Karen Ramstead Presentation in Portland, OR

Tales from the Trail

A presentation by 10-time Iditarod veteran 

Karen Ramstead of North Wapiti Siberian Husky Kennels, Alberta, Canada

Saturday, June 22nd 2pm in Portland OR

At the Norse Hall, 111 NE 11th Ave (click here for map)

(a few short blocks from I-5/ I-84 interchange)

Karen’s audio and visual slideshow will cover her experiences raising, training and racing her magnificent Huskies, as well as plenty of stories from the Iditarod trail. Her presentations are informative, engaging and a lot of fun. Questions are always welcome. 

Donations per person are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.

100% of the proceeds will go to Karen’s kennel, as they prepare for Iditarod in 2014.

To register, please click the button below:

For questions, please e-mail henning@arctis-carts.com or call 949-280-7019

Spring Madness !

Springtime is here, and so is dryland season.
It's been busy, busy, busy in the shop. Filling orders for carts, carriers, scooter racks and at the same time working on our new cart model, which is in the final stages of completion.

Earlier, we delivered our 50th 3-wheel cart to a customer in Iowa, which is the 21st state in "Arctis Country". Our carts also found homes in 5 Canadian provinces, Mexico and now even in Asia!
No.50 should have been a golden cart, but the customer preferred an all black version:

While we're busy with new carts, an old friend, cart no.3 (also in all black), came in for a substantial upgrade. We added all features we had changed over the years, plus a new set of wheels, tires and brakes to bring it up to 2013 standards and added a passenger seat as well.
No.3 was the original "Bat Cart" and it was used for dryland racing in Washington:

Now, it'll be a training and racing cart in California:

Our long awaited new cart model is in its final stages and should be completed shortly. We will keep everyone updated on this blog and our facebook page as well.

Stay tuned for an event we're organizing for Portland OR in June!

Spring Dryland Mushing

Finally another blog update!
We've settled in to our new location in central Oregon and have started to manufacture and ship the first products "Made in Oregon"! Our friends at Alpine Outfitters were the first ones in line with an order for sled brakes and snowhook holders.
The fist carts out of the shop will go to the mid-western US as well as Asia! Yes, the first Arctis cart to leave the North American continent.

Just before our move, we received an inquiry about converting a snow sled for street use in a commercial.

A few 2x4s and casters later, the "roller sled" was ready to go.





The commercials can be seen here:


and here:




While winter is still in session, it's never too early to think "spring training".
We are currently booked through mid-April, but there is still time to get in on a new cart before summer time hits again. Feel free to contact us to check on availability and delivery schedule.

For our west coast mushers, we have two dates for dryland events:
Mush without slush on 4/6 - 4/7 in Sisters, OR
Spring Fling on 4/27 -4/28 in Cle Elum WA

Happy New Year!

Wishing all our customers, friends 

and fellow mushers 

a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013!

What a year it was! We've been busy from the first to the last day, thanks to our wonderful customers across the US and Canada and now also in Mexico. If all goes well, there will be another country on a different continent added to our list soon.
Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan in 2012. Since it was so busy, we've had to move the release of our new cart model to spring of 2013, and the move to our new location was supposed to be completed by the end of the year as well, but we're still in the middle of packing everything up at this point, and will be on our way to the new location in central Oregon soon.
We'll have a much larger production space available to work on several projects and hopefully add an "Arctisan" or two in the process.
Speaking of projects: at this point we are completely sold out for January and March and have one, possibly two spaces left for February. If you are in the market for a new cart for spring training, now would be a good time to get in touch with us.

While we were still in southern California, we finished the last cart in "Caltrans Orange". Actually, the customer preferred this color due to his running dogs in hunting areas. It'll certainly get everyone's attention, no matter what the reason for the paint job.

We also had another reporter visiting our local mushing group. This time it was the AFP who wanted to do a story about "urban mushing" in southern California. They just uploaded a short video and should soon publish an article and pictures of their experience with our group.

Urban Mushing on TV

Our local southern California PBS station recently came out to Fairview Park in Costa Mesa to do a story about Urban Mushing. Conveniently enough, we had one of our carts with passenger seat available for the reporter and the cameraman to hitch a ride with eight of our Siberian furries:

Watch Urban Mushing on PBS. See more from KOCE.

Oregon and the Pacific Northwest

We recently embarked on another road trip north to Oregon and Washington.
First stop was La Pine, OR. for the annual Veterans Day Mushing Weekend at La Pine State park.
While we only stayed for a short while, it was nice to see and catch up with good friends.
This year was the first time that the La Pine area received a good 10" - 12" of fresh snow for the weekend. Since it's billed as a "dryland" event, not necessarily what's expected, but for anyone into running dogs, fresh snow is never a bad thing.

We then stayed a few days in the wonderful city of Bend, OR. A great place to relax, go hiking and enjoy the wide variety of excellent eateries in town.

Then it was time to head farther north to Maple Valley and Seattle, WA.
Washington state, along with Oregon, is one of our favorite places. The people of the Pacific Northwest are just so friendly and hospitable, no matter if you're at the local coffee shop or a shipping terminal at the port of Seattle. We visited the facilities of Northland Services, a company specialized in shipping between Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. It was the 2nd time we've used them for our carts and their service and friendly attitude was a breath of fresh air in the shipping business. We highly recommend their services for your shipping needs to "the northland"!

After Seattle, we headed back south and added one more "service stop" for one of our customers in California's Bay Area. It's always nice to visit with our customers when we travel the country.

Now that we're back home, we'd like to announce that Arctis is moving to a larger facility in central Oregon!
Starting in 2013, our carts will be made in "the Beaver State". Increasing size, should help with being more efficient, reducing wait times and finally getting a few new products on the market that we had to put on the backburner this year. And who know? Maybe there will be an additional "Arctisan" or two in the near future.


Stay tuned to this blog for more news.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall is here!

Fall weather has arrived almost everywhere in North America, except in southern California, where temperatures are still in the eighties at the end of October. This weekend, Northwest Sleddog Association hosts the annual Pacific Northwest Dryland Championships, next weekend it'll be the Spokane Dirt Rondy and the week after that, the annual La Pine Mushing Weekend in Oregon.

The Arctis shop is still busy and we're already scheduling orders for the new year. It looks like January is filling up quickly and next thing you know, spring dryland season is here again. If you are in the market for a new training cart, please contact us to check availability and production schedule.

Our recent batch of orders covered the country (again), from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest to the East Coast. Our next set of carts will be spread out all along the 49th parallel from coast to coast. Thanks again to all our customers all across the continent!

Recently, our 2nd cart ever built came in for an overhaul. We added all the improvements we've made over the years and had our paint shop put an awesome "anti-freeze" green metallic coat on it.
Here it is, all fresh and clean, nicely folded-up and road ready on our "easy load" rack:

A word about our paint jobs: our carts are powder coated, not spray painted. The paint is electrostatically applied and then cured at about 400°F. It makes for a tougher finish than conventional paint, which always comes in handy in the conditions most of the carts are being subjected to.

We hope to see some of you at the La Pine mushing weekend in November!