frequently as a pup and occasionally since them and loves heading down the trail off leash, comes when called, and looks for his treats. Of course, we live in the middle of nowhere with no distractions, so this isn't something I would do in a more populated area. Aries has been examined by at least 28 veterinarians and specialists since the accident, and many more have been consulted. All have agreed that he is not likely to regain function in the limb, even with the best medical treatment available. He still has no sensation, no deep pain response, or movement in his front left leg at all. At this point would be miraculous if any healing occurred that resulted in sensation returning to the limb. Regardless, he is getting daily massage, range of motion (ROM) exercises, and physical therapy to maintain the limb as well as possible and in hopes of helping him regain function. Although Aries life as a racing sled dog is over, he has a bright future as my sister "webmaster" Cindy's new companion. We will give him plenty of time and therapy in hopes of saving his limb, but most likely it will be amputated. Thankfully, he is a sweet and happy dog and will certainly adjust to his new life quickly. My sister and husband are just graduating from medical school and will soon be moving to a beautiful hobby farm in Michigan as they begin their residencies. He will be in good hands and be a great jogging buddy for Cindy! We are working on putting our stories and photos together from the trail to share with everyone. More soon! Jen and Blake
Jen and Blake finish the 2008 Iditarod in 50th and 51st places!
Jen is voted Most Inspirational Musher! Click here to listen to her acceptance speech (.mp3 file) Blake set a New Record Time for a purebred Siberian team! Click here to see more. We're Home! We got home yesterday afternoon! It is sure nice to be back. The dogs are also very happy to be back in their own houses and with all their friends. Aries is also quite happy, the first thing he decided to do once back in the kennel was to chase girls and pee on everything in sight. Phil and Steve built Aries a special house that he can access easier, he certainly loves his "pack" environment but he is the type of dog that will also love to be a house pet. A big thanks to Karl, Phil and Arja for staying behind and taking care of the rest of the kennel and the homestead while we were gone. We would not have been able to run the race together if it were not for these three. The number of letters we received while being away is amazing, thanks to everyone who sent cards and letters expressing congratulations and concern for our losses. We did grant one interview about the accident with the Galena radio station.
There was, and still is, a lot of mis-information we wanted to clear up for the
locals of the area. much more to come!
March 19, 2008 Aries Update We made it back to Willow today.... The dogs look great, and Jason and Erin have done a great job caring for the teams since they came home from Nome. Aries is adapting to life with a paralyzed leg. He has a brachial plexus injury, thus the nerves to his left front leg are no longer functioning. He may regain some or all of his movement in his leg, but it is not very likely at all. He has no deep pain or sensation in the leg at all. All we can do is give him time and care and hope for a miracle. More later,
March 17, 2008 Thank You! We're amazed and humbled by the emails of support from friends, family, and mushing fans from around the globe... Thank You so very much. We were not able to get a flight out of Nome until Wednesday AM, so we had the opportunity to watch our friend, Liz Parish, roll into Nome with her 14 dog team this AM. They looked great! We will join the "back of the packers" at their banquet this evening, which I understand is and even better party than the first! We greeted Wayne Curtis and his crew of 13 Siberians at the finish line just before the Banquet yesterday...they looked happy and healthy and enjoyed cuddles from everyone at the finish line. We had a good time at the Awards Ceremony yesterday...I can't believe I ate two huge platefulls of food, plus a second piece of cake and could have eaten more! If I lost weight during the race, my appetite is going to make sure I gain it back quickly. I ate waffles with ice cream and strawberries at Fat Freddy's for Breakfast!! I greatly appreciated being recognized by our fellow mushers by their vote for the most inspirational musher award. There are so many incredible mushers with great stories and achievements, it is humbling to be chosen for such an award. The words of Jeff King from our Rookie Meeting last December have echoed in my mind many times this season. "What can go wrong, will go wrong. Don't ask me how I know." I have learned how true that statement is, and have realized that while we do not have complete control over what happens in our lives, we do have control over how we react to what happens. We could not allow the tragic accident to completely overshadow the wonderful journey we were on. Though I shed tears on every run for the remainder of the race thinking of the incident, we also took the time to cherish the dogs who were still with us. We also shed tears of both joy and sadness as the teams approached Nome... It was an amazing journey that took us from some of the best moments of our life to the lowest. We have found ourselves forgiving the snowmobiler. It was a genuine accident, though there is no excuse, I am sure he too will never forget that horrible incident. We can only hope that the accident will alert others to be more careful than they think is necessary, and Slow Down. We took over 500 photos during the trip with our digital camera which we look forward to sharing, along with our stories from the trail. You can experience the Iditarod with us without the frostbite and wind burn, although, if you take the time to look at them all, you may experience some of the sleep deprivation we did on the trail. Thanks again,
