End of Summer Update

It's been a very long time once again since the blog was updated, and always for the same reason...the shop's been busy, busy, busy.
Temperatures are slowly cooling down in some parts of the country and dryland season shouldn't be too far away now.

We've been flooded with new orders so that we had to make a slight change to our production schedule. Unfortunately,the new Arctis Cart design is not ready for its introduction, yet. The prototype is being built, but the vast majority of our time is being spent on filling orders to make sure that everyone who placed an order in time, will get to enjoy his or her cart this fall.

One new addition to our program was the "Brentified" version of the 3-wheel cart, thanks to suggestions made by Brent Sass of Wild & Free Mushing. We're using thicker walled tubing for this version, which adds about 10-15 lbs of weight to the cart, plus allows even more weight to be carried on the platform.
The cart shown below also has the substantial heavy duty crate to carry gear and supplies as well as a passenger.

So, once our fall orders are filled, there will be another announcement, in addition to the new cart design, for Arctis in 2013. We'll post it here and on our facebook page, as soon as everything is confirmed.

At this point, all our production slots for this year are filled. Any new orders will be delivered starting in January. So if you're in the market for a new cart in the new year, it might be a good time to get in touch with us now to go over availability, options and schedule. Please e-mail or call (949) 280-7019

Also, we're going to be at the annual Veterans Day Mushing Weekend in La Pine, OR.
For more information, please see Karen Yeargain's website.

As always, we'd like to thank our customers for choosing Arctis throughout North America, from Oregon to Ontario, Montana to Massachusetts and beyond.

Here's one of our carts in the vast wilderness of the Yukon:

and a few of them on California trails:

Summertime...and the shop is busy!

Even during the hot southern California summer days, there's plenty of work to be done in the shop. It's rather odd to be working on dog sledding equipment when it's in the upper 90s outside.

We're just finishing up the last summer orders for carts that are on their way to destinations all over North America. So far this year, we've pretty much covered the entire continent, from central Mexico to Alaska, from Oregon to Newfoundland and many places in between. Once again, a big "Thank you!!!" to all our customers.

Once those carts are on their way, work is beginning on our new project which will be announced in a few weeks right here on this blog, so stay tuned for some exciting news.

In the meantime, our friends at NWSDA in Washington have announced their fall schedule:
September 29th - Fall Warm-Up at Camp K in Cle Elum WA
October 13th - Dryland Challenge at Camp K in Cle Elum WA
October 27th - Pacific Northwest Dryland Championships at Camp K in Cle Elum WA
For more information about NWSDA events, please see their website or facebook page.

Also scheduled is Sierra Nevada Dog Drivers' annual mushing clinic on
October 20th & 21st in Truckee CA
Please see their website for more information.

Last, not least: the annual Veterans Day Mushing Weekend on
November 10th - 12th in La Pine OR
For more information click here.


In other news, our friends at Alpine Outfitters have just introduced a new product to their catalog:
the "See Me Safety Vest" . Check it out here.

New Jump Seat for Arctis Dryland Cart

Time flies when you're busy, so our blog posts are unfortunately less frequent than they used to be.
Our "off season" really wasn't and while we're still filling spring orders, we have already booked the first few orders for fall training.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all our customers! We really appreciate your confidence in our carts!

We just completed another cart for a customer in the great white north who requested an update to our jumpseat, something a little more comfortable than the original one. So, we went to work, and here's the result.

Just like the original, the seat comes with attached foot boards for the passenger, reinforced frame as well as the wider front tire (same as the rear ones, Bridgestone 3.00-12 off road).

Price for this jump seat is $245

If you have any questions in regards to our products, please contact us at info@arctis-carts.com


Stay tuned for some big Arctis news coming this fall.

Iditarod Veteran Karen Ramstead Presentation

Iditarod Veteran Karen Ramstead of North Wapiti Kennels in Perryvale, AB,will present her "Tales from the Trail" at the Siberian Husky National Specialty in Provo, Utah on October 2nd 2012.

Help replacing stolen donations for animal rescue

Our friend Gina runs Animal Crackers Pet Rescue in Laguna Beach CA. She pours her heart and soul, not to mention time and money, into giving dogs, cats, birds and many more animals a second or third chance at finding a great home. Our latest addition "Buddy" also came from Gina. This morning, someone stole the donation box for the rescue animals off her store counter! Please help trying to replace those donations and keep Gina's rescue efforts ongoing. Thank you very, very much!!!

Give

Just announced: La Pine Mushing Weekend 2012

Time flies...
Karen Yeargain of Tumnatki Siberians in Prineville, OR has just announced the dates for the annual La Pine Mushing Weekend at La Pine State Park in Oregon:

Once again, it’s time to announce our yearly “fun-for-all” mushing weekend at La Pine State Park, in La Pine, Oregon.

This year’s event is scheduled for the second weekend of November, which falls on the 10th,11th & 12th (Saturday - Monday). Some of us will arrive the afternoon of Friday the 9th, 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 7:30. (This is subject to change if the weather looks to be on the warm side.) The staging area is in the big meadow about 1/8th mile before South Loop of the campground.

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 2 pm; other meals will be informal potluck at the participants’ discretion…. We never lack for enough good food!

I will again be asking for donations to help defray the $235 cost of the meeting hall.

Campsites at La Pine State Park are suitable for tents or R.V.’s; all have electrical hookups and water (if the weather hasn’t gotten too cold and the Park has shut off the water at the sites). Bathrooms with shower facilities (included in camping fee) are in our immediate area; bring your own towels and toiletries. Campsites are first-come-first-served; there are plenty of spots and the State Park will open the adjacent Loop if needed.

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). (All of the deluxe cabins and some of the rustic ones have already been booked by returning mushers who are getting savvy to my scheduling…. J  ) There are no dogs allowed in the cabins unless designated as pet friendly. THIS IS IMPORTANT DUE TO FUTURE CAMPERS WHO MIGHT HAVE ALLERGIES.  

Nearby motels are the Timbercrest Inn (541-536-17370) and the Newberry Station/Best Western (541-536-5130). There are a couple of other smaller motels, but the parking lots are tiny and border the Hwy.

Remember that there may be non-dog campers at the Park, so manage your teams to have them reasonably quiet. Be sure to pick up your site and fill in your holes before you leave at the end of the weekend.

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

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

Please cross-post and pass along to person or list that would be interested.

Karen Yeargain

541-410-8475

Tumnatki Siberians

Arctis Carts featured in Yahoo's Urban Mushing Video

Recently, a crew from Yahoo's Animal Nation webcast stopped by our local southern CA urban mushing group to shoot a video about the sport.
They spent an entire morning filming and interviewing our "leader of the pack" Rancy, and host Bridget even got to run a 6-dog team with one of our carts.

Here is the video:

...and when we're not out making videos, we're in the shop building carts like this one:

This is our first two-tone powder coat paint job. By customer request, it's "reflectra candy red" and "matte black" with red anodized wheels. Our paint shop "Embee Performance" did once again a great job!

With a rather snowless winter in many parts of the country, we've been busy filling orders and are currently booked into June.
There are also a couple of new and exciting projects lined up for the summer, so now might actually be a good time to think about a new cart for fall training.
Please feel free to contact us and inquire about our cart availability and delivery schedule.