Happy New Year!!!!!

Our crazy main team during hookup

Another pic of our crazy team

Larry coming home from taking the main team on a run on Monday

Me running the main team yesterday

Another pic of my team yesterday

my team crusin yesterday

We had a wonderful Christmas with both of our families this year. We also survived our annual Christmas freezing rain by doing BOTH of our long runs with the dogs BEFORE Christmas so we didn't have to worry. I am very glad we did, we were off for a few days because of the icy trail conditions. We really enjoyed our time off and relaxed with our families. It was nice! Now, we are back to work with the dogs, getting them ready for our first race of the year, the Tahquamenon Country Sled Dog Race in Newberry, Michigan. It is next weekend, January 9th. Both Larry and I will run two teams in the 8 dog, 43 miler. We can't wait to get our first race out of the way!! I am always very nervous, until I get out on the trail. If you would like to follow our races this year, go to our website: http://www.coyoterunkennel.com/

and click on "races". We have provided the web links so you can follow us on our journeys. We hope you all have a

VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Let it Snow!!!!!!we woke up this morning to yet another snow storm last night, bringing us over 2 feet of snow in all!!

This is Larry running an 8 dog team on the 6th in 10 inches of new snow. This was our first sled runs of the year!

Ana, so happy to have gotten to run "her team"

Ana's team consisted of Windows, our 10.5 year old retired leader (left) and Serra, our 2 year old promising young female out of Strider/Zoey.

We are so excited to finally have gotten a ton of snow! We have run the dogs with sleds twice now. I took my main 10 out for a 20 mile run last night, breaking trail through 18 inches of snow! Surprisingly, they kept an awesome pace and I was very thankful for the extra weight I put in the sled and the new snow to slow the team down. They were on fire! I was standing on the drag mat for the first 8 miles until they finally settled into a nice pace. They really looked good and are exactly where they need to be right now. The only difference I notice from last year's team is the power. Last year's team was powerful, but with 7 of the 10 being big, strong males this year, I could really FEEL how strong they were last night. On the way home, I had Larry go ahead on the snowmachine to make a track up the "huge" hill. This hill is like a ski hill, so I didn't want the team to have to break trail the entire way up it. Well, Larry buried the machine 1/4 of the way up. I yelled "get out of the way", charged past with the dogs, hooked my snowhook into the ski, and called the team up. I really didn't think they'd pull it out. It was REALLY stuck! They surged forward, put their heads down and miraculously hauled, Larry, Ana, me, a sled, and a snowmobile up that gigantic hill. I was so proud of them! After all that work, they still came charging into the driveway and finished happy and rolling around in the snow, wagging their tails. That is what we like to see!
It is Ana's birthday today! I can't belive 5 years have passed so quickly! We are celebrating with cake and subway that Larry is bringing home since it has been so bad out for the last 2 days, Ana and I have been snowed in and haven't left the house. Larry is also taking his team of 12 out for the same 20 miler I did last night. Ana and I will be following on the snowmachine just incase!
We also just created our website. Check it out: http://www.coyoterunkennel.com/