Follow our quest for a more simple lifestyle living off grid in the remote north woods of Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, working with traditional sled dogs.
April practices stepping on the hook and wrapping her quick release.
Jenny and Klaus
Jenny
April and team
Jenny and team
Snowshoeing
Our winter season appears to have ended but not before one last adventure at our remote location in northern Minnesota. Our Points Unknown Women's Winter Adventure 2010 was held March 4th-March 7th. Temps became very warm toward the end of the adventure so early morning runs were necessary to keep the dogs comfortable. It reached 50 degrees! The snow soon turned to slush but we sure did have fun!
We had three courses over a two day period of between 8 and 9 women
The participants bond with the dogs prior to working with them.
Zodiak can't contain his enthusiasm for meeting new people
Ilu becomes jelly when there is a good belly rub involved.
A detailed introduction to the sled is given.
Our guests harness the dogs in pairs.
Klaus enjoys an ear scratch.
We slowly hook up three teams at once and hit the trail.
Klaus
The first team consisted of five dogs with a participant mushing and either Haily or I in the sled as a passenger.
McKenzie can't get enough.
We love to see big smiles!
Hailey in the lead sled with Oken and Klaus in lead.
Three teams on the trail.
One of our guests with a three dog team and a big smile.
More smiles!
Ilu and Icoa in wheel.
The last weekend of February, the Audubon Center of the Northwoods hosted the DNR's Becoming an Outdoors Woman Winter Event. Points Unknown was there to provide the dog mushing instruction. Three courses were filled with between 8 and 9 women over a two day period.
Since time was limited, we provided a small taste of dog mushing with the hopes that the participants will join us down the road for a more grand adventure. The three hour course included instruction in proper interaction with the dogs, harnessing and sled safety and operation. Those things learned where then applied as the participants ran a 3-5 dog team on a one mile loop with our full support.
Temps were in the upper 20s to low 40s, at times. The course was short enough that the dogs were able to quickly recover from the heat and seemed to enjoy their job of helping to introduce dog mushing to our guests.
Wimzi's gorgeous sister, currently known as Bonkerz (this was Neil's idea, sorry Chris! :o)
Many things to update the blog with but first..............Wimzi! Zimbi, the late Zulu's daughter, gave birth to 6 beautiful pups almost 7 weeks ago. At the time we first posted about this event, we were anxiously waiting for the DNA testing to determine which of the fine males was actually the sire of the pups as a second had been introduced when the first didn't show much interest. Q, one of the Points Unknown 2007 Tuloon/Bazil(Zulu's son) puppies sired all pups. This means we have a line breeding with a heavy influence from our Zulu line. Even though we had hoped for Phoenix puppies out of this litter, we couldn't be happier to have a large dose of Zulu back in our kennel!
We initially had planned to keep two females from this wonderful litter, however decided that Chris, our long time dog handler, would really benefit by adding a third dog to his kennel.
Wimzi, the pup joining Points Unknown kennel, and her sister will be 7 weeks old on Monday, March 15th. Wimzi is a wonderfully curious, calm and modestly confident dog. She will fit well into our kennel. Her sister, who we are calling Bonkerz until Chris's family gives her a name (does this tell you a little bit about her personality?), will be leaving us tomorrow morning. Chris and his family are extremely excited! This little girl is full of fun, curious, eager to please and loves people and other dogs.
Sandy, a past Points Unknown advanced women's adventure participant, joined us yesterday with Corey, a beginner musher, for a run on Oake Lake. Temps were in the upper teens with sunny and bright blue skies. Neil sat out this run and took all of these beautiful photos.
Sandy and Corey's team consisted of Phoenix and Tuloon in lead, Zala in points and Zodiak and Sweet Pea in wheel.
Phoenix spots something off to the right.
And he goes directly for it.
As Sandy shouts "Haw" which means to go left , he turns on a dime which is unusual because the leaders typically only take commands from their full time musher.
Zodiak
My team consisted of Oken and Klaus in lead, Journey in point and Icoa and McKenzie in wheel.
Me
Sandy and team
Corey was the passenger for the first half of the trip
Our baby Oken in single lead! (Oken is now 2 years old)
Klaus has been testing me for the past few runs and attempted to do so again for this run. He has been refusing to take commands which is so unlike him. Something had to be done, as I was tired of waiting for him to respond so decided he would be removed from lead until I can analyze the issue and come up with a solution. Oken got his chance at single lead and knocked my socks off! I fully expected him to be a bit concerned making it necessary for me to go up and give him a pep talk. No pep talk needed; just lots of praise from the runners as he ran straight ahead on the lake. I didn't want to overwhelm him with too many commands so he was only given two. He took them flawlessly! Good job, Oken!
The setting
The hosts
April practices stepping on the hook and wrapping her quick release.
Jenny and Klaus
Jenny
April and team
Jenny and team
Snowshoeing
