Excellent post-Christmas run

With continued cool temperatures in southern California, we're able to take the dogs out on slightly longer and faster runs. Only two more weeks until the re-scheduled (not so) Great Serum Run, so we better get them up to speed, plus our local sledding season is about to get going the week after and we want the dogs to be able to handle some decent runs while we're up in the mountains.

And while large portions of the country are currently covered in snow, remember that dryland season is almost year round, so check out our carts and the reviews on our Facebook page, and get your order in today!

Here are some pictures of today's run with the six-dog-team at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa:

Still waiting for fall to arrive

The forecast was for fall to arrive today, but as it frequently happens, it was "just slightly off". Clear blue skies and typical late summer temperatures in southern California. Nevertheless, our local Urban Mushing group got together at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa for an early morning run, albeit at slow speeds and for limited distances.
We ran three cart teams with 4, 6 and 7 dogs, plus several scooter and bike teams.

Speaking of carts...we still offer free shipping within the continental U.S., see below.

Time to kick start the season...free shipping offer for our cart.

Fall is here, finally. While it may not quite feel like running the dogs, yet (at least not in southern CA), we know the mushing season is just around the corner.
So, in order to get off to a great start, we're offering the first new cart to be purchased this fall with free shipping within the continental US (lower 48).
Considering, it's a good 150+ lbs (cart + crate), that's quite an irresistible value.

In addition, we're keeping our introductory price of $1995.- effective, since most (if not all) of the country is still in recovery mode.

Last, not least, if you live in the western US, we may be able to work out a good shipping deal, even if you're not the first in line for free shipping. We have several trips coming up in the next couple of months up and down the west coast and may be able to deliver a cart in person.
So if you live west of the Rocky Mountains, send us an e-mail or give us a call, and we'll try to work something out for you.

For more information about our carts, please see our website arctis-carts.com , send us an e-mail at info@arctis-carts.com or give us a call at (949) 215-1478

Now, the only tough decision is going to be the color...shiny black, candy apple red, signal orange or ... ?

First fall dates scheduled!

While we're still dealing with quite a summer heat wave, we're looking forward to fall, cooler temperatures and being able to run the dogs again.
This is the time of year when we're making the first plans for our fall events, local and far away (road trips!).

So, here we go. The first scheduled events are:

Sunday, September 6th - Barbecue Potluck Picnic - Laguna Niguel CA

I know this is short notice but we just decided to host a barbecue potluck
picnic on September 6th (Sunday) at Laguna Niguel Regional Park.

We reserved Shelter #12 for the day, which comes equipped with 4 grills, picnic
tables, and even electrical outlets. It's also a little bit more secluded,
which is a good thing when you have a bunch of high energy dogs show up:

http://tinyurl.com/npn25t

This would be a great time to get together, specially with the long Labor Day
Weekend. It would be a chance for us to chat about plans for the coming season
and have a picnic with the dogs. Depending on how the weather shapes up, some
of us may even get there early in the morning and go for a quick scooter run.

So please join us if you can and celebrate the end of summer! The potluck
barbecue is set for noon (but we will be there starting early in the morning) so
all you need to bring is your potluck item and $5 per person to cover the
shelter reservation and use fees. (FYI, there is also a $5 parking fee per
vehicle.) Send an email to info@urbanmushing.com if you are coming and what
potluck item you will be bringing.

The address to Laguna Niguel Regional Park is

28241 La Paz Road
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

Map

Here is a link to the park layout. (.pdf file)

Hope to see you there!


October 24th & 25th - Training Workshop with Karen Yeargain - Big Bear CA

We'll be holding a weekend training workshop with Karen on October 24-25 in the
Big Bear area.

Karen has been training and racing Siberian Huskies for many years. Check out
her website www.tumnatkisiberians.com for more info on her and her wonderful
dogs.

We'll be working with individual dogs and teams and will cover command and pull
training, training your dog to work in a team, passing, good behavior in harness
and other areas. Discussion will cover equipment, harnesses and lines, and
other topics as requested by participants.

The workshop format is flexible enough to accommodate all levels, so beginners
as well as more experienced mushers are welcome.

The cost is $175 per person with $25 for extra family members. Bring as many
dogs as you are comfortable handling.

You can get more info and a registration form here (.pdf file)

Let me know if you have any questions. Those who attended last year's
workshop got a lot out of it and I'm definitely looking forward to this year's
training.


November 7th & 8th - Mushing Weekend - La Pine OR

Once again, Karen Yeargain is organizing a “fun-for-all” mushing weekend at La Pine State Park, in La Pine, Oregon.

This year’s event will be the first weekend of November, which falls on the 7th & 8^th. Some of us will arrive the afternoon of Friday the 6th, to get settled in. We will be hoping for damp trails and cool temps, but no snow. This event is a dirt run, so plan on carts, quads, bikes and scooters. Runs will be arranged to provide a variety of training opportunities, including passing (from behind and head on), team weaving, directional command training, hills, etc. There is quite a variety of nice dirt trails to choose from. The event is open to anyone regardless of mushing style and experience (or lack thereof); bikejoring and scootering teams are welcome. Trails are suitable for all functions unless we get a surprise dump of snow that makes them dangerous for bikes or scooters.

Organized runs will be on Saturday and Sunday mornings; meet for breakfast at the conference lodge at 6:30 am or at the meadow about 7:15. The meadow (staging area) is about 1/8 mile before you get to the South Loop of the Park, on your right. The event has the use of the meeting hall on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (until 1 pm on Monday). It has a refrigerator/freezer, microwave, sink with hot/cold running water, tables and a heater. We will have a potluck meal on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at about 1 pm; other meals will be informal potluck at the participants’ discretion…. We never lack for enough good food!

I will be planning a couple of presentations on Saturday and possibly on Sunday. Topics still to be determined. These will be right after the potluck, so bring a dish, join the meal and talk dogs!

Campsites at La Pine State Park are suitable for tents or R.V.’s; all have electrical hookups and water. Bathrooms with shower facilities (included in camping fee) are in our immediate area; bring your own towels and toiletries.

There are five “rustic” cabins (two double futons, a table, electricity and heat) and five “deluxe” cabins (two double futons in separate rooms, toilet/shower, heat, running water, microwave, fridge, barbecue). Rustic cabin #1 and Deluxe cabin #44 have been designated “pet friendly” this year as a pilot, meaning that up to 2 dogs are allowed in these two cabins; whether that continues and/or expands depends on how well guests manage their inside dogs. There are no dogs allowed in the other cabins, same as in the past.

Each person needs to make their own site arrangements. To make reservations for a campsite or cabin, go online to www.reserveamerica.com or call Reservations Northwest at (800) 452-5687, specify La Pine State Park, South Loop. Also, state that you are with the SLED DOG GROUP/MUSHING WEEKEND so that they can note that on your reservations. That way the reservations folks can advise non-mushing campers as they make reservations and give them the option to be close to the activities or further away, as they prefer.

Please let Karen know if you are planning to attend so that she may organize the event well and is able to provide updates as we get closer to November.

Questions, please e-mail Karen directly at tumnatki@earthlink.net.

Please cross-post and pass along to anyone who would be interested.

That's a lotta dogs!

...and that's an often repeated comment we get, when taking the dogs for a hike or run in suburban southern California. Weekday mornings, we take anywhere from 3 to 6 dogs out for an 8-10 mile hike on the local trails, including some of our friends at Three Dog Bakery.
Weekends, we usually run the trails at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa with 8 and 6-dog cart teams, as well as several scooter teams. For most park goers, it's just not a common occurrence to see a pack of 20+ Huskies coming around the corner.




For videos of our recent adventures, please click here.

Another fun day at Fairview Park

Taking advantage of overcast skies again, a good sized group of "urban mushers" showed up at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa this morning to let the dogs go on another one or two of our short and slow training runs. Two cart teams and several scooter teams went out on the trails at a slow pace, squeezed in some training exercises and after a well deserved break went back to the parking lot. It seems like some of our training has actually paid off, since it was a rather uneventful day; no drama to report. Everyone, humans and canines alike, did their job and things ran very smooth. Now if things could cool down just a little, we could actually work on speed and endurance to get ready for winter.

Video of our recent training runs

Here's the video to go along with the pictures below of our recent training runs at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa. During the warmer months, we just take the dogs out on early morning runs to practice trail behavior with other teams, basic "on-by's" and "gee over's".



...and just a reminder: our dogs are well hydrated before we go out on a run. We make sure, that the runs are kept short and slow, and that the dogs get plenty of rest in the shade in between.

There's always work to do!

Even though we're currently going through a rather warm period here in southern California, we still manage to squeeze in a little bit of groundwork exercises in the early morning hours. Fortunately, we have quite a few folks that come out every weekend to work on commands, discipline, and trail behavior, plus we constantly mix and match our dogs, so we're able to put together larger teams of 6 and 8 dogs, instead of the more common 2-dog scooter teams.
For more information about our local group, please visit UrbanMushing.com

Click here and here for a few pictures of the last three weekends at Fairview Park.

Summer's Here!

Yes, summer has finally arrived in southern California. For the past week, we've been laying low, taking it easy on our walks, and just kinda hang out on cool tile floors, close to the fan with plenty of water. Unfortunately, that only worked for the canine members of our family, not the human ones; those had to keep building carts. A bit ironic to build sled dog equipment in the summer heat, don't you think?





Anyway, today was the day we went out to Fairview Park and met up with a few members of our Urban Mushing group to take the dogs out on an easy run in the early morning.
We hooked up an 8-dog team to one of the Arctis carts, and took them to the rest area, where we kept switching teams for short runs so we could work on commands and improve team work.
An impromptu mushing clinic, if you will.

More pictures are here.


Note: please keep in mind, that our dogs are well hydrated before we run. The "runs" are about 3/4 mile at a time at a slow pace with plenty of rest in the shade after each run.

4th of July Fun Runs

Unfortunately, our beloved marine layer did not stick around for very long in the morning, so we had to run the dogs early, slow and short distance, but we still managed to have a good time on the trails at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa, as well as Laguna Niguel Regional Park. Sunday's run might have had more excitement than some had hoped for; there's just nothing like two loose Huskies running down the trail at breakneck speed, just to be found relaxing on a cool patch of wet grass a little while later. All's well that ends well.

Sledbags now available for Arctis Carts

Our friends at Alpine Outfitters came up with these sledbags specifically made for Arctis Carts. Made from 1000 den cordura, they're black in front and sides and your choice of black, red, green or blue in the back. Back closes with zipper and velcro. Price for these bags is $75 or you can switch it for the cargo basket that comes with the cart.

Arctis at the races

Here's a video of our carts at last weekend's Spring Fling dryland races in Roslyn WA

We're baaack!

We're back home in southern California after an almost 2400 mile roundtrip journey to NWSDA's Spring Fling in Roslyn WA.
What a blast it was to meet the NW mushers and participate in their event. Two of our carts were entered in the races and finished 1st in 6-dog sprint, 2nd in 6-dog mid distance, as well as 2nd and 3rd in 4-dog sprint! A million thanks to the successful mushers for running our carts and putting them to the test.
"Team Arctis" finished 7th in the 2-dog scooter race. Our SoCal Siberians Gaia & Silver tried their best to keep up with the "pro's"...good puppies they are!
Thanks to the good people at Alpine Outfitters, we now have custom made sledbags available for our carts, too. More information on those in the next few days.

For more pictures from the event, please click here

Spring Mush 2009, Wrightwood CA

Announcing "Spring Mush 2009" at Harmony Pines in Wrightwood CA, May 1st - 3rd.
We went to see our friend Robert Stradley last Tuesday at his camp in the Angeles National Forest and took the dogs out for a couple of runs on the trails around his property. We had such a blast up there, that we're going to participate in this event all three days.

For more information, schedule of events, housing, meals and fees, please click here (.pdf file).

Here's a message from Robert:

"Pack up your furry friends and come to Harmony Pines Christian Camp for a weekend of mountain mushing fun from May 1st to May 3rd! Harmony Pines is located 6,000' up in the Angeles National Forest near Wrightwood, CA. Space is limited so don't miss out on the fresh air and good times to be had with those who share your love for those lovable canine athletes."

Robert Stradley has been the resident director of Harmony Pines Christian Camp for the past thirteen years. He lives at the Wrightwood camp with his two sons, Talon (11), and Trent (9). Robert and his boys have been training and racing sled dogs for over eleven years. He also established Adventure Quest Institute, Inc. in 2003 as an educational non-profit corporation to teach, motivate, and inspire people of all ages through the exciting sport of dog sledding.