FROM NOME: Hello All! Just wanted to thank you for all the well wishes while we were on the trail. This race certainly had all the highlights and the lowest points of my mushing career. The loss of Lorne was shocking and traumatic. In hindsight, I'm glad we decided to push on, which allowed both Jen and I to reflect the whole incident from the runners. We were turning out some faster times on the coast and were never really thinking about the Siberian record or the "race inside the race" until we got to Elim and a race Judge told me that I still had a shot at the Siberian record if I pushed on. I welcomed a new distraction from thinking about the accident so off we went with the goal of getting to Nome in under 12 days. I'm proud of Jen and how she handled herself during the entire race. She recieved the most inspirational musher award tonight at the banquet, well deserved in my opinion. We are already making plans for next year and if we can financialy pull it together we will have another team in Nome at this time next year! More to come soon! Blake
NEWS FROM NULATO: At 10 PM Sunday night, March 9th, Jen's team was struck by a snowmachine on the Yukon River between Galena and Nulato. 3 year old Lorne was killed and Aries was injured. They emailed the message below from Nulato at 2 pm March 10th. -Cindy After a good rest and reflection, we decided as long as the rest of the dogs were healthy and ready to go, we would continue to Nome. Aries spent the night here at the school getting IV fluids and pain meds. He was flown out this morning for further care. He has been a really good boy through all this. He has a lot of soft tissue damage beneath his left shoulder, but he has been stable and calm the whole time. Hopefully, he will be able to recover fully. Lorn had been an incredible member of the team the whole race. She had eaten well and performed 100% the whole way... I was so very proud of her. The accident was the worst nightmare imaginable. We are so lucky neither Blake or I was struck and more dogs were not injured. I thought we had just witnessed half my team killed at the time. After 3 hours of sleep, we went out to feed and the dogs were all quite perky and ate great. At the time of the accident, we were both sure our race was over. However, on the long run to the checkpoint we realized we would be working through this tragedy whether we were on the trail or scratching. If we were not traveling together as we are, it would be harder to go on. But we have eachother for support and company. We just want to travel the rest of the trail with no thoughts of competition at all. Thank you for all your support. Jen and Blake
Jen Emailed a Note from the Takotna Checkpoint during their 24 hour mandatory rest: Hello there!! We are doing very well and having a great time out here! It is very very warm (like 40F?!?) and the run from Nikolai was the slowest traveling by dog team I've ever done, but we made it and the dogs are very happy. They are eating well and feeling good. You probably hear Frog and Mongo went home with sore shoulders. Peso, Ziggy, and Taku went home from Blake's team. Pepper may be going home soon, but she looks good here. Roland and Wat have tight quads, but are otherwise happy, eating great, and eager to go. I am hoping to get them to relax those muscles with message and rest. The trail has been amazing.... a lot more snow that I expected. The run across the Burn was our best so far. We have had plenty of challenges along the way, but traveling together is awesome. It is so fun to enjoy with experience with your best friend!! Even in the toughest parts, like last night when the run took hours more than we hoped it is so slow, you can't help but look around and remember where we are and what we are doing and just smile! The steps were not too bad... quite a rush shooting down them. The Gorge was crazy! White knuckling it through there most of the time... wow! It is amazing to watch the dogs and see them able to go through these trails. We have many stories to share sometime! I better get off the computer so someone else can use it. We just got done enjoying a steak, fries, melon, and pie here in tokotna. The hospitaly here is amazing. I don't know if/when we will get to write again! Happy Trails,
Jen and Blake are in Willow, AK, getting organized and running the teams the past couple of days.
February 2008 Iditarod Bound!! We're are on the road on the way to Alaska. Jason the handler traveling to Alaska, while Phil and Arja hold down the kennel in MN.
