dogboy's 2nd sled dog race of the year: Leadville, CO

dogboy opens his can of Whoop-ass at 10,000 feet

[dogboy]

my dogs swept them 2 days in a row in Colorado! 10 dogs 15 miles. It was cold the first day (-4 degrees F) and bright blue sky. The trail had been groomed the night before and had set up hard and fast. My dogs exploded... we passed four 10 dog teams from behind and 2 head on... we passed eight or nine 6 dog teams head on as well. The coolest was a half mile from the finish, I came up behind two 10 dog teams.... one was chasing the other and then finally got along the side of the other team but stalled and so the teams were running side by side. All of a sudden, I call up my dogs to pass and they surged ahead and blew through right up the middle.... 30 dogs coming into the final straight away within sight if the finish line! And then I called the dogs up again, and we just left them behind....eheheheh... that dude that caught the other guy had no idea where I came from:)

The second day was on a different trail. A bunch of 6 doggers went out in front of me, one minute apart, then 5 min between them and us... I went out in first of the 10 dog teams... passed maybe three 6 dog teams before the turn around and then another 3 on the way home, plus seven 10 dog teams head on, one of which I passed going down a mountain full on the drag but still hauling ass.... it was the dude behind me in second place... so I knew how far away he was from me, which was a pretty cool feeling because I knew all I had to do was keep my team together and have a clean run home, and it was mine.

....Anyway, granted is wasn't as big a race as West Yellowstone, but if anybody had a faster team, they should have showed up.

[DrCool]

Congrats dogboy. Sounds like you have a pretty good team!

[jeremy goodrich]

You know, I've never really given much thought to dogsleding...but reading you account of the events was very entertaining!

Thanks for sharing, it does sound like you've got some amazing dogs there.

[Rumbas]

Congrats dogboy!
Good for you and the rest of the team - what do you feed those doggies? :)

[dogboy]

thanks, folks:)

jeremy, if you liked this account, here was the post about my first race:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Rumbas, right now their diet is:

Meat - beef, whole chicken, tripe, liver
Kibble - a 30% protein/ 20% fat high performance food by Eagle (about $30 per 40lb bag)
other ingredients - corn oil, beef fat, vitamin/mineral supplement, bone meal, and pro-biotics (good for their stomachs)

....mixed all together with water until it comes out as with the consistency of loose mashed potatoes.

anyway, the next race is in Steamboat Springs, CO, Jan 11-12 ...so I have some time.

[jatar_k]

I love these posts dogboy, congrats.

[caine]

congrats dogboy, i enjoyed listening to your race stories and dog keeping when we were having a beer back at the hotel.

Hopefully, things can only get bigger. On too Yellowstone.

[Nick_W]

Seems like a way of life rather than a sport? ;)

Well done again...

Nick

[mivox]

Seems like a way of life rather than a sport?

You don't know the half of it... hehehe.

Up here, a lot of dog mushers live without running water (or electricity in some cases), so they can live out in the country where they can run their teams and spend the money they save by not renting a real house on their dog food.

[Bradley]

Pictures of your dogs? and team? That would cool to see!