On the Road Again

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  After a nice 24 hour rest, Ryne and team are on the trail once again!  From the GPS tracking info, it looks like the dogs must have been all fired up after leaving Takotna as their run into Ophir had them travelling at almost 10 mph.  That’s cruisin’ for a dog team! 

Ryne opted to run straight through Ophir and camp along the trail, and she is currently in the middle of a camp out as I write this.  My guess is she’ll stay at her camp out for about four or five hours, so she should be taking off again at 11:30 AM or 12:30 PM.  Not ideal to be taking off during the heat of the day, but it looks like it shouldn’t get too hot out there, with temperatures right now in the teens. 

We’ve also finally had some contact from the musher herself!  I got a call from Katy Olson (Ryne’s mama) last night and she heard from Ryne while she was on her 24 in Takotna.  Ryne had a good story to tell about her encounter with a bison herd.  Apparently they ran into one along the trail, and the dogs spooked them, much to the delight of the team.  Ryne, on the other hand, had to hang on for dear life, since she was right in the middle of the Farewell Burn with limited braking ability!  The dogs had a great time chasing the herd down the trail, and Ryne and her sled made it through without too much wear and tear.  Included in this post at the bottom you'll find a link to an interview with Ryne about this story from KNOM, sent in by one of our wonderful readers.

For those of you dog sponsors who are following our blog, we’ve got some dog news as well.  Fenton, who started out a little on the slow side has turned into a bulldozer of a dog, getting stronger and stronger as he pounds out those miles.  Katy, Cartel, Niagra, Jana and Goblin have been her main leaders during this race, helping to guide our younger two year olds down the trail.  And all in all, it sounds like both Ryne and the Ryno Kennel athletes are in great spirits. 

That’s all for your morning update, check back this evening for more news on Ryne and her happy huskies!

http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2016/03/10/iditarods-middle-and-back-of-the-pack-find-camaraderie-amid-offbeat-surprises/

24 Hours of Golden Slumber

Good evening Ryno Kennel fans!  Since Ryne is on her 24 and not doing much moving about, in this evening's blog we’re going to talk about what its like being out on the trail.  Our world is very different from most people and revolves around dogs 24/7, even more so when we’re out on the race trail.  A typical day on the race trail will see about eight to twelve hours of rest for the dogs and one to four hours of rest for the musher. 

Every musher runs a different schedule, and many factors play into how each schedule is set up.  During our mid distance races, Ryne ran a competitive schedule, while I ran a puppy schedule.  That means that Ryne would run for anywhere from five to eight hours and rest three to six hours, and I would run what we can an even run/rest schedule.  For every five to eight hours I’d run, I would rest for five to eight hours. 

While the dogs get to go to sleep pretty quickly on a nice bed of straw, the musher is tasked with de-bootying, starting up a cooker to melt snow for dog food, massaging out sore dogs and re-organizing their sled.  Everyone is a little different, so I’ll just give you a quick outline of what I do when we stop.

As soon as I can, I try to get straw down for the dogs.  If its been a particularly long run, I’ll give them snacks as soon as we stop.  These snacks come in a variety of forms: poultry fat, beef, liver, BLT, (not bacon, lettuce and tomato, but beef, liver and tripe. Yum!) or salmon.  Then I’ll take booties off, and if its cold outside, I’ll put on jackets and cover the dogs with fleece blankets.  My goal is to get the dogs bedded down and sleeping comfortably as quickly as possible.  Once the dogs are settled, if there are any sore dogs I’ll massage them out and apply heat.  We do this by putting on a t-shirt specifically made for dogs that has little pockets I can put hand warmers in to keep their muscles warm while they rest.  Once that’s done I’ll get my cooker started up to so I can have hot water ready to make a delicious meal for the dogs which will be a mix of beef, kibble and supplements.  It typically takes the cooker about 30 minutes to go from snow to water.  If the dogs are really sleeping and they’ve had a good snack, I might wait another couple hours till I feed.  During that time I’ll re-organize my sled for the next run, get some food for myself and maybe snooze a bit.  Once the dogs are all fed, its time for me to get some real rest, though by this time it usually only amounts to about an hour or two. 