We have 3 sleds, 32 dog crates (for transporting dogs via plane from Nome back to Anchorage), all the gear and 38 dogs in the trailer. We have been
generously loaned a 100 gallon gas tank for the back of their truck so we have enough fuel to cross the Canadian wilderness! The dogs going to Alaska are:
Altoid Apollo Aries Baldy Bodo Capri Chester Coho Domita Dori Frog Gonzo Kimber Jodi Kyat Kenzi Lena Mac Lira Muski Lorne Nemo Mongo Oscar Punto Pepper Remi Peso Roland Steer Takihini Tagish Telly Taku Watt Trekkie Trouble Ziggy 32 of these will start the Iditarod. We need a few extras in case of an injury or illness comes up which prevents a dog from starting the race. Of course, once on the race trail, no dogs can be swapped. Dogs can be "dropped" if needed, in which case they are flown back to the handlers in Anchorage. We started the season training 55 dogs, but this included 12 pups that just turned 2 years old this winter. We decided not to run these younger dogs with the Iditarod crew this season. They did an excellent job in the Beargrease 150 and will be racing in Ely next month. The other dogs we will be leaving home to help Phil and Arja train the yearlings and two year olds including the older dogs like Naoki. He will be 10 years old this year and has covered 1300 miles in training this winter!! 
60 mile race in Ely. Pictures Here
Jen broke her hand in starting chute, had to scratch. Phil and Arja successfully take puppy teams in the Mid-distance 150. Click here to see more
January 2008 Race Preparations! All race preparations are in full swing now! The dogs are peaking in their training with many long runs into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness and “checkpoint” camping trips. We are also preparing our drop bags of supplies for the Iditarod as these need to be ready to ship before the Beargrease, plus we are busy getting ready for the Beargrease races which are just two weeks away! With forty dogs competing in the Beargrease from our kennel, that is no small task either. Blake is currently building our sleds which we will be testing in the Beargrease before heading to Alaska. Drop bags full of supplies for the teams must be flown out to each of the Iditarod checkpoints. The race trail is not accessible by road beyond the starting line, thus all supplies must be flown in by bush planes. Once on the trail, the mushers don't have any outside assistance and resupply their food and other necessities from the bags of supplies they sent out many weeks in advance. These drop bags include plenty of dog food, including high fat and protein kibble, beef, beaver, chicken, and fat, booties for the dogs' feet, food for the mushers, and other items such as a spare socks, gloves, and neck gators. Bonnie Lundberg, Liz Busa, and Dianne Freking are busy making, freezing, and vacuum sealing tasty and nutritious meals for us. Plus, my sister, Cindy, just sent some awesome brownies and other goodies which Arja and I tested for quality, approved greatly, and vacuum sealed for enjoying on the trail! The drop bags must be in Anchorage to be flown out to the checkpoints two weeks before the race. Since we are traveling from MN during that time, these supply bags will need to be packed, organized, frozen, shipped to Seattle just before the Beargrease, and then hauled to Anchorage on a barge in early February. Stay tuned for the Beargrease updates and results! The race starts on January 27th and will be a really exciting event to watch. There are many great teams competing, including many purebred teams! Just a couple weeks after all the Beargease excitement, Blake, I and two handlers, Shilo and Jason, will be loading about 38 dogs and literally tons of gear in our truck and trailer and making the 3500 mile journey up the Alaska highway to Willow, Alaska. We’ll do our best to keep as many updates and photos on the website as possible during these next few months of great adventures!
Happy trails,
Thank You to all who participated in the Ebay Auction, and especially to Bonnie Lundberg for setting it up!
Blake and Jennifer are both entered in the 2008 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in Minnesota and the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska! We invite you to follow our teams' progress from training and preparation to racing throughout this exciting race season! Join our new Yahoo Groups list at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MCK_News/join
2008 Race Schedule:
Dec. 13-15, 2007 Moccasin Run 200-mile Qualifier: Jen January 25-31, 2008 John Beargrease Sled Dog Races Marathon: Blake and Jen 150-Miler: Phil Morrison and Arja Montinen March 1, 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race: Blake and Jen March 1, 2008 Wolf Track Classic: Phil and Arja View other journal entries: |
