I will try to write in English and then French for each post during the racing season....


Montana News,

We are really enjoying the trails here in Lincoln, soft, warm trail, perfect to get our dogs in shape for the race. The top of the mountain got like 3 inches of snow, at the bottom where Doug and Mel’s kennel here we only got rain but the trails are still nice. Nice warm temperatures make it nice for the feet, no booties to worry about!!!!
Jacques will start driving to Chicago the 31st in the morning. With the 14 dogs he will have selected by then.
I will stay at Doug and Mel’s place and may race in the Seeley 200 miles race starting Jan 6th. The schedule is somewhat like this, go 55 miles 4hr mandatory stop, then go for other 55 miles with then a 6hrs mandatory stop then 80 miles to the finish.

Anyhow we really enjoy our friends, they are so nice, open their house and kennel for us and make everything so easy, and this is so nice… It is nice to know that even between competitors (they are our main competition in WY) you can still be great friend and help each other each time you can.

Now we are going 35 miles and we go over a pass at 7000ft, the kennel is at 5000ft altitude. Dogs are getting used to altitude and wide trail warm and soft trails. Once again we are so glad we came down here to train.

Nouvelles du Montana,

On apprécie vraiment d’être au Montana (nous sommes arrive le 23 dec), il fait chaud et la neige humide et fraîches permettent a nos chiens de se mettre en parfaite conditions pour les courses.

Hier il a neige 7cm en haut de la montagne, ici au chenil nous n’avons eu que des gouttes de pluie mais les pistes sont en bonnes état. Les températures relativement chaudes nous permettent de ne pas mettre de bottes aux chiens dans la neige fraîche.
Jacques partira vers Chicago le 31 décembre, il part pour le France le 2 Janvier et il a 2000 km a faire depuis le Montana.
Moi je resterais au Montana chez mes amis Doug Swingley et Melanie Shirilla. J’aurais 22 chiens a entraîner. Je penses peut être faire une course de 300km non stop le 6 janvier. Le planning de la course est a peu près comme ceci : Départ pour 90km repos min obligatoire de 4hr, re-départ pour 90km repos de 6hr min obligatoire et dernier morceau de 130km.

Nous apprécions vraiment d’être chez nous amis au Montana, ils sont si gentils et nous ont ouvert leur maison pistes. C’est très agréable d’avoir de si bons amis sachant qu’ils sont notre compétition principale sur les courses à étapes, mais cela n’empêche rien à l’amitié et de nous aider entre nous.

Nous faisons des entraînement de 60km ici le chenil est a 1500metre d’altitude et nous passons a un col qui est a 2100metre d’altitude. Nous chiens ont de super entraînements pour les habitués aux pistes pour les courses a étapes.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 5:49:28 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU READING OUR BLOG


We arrived in Montana yesterday morning; the truck didn’t play any trick on us on the way so this is VERY GOOD.
After we unloaded some of the truck we got ready and trained 2 teams on sled… I had forgotten how nice it was to be on a sled, no engine to gas to buy etc…

Yesterday we both took 6 dogs teams and went 20 miles to check the trails and snow conditions.

Today we both run 2 teams; I took 2 teams of 7 dogs and Jacques 2 teams of 8 dogs. The trails are very nice here we just have to know them a little more to not get lost or figure out itinerary. 

Mel and Doug are very nice and we are close friends. They have a kennel of 80 some dogs and to my pleasure ELMER is still around he is 17 years old now…. He is the father, grand father and great grand father to ALL the dogs from the Swingley racing kennel.

Doug took off early this morning for a long run and he will be back late tonight..

Here are some photos of the road trip and training:

Sunday, December 24, 2006 6:06:48 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Hi my last post until we reach Montana !
Today was our last 4 wheeler training next time it will be on sled in Montana.

36 dogs had been selected... I decided to leave here Hector, nothing wrong with him but he is not a great eater this season so I decide to give him a break and next season will be a big one for him....

The dogs we are taking are:

ZIRCON, YANKEE, WIND , ULYSS , SPHINX, SIMBEL, SHREK, SHAMIR, SCULLY, SCOOBY, SAFRAN, RINJDAEL, PYRAMID, ORACLE, ONYX, MULDER, MEMPHIS, LOLY, KONGA, JEWEL, JENNY, JASPER, JANET, JAGO, HERCULES, GOOGLE, FUEGO, EVEREST, ETNA, EGYPT, DIAMOND, CUMIN, CHROME, CHO-OYU, ARGOS, ALF.

And of course our poodle KEOPS !!!!

I'll write about the trip and try to take some scenery photos in 3 days !!!! If you don't read anything in a week start to get worried !!!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 11:24:04 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Lance won the Sheep Mountain 150 today and finished with 11 dogs

race results here

Photos from the race

Sunday, December 17, 2006 6:54:01 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Loly and Memphis come every evening in the house with us. this is hard for them... check those photos:

"Memphis and Mao (Mao like every cat love cardboard boxes)"

  "Loly"

I guess you can say they are spoiled....

Saturday, December 16, 2006 7:45:43 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

In 5 days or less we will drive to Montana with 36 dogs in the truck plus Keops our little Poodle.

Jacques still run 16 dogs on the 4 wheeler I went down to 2 teams of 12 dogs. By next thuesday on 36 will be loaded in the truck.
Jacques adult dogs have about 1300 miles of training and mine 1000 miles.