I’m not particularly fast, so I like to give myself a good hour or more to get ready before its go time.  In this hour I’ll walk out dogs that have shown any signs of soreness to see if they’re looking better, drop any dogs that might be too injured to continue, re-massage dogs and get everyone’s booties on for our next run.  After we’re all walked out, massaged, bootied and packed, its time to pull the hook and head on down the trail.  Rinse, lather, repeat. 

That’s all for now, folks, tune back in tomorrow morning to see how Ryne’s doing as she hits the trail again after her 24 hour layover!

24 in Takotna

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  I apologize for the radio silence last night. There’s been lots of activity since yesterday morning both here and on the trail!  Tessa and I ran all our six and seven month old puppies yesterday, and we’re busily preparing for our adventure trips coming up just a week after Ryne returns from Iditarod.  But, enough about home life, and on to the trail!

Yesterday morning I left you with Ryne resting in Nikolai.  She has since hit the trail, made it all the way to Takotna, and (I’m assuming, so don’t quote me on this) taking her 24 hour layover.  For any fans that aren’t sure of all the ins and outs of Alaska’s premier long distance dog race, mushers are required to take two layovers, a 24 hour layover anywhere they choose, and an 8 hour layover somewhere along the Yukon River. 

I had thought that Ryne would run straight from Nikolai to McGrath, forgetting that Takotna – and her 24 – is less than twenty miles from McGrath.  So, rather than running Nikolai to McGrath, Ryne treated the run as Nikolai to Takotna, making it about seventy miles total.  This meant that she would need to camp along the way, as she’s been consistently keeping the dogs’ runs at about 40 miles or less.  It looks like she took 3 or 4 hours along the trail, and then continued on to Takotna blowing through McGrath.  

And now we wait. Ryne got into Takotna just after 10 PM last night, so we’ve got a little while until she starts moving again. 

If any of you have seen pictures of Ryne, videos or articles, please don’t hesitate to share!  I’ve been scouring the internet, but the more eyes on the prize the better! 

Safely into Nikolai

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  Ryne has made it safely into Nikolai and is currently resting there with the dogs.  It looks like she’s made it through the Farewell Burn just fine.  My guess is that she will take about five or six hours in Nikolai before heading down the trail to McGrath, which means she should hit the trail around 11:00 AM or 12:00 PM. 

Nikolai to McGrath is about a fifty mile run, and I think she’ll go straight through as this section of trail is fairly straight forward.  She’ll be crossing a lot of lakes and swamps and have a bit of time on the Kuskokwim River, but it should be flat and fast. 

The dogs are will be going into mile three hundred during their run from Nikolai to McGrath, and once they pass that point, it’ll be the furthest they’ve gone in a race for many of them.  If I remember our drop bag packing, I believe Ryne intends to take her 24 in Takotna, so just as the dogs are getting to the point where they’re probably starting to wonder why they’re still on the trail, they’ll get a nice long snooze, and Ryne will get a bit of a chance to relax herself. 

All accounts I’ve heard from fans say that the dogs are happy and sassy, just how we like them.  I’m including a nice article from the Anchorage Daily News with some quotes from Ryne and Kristin. 

Unfortunately I won’t be able to write a blog tonight, but check back in tomorrow morning for another update on Ryne and her happy huskies!

http://www.adn.com/article/20160308/iditarod-mushers-get-soaked-hauling-dogs-across-happy-river

Out of Rohn and on to Nikolai

Good evening Ryno Kennel fans!  Here’s your nightly update on Ryne as she makes her way 1,000 miles across the Alaskan wilderness.  Ryne left Rohn at 3:01 PM with fifteen dogs and has travelled about 35 miles towards Nikolai.  She still has about 40 miles yet, and I’ve been anxiously watching the tracker to see whether or not she’ll camp during this run. 

