And it gets better!!!!!!!

Much colder today - thank goodness they went over the parking lot with the groomer (all the slush from yesterday had frozen into a very gnarly parking lot!!!) and the trail was much better for the dogs .Randy went out 9th and had a good clean run with no stops - he had 2 dogs that were not working very hard but finished good and managed to move up a place to 8th!!!  Talk about saving the best for last!!!!

So tonight we drive back the 2.5 hours to Bellerive's and then in the morning Claude is picking us up at 9am to go have "farewell breakfast" with the family - Melanie and Patrick have been in Florida buying a condo for the family so we haven't seen them for awhile and it will be good to catch up!!

Then we are off to Michigan!  I will post if something noteworthy happens - other wise will post when we are home safe and sound!!!!

Photo of Randy's today team before he left and the video is taken from a point in the race where they have done a mile loop and then come back close to the start/finish

Best race result this year!!!!! Wohooo!!!

Pretty warm day and lots of slush in the parking lot - they had the unlimited
 teams go out in the middle of the day before the 6 and 4 dog so that was good - the trail was a bit soft - had to work with
the weather  - but Randy ended up 9th out of 21 teams so we were  ecstatic!!!!  He went out last and only had to pass one team and didn't have to stop at all so he had a clean run!!!  we will see if he can stay in 9th tomorrow!!1

Not a very exciting week..........

Made our last trip to Walmart in Shawinigan for this year and trained only a 3 mile loop yesterday (it was all they put in with the groomer after all the snow we got on Sunday and Monday).  Today just getting ready to leave tomorrow for the last race at Valcartier!!!  Should be fun but warm - like last year it warmed up and there were big puddles of water all over the parking lot!!!  We will see!

stayed in 7th but not last!!!

Good clean run today with no problems and Ultra (the dog who has never led in a race) did fabulous again!!! The blizzard started before we left to come home
and the driving was not great (saw a couple of accidents on the way home) but we made it safe and sound..  Got back to 6 or more new inches of snow and then had to clean out the kennel to put the dogs back in there to save/prevent my knee from getting hurt - in the meantime, the Bellerive's front end loader came to plow the  yard so we had to move the  truck and trailer for that and then feed the dogs and then I had to make dinner so now at 9 o'clock we are finally settled in for the nite!!!!!

So the "fun run" was pretty fun.............

Unless you think coming in last is not fun..............

Only 8 6-dog teams and 7 unlimited teams showed up on this beautiful winter/spring day - sun shining and moderate temps!  got the 12 dog team up to the line and everything looked good--- until JR Saucier overtook Randy and then while Randy slowed down to give him a good pass, our dog, Dozer, decided it was a good opportunity to cross right in front of his passing leaders to take a bite of snow out of the bank!!!!!  So they had a tangle that probably cost JR winning today and put Randy in 7th instead of 22 seconds faster and in 6th - very fast teams, a fast trail and fast times!!!  Randy's average was19.84 mph and he was the slowest!!!!

More tomorrow!!!

Pretty uneventful week....

We trained tuesday and thursday and left today for Valcartier for a "pot race" - the owner of the Valcartier resort already has the trail in for the race next weekend so they are having an informal race of sorts tomorrow - we drove the 2 hours + with no problems and are parked her for the nite - we will see tomorrow morning how many people come for the "fun run"

Last nite we went to dinner at the only restaurant in Charente with Bellerives and they have sold to new owners that seem to want to "upgrade" the menu - so they had escargot on the menu and Melanie encouraged me to have them for the first time in my life...........not too bad...............

Not quite as good as we had hoped............

Randy put Swix in lead with Greg (who is already pretty old for a leader but still dependable - at least for shorter races) and I could tell she didn't start out very well from the chute - and she didn't do well after that either............  After about 4 miles of Greg towing her and slowing everybody down, Randy stopped and put Fred up there and things went somewhat better until Lester (the dog we bought last year that was really going to "jump start" the team this year.............) started neck lining and finally dragged - so then Randy had to put him in the bag - we can't tell what the problem was, he isn't limping and acts fine??!!!  So, all in all, Randy dropped down to 14th .............not what we wanted....
Only one more race in two weeks at Valcartier - the snow and water part just north of Quebec City - we may also go to a fun run there next weekend and be able to have the dogs run the trail before the real race!!!

So this is what a lot of snow looks like!!!!!

Pictures were taken on our way to the race site at a little town near Charette!!!


So the first day of the race went very good!!!  18.6 mph average for 10 miles!!!  Even though several of the fastest Quebec teams were not here - Claude Bellerive and his two teams, Guy Girard and Rejean Therrien are at the Rondy and North American races in Alaska - but Randy had no problems and came in 9th out of 18!!!  He is switching leaders for tomorrow hoping to go faster - we will see!!!