Time to Move

When we moved camp we only had 4 ft. of snow.
In a week after we moved, none!
Camp was around the top right.

I had been hearing the horror stories about moving camp and all that we had to go through.  Tours ending at 1930 and then moving all of the huts.  Move all of the dog houses and the puppies.  Now remember, 240 dogs, 11 puppies with 2 puppy pens, so that's 240+ dog houses, lots of chains and lots of poles!  A week after Blondie had her puppies, Boo had her puppies.  She was an accidental breeding that was probably the best 10 seconds of Gus's life.  He's the dad.  I'll get into that later.  Anyway, move the outhouses, water troughs, all of the extra gear we have in the back of camp.  Working until 0300.  Well, thankfully, that didn't happen.  Moving day was one of my favorite days.  Some thing is wrong with me, I know, but I got to sweat and exert lots of energy.

Our day of tours was spread out perfectly.  We have 2 yards (80 dogs) in South Park and 4 yards in North Park (160 dogs).  So we were able to split them up so no one was in anyones way while moving the yards.  We would take all the houses and put them at the end of each row and try and keep them all in order, at least in the proper row.  We'd pick up a yard (40 dog houses) at a time and move it about a mile to our next site.  When each musher was done doing tours, they would then take their teams, 10-15 dogs, and run the team up to the next site.  At that point, with the poles and chains that we grabbed from those 10-15 dogs, we would unhook the dogs from the sled and hook them up to their proper row.  It is actually an easy processes if everyone cooperates.  Which everyone did.  Then one of us would then attach the mushers gang line to the snow machine and tow them down to repeat the whole process.  Each time the musher comes to the new site, they bring a lot of their gear, i.e. harness rack, buckets, shovels, etc.  

Matt and his handler with his 20 dog team.

Matt Hall and his girlfriend Alyssa Komac's dogs are LARGE!  They are all wonderful, well behaved dogs.  Some of the best on the glacier.  For someone who is young and an up and coming musher, Matt has one hell of a head on his shoulders and a smart very well put together girlfriend.  Together they are a great team.  Check out his team http://smokinacekennels.com.  He took 20 of his dogs and went to the second site.  Damn near killed himself.  I think he may have underestimated his team or maybe he  didn't, but he did say he wasn't doing that again.  

Anyway, the day went on without an issue.  Everything seemed to work out perfectly.  I think a little to perfectly.  We were done by 2100 or somewhere around there.  Had some supper, then off to bed.  

I'm not going to lie, but I had a blast.  Dancing on the platform every time we brought a load up to the new site.  That was the deal, if you were on the platform, you had to dance.  I've been wanting to have a dance party on the glacier FOR A LONG TIME.  That doesn't count though.  

Checking out our 2nd site.  Making sure the layout is right and ready.

This is how the houses were transported.  Towed by our LMC.
Zane on the left, Damien in the back and Karl in front right.

Caught Therese!  Keeping an eye on the load. 

After a dance session

The pups.  Those are our dog water troughs in the back with the outhouse too.

Sarah Love's dog Birch.  She had a litter named after trees.

Second site from the air.  That "frozen wave" in the back is
200 ft. high.  Doesn't look that large, oh but it is.  One
year they went sledding down part of it, they hit 55-65 mph.
Never did it again!  Wonder why?