Just announced: La Pine Mushing Weekend, Nov 12-14

For details about the 2011 La Pine Mushing weekend please click here.

Spring is here……. Time to mow the lawn, train on dirt, wash the truck….. and plan for next Fall’s mushing events!

Once again, Karen Yeargain is organizing a “fun-for-all” mushing weekend at La Pine State Park, in La Pine, Oregon. She had a couple of inquiries as to having the weekend earlier, which she strongly considered. There was, however, a PSDSA (Pacific States Sled Dog & Skijor Association) event that conflicted with her doing so this year, so she's sticking to Veteran’s Day weekend this year.

This year’s event will be the second weekend of November, which falls on the 12^th (Friday), 13^th & 14th. Some of us will arrive the afternoon of Thursday the 11^th, 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. One of our Cascade Sled Dog Club attendees has volunteered to print up trail maps so folks can better keep track of where they are!

The event has the use of the meeting hall on Thursday, 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!

Karen 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. THIS RULE WILL BE STRONGLY ENFORCED THIS YEAR, AS WE HAD SOME COMPLAINTS FROM THE PARK ABOUT DOG HAIR IN NON-DOG CABINS; THIS IS IMPORTANT DUE TO FUTURE CAMPERS WHO MIGHT HAVE ALLERGIES.

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

Questions, please e-mail Karen through her site

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

Karen Yeargain

Tumnatki Siberians

Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day here in the U.S., a day to remember the fallen.

Please take a time-out from your every day activities and remember those who gave their lives so that we can enjoy the things we tend to take for granted.

And while this is a U.S. holiday, please also remember all those allied troops who fought and died for the same ideals alongside our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines.

Last, not least, please thank a vet for his or her service.
It's an easy thing to do and means a lot to those who put their lives on the line each and every day, so we can go about ours.

Support Our Troops!

Catching up

We're finally caught up on spring orders and continue on with the next batch of carts to be shipped into the summer months.
The spring rush really caught us by surprise, albeit a nice surprise, and we tried to speed-up the process by changing a few things a round the shop. As it turned out, the new process ended up delaying the delivery of carts to our customers, so we're back to the old, tried and tested routine and will be able to deliver carts as promised.
To all our new friends customers we would like to apologize for the delays in recent weeks and thank you for your patience!

We've already had a few inquiries for carts for fall training and current orders are extending well into July, so if you're thinking about a new dryland rig for the fall, please contact us as soon as possible to ensure timely delivery.

Thanks again!

Henning & "Team Arctis"

Busy Times in "Arctis Land"

Wow, time flies when you're having fun...and when you're busy, too!
It's been a great spring for Arctis, thanks to all of our new friends and customers from all four corners of the country. From Georgia, to Ohio and Illinois, all the way up to Alaska and way back down here in southern California. Thank you so much!

In between busy times at the shop, we're still able to participate in events around the area, like the Pet Expo and Wag-A-Thon mentioned below, plus we get to run the puppies 2-3 times a week with our local Urban Mushing group. So far, temperatures are still ok to run, if we get on the trail early in the morning or later in the evening.

Since it's getting warmer everywhere around the country, dog sledding events are few and far between, so more time for us to catch up on those orders.

OC Pet Expo and Dana Point Wag-A-Thon

The 21st annual Pet Expo at Orange County Fairgrounds is behind us, and as always, it was a great success with a huge turnout.
Our local "Urban Mushing" group had its own booth, thanks to our good friends from the Southern California Alaskan Malamute Club. Tom & Tina Dunn came through just like every year and allowed us to do our mushing demonstrations with carts, scooters and bikes, while they informed the unsuspecting public of weight pull and backpacking activities.
KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles did a live broadcast to get things started on Friday and invited us to be part of it. The first half of the video is obviously not a dog sledding demo :-)



(yes, that's yours truly driving the cart :-))


Coming up this Saturday, April 24th, it's Pet Project Foundation's annual Wag-A-Thon at Dana Point Harbor, benefiting the San Clemente-Dana Point Animal Shelter.
Our Urban Mushing group has been invited to also do dog sledding demos that day.


For more information about this event, please visit Pet Project Foundation's website.

Central Oregon dog scootering & dryland mushing

Sunday, April 11th- scootering fun run- not suitable for larger teams/rigs-
Shevlin Park, west of Bend @ 9am. Spencer Egbert has agreed to be the point person for this run.

Saturday, April 17th- scootering fun run- suitable for teams/rigs- La Pine State Park, north of La Pine (some teams will run again on the 18th). Some of the folks from Cascade Sled Dog Club will be down for the weekend, which made it a good excuse for an outing!

Saturday, April 24th- Pacific Sled Dog & Skijoring Association (PSDSA) club meeting @ Diamond Lake- noon- scootering before or after the meeting.

Saturday, May 1st- scootering fun run or class- location/venue to be announced.

Saturday, May 8th- dog scootering class taught by Karen Yeargain & Jane Devlin- location, Karen's place

For info on any of these events, contact Karen at tumnatki@earthlink.net
Info will also be posted at www.tumnatkisiberians.com

What did we learn...?

Our local "Urban Mushing" group got together for its weekend fun runs at Fairview Park, a week after our annual mushing clinic.
So today it was time to put all newly acquired techniques to work and take the dogs out on the trails. Several scooter, bike and cart teams were out and about, running 1 to 8 dogs.
Weather conditions were excellent: overcast skies and cool temperatures allowed for long runs.
At the end of the day, the dogs were tired and happy (and so were the drivers) but everyone realized, that there's still a lot to learn for us and our dogs.

If you like what you see and would like to learn more about our group, we're going to be at the OC Pet Expo in Costa Mesa April 16th -18th and at the Wag-A-Thon in Dana Point on April 24th.