Here's what our dog teams looked like today for the dog line-up:

Teams

Jacques, 30 miles	Magali, 20 miles
Loly - Jewel Chrome - Google Simbel - Yankee Wind - Jago Scooby - Cumin Alf - Shrek Ulyss - Rinjdael Oracle - Argos	Jasper - Janet Scully - Zircon Memphis - Hercules Hula - Konga Fuego - Safran Helen - Denver

Thursday, December 14, 2006 3:53:55 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

We had been looking at the snow falls in France and not much there either
They got an other 2.5 inches yesterday which is good!

To check the weather and snow coverage of the ski resort click on the image below.


It is a big logistic to leave our kennel, one of us will be in MT the other one in France, so all have to be double and we have to make sure we don't forget anything important. We have to double check all the paperworks for traveling with the dogs and the new changing EEC Regulations make sure your nerves are "well attached"!!!

Our dog food sponsor ROYAL CANIN have dog food and dishes an leashes waiting for us when Jacques arrives in France.
ANTIPODE will provide the best racing sled there is for Jacques.
ENERGIZER FRANCE is like last year our sponsor for all our needs in Lithium batteries and small headlamps.
Thanks to Aurelie who just found a new job but she told her new boss that she is gone 2 weeks early January to help Jacques... THANKS TO HER !!!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 5:04:46 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Hello,
in a week we should be heading or already on the Alaska Highway with Lincoln Montana for final destination.
Let's hope our massive dog truck will not play any trick on us like loosing a tire or loosing his transmission...

We are training 20 miles and 35 miles we are selecting dogs, we still have "too many" so we are getting picky. Jacques decided to not take Shamir to France so she will be in Montana with me.
For sure the one I am training and that are going with me are: Memphis, Janet, Pyramid, Onyx, Jenny, Mulder, Zircon, Diamond then we will see just before we go I don't plan on taking Edfu but I am looking at taking Denver.
It would be so nice to be on sled and select the one that don't like the "sled pace"... but can't do this this year...

Bye for now.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 8:02:25 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Jacques main race dogs went over the 1200 miles of training which is about 2000 km.

In 27 days is the of Jacques first race The Grande Odyssée in France. To get there he has to drop me off in Montana at our friends Doug and Melanie place then Drive to Chicago then take the Air France Cargo plane to Paris. There our friend Aurelie will pick him up with the dogs and they will go to the Jura Mountain to pick up the race sled then Go to Avoriaz on the 6th of January.
Right now there is NO SNOW in France... let's hope some cover the mountain before the new year comes. This race is already dangerous so some snow could only help the  tricky trails....

We started to select more and more the dogs to get down to 40 and then 36 when we leave for Montana around Dec 20th. I will race with mostly the "B" team which is a very very good "B" team of course. I wish we had a handler able to stay here and train the yearlings. Oh well I'll start all over when I come back and may do some little races with them this spring. I may take one yearling in the B team, this will probably be MULDER a beautiful male of about 50 pounds. Today I finish my training run with Memphis and Mulder in lead.

Jan 6th when the French race will start there is a small race in Seeley Lake it is a 200 miles race (km) with a mandatory 10hr rest. This would good for the dogs that will be with me in Montana and also early enough that I can speed them up for Wyoming (20 days later)... we will see. To get info on this race visit the race site: SEELEY LAKE RACES

To see which dogs are in the pool for the Race in the Alps follow this link GRANDE ODYSSEE DOGS

And to see which one are on active training and that will probably will be in Montana with me go to: DOGS ON TRAINING

More soon

Sunday, December 10, 2006 5:44:33 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

There si now 105 mushers signed up for Iditarod
check the list of the 2007 Mushers here

This is going to be a LONG banquet...

Sunday, December 10, 2006 10:38:53 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

OK the weather is really strange this year, we had cold weather for about 3 weeks and today we trained it was 31f (-1°c) go figure this out!
At least this gave me a chance to take all our "winter" clothes and wash them.

I also tried the new NEOS overboots I just got and I like them. I wear them over my Merrell but I will probably run with running shoes under at the races.
We didn't need hat or even gloves to hook up dogs !! I like this... Dogs are getting use to this warm weather and this is good since pretty soon they will be in warmer part of the world!

Regarding the dogs we started to make the selection of the one coming in the truck in 10 days.... Today I removed from training Aswan, Gem, Reyes, there is nothing wrong with them but I need to choose the best one so right now they are not at the pick of their performance so they will stay here.

Here's a picture of me Janet and Memphis when we started hooking up dogs.

Saturday, December 09, 2006 4:14:05 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Races are getting closer it is time to just "put the head down" and get going and I will breath in April !

I just received the patches from our main sponsor ROYAL CANIN DOG FOOD, so I am sewing a patch on each side of each harness!
Yes lot of work, I have 100 patches so about 50 harnesses to do !!!

Saturday, December 09, 2006 11:25:27 AM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)     

Tonight like last night I am making tugline for our new lines.
In the evening Memphis and Loly are in the house with us. here's some photos that I hope you will enjoy.
Mao love to hide in paper bags and Memphis just make sure he is in the bag !!!!
ENJOY!

Thursday, December 07, 2006 9:01:31 PM (Alaskan Standard Time, UTC-09:00)