Finally a moment to update the blog after a long drought.
Yes, we're still here and have been spending pretty much all of our time on the trails and in the shop, so updates on our website, blog and facebook have been few and far between.
Someone else has also been very, very busy recently: our good friend Brent Sass of
Wild & Free Mushing in Fairbanks, AK.
Brent is a 5-time
Yukon Quest Veteran and in addition to signing up for his 6th time at the YQ, he also decided to run his first
Iditarod this season, going for "the double"!
We met Brent in September of 2010 when he was visiting family in our area. By accident, he was at our mushing group's staging area when we returned from a weekend morning fun run. When he saw our carts he immediately said "I want one!".
Sure enough, after he finished his amazing 2010/11 season, he called and placed his order for one of our carts, the famed
Bumble Bee.
Initially, the cart was supposed to be used for puppy training at his kennel, but Brent scrapped the idea as soon as he received the cart, and hooked up the first 6-dog team of his mainstring to the cart...the first of 4 teams to go out the first day. The next day he added two more dogs to the team and after about 2 weeks, he trained up to 10 of his race veterans on the cart every day.
During his fall training, he constantly kept us updated about how the cart performed and what updates/upgrades would have to be done to run a team of his caliber with the cart. Once his season comes to an end in April, we should have the "Brentified Arctis Cart" ready for him to test. That will be our first all new cart design since we started on the 3-wheel cart.
Since Brent has been such a great advocate of our carts, we decided to start sponsoring Team Wild & Free for the current season. In addition to being a general team supporter, we also sponsor "our boys" Scroggie & Braeburn and looking forward to seeing those boys cross the finish line in Whitehorse and Nome (albeit not in person, unfortunately).
Brent's enthusiasm for the dogs, the sport and life in general is absolutely amazing a definitely infectious. He is held in high regards by his peers and a great ambassador to the sport of dog sledding.
Feel free to check out his website
Wild & Free Mushing, see the dogs and read up on any news regarding the races this season. There's also a link to
Wild & Free gear and, last, not least, opportunities for
sponsorships!
If you check out his facebook page, you'll see plenty of picture and video updates of the team's training regimen as well as the trials and tribulations of training sled dogs in Alaska.
Be wild and free!
As always, if you're looking for a cart for this season, please contact us for current wait times and delivery schedule. Our e-mail is info@arctis-carts.com and phone # is (949) 280-7019