Rogues Gallery Kennel Blog

Hi all. Sorry for the long absence, but with break-up in full swing, there hasn’t been a lot to report. We’ve just been doing our best to keep the dogs high and dry while all the snow melts and subsequently floods the yard. However, this past weekend we finally got out with the dogs for some much needed fun.
Cole’s birthday is this week, so we decided to celebrate it this weekend since it’ll fall during the work week. Being more the type of girl that likes doing things, over getting things, we got with some friends and a couple of the sled dogs and we headed out to the mountains for a fun spring hike.
The trails at the higher elevations are still pretty snow-covered, but under the warm spring sun, they softened up quickly making it impossible to travel without snowshoes, although the dogs could still run across the mushy stuff without too much trouble.
At this time of year, things can be four feet deep of soft mush, or they can be a slick of mud and melting goo, so not knowing what to expect, we only brought Metoo and Dunkel since they’re two of our best off-leash listeners. They were more than ecstatic to go.
We hiked to a giant waterfall about four miles into the wilderness of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. We saw one brown bear and the dogs got to flush a half-dozen grouse over the course of the day, but other than Metoo finding it a bit warm in the 43 degree sun after weeks of leading teams in minus 30 temperatures, they did great and we’re bushed afterwards. With all of their running back and forth, they probably did about 16 miles to our 8 miles of snowshoeing.
Anyhoo, onto the pictures. Enjoy. All for this week.

Above, Dunkel checks to make sure we’re seeing the view.

This was the brown bear we saw. Still with the long winter coat, but very lean from a winter burning off fat reserves while hibernating.

Just like in winter, Metoo insisted on being the lead dog.

As the sun came out the temperature got above 40, Metoo took lots of breaks to roll in the snow and cool off.

And finally, the view of Juneau Falls, still largely encassed in ice. We took lunch at an overlook facing the falls. It was very serene.

Hi all. Things are slowing down, blog posts not excluded, now that we are back home. Wnt to start by saying thanks to everyone who came forward or helped find a home for the two Siberians in need. Thy did get a home here in Alaska. I’m told by the owner they went to a recreational musher who maintain free run pens for her dogs, so hopefully they will have a great life.
Thanks also to everyone who has supported us over the season, either through kind words on the blog or by sending finanical or in-kind donations. We’ve been busy making up something to send out to everyone, so please email your adresses to our roguesgallerykennel@gmail account if we don’t already have your address. I have the adresses of people who donated through paypal, but am worried we may have missed some folks who sent snailmail. During the peak of season we were so busy, I’m not sure where we stored the latters with people’s adresses and we don’t want to miss anyone.
Life at the kennel has slowed a bit. We’ve been able to continue putting in small, just a few mile long, fun runs with the dogs due to the winter just not wanting to give in to spring. We still have several feet of crusty, icy snow in the yard and on the trails, but it’s pretty crunchy stuff and a lot of the marshes and ponds are starting to weep overflow, so travelling too far just isn’t an option. I think everyone, humans and dogs, are happy to be putting in some short runs though after all the work a long runs we did together this season.
We also got our Iditarod drop bags back, so this weekend we can look forward to going through dozens of bags filled with soggy booties, dog coats, blankets and other gear, and then washing, drying and putting it all away until next year. The Iditarod is over, yet somehow it keeps making chores for us.
While the race is all still fresh in our minds and the winter chores are wanning and the summer chores of fishing and gardening haven’t yet started to wax, we’ve decided to try and put pen to paper to start writing down some of the amazing adventures we’ve had with the dogs. We’d like to try to get a book out in the next year with some stories about individal dogs, some about dog-related adventures, some photos, and also some of Cole’s poetry, which while few and far between on the blog, is always fantastic.
This may sound odd, since those who read this blog regularly can attest that I write it like a Neanderthal pounding away at the keys. I can assure you I can write well. I tend to not proof read this thing, due to just trying to crank out enough to include everyone before getting out to the dogs, so I hope you won’t judge my writing based on this blog.
This started as a way to keep our families in the lower 48 included in our lives, and it has grown to include kennel friends, school children and many others. I’m often too busy to slopily say more than just the cliff notes of some of our adventures, but they are really worth telling the whole tales in details, so we’re going to try and do that with this book. In the future I may post one or two stories from the book, but I don’t want to give way too much since we aree still hoping to find a publisher.
Anyway, that’s what we’re working on right now. Hope all of you are well, and thanks again for all your support.