While the run between Rohn and Nikolai can be one of the most notorious along the Iditarod trail, many mushers have been reporting smooth sailing and fast trail conditions.  If the dogs are looking good, Ryne may elect to push onwards and head straight into Nikolai without camping in the middle.  Many of the dogs in her team have done exactly this during the 300 mile races we ran this season, and have finished their mid distance races as strong if not stronger than when they started. 

Photo Credit: Nicholas Guy

So far I haven’t seen any video footage but I do have a report from one of our many fans that they saw a video of Ryne and the team coming into Rainy Pass, tails wagging and full of attitude, so it sounds like everyone is in great spirits.

Much of what I write here is speculation since we don’t get to follow Ryne down the trail as we do with the Yukon Quest, but judging from her steady speed and the fact that she still has fifteen dogs, I’d say things are looking pretty good!  Stay tuned for our morning update!

Coming into Rohn

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  Ryne is heading steadily towards Rohn, and should be there at around 10:30 or 10:45 AM.  She and our friend Kristin Knight Pace from Hey Moose! Kennel have been doing a lot of travelling together, and we’re glad Ryne has someone to keep her company out on the trail.

As I suspected, Ryne rested in Rainy Pass before hitting the trail towards Rohn at about 4:41 AM.  My guess is that the climb up to Rainy Pass was a little slower and may have been a bit tougher on the dogs as she elected to stay about six and a half hours in Rainy Pass. 

From Rohn, she’ll be hitting some tough sections of trail that are often windblown, glaciated and full of obstacles that haven’t been covered by snow.  Her run from Rohn to Nikolai should be about eighty miles or so, and we expect her to camp somewhere in between. 

That’s all for now, folks.  Stay tuned for our evening update!

On to Rainy Pass

Hello Ryno Kennel Fans! This is your evening update on Ryne and the team.  It looks like they’re doing well out on the trail and keeping that nice conservative pace.  I’m sure Ryne’s champing at the bit to go faster, but she’s always got the dogs’ best interest in mind, and keeping them at a slow pace this early in the race will help them to be strong and healthy as they hit some of the tough, windy conditions on the coast. 

We got news from the Authiers (wonderful couple in Anchorage taking care of our dropped dogs) that Kindi was dropped in Skwentna.  She’s got a sore tricep and sore toe.  As soon as Derek and I heard a dog was dropped, we immediately thought it might be Kindi as she was going into the race with a little stiffness in that tricep.  Bummer for Kindi, I know she’s probably still got miles of energy! 

Ryne left Finger Lake at 6:02 PM with fifteen dogs, and is headed towards Rainy Pass.  She should be there shortly.  I’m assuming she’ll take a little rest before hitting the trail to head towards Rohn and the Dalzell Gorge, but its all speculation from my comfy cabin in Two Rivers.  That’s all we’ve got for now, check back tomorrow morning for more updates!

Iditarod 2016

Photo Credit: Albert Marquez

Good morning Ryno Kennel fans!  Before I get you all updated on Ryne, I just want to take a moment to give a big thank you to all our fans, supporters, sponsors and family!  Getting a musher to the start of the Iditarod is no easy feat, and we couldn’t have done it without you guys!

Ryne looks like she’s off to a good start in her second Iditarod.  For some background info for all you new fans to Ryno Kennel, Ryne is running a young team this year and expects to maintain a fairly conservative schedule.  That means lots of rest between runs to make sure that she gets the nine rookie 1,000 milers in her team of sixteen to the finish of their first long distance race in tip top shape. 

Ninety five miles in, and as far as I can tell from the computer, the dogs must be looking good!  Ryne’s kept an average of about 8 to 8.5 miles an hour and has been resting at each checkpoint she’s come to.  She dropped one dog before leaving Skwentna, not sure who it is yet, but we’ll keep you posted.  More updates to come tonight!

Bib #44

We've all arrived in Anchorage for the start of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race! Tonight was the banquet, where I drew lucky #44 out of a field of 85 mushers, meaning the Ryno Team will be taking off almost right in the middle. Perfect! Frequent updates and pictures will be posted on the Ryno Sled Dog Kennel Facebook Page, so be sure to follow along!

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