dogbooties.mom

February 22, 2006

When I first started learning about mushing several years ago I learned that many of the dogs wore "booties" to protect their feet during long distance racing. So I thought I’d see if I could get my hands on a few pair for Ivory and Nicky before our Great Adventure. Since I google everything, I found a web site, believe it or not, called "dogbooties.com" and that’s what they sell. So I bought several pair and played around with them with Ivory and Nicky. I ran them around with booties on at Pony Pasture on the very rare occasions it snowed in Richmond. I gave a couple to my Mom once when she was down for a visit and she took them home and sat down at her sewing machine and made several sets for Ivory and Nicky. The whole time we’ve been here the only snow has been packed down and solid and hasn’t bothered their feet. But it snowed several inches the other night and when I took Ivory and Nicky for a walk down the Yukon in the AM, Nicky got ice balls stuck between his toes. They’re about the size of marbles and they make him limp like crazy and he constantly stops to pick them out with his teeth. Ivory doesn’t get them at all but Nicky gets them constantly. So last night we experimented a little bit with his custom made dog booties and they were perfect. This morning I put them on before our walk and we went for a really, really long hike, maybe our longest walk in the Yukon and he was perfect the whole time. Here’s a picture of him grinning from ear to ear after we’ve been walking for a while.

We also went into a new area along the river this morning, a little park on a small island near the side of the river. Their was a sign on the island I thought was humorous; I may put in a picture of it tomorrow. I’m attaching a picture of Ivory and Nicky hiking on the island today. The island was very secluded and the paths were narrow and there was just snow everywhere. It’s only around six or seven inches deep but it’s so cold out here the snow is just the lightest and fluffiest powder you can imagine. And I was juggling leashes at one point this morning and I dropped one and it just disappeared – completely. You could see a little disturbance in the snow but the leash was entirely out of sight.
Just before we walked out the door this morning I looked at the weather for Whitehorse and it said the temperature was -4º F. I know that sounds cold – or anyway, it sounds cold to me. But I was dressed warmly and the sun was shining and the wind wasn’t blowing and you’ll just have to take my word for it – it’s really not that cold. That’s incorrect; -4º F is cold. But it wasn’t at all uncomfortable. We walked for two solid hours and it was never even mildly uncomfortable.

I’m putting in one other picture of a wide, flat area of snow with trees on both sides. That’s just a frozen stretch of river with snow on top of it. So you can see how they used the rivers as "highways" for dog teams in the old days. And that’s what they spend a lot of time racing on too. Unfortunately for the dogs and the mushers there are a lot of hills between the rivers, but the fast parts are all frozen river beds.

Sorry if you’re getting tired of pictures of dogs and snow – but that’s what I’m spending a lot of time with on this trip. And it hasn’t gotten boring yet! Have a great day,

Jay, Ivory and Nicky