American Dog Derby

We made it! A few members of our local southern CA mushing group made the trek north to take part in the American Dog Derby in Ashton, ID. We pooled dogs to put together two 6-dog teams for the 24-mile "Everett Heseman Race". Knowing from the get-go, that our "working pets" wouldn't stand a chance to compete for a top finish, the question became, which one of our teams would win the red-lantern award? Contributors to the teams were Alpine Outfitters, Three Dog Bakery San Clemente and Arctis.
After a long hard-fought race, the award went to Rancy Reyes and his team, who finished just 3 minutes behind Bruce Stegmaier's team.



For all of us, it was the experience which mattered most, since none of our dogs had ever participated in a snow race before. They all did great and finished in good shape and excellent spirits.



We had a great time up there, enjoying the festivities in Ashton and the friendly people of Idaho, and we're pretty sure, that well be back for another run!

Our local newspaper, the Orange County Register, wrote up a couple of nice articles on our experience before and after the race.

Yukon Quest @ halftime & Race to the Sky

The first mushers competing in this year's Yukon Quest sled dog race have made it to Alaska and reached the halfway point of the race. Way in front of the pack is Hugh Neff and his team, who has carved out a 12 hour lead, ahead of Hans Gatt, Brent Sass (pick it up, Brent!) and Ken Anderson.

Hugh Neff is going to be hard to beat with a lead like this, but you never know.
Watch live updates on the Yukon Quest website.

In Montana, the 2011 Race to the Sky is underway. Keeping our fingers crossed for our friends Laura Daugereau (Night Runner Kennel) and Steve Madsen (Sirius Sled Dogs).

2011 Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race

The 2011 Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race starts this Saturday, February 5th in Whitehorse, YK.
25 mushers will make the 1000 mile trip to Fairbanks, AK through the wilderness of the Yukon and Alaska. Among the starters is our friend and Yukon Quest veteran Brent Sass of Wild & Free Mushing with 14 of his dogs, and his handler Kyla Durham, a Quest rookie, runs Wild & Free's 2nd team. We met Brent in person last year when he visited southern California and met up with our mushing group. According to his blog posts, his team is in excellent shape and spirits, and he just might be the one to watch at the finish line this year.
We wish Brent, Kyla and all other participants good luck on their run!

Cascade Quest Sled Dog Race

The Cascade Quest Sled Dog race is coming up this weekend, Jan 28th - 30th, at Lake Wenatchee, WA.
Unfortunately, we won't be able to make it up there, but many of our friends will be running in various distances. Hopefully, snow conditions and weather are going to be great and everyone will have a great time! Good luck to all participants!



Speaking of races, we will attend the American Dog Derby in Ashton, ID, Feb 18th - 19th.
As previously mentioned, we can bring a cart with us and deliver along the way to save on delivery charges for our customers, but if you are interested, you would have to contact us now to squeeze your order in, so we can finish it before we leave.

Oh what fun it is to ride...

We just returned from our first sledding trip of the season to Mammoth, CA. Several members of our local mushing group went up with about 35 dogs for three days of fun in the snow.
Building various teams for various distances on different trails made for interesting runs throughout the weekend.

Highlight was by far the 7½ mile run with a 10-dog team on breathtaking trails, driven by yours truly, with the help of my passenger/handler Dylan and generous support of other members who trusted me with their dogs for the run.

Now, it's back to work. Carts need to be finished and delivered, plus we're closing in on our order deadline before we head to the races in Idaho in February.

Off To Snow Country!

First of all, a belated happy, healthy and successful New Year to all our friends, customers and suppliers, and thank you, thank you, thank you for a great 2010!
Arctis has grown and we've made a lot of new friends throughout North America over the past year and are very grateful for that!
The holidays were tremendously busy, so we're just now getting around to finally posting the first message of the new year, just when we're about to take off for California's eastern Sierra Nevada for our first snow run of the season.



We've been working on a few new products, like our "Easy Load Rack" for the cart, as well as some sledding accessories, which will be available soon (we're testing this weekend!).

Hopefully, by spring we will have a second type of dryland mushing rig ready to go. More to come in the near future on this one.

Last, not least, space is filling up for our free delivery offer in February (see post below).
If you are interested in a new cart by February, please contact us asap, so we might squeeze one more in before our trip.

Another free delivery offer coming up!

While pretty much everyone in North America is dealing with snow at the moment (hopefully in a good way), it's never too early to plan ahead for the upcoming dryland season.
What better way to start the new year, than with a new cart AND free delivery?
We are planning to be in Ashton, ID in mid-February and can bring a cart or two with us to deliver along the way.
Our route will take us from southern California along I-15 to eastern Idaho, just west of Yellowstone National Park.
If you live somewhere along that route and are interested in a new Arctis Cart, here's your chance to save the shipping fees. Please contact us asap if you would ike to place an order, since it roughly takes about 3 weeks to complete a cart and it probably won't take long for the production to be booked